By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) Thirty-seven years after the scandal-ridden story of televangelists Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker and their popular PTL Club made headlines, an unlikely musical on Broadway tells the tale in song. An improbable venture to say the least, the music is being furnished by none other than Sir […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The dark days of the COVID shutdown brought the theatre community to its knees. Unable to perform in front of live audiences or to connect to one another due to health restrictions, some performers kept themselves occupied by baking, writing or, in James Monroe Iglehart’s case, watching […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Jamie Lloyd has made a reputation for himself as a visionary minimalist director, winning a remarkable collection of Olivier Awards on the West End. His inspirational production last year of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Blvd. garnered major buzz for its sleek and slimmed staging and his improbable casting […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The Public Theater has enjoyed a well deserved reputation as a proving grounds for works that have later found great fame on Broadway. Some of these groundbreaking shows include Hair, A Chorus Line, Fun Home and Hamilton. Add to that list Suffs, which premiered at The Public […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) One of the marketing ploys for The Notebook: The Musical can be found at the merchandising kiosk downstairs at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Aside from magnets and some specialty clothing items they sell, they also offer a very small, branded The Notebook souvenir box of Kleenex to […]
The 77th Annual Tony Awards were held in New York City on Sunday, June 16, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. Despite snagging 13 Tony nominations – the most for any play in history – Stereophonic won a total of five Tony Awards including Best Play. The Outsiders, based on the […]
The American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League, sponsors of the Tony Awards for excellence on the Broadway stage, were announced on Tuesday, April 30. The awards will be presented on Sunday night, June 16, and broadcast over the CBS network and livestreamed over Paramount+. BEST PLAY Jaja’s African Hair Braiding Jocelyn Bioh, playwright Mary […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic Following his 2019 Tony Award win for Tootsie, writer Robert Horn was offered several projects of his choosing, but none seemed more appropriate than reviving his concept of a musical relating to corn and simple country life. Horn had set his sights prior in 2015 on a musical that […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) “Harmony: A New Musical,” the Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman work is hardly a “new” musical, having simmered off the Broadway range for more than 26 years. The musical finally had its fateful opening at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York on Nov. 13 and is […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The history of Here Lies Love dates back almost two decades ago when David Byrne and Fatboy Slim came up with an improbable concept album about Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos, the despots of the Philippines who were overthrown by the civil disobedience movement People Power Revolution in […]