Great art it's not, but if you're looking for a recipe for farce, all the ingredients can be found in "A Comedy of Tenors," Ken Ludwig's sequel to his enormously successful "Lend Me a Tenor.…
If you wished to come back as a Greco-Roman God, you could do far worse than to opt for Dionysus (Greek), also known as Bacchus (Roman), the god of wine, fertility and agriculture as well as…
Seeing different August Wilson plays directed and acted by the same theater artists must be like it was for Elizabethan theatergoers watching the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later The King's Men…
The last time I walked by the TKTS booth on Time Square at 47th Street, 22 Broadway shows were offering same-day discounted tickets, most for half-price plus a two dollar service charge. Sev…
A seasonal departure from play reviews to reviewing having played…                       Â�…
Crafted by Chazz Palminteri from a true story from his 1960s youth, "A Bronx Tale" originated as his one-man show in 1989 (revived on Broadway in 2007, directed by Jerry Zaks). The 1993 film…
How cool would it be to have Sutton Foster come to your house to sing and dance in your living room? And suppose she brought some talented friends to perform with her? Well, that's not gonna…
Set over Christmas Eve and Day in the year 1183, "The Lion in Winter" is based on events in the lives of seven historical figures: Henry II, King of England, Scotland, Wales, etc.; his Queen…
Beginning at 8PM on Christmas Eve, you can watch the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story" twelve times in a row on TBS-TV, screening on the even hours up to 6PM on the 25th. Sans song and dance. O…
Thinking about Mad Love, the word "lark" popped into my head. Where'd that come from? I thought, so I looked it up in my Oxford: Something mischievous…an amusing adventure or escapade. Mar…
The Producers has the potential to offend pretty much everyone: Jews, gays, women, seniors, prudes and the self-appointed Good Taste Police. When well staged, however, the holder of a record…
Back in the day, I produced and performed in summer-stock musicals. They usually featured about six principals and double that number of backup singer-dancers. I like to think the shows were…
The Wikipedia entry for Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, known as the Mother of the Blues, lists her life span as April 1886 to December 1939. Based on Two River Theater's stunning production of August…
Have you ever seen Othello played by a Caucasian actor? I've seen Orson Welles's and Laurence Olivier's "blacked-up" film versions, and Pavarotti singing the Verdi operatic role at Carnegie …
Legend has it that when British producer-actor Sir Donald Wolfit toured as Othello, he was dismayed when Iago got all the notices. He replaced the actor with a less-talented fellow, who also…
Has any long-run Broadway show counted as many detractors as has Cats? (Besides Oh, Calcutta! I mean.) Upon hearing that I was attending the Broadway revival, comments from friends and colle…
[As will appear in September issue of American Mensa Magazine] In 1962 a group of Canadians and Americans produced weekend performances of George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell and Candida …
Published in 1960, Harper Lee's semi-autobiographical To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most revered American novels of all time, and the 1962 movie is one of the best book-to-films ever m…
Rarely has a slice of history been as entertainingly portrayed as in Butler. Richard Strand's play depicts an actual Civil War development with a creative imagining of how it might have unfo…
(As published in the August 2016 issue of the Magazine of American Mensa) William Shakespeare's second tetralogy, known as the Henriad, covers 22 years of English history, from 1398 to 1…
The rock opera Tommy was written in 1969 by guitarist Pete Townshend and recorded by the British group The Who. It was made into a movie in 1975. In 1993, Townshend and theatrical director D…
Without the role of Louise Seger, Always, Patsy Cline would be just a couple hours of one woman singing 25 songs associated with the country-pop crossover star who died in a plane crash on M…
The aphorism "There are no accidents" has been variously attributed to Sigmund Feud, Deepak Chopra and Pablo Picasso. Things that occur seemingly by chance are, accordingly then, intended (c…
It's a safe bet that Heather Mac Rae never dreamed she'd be cast in a role created by Marlon Brando. No, the venerable actress is not playing Terry Malloy in a remake of "On the Waterfront."…
I must confess that although I wanted to attend Paper Mill Playhouse's first opening following the announcement of the venue's Regional Theatre Tony Award (see below), I was thinking tha…