The show began with Arlen's first hit, "Get Happy," 1930, and ended with his 1939 score for the MGM film, "The Wizard of Oz." The first half of the evening was devoted to Arlen's stand-alone…
Periodically the cast calls for a "Family Meeting." The theme from Jeopardy is played on a kazoo and three audience members are picked to come up. The one who is wearing the funniest namet…
There are many questions that the author fails to answer. Although the boys have not attended school in years and Bobbie has been diagnosed as ADHD and should be in the British equivalent of…
Behind the theme of war," Incident at the Hidden Temple" is a thriller of sorts. Sisters Ava (Ying Ying Li) and Lucy (Briana Sakamoto), first seen in China travelling on a train littered wit…
What truly distinguishes the show is Dixon's fearless psychological focus on Rose and himself. The predominant theme is of hero worship and its bruising disappointments. It also attempts t…
I've been watching Miss America since I was very little, and my sister and I would get dressed up every year in crowns and gowns and banners and I saw Miss Pennsylvania, Marla Wynne, in '92 …
Darryl Reilly, Critic Dazzling visualizations of nine, iconic songs are superbly choreographed by Dwight Rhoden in Star Dust: A Ballet Tribute to David Bowie. The Complexions Contemporary Ba…
While the jokes may be hoary, Unger's production has cut down on the show's sentimentality and given it a sharp edge which elevates the material. As the heroine Ruth, Runofsson is genuine, c…
Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson has himself won a Tony Award for his performance in Wilson's "Seven Guitars" and has directed acclaimed Off Broadway revivals of "The Piano Lesson" and "Seven …
One problem is that the play (unlike Noel Coward's "Design for Living" or Somerset Maugham's "The Constant Wife" which cover similar territory) is neither witty not clever, and none of the l…
Mr. Refael's simple but well-crafted scenario takes place in a contemporary apartment in Israel, and has the elderly Salvado looking back at his past. This is theatrically achieved by havin…
The concept of Love for Sale, though not particularly original, is not a bad one, except for one very important factor: Ms. Burke is not up to either the singing or acting demands of Love f…
Darryl Reilly, Critic SUNDAY With the countenance of a vintage stuffed owl and that of a Friar’s Club Buddha, and wearing a cranberry blazer, JOE FRANKLIN sat through the penultimate p…
A major flaw is Peer Gynt. Personable, co-composer Park plays the title role. When we first see him, he's wearing a hipster wool cap, plaid shirt and eyeglasses. Possessed of a good singin…
Essentially it's a glorified and arch 90-minute, scripted, sketch comedy show. The conceit is that it's inspired by audience suggestions. The composition of the program changes from perform…
On the one hand, it is a punch in the gut dramatizing the cold hard facts of disintegrating with this disease; on the other, the non-linear time scheme is difficult to follow, offering more …
What Evett delivers"using ample quotes from the poem and robust contributions from himself and Spangler"is a terrifying inside look of the Mariner's experiences, beginning with being hijacke…
Reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest while lying on a couch is Jay, a slacker-looking type in his 30's. Sitting in the living room nearby is his 60ish mother who enjoys watching Dr.…
Upton's version solves some problems and creates others. Updated to the 1990's, the play is no longer about life in Tsarist Russia but the post-Perestroika world of Glasnost. While the origi…
As Paul Harold, a 60ish artist, Pendleton has a leading role that wonderfully showcases his idiosyncratic and considerable talents. With his unruly white hair, limber physicality and distin…
O'Connell's script is a well-structured series of confessional anecdotes interwoven with the lore of the movies. His performance is a riveting blend of stand-up comedy and grand stage actin…
In "DannyKrisDonnaVeronica," playwright Lawrence Dial bitingly delves into the lives of two Brooklyn couples each with two small children. Through his precise, often humorous and realistic …
The stories included are equal parts humorous, stirring or sobering but always meaningful and intimately personal. Deblinger is a natural storyteller, and every tale is polished and fully de…
Mr. Rosenblum's dense book is a rudimentary and repetitive serio-comic treatment imparting the minutia of that cause célèbre. In 1972, burglars connected to Republican President Richard N…
Linda Lavin, padded and badly bewigged, comes across more like a Jewish yenta than the victim of the vagaries of Eastern European warfare. She has only one song, "Easily Assimilated," a sil…