689 stories by "Wendy Caster"
I know that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover, nor a show by its poster, but as soon as I saw the one for Porgy and Bess, I had serious misgivings about this production. For one thing,…
Nellie McKay: Silent Spring--It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature: Nellie McKay fits into no category. You can't describe her by saying she's like so-and-so crossed with so-and-so. If you tri…
Court-Martial at Fort Devens, by Jeffrey Sweet, tells the true story of a group of African-American women who joined the women's army corps during World War II to be trained as medical assis…
Ana Reeder, Jeanine SerrallesPhoto: Carol RoseggIn Jean Genet's intense one-act, The Maids, Claire and Solange are in service to a frivolous woman who treats them with a false bonhomie; she …
(Caveat: at the performance I saw, not one, but two, women crumpled plastic bags on and off for the whole 100 minutes. They were really annoying, and they made it impossible to concentrate f…
Seth Rudetsky is arguably one of the most talented people in New York and definitely one of the funniest. His latest production is Disaster!, co-written with Jack Plotnick, and it is over tw…
In 1975, Antonia Fraser, biographer of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry VIII's six wives, and Harold Pinter, renowned playwright, fell madly in love, pretty much at first sight. Over the next…
Kathleen Chalfant, John Cunningham(photo: Carol Rosegg)It's hard to know how to respond to Tina Howe's 1984 Pulitzer-Prize-nominated play Painting Churches in 2012. It's not the play's fault…
The Poet is exhausted, and why shouldn't he be? He has been telling tales of man's inhumanity to man for years, maybe centuries. If a poet can have post-traumatic stress disorder, he does. O…
This is a golden age of musical leading ladies. Donna Murphy. Audra McDonald. Marin Mazzie. Tonya Pinkins. Christine Ebersole. Bebe Neuwirth. Laura Benanti. Patti LuPone. Victoria Clar…
Early in previews, the SecondStage revival of Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive, directed by KateWhoriskey, was already in good shape, well-paced, well-acted, and emotionallydevastating. …
SeanPatrick Murtagh andCharlie Owens Photo: Bella MuccariSeeing Off-Off-Broadway and community productions is a bit of a crapshoot. Quality ranges from superb to "what were they thinking?" …
Sarah Steele, Janeane GarofaloPhoto: Monique CarboniAt the beginning of Erika Sheffer's intriguing new play Russian Transport, we meet a Russian family who has been living in Brooklyn since …
Let's play a word-associationgame. I say, "Petula Clark." And you say?My guess isthat you say--no, sing--"Downtown." Or perhaps, "Don't Sleep inthe Subway, Darling." On the other hand, …
Raushanah Simmons, Ingrid Nordstrom Photo: Justin HocheSomething there is that doesn't love a wall. So begins Robert Frost's well-loved poem "Mending Wall," and so also begins Erin Bro…
Steve Kazee and Cristin MiliotiPhoto: Joan MarcusI am very grateful that I saw Once (based on the movie of the same name) at the New York Theatre Workshop rather than on Broadway. (Thank you…
There are two components to a review of the recording of a musical: the discussion of the musical itself and the discussion of its presentation on the CD. Since four of us on this blog have …
Ian Spring, and Melissa Ullom inDavid Parson's Round My WorldPhoto: Krista BonuraLet's cut to the chase: David Parsons' piece Caught is stunning, impressive, and magical. I see it at least o…
NancyWhen it comes to Scott Siegel's Broadway Ballyhoo: A Show Tune Hootenanny, currently playing late Thursday nights at Feinstein's, there's good news and there's bad news. The good n…
If you have never seen Marilyn Maye, really, what are you waiting for? She's an amazing jazz singer, a brilliant interpreter, and funny to boot. She's a delight to spend an evening with. She…
Heidi Schreck and Adam LeFevrePhoto: Carol Rosegg After her life in New York falls apart, Susan Pierce (Heidi Schreck) ends up in Plainview, KS, teaching science to high schoolers whose town…
2011 continued my personal trend of seeing many more Off-Off-Broadway shows and considerably fewer Broadway Shows, with Off-Broadway holding steady. In fact, of over 70 shows, only eight wer…
Is it too much to say that Stephen Sondheim is our Shakespeare? I don't think so. His range of topics is epic; he's endlessly surprising; his work is deep and textured enough for dozens of i…
Reviewing Barbara Cook is as easy as one, two, three.1. Barbara Cook is an incomparable interpreter of theAmerican Songbook.2. Barbara Cook lives her songs as freshly and honestly thehundret…
What happens when jazz and musical theatre singers and siblings Ann Hampton Callaway (Swing) and Liz Callaway (Baby) decide to explore the music of the sixties and early seventies? You get t…
