8,501 stories from Backstage
From the fecund imagination of Paula Vogel comes “A Civil War Christmas,” a gorgeous tapestry of interconnected stories all playing out on Christmas Eve 1864 and woven together w…
“Ingenious Nature,” Baba Brinkman’s latest theatrical mixtape, as he terms his shows, might better be called “There needs to be a scientific reason why women are conf…
The drunk scene is a staple of comedy, from the Vitameatavegamin episode of “I Love Lucy” to the bar-pickup scene in “Promises, Promises.” Adam Bock’s contribut…
Think Arthur Miller’s “The Price” or Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosensweig.” Playwright Jennifer Maisel must have done so, at least subconsciously, …
Two tour de force performances in this 80-minute, one-act production are simply not enough to persuade us that Zelda Fitzgerald was the power behind her author husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, …
Now you see 'em, now you don't! This week, three Broadway shows—"Chaplin," "Scandalous," and "The Anarchist"—announced their closing dates. Let's take a look back at some of the …
With winter approaching, you know it takes more than cough drops and herbal tea to keep your voice healthy in the bitter cold. But what are some secrets to make sure you’ll still sound…
Picking up where the sold-out 2012 TedxBroadway event left off, 2013’s daylong symposium in January brings together influential people in academics, entertainment, marketing, and media…
When I first caught Terrence McNally’s “Golden Age,” during the Kennedy Center’s 2010 McNally festival, in Washington, D.C., it was tonally and thematically inconsist…
In the program for Flux Theatre Ensemble’s production of “Hearts Like Fists,” which describes Adam Szymkowicz’s play as a “superhero noir comedy about the dange…
The figures of the hulking, dumb Lennie and his faithful, intelligent sidekick George in John Steinbeck’s classic “Of Mice and Men” have entered the public consciousness as…
In these days of the small-cast, tidy domestic drama, what a pleasure it is to encounter Clifford Odets’ soaring, expansive, and tough-as-nails “Golden Boy,” a white-hot di…
With a title such as “Let’s Kill Grandma This Christmas: The Other F^#king Christmas Story,” it’s logical to expect the worst. Will Brian Gianci’s “twiste…
Broadway is chiefly known as a destination for the best in artistic showmanship and dazzling performances. But in addition to being a cultural mecca, Broadway is an industry with a formidabl…
There’s the deadly whiff of self-congratulatory pretension hovering in the air at the Golden Theatre, where David Mamet’s latest play, “The Anarchist,” is occupying t…
Over 1,500 arts organizations applied for the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Art Grants in 2012. Only 832 received funding, for a total of $22.3 million in monetary gifts. One of the l…
To fully appreciate “Reid Farrington’s A Christmas Carol,” playing this holiday season at the Abrons Arts Center, you must acquaint yourself with a unique prerequisite, one…
Australian author Andrew Bovell’s “Speaking In Tongues” is a play of patterns: patterns in human behavior but also patterns in playwriting. While the content, a study of in…
Many of us experience YouTube as a breed of needy puppy. Do you wanna watch this panda sneeze? Do you wanna watch this baby dance with his twin? Do you wanna watch it again? “Tube,&rdq…
When “The Great MacDaddy” premiered in 1974, it emerged at a crossroads: the waning of the Civil Rights movement and the rise of blaxploitation. With an original cast that includ…
ReGroup Theatre, dedicated to the production of plays staged by the Group Theatre in the early 20th century, is nothing if not ambitious in turning to “Big Night,” Dawn Powell&rs…
Nonprofit Off-Broadway theater company the Playwrights Realm recently announced the playwrights Mfoniso Udofia, Theresa Giacopasi, Dan Nguyen, and Chad Beckim as the winners of the 2012-2013…
Prolific playwright Theresa Rebeck is on a downward spiral with her Broadway offerings. The problematic but interesting “Mauritius” was followed by the flashy but empty “Se…
While a Broadway production doesn’t seem to be in the stars for “Yank!,” a musical about a gay American soldier falling in love for the first time in the midst of WWII, the…
Much has been made of Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway’s performances in the big-screen adaption of the musical “Les Misérables,” but this isn’t the first time t…
