610 stories by "Richard Seff"
A weekend motor trip through Western New York state and Connecticut brought me to Ithaca where a new comedy by Tim Pinckney was having a world premiere at the newly refurbished Hangar Th…
Yes, Tyne Daly as "Maria Callas" is the primary reason to see this smashing revival of Terrence McNally's play Master Class at the Manhattan Theatre Club's Friedman Theatre on Broadway. But …
Alberto Casella's play, as re-written for the American stage by Walter Ferris for the Shuberts of Broadway, produced in 1929, is rarely if ever revived. It is set in 1921 in the palazzo …
Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) continues to make me question that I was valedictorian at PS 139 once in the long ago. I usually leave theatres in which hi…
It pains me to say it, but the new Spidey musical, which finally came to rest at the Foxwood Theatre on 42nd Street after a very tough start, should more aptly be called Spider-Man: Turn off…
The Roundabout is offering Donna Murphy to its audiences for a run in a new musical with book and lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart, with music by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler. Ms. Dart is a best …
A long long time ago (December 5, 1941) a small thriller called Angel Street opened on Broadway, and it had one thing in common with The Motherf**ker With The Hat, in that both plays' plots …
A perfect example of the well-made boulevard comedy of the early twentieth century has been resurrected by Jonathan Bank and his lovely company of players at the Mint Theatre on the third fl…
I have no argument with the general consensus among the critics I've read about Jerusalem, the well intended and occasionally powerful play by Jez Butterworth, which has crossed the Atlantic…
Joe Mantello as Ned and John Benjamin Hickey as Felix (Photo: Joan Marcus) The theatre continues to dispense its magic in mysterious ways. Before visiting the current Broadway revival of Lar…
It's an intriguing title, no? Short and sweet, if a little hard to distinguish among This, Doubt, Proof, Contact et al, and equally difficult to probe for meaning. But early on in th…
It's always with fear and trepidation that I approach a revival of a classic Broadway hit of the 1940s or 1950s because some of them were head and shoulders above the crowd in their own time…
I've been thinking a lot lately about the transitional phase that the Broadway musical is currently enjoying, or suffering, depending on your personal viewpoint. It's not always easy to real…
Lynn Nottage's Ruined won the Pulitzer Prize and a slew of other honors a couple of seasons ago [and just opened at Arena Stage]. Her Intimate Apparel was also acclaimed in its Roundabout pr…
I'm sure you've read by now that this original musical by the creators of “South Park” Â and Avenue Q is the first offering of the New York season to enjoy unanimous raves from…
I don't know who first said "let's make a musical out of the hit movie "Catch Me If You Can". Let's assume it was Margo Lion, the producer, Jack O'Brien, the director, or Marc Shaiman, the c…
The very wise Roundabout Theatre management, and the very gifted director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall decided to lift some Cole Porter gems from their sources and plop them down in the m…
If you're the sort of theatre goer who enjoys taking old plays off the library shelf, dusting them off, having a look at what went down well in past decades, New York has a grand assortment …
Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lanford Wilson died March 23, 2011, at the age of 73, on the eve the opening night revival of his work Hot l Baltimore at Chicago’s Steppenwolf The…
It's interesting and informative (and fun) to revisit some of the classical musicals. A new director, new stars, even a new scenic design can alter our memory of it, or allow us to share it …
A perfect cast in a fine play under the direction of a seasoned professional and usually all will be well. Actually it's better than "well"Â at the Samuel J.Friedman Theatre where the Man…
Charles Busch as playwright has a most distinctive voice. It is somewhere between Kaufman and Hart, George Abbott, Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, Mel Brooks, Charles Ludlam and S.N.Behrman. His…
Richard Seff, on vacation, leaves the beach to see the West Side Story touring company The Broward Center of the Performing Arts in Ft. Lauderdale is currently presenting the recent revival …
Not a very appetizing title, this. Matthew Lopez, the playwright, was unknown to me. “Men of a Certain Age” is the TNT hit TV series in which André Braugher co-stars, yet …
A.R. Gurney has written over 40 plays and I'll wager he's had more use of perhaps 6 characters than any playwright in history. This prolific playwright is in the Alan Ayckbourn/Neil Simon cl…
