By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There is an obvious conversation addressed early in Tootsie, the David Yazbek musical that won Santino Fontana a Leading Actor in a Musical Tony Award in 2019. In the book by Robert Horn that won him the other Tony Award for that show, the question about a […]
By ROY BERKO In 2010 a gay Mississippi high school student was banned from coming to her senior prom by the school’s Board of Education because she wanted to bring her girlfriend as her date. She challenged the ruling, which resulted in the cancellation of the prom. The student and the ACLU sued the district. The federal […]
By ALAN SMASON No. It’s not a latter-day Our Town. Nor is it Love Letters for couples. It is, however, somewhere in between. Streaming sales for a filmed stage reading of Dan Clancy’s Middletown are ending today and with it the last chance to see Sandy Duncan (Peter Pan), Didi Conn (“Grease”), Donny Most (“Happy […]
By ALAN SMASON, Special to Theatrecriticism.com For the past two decades, Stogie Kenyatta has researched, performed and perfected his one-man show The World Is My Home – The Life of Paul Robeson on stages across the globe. With a running time of nearly three hours including a 15-minute intermission, the two-act vehicle permits Kenyatta to perform […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When Jersey Boys opened on Broadway in 2005, it presented the public with a jukebox musical significantly different from many of the others that preceded it. This was the the true story of the formation of the group of four New Jersey male singers who had achieved […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Most audience members who attended the recent Broadway in New Orleans production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory didn’t know what they were missing. It was like sampling a chocolate bar with a smidgen of cacoa as opposed to one chocked full of rich and dark flavor. Unless […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The horror of war is made tragic on a small scale in Miss Saigon, as an interracial couple caught up in the maelstrom of the Vietnam War reach out to comfort one another with tragic consequences. If the work seems familiar it’s because it is based on […]
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — The musical Aladdin might transport us to a “whole new world,” but the show also presents a familiar one to modern-day audiences. Certainly, MeToo advocates applaud loudly when Princess Jasmine proclaims, “I am not a prize to be won! I will not be auctioned off to some self-centered show-off.” And in […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There are apparently some people who have never seen the 1983 MGM Christmas classic “A Christmas Story” on TV. Regularly shown since the late 1980s on a 24-hour bender by Ted Turner, there are 12 opportunities every year from Christmas Eve night to Christmas night to see […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The cautionary tale of a lie spun out of control, teenage angst, suicide and the impact of the Internet is at the heart of Dear Evan Hansen, the 2017 Tony Award winner for Best Musical. This past week, local audiences were able to witness for themselves the […]