29 stories by "Rodney Sexton"
There is a moment in Evita when, with a single note, you know something magical is about to happen. Unfortunately, it happens halfway through Act I. Even more unfortunate, the actress, playi…
Even after a show runs for 2 months off-Broadway, you might expect it to take a little time to find its legs in the new space of a Broadway house. As of its third preview Once has found its …
I missed the Nina Arianda train when she was in the off-Broadway production. I missed the Nina Arianda train when she was on Broadway production of Born Yesterday. I was a little annoyed by …
I saw the Lincoln Center reunion performance of Merrily We Roll Along in 2002. It was a joy to be in the room, to hear the score sung live. But the book and concept (going backward in time)…
Wit is a difficult play. The lead character isn't particularly likeable on the page, but the audience can't merely feel sorry for her. The metaphors and deconstructions of 17th Century poetr…
I didn't go looking for shows about people of color, didn't have an agenda in grouping these three together. I simply happened to see them about the same time and, since all had been running…
Once in a while, you get to have an experience in the theatre that is thoroughly satisfying. Every now and then, the experience is completely original. Occasionally, a movie is transplanted …
Godspell contains one of my favorite scores. Growing up enamored as much by Amy Grant and Sandi Patty as Betty Buckley and Jennifer Holliday, Godspell was one of those college discoveries th…
No surprise to find a show in its third full production in fine form during a preview. Three out of four of the lead performances are spectacular. The featured actors, young and old, are str…
Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin are deserved legends. Spending an evening with them singing two dozen or so songs, you know, during some incredibly magical moments, exactly why. When Ms. LuP…
The power of this collection of same-sex marriage shorts isn't the words. You won't hear anything you haven't heard before if you've been listening to anyone with anything to say on the subj…
I am not sure there is anything left to be said about Follies. I saw it early at the Kennedy Center and was more grateful for its existence than evincing its greatness. I was surprised it tr…
I know that walking out on a show should probably disqualify me from reviewing it, so I will only comment on what I saw of Burning. To be completely transparent, I've walked out on a number …
I discovered Lee Lessack at a performance in the late 90's, upstairs at Eighty Eights, the best-of-its-generation New York piano bar that didn't live to see the new millennium. I left enamor…
Several years ago, a friend insisted I had to see Gashole. I actually misread his e-mail invitation as Gash Ole. Turns out, it was not a Mexican drag act. I was too sick to go to the theatre…
Tom Dudzick may be the most successful playwright whose work you've never seen. His first play, Greetings, opened off-Broadway in 1994 during a blizzard. Even though Clive Barnes called the …
There's something in the water in Montreal. They pump out body-defying acrobatics wrapped in tongue-in-cheek excess like a virus. Despite the shared core, two Canadian exports leaped into to…
Okay, not really. Having been on a work-schedule imposed hiatus from the theatre, I managed to get to a few things in a cluster.
The Judy Show: My Life as a Sitcom
Judy Gold is a big old l…
When you have a chance to hear the New York Philharmonic play a Stephen Sondheim score, you just go. Whatever else happens, you will hear the songs differently, more fully, willingly drown a…
Okay, I am late to the rodeo. Nevertheless. . .Imagine how much more brilliant Lion King could have been if Julie Taymor had spent even a fraction of her time during the development period f…
If you ever have to choose between catching an STD or Catch Me If You Can, you should know that in either case, you're screwed"and in only one is there a chance of having a good time. And on…
If you are going to create a play about Shakespeare, it better be about the writing. The Resonance Ensemble's production of Shakespeare's Slave is all about the writing; and in this producti…
With friends in town wanting to see the two best musicals of the season, I got a chance to revisit Book of Mormon and Sister Act. I also got a chance to see both from a different vantage poi…
Lucky Guy isn't everyone's cup of tea. As a matter of fact, only those with a real taste for tea will leave quenched. If the idea of an overgrown drag queen, a funny-looking little troll, an…
What haunts most about any production of Follies is not the chorus of ghosts that infiltrate the stage, the unfulfilled dreams or festered regrets infecting the wings, or even the bookends o…
