To mark its 75th anniversary, New York City Center presents a gala production of “A Chorus Line” that is yet another facsimile of Michael Bennett’s groundbreaking 1975 original. Now the amber fossil of musicals, “A Chorus Line” remains genius and powerful, but is long past due for some re-imagination. Maybe next time.
“The Prom”, a sweet and subversive original new musical, is a delicious gift from the musical comedy gods. This tale of four Broadway performers descending on rural Indiana to help a lesbian teenager take her girlfriend to the prom packs non-stop laughs and high energy dance numbers alongside an important message of inclusion. A good, old-fashioned musical, you can’t go wrong with a visit to “The Prom”.
"Celebrity Autobiography" books the Marquis for dark nights of "The Illusionists"; "Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish" to transfer Off-Broadway; 16-year-old Jimmy Award winner Andrew Barth Feldman is Broadway’s next Evan Hansen; Michael Stuhlbarg will star in "Socrates" at the Public; Jerry Mitchell's "Becoming Nancy" might be Broadway-bound; Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald-helmed revival of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” might be in the works; 2019 "Kids' Night on Broadway" will be on February 26th; "Golden Boy" star Paula Wayne dead at 84
Ming Peiffer’s shattering new play, “Usual Girls”, presented in a world premiere through Roundabout’s Underground series, offers a blistering dramatization of rape culture through the lens of one Korean-American woman’s journey from girlhood to adulthood. Raw, explicit, and joltingly explosive, this is a bold and important new play.
In the second edition of “Look Left”, I offer roundup reviews of “Company”, “Dreamgirls”, and “Hadestown” playing in London.
London revival of "Company" may be headed to Broadway; The Public Theater is planning a $110 million renovation to upgrade the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park; "To Kill a Mockingbird" to offer $10 tickets for middle and high school students; Bruce Springsteen's show to release a live recording and Netflix special; "What the Constitution Means to Me" moving to Greenwich House; film version of the musical "The Color Purple" in development; 1986 flop "Rags" will get a New York concert reading'; musical adaptation of "Magic Mike" finds workshop cast; "The Book of Mormon" becomes longest running show at Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theatre
“American Son”, a gripping new play on Broadway, is piercingly of the moment, thunderously bleak, written in all caps, and indulgently depressing. Kerry Washington gives a devastating performance as a black mother living the nightmare of her son interacting with the police, but blunt writing provides shorthanded dialogue and characterizations that are unrealistic and convenient—tooled for the sake of advancing arguments, and provoking the audience, rather effectively serving a coherent social or political mission.
Two world premiere productions of new plays opened Off-Broadway last night, each offering their characters a reflection on their younger selves and their emotional development, conceptions of love, and visions for the future. This is a roundup look at Second Stage’s “Days of Rage” and the Vineyard Theatre’s “Good Grief” (Critic’s Pick!).
Ma-Yi Theater Company presents “Sesar”, a moving solo show of personal memoir smartly written and performed with élan by Orlando Pabotoy. As a young Filipino boy seduced by Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, this play is the sweet and profound story of how that text bonded a son and father together during a time of political strife in Asia.
Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell - The Musical" will play City Center; "King Lear" will now play the Cort , opening up the Golden for "Hillary and Clinton"; cast announced for FOX's "Rent: Live" telecast; Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child joins "Once on This Island"; the Drama Book Shop will close its 40th Street location at end of January; Broadway League finds younger audience attended 2017–2018 season; trailer for "Latin History for Morons" on Netflix; playwright Ntozake Shange dead at 70
Jez Butterworth’s “The Ferryman” is an ecstatic and richly thrillingly new play about the intimate, domestic effects of “The Troubles” on one large, Irish family; a sprawling epic with a 22 person cast and running time over three hours, “The Ferryman” is a titanic dramatic achievement, and a must-see event of the season. In short: a masterpiece without present peer on Broadway.
Two new plays opened Off-Broadway last week that are “teaching plays” meant to instruct the audience and broaden horizons on subject matter otherwise unknown or unexplored by most. Here’s a look at “India Pale Ale” at MTC and Critic’s Pick “Plot Points in Our Sexual Development” at LCT3.
