8,501 stories from Backstage
It’s hard to fathom what convinced the estimable David Cromer to direct “Really Really,” Paul Downs Colaizzo’s ersatz, glaringly manipulative “Did it happen or …
Is the siege of Troy the most frequently retold story in history? Since Homer and the Greek tragedians, the stories of Helen, Agamemnon, and Odysseus have been the inspiration for everything…
The Irish Repertory Theatre, which last summer tinkered unnecessarily with “New Girl in Town,” has done it again. It has revived an old second-rank musical that’s neverthel…
The merry, equally matched skirmishes of wit fought by Beatrice and Benedick on the rocky road to romance have made “Much Ado About Nothing” one of Shakespeare’s most popul…
Of all the memorable moments in Bedlam’s new production of “Hamlet,” perhaps my favorite arrives three hours in. Gertrude (Andrus Nichols) and Claudius (Tom O’Keefe),…
If, like me, you are not an opera buff, and you can’t bear listening to heavily dissonant music, you might dismiss New York City Opera’s “Powder Her Face,” composer T…
Tell me that Austin Pendleton is directing and acting in a Tennessee Williams play, and I’m there. So when the announcement came that he would be doing both for Williams’ long on…
Brimmer Street Theatre Company is betting its patrons will want to bluff their way through its annual fundraiser next month.
The Los Angeles ensemble, a non-profit which produces and develop…
Zooey Deschanel has recently redefined herself as a television star, and now the Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated “New Girl” actor is committing to making more projects for the s…
Did the brutal 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard really change American attitudes about LGBT people? That’s one of the questions that the members of Tectonic Theater Company set out to an…
Fault Line Theatre’s “From White Plains” is a drama about high school bullying that is as thoughtful as it is passionate. It’s also clearly the product of a close col…
Audra McDonald. Steve Kazee. Andrea Martin. What do these actors have in common (other than Tony Awards)? They all started their Broadway-bound shows at the American Repertory Theater. …
Composer-performer Kamala Sankaram and musical theater writing team Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham are the recipients of the 2013 Jonathan Larson Grants, the American Theatre Wing announ…
Back in November, I wondered aloud if it was mere conicidence that Anne Hathaway hosted the Oscars in 2011 and sang a version of "On My Own" to Hugh Jackman while future "Les Misérabl…
Even though “The X Factor” is one of the biggest hits on television right now, could it be a Broadway smash? Simon Cowell thinks it could.
Cowell signed on as a producer of the n…
As New York–based producer Ken Davenport recently pointed out on his blog, The Producer’s Perspective, Boston was once a major stop for shows on the road to hit runs on Broadway.…
Portrayals of savants in theater or film are few and far between; the common points of reference are usually the Oscar-winning turns of Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man” and Cliff Rob…
Many industries grapple with fully representing diversity in their hiring choices, and the theater is no exception. The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) recently released t…
At the recent 29th Annual Musical Celebration of Broadway, the Drama League announced the founding of the Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley Studio Lab and the Joseph and Lauren Pizza Welcome…
Some of the references may be slightly dated, but the 20th-anniversary revival of “All in the Timing” is as fresh and funny as the day it premiered. David Ives’ program of …
Ever wanted to flirt with Madonna, dance with Michael Jackson, or sing with Nicki Minaj? If you answered “Totally tubular,” head over to Culture Club, where “Totally Tubula…
The winner of L.A.’s Next Great Stage Star was decided Sunday with a college senior taking home the top honor. As part of the talent showcase, twenty contenders had been applying their…
Because it takes place simultaneously in the 1950s and the 2000s and involves an African-American family purchasing a home in an exclusive all-white suburb of a major American city, Kirsten …
A few years ago I interviewed Charles Busch, known for his madcap lower-Manhattan camp fests. I remember him remarking with some regret that his once-edgy downtown neighborhood had become po…
In the ongoing struggle to make good art about climate change, neither sympathy for the animals nor rage about our self-induced apocalypse seems to be doing the trick. One might then expect …
