"Stop Hitting Yourself" is Too Self-Indulgent
Mincing words would be a waste of time so I'm going to get right to it: I don't know what the hell the folks at LCT3 were thinking when they booked Stop Hitting Yourself, a …
Mincing words would be a waste of time so I'm going to get right to it: I don't know what the hell the folks at LCT3 were thinking when they booked Stop Hitting Yourself, a …
Machinal, the 1928 drama inspired by the real-life story of a woman who murders her husband, is not an easy play to like. And so I can't really use the word "like" to describe how I feel abo…
The baby boomer musical, shows stitched together around the songbooks of acts popular in the '50s, 60's and '70s, is taking over Broadway. The trend started with the ABBA-scored Mamma …
The challenge of reviving a game-changing work is that the game has already been changed and so it's really tough to recreate the titillating shock of the original. The challenge of doing a …
Gay plays usually fall into three categories: the coming-out story, the AIDS drama, the cri de couer for acceptance from the wider society...or from the self. So I was intrigued when I…
From its out-of-town run at The American Repertory Theater in Cambridge last spring right through to the news this week that the Broadway production has recouped its investment, the current …
If you'd asked me to name my favorite songwriters, the composer Burt Bacharach and his frequent lyricist Hal David wouldn't have made the list (in case you're interested, Cole Porter, George…
If you've seen the opening number of The Lion King or even some of the outlandish set pieces in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (which turns off for the final time on Broadway tonight) you kno…
Who's to say what were the best shows of 2013? Even the august New York Times critics can't agree on that; only two shows (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 and Twelfth Night…
May your holidays sparkle with peace, love, happiness "and, of course, the great pleasure of live theater.
If you're still looking for a show that will appeal to the entire family"antsy tots, sulky teens, grumpy grandparents and weary everyone else"I have just the thing for you: A Gentleman…
It's the holiday season so you probably don't need any more family drama but there are three high profile (and star-studded) shows about familial relationships that I hadn't gotten around to…
Sometimes a show can have everything going for it and still flop. That's certainly the case with Big Fish, the big splashy musical written by Andrew Lippa, directed by Susan Stroman and star…
Whoever is picking the plays for Playwrights Horizons clearly wants the people who see them to come out thinking hard and talking seriously about them. So far t…
Last night my theatergoing buddy Bill and I went to see an NT Live encore presentation of the 50th anniversary celebration that London's National Theatre threw for itself last month.&n…
You've got to love Ethan Hawke. Or at least I do. I can't think of another actor working today who displays such obvious love for the theater"from his choice of challenging roles…
People who love theater love shows about the theater. Which is why there are so many backstage musicals, dramas and comedies from 42nd Street to the upcoming Bullets Over Broadway, fro…
Are theater producers becoming like their counterparts in the movie business and saving their best stuff for the time closest to awards season? I ask because this is the second fall in…
It's a little surprising to me but you guys seem to prefer free cast recordings and tell-all books to free theater seats. Still, a couple of you did write in for the giveaway of two free tic…
Theater lovers who love Shakespeare must be thrilled with this season, which has turned out to be the theatrical equivalent of a greatest hits album featuring nearly all the Bard's most belo…
Big stars were supposed to provide the thrills this fall theater season but so far the response to most of them has been kind of tepid. Now it's true that Cherry Jones and Zachary Quint…
When a musician records work closely identified with a more iconic artist, it's called a tribute album. And recently, as the number of shows featuring actors doing the same thing has grown, …
I come to bury A Time to Kill, not to praise it. Cause it's too late for the latter. The courtroom melodrama that opened just last month at the Golden Theatre announced this week that it wil…
--> Now this is more like it. Unlike last week when I got crickets in response to my giveaway quiz, a whole bunch of you wrote in for the chance to win the new book "…
Everyone complains about ticket prices and rightly so. Seats for the starry revival of Betrayal, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, cost up to $…