THE BOOK SHELF: "Off-Broadway Musicals Since 1919," "The American Stage," "Collected Plays of Tennessee Williams" by Steven Suskin

We page through Thomas S. Hischak's guide to "Off-Broadway Musicals Since 1919"; a problematic survey of "The Golden Age of the Musical Theatre"; a cornucopia called "The American Stage"; an…

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

THE BOOK SHELF: Gerald Bordman's Updated "American Musical Theatre," Plus "Diaghilev" & Three Librettos by Steven Suskin

We page through the Fourth Edition of "American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle"; newly published librettos of Oklahoma!, Sound of Music and Avenue Q; and a biography of Serge Diaghilev.

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

THE BOOK SHELF: Gerald Bordman's Updated "American Musical Theatre," Plus "Diaghilev" & Three Librettos by Steven Suskin

We page through the Fourth Edition of "American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle"; newly published librettos of Oklahoma!, Sound of Music and Avenue Q; and a biography of Serge Diaghilev.

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ON THE RECORD: Cook & Feinstein "Cheek to Cheek," Plus the Original London Cast Recording of Mattress by Steven Suskin

We listen to the new live recording of Barbara Cook and Michael Feinstein's cabaret act "Cheek to Cheek," plus the 1960 London cast album of Mary Rodgers & Marshall Barer's Once Upon a Mattr…

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ON THE RECORD: Cook & Feinstein "Cheek to Cheek," Plus the Original London Cast Recording of Mattress by Steven Suskin

We listen to the new live recording of Barbara Cook and Michael Feinstein's cabaret act "Cheek to Cheek," plus the 1960 London cast album of Mary Rodgers & Marshall Barer's Once Upon a Mattr…

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

THE DVD SHELF: Garbo and Minnelli From the Archives, Plus "Naked Kiss," "Broadcast News," "Color Purple" by Steven Suskin

We screen Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas in "Two-Faced Woman"; Vincente Minnelli's "Two Weeks in Another Town"; Sam Fuller's "The Naked Kiss"; James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News"; and Stephen …

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

THE DVD SHELF: Garbo and Minnelli From the Archives, Plus "Naked Kiss," "Broadcast News," "Color Purple" by Steven Suskin

We screen Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas in "Two-Faced Woman"; Vincente Minnelli's "Two Weeks in Another Town"; Sam Fuller's "The Naked Kiss"; James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News"; and Stephen …

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ON THE RECORD: "Quiet Please" From Steven Blier & Darius de Haas, and London's Make Me an Offer by Steven Suskin

We listen to "Quiet Please," a collection of standards and jazz from Steven Blier and Darius de Haas, and the cast album of the award-winning 1959 West End musical Make Me an Offer.

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ON THE RECORD: "Quiet Please" From Steven Blier & Darius de Haas, and London's Make Me an Offer by Steven Suskin

We listen to "Quiet Please," a collection of standards and jazz from Steven Blier and Darius de Haas, and the cast album of the award-winning 1959 West End musical Make Me an Offer.

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ON THE RECORD: From Off-Broadway, Ordinary Days and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by Steven Suskin

We listen to two Off-Broadway musicals, Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days, from the Roundabout in 2009, and the 1964 adaptation of James Thurber's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ON THE RECORD: From Off-Broadway, Ordinary Days and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by Steven Suskin

We listen to two Off-Broadway musicals, Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days, from the Roundabout in 2009, and the 1964 adaptation of James Thurber's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

THE DVD SHELF: "All About Eve," "An Affair to Remember,"Gielgud's "Ages of Man," The Norman Conquests, "Glee" by Steven Suskin

We screen the classics "All About Eve" and "An Affair to Remember"; John Gielgud's Shakespearean recital series; Alan Ayckbourn's Norman trilogy; Woody Allen's latest; and "Glee: Season Two …

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

THE DVD SHELF: "All About Eve," "An Affair to Remember,"Gielgud's "Ages of Man," The Norman Conquests, "Glee" by Steven Suskin

We screen the classics "All About Eve" and "An Affair to Remember"; John Gielgud's Shakespearean recital series; Alan Ayckbourn's Norman trilogy; Woody Allen's latest; and "Glee: Season Two …

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ON THE RECORD: "Originals — Musical Comedy, 1909-1935," With Highlights From Antique Shows, Plus an Overture Collection by Steven Suskin

We listen to "Originals — Musical Comedy, 1909-1935," a collection of old recordings by old stars; and "Another Openin' Another Show," Lehman Engel's 1958 album of 12 Broadway overture…

SOURCE: Playbill at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Permission Denied by Steven Suskin

Like Hand to God, Permission is outrageous and profane; like its predecessor, it can be seen as a sledgehammer attack on religion featuring violence and sex, albeit without as much bloodshed…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:53pm on May 20, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: Popcorn in the Aisles by Steven Suskin

Annie Baker, in The Flick, has drawn three disparate loners in dead-end menial jobs; engaged them in often aimless-seeming banter, as opposed to meaningful discussion; and keeps them at it f…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:49pm on May 18, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: Lake Erie Idyll, with Laughs by Steven Suskin

Noah Galvin in A.R. Gurney's What I Did Last Summer. Photo: Joan Marcus If you have written upwards of fifty plays over...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:20pm on May 17, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: The Final Visit by Steven Suskin

Not enough. An interesting show, to be sure; but in this crowded April, with at least ten intriguing new productions on view, I wonder whether this Visit is quite worth the visit.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:04pm on April 23, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: All the World's a (Musical Comedy!) Stage by Steven Suskin

Something's rotten on the stage of the St. James, and it smells like a hit.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:49pm on April 22, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: Come to the Fun Home by Steven Suskin

Seekers of provocative, invigorating and entertaining theatre--musical or dramatic--will find it at Circle in the Square. To those who think that Fun Home doesn't sound like their sort of en…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:34pm on April 19, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: R&H Return to Lincoln Center by Steven Suskin

In a day and age when producers, directors and author's executors think nothing of imposing their so-called artistic vision on Broadway masterworks that were pretty good to begin with, it is…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:00pm on April 16, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda by Steven Suskin

If you can predict that "blue-ish"--in the new musical, It Shoulda Been You--rhymes with something like "it's true-ish when you're Jewish," then you're two (or five) step…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:01pm on April 14, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: Ghosts at BAM by Steven Suskin

Lesley Manville in Ibsen's Ghosts. Photo: Stephanie Berger Dedicated theatergoers who try to see the best of the best are...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:08pm on April 12, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: Silence in the Woods by Steven Suskin

You have six actors sitting silently, listening and observing; and you have ninety theatergoers sitting silently, listening and observing. The combination turns out to be an exhilarating ad…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:57am on April 10, 2015☆⚑

Aisle View: Inside the Corridors of King Henry's Court by Steven Suskin

There's a rip-roaring, malevolently Machiavellian, viciously nasty, blood-letting saga of intrigue and incest on view just now. No, not in the cloistered cloakrooms of the U.S. House of Repr…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:39pm on April 9, 2015☆⚑