By ROY BERKO What do Rogers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser and Cole Porter all have in common? Yes, they are all composers of American musicals, but they are also just some of those who attempted, and failed, to make George Bernard Shaw’s classical Pygmalion into a musical. At one point, Shaw had given permission […]
By EDWARD RUBIN There are few examples of jukebox musicals – a denigrating term if ever – that have blown me away. In fact, without overtaxing my brain, Jersey Boys, which dramatizes the formation, success and eventual breakup of the 1960s rock ‘n roll group The Four Seasons, is the only jukebox musical of import […]
By ANNE SIEGEL NEW YORK – With the Broadway success of The Lion King more than 20 years ago (and still pumping millions into Disney coffers), it was no surprise that “Frozen,” the top-grossing animated film of all time, was soon going to join its jungle-inspired predecessor. In early November, The Lion King was still […]
By AARON KRAUSE NEW YORK, N.Y.– Yes, that really is a live goat on stage. It’s leading its handler toward the audience in the astonishing, breathtaking, visually enthralling, vivacious, but most importantly, healing and life-affirming, current Tony-winning revival of the Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty musical Once On This Island. In fact, the animal’s owner […]
By ALAN SMASON For those of you living under a rock, King Kong opened on Broadway last Thursday (Nov. 8) and, as one would expect, most every critic panned the newest addition to the Great White Way as being shallow or lacking in theatrical achievement in song and dance. In many ways they are right. […]
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out’) Imagination has always been the spark in literature that establishes domain over the hearts and consciences of mankind. Love and the search for it has been the impetus for so many characters and the motivation for so many recorded works that it is hard to find anything […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) Producers of Broadway shows oftentimes wait for the passing out of coveted Tony Awards before determining whether they will pull the plug on a production. Receiving one or more awards typically will guarantee that a weak show at the box office will get a second or third […]
BEST PLAY MORE INFO Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two The eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. Author: Jack Thorne BEST MUSICAL MORE INFO The Band’s Visit MORE INFO BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY MORE INFO Angels in […]
BEST PLAY MORE INFO The Children The American premiere of a new play by Lucy Kirkwood. Author: Lucy Kirkwood MORE INFO Farinelli and the King Mark Rylance stars in this new play with music by author and composer Claire van Kampen about a Spanish monarch on the brink of madness who finds unexpected solace in the […]
By HERBERT SIMPSON It’s only a few months before the 26th anniversary of the first American appearance of Edward Albee’s masterpiece, Three Tall Women, yet we’ve seen surprisingly few revivals. It’s admittedly difficult to perform, but hundreds of our high schools have performed the extremely demanding constant dance numbers of A Chorus Line without even one cast member […]