Take a look at the 2018 Tony Award Nominations - I highlight some surprises, snubs, and quirks.
All in Broadway
REVIEW: “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” is Not Hot Stuff
“Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” is a flat and soulless jukebox tribute to the “Queen of Disco” that disgraces the genre she created by offering thin orchestrations, inauthentic choreography, and a song listing that includes too many obscure cuts from later in her career. LaChanze’s radiant performance is not enough to salvage this joyless and unfocused show. Save your money and listen to Summer’s iconic songs instead.
REVIEW: “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is Pure Magic
Harry Potter makes his Broadway debut in a new play that is an astonishing thrill ride packed with plentiful twists and turns in a production that marks a triumph of stagecraft and skillfully captures the spirit and sensibility of the beloved book series and film franchise. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is pure magic, and a must-see for any Harry Potter fan or acolyte.
REVIEW: A smashing, feminist “My Fair Lady” starring Lauren Ambrose
Lincoln Center Theater delivers a grand, first rate, feminist revival of Lerner and Loewe’s classic musical, “My Fair Lady”. Perfectly keyed to this moment while honoring the greatness of its text and score, director Bartlett Sher hits another home run, and Lauren Ambrose and Harry Hadden-Paton give smashing, revolutionary performances as Eliza Doolittle and Professor Higgins. A great revival of a great musical to end the season on a high note.
REVIEW: “Rocktopia”
“Rocktopia” is a one-trick rock concert in which snippets of top-shelf, survey deep classical compositions are mashed-up with and swallowed whole by beloved rock songs from the 1970s and 1980s. Garishly self-indulgent, sublimely absurd, bland, and loud, you can skip this well-intentioned musical experiment gone awry.
REVIEW: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel”
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” is back on Broadway in a big, bold, and beautiful new production that is both soaringly operatic and heart-wrenchingly intimate, thanks to a quintet of smashing principal performances, stunning choreography, enchanting sets, and a generously sized orchestra. Great musicals of the golden age deserve to be seen; pay a visit to this glorious “Carousel”.
REVIEW: “Children of a Lesser God”
“Children of a Lesser God” is one play whose sell-by date has definitely passed; even given embers of a still burning debate about deaf culture and identity, this plodding and clinical revival is dull, stale, unremarkable, and problematic in its treatment of a relationship between a deaf student and her teacher. Despite strong performances by TV’s Joshua Jackson and deaf actor Lauren Ridloff, skip this one.
REVIEW: “Mean Girls” is fetch!
Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls” the musical is a triumphant burst of high-energy fun, artfully written and brilliantly executed. This stage adaption is every bit as funny as the now-iconic 2004 film, and even more effective at delivering its message of self-confidence and kindness, thanks to good writing, great design, a boffo cast, and the guiding hand of director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw. In a season of too few musicals, “Mean Girls” is a standout.
REVIEW: A Transcendent and Timely “Angels in America”
Tony Kushner’s 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece “Angels in America” is back on Broadway in a transcendent and timely production sleekly staged by Marianne Elliot and featuring a superb ensemble cast; one of the greatest plays ever written and certainly the most important of the past 25 years, get tickets now or live to regret it.
REVIEW: Albee’s “Three Tall Women” Astonishes
Edward Albee’s 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece “Three Tall Women” is ferociously compelling under the smart hand of director Joe Mantello, and features a trio of astonishing performances by Glenda Jackson, Laurie Metcalf, and Alison Pill. This limited engagement of a towering work by a towering playwright and featuring three towering performances is not to be missed.
REVIEW: Kenneth Lonergan’s “Lobby Hero”
“Lobby Hero” is a funny, simple, and engaging play that follows the morally fraught actions of a quartet of uniformed personalities: two security guards and two police officers. Despite an anti-climactic ending, Michael Cera and Chris Evans give excellent performances and the play, touching on issues like workplace sexual harassment and racial bias in criminal justice, is eminently entertaining.
REVIEW: “Frozen” Disappoints
“Frozen”, the new musical based on Disney’s 2013 box office bonanza animated film, is a disappointing, self-conscious, and abundantly safe two-dimensional stage version of a two-dimensional cartoon, lacking grand gestures of sweeping inspiration or genuine smiles of magic, instead feeling mostly rote and composed by committee. You’re better off letting this one go.