355 stories by "Ron Fassler"
Lauren Ambrose’s riveting lead performance can’t fully elevate a show that doesn’t quite go deep enough. Review by Stuart Miller . . . The first time The Unbelievers abruptly shifts …
By Samuel L. Leiter... Playwright Richard Nelson is back with another of his series of Apple Plays at the Public Theatre.
By Ron Fassler... After close to 20 years, "In the Heights" is back to remind us once again of Lin-Manuel Miranda's songwriting gifts for the musical theatre.
Review by Ron Fassler . . . In 1989, despite mixed reviews, Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men opened on Broadway and ran for over a year. Its 1992 film version, which starred Tom Cruise and …
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Opening tonight, Rope is the second show of the season at the New Group’s new home, the Theatre at St. Clement’s on W. 46th Street. Billed in its advertisem…
Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty receives a major revival at Classic Stage Company. Review by Ron Fassler . . . On January 6, 1935, at the old Civic Repertory Theatre on West 14th Stree…
Barbara Barrie, shown here in 1964.October 30, 2026: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.In 1953, a newbie young actress from Texas named Barbara Berman arrived in New York City on…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . I’m partial to TV medical dramas and have been watching them for decades. From the heroics of Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare in the 1960s, Medical Center in the…
Review by Carol Rocamora . . . “When it’s not a storm, it’s a railway strike; when it’s not a pandemic, it’s war. When it’s not war, it’s still war.” Ukrainian-born director…
By Samuel L. Leiter . . . For all his status as France’s greatest playwright, it must be admitted that, like Shakespeare’s, some Molière plays no longer have much of a pulse, at least n…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . William Finn was a composer and lyricist of remarkable versatility. His death in April of 2025, at age seventy-three, was especially sad because he was still work…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Oliver Cotton’s The Score presents German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) as its primary character: a musical giant of the late Baroque period. As …
Review by Ron Fassler . . . There are times when you see a new play and, once the plot gets underway, find yourself wondering whether the playwright can balance the many issues and themes in…
Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers and hot off the presses. Book Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . . Nat C. Goodwin, Nat Goodwin’s Book. Boston: Richard C…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . In 2011, Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities opened at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center. With strong reviews and healthy ticket sales, it mov…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . I must admit that the genre of an actor’s confessional, one-person show is not among my favorites. Although I’ve seen some that were excellent, in my vast exp…
By Stuart Miller … Jeanie is sitting at her kitchen table in a San Antonio suburb, working feverishly on her laptop when her teenage daughter, Delia, storms in and through. After a door sl…
Review by Stuart Miller . . . A Ghost in Your Ear is a rare theatrical treat. It’s not a comedy with plenty of laughs or a drama that stirs up emotions with nuanced characters. It is a Ha…
Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers and hot off the presses. Book Reviews by Samuel L. Leiter . . . Diana Forbes-Robertson. My Aunt Maxine: The Story of Ma…
By Stuart Miller . . . Karya is a typical seventeen-year-old girl: mortified by her mother, simultaneously jealous and disgusted by her best friend’s sex life and trying to figure out thin…
By Samuel L. Leiter . . . Oskar Eustis, renowned artistic director of the Public Theater, has a gift for writing strongly supportive program notes for the shows he presents; he could have be…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . In a career that began on Broadway in 1973, Patti LuPone continues to reveal layers that define her as a once-in-a-generation talent. In Patti LuPone: A Life in …
Review by Stuart Miller C-Span is not known for its dynamic dialogue. Even the most compelling and insightful hour of discussion and debate will feature circular talk and boring repetition o…
Review by Ron Fassler. The internationally famed author and teacher Phillipe Gaulier, who died earlier this year, was described in his obituary in the Guardian as a “French clown who …
Review by Stuart Miller. In Mfoniso Udofia’s new play creation stories and all the important importants, which opened tonight at the Claire Tow Theatre at Lincoln Center, an unnamed “G…
