Broadway legend Carol Channing is dead at 97; Heidi Schreck's "What the Constitution Means to Me" will play 12 weeks on Broadway; Palace Theatre renovations have hit a snag; casting announced for “The Ferryman”, "The Courtroom", "Call Me Madam", and the film version of "West Side Story"; Brittney Johnson becomes first Glinda of color in an English language production of "Wicked"; "Beautiful" marks 5 years with appearance by Carole King
REVIEW: “Choir Boy” sings and soars
The Broadway premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “Choir Boy” at Manhattan Theatre Club, finely acted and beautifully told, is transcendent. The very presence of this play on Broadway about a black, queer teenage boy navigating private, Christian Prep school life is seismic, and Jeremy Pope offers a memorable debut in this timely and important work.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Jeffrey Seller, and James Nederlander purchase the Drama Book Shop; Ingrid Michaelson composing "The Notebook" musical; "Almost Famous" to get development lab; "Houdini Among the Spirits" musical has industry reading; Actors’ Equity Association calls for a strike against developmental presentations; Broadway's box office reaches record-breaking $57M gross; RIP Liza Redfield
REVIEW: “Slave Play”
Jeremy O. Harris’s scintillating debut play, “Slave Play” at New York Theatre Workshop, is not what you think it is, packing twists, some heavy satire, graphic sexuality, and an important discourse on race, gender, and sexuality in contemporary America. To write about it is to spoil its surprises, but this sold out run will no doubt inspire future productions.
REVIEW: Mike Birbiglia’s “The New One” on Broadway
Comedian Mike Birbiglia’s solo show “The New One” now on Broadway is a hilarious and heartwarming standup comedy act recounting one man’s skeptically reluctant journey to parenthood. Teeming with insight and wit, and performed by an instantly lovable schlub, this is an ideal show for, well, everyone.
Ben Whishaw will star as Marilyn Monroe in "Norma Jean Baker of Troy" at The Shed; Eileen Atkins and Jonathan Pryce will star in “The Height of the Storm” on Broadway; is a new production of “Parade” in the works?; new "Harry Potter” cast announced; watch the Kennedy Center Honors; RIP groundbreaking Japanese-American ballerina Sono Osato
FEATURE: Top 10 Shows of 2018
By my count, I’ve attended 246 performances of theatre, dance, music, opera, and cabaret during 2018. Out of a field that large, it’s hard to pick just ten, but nevertheless, here are my top ten favorite shows I saw in New York (including no new musicals and only three Broadway shows!).
"Network" extends to April 28th; "The Play That Goes Wrong" will transfer to New World Stages; City Center announces Encores! Off-Center series; "Lifespan of a Fact" has recouped; cast announced for Duncan Sheik's new musical, "Alice by Heart" at MCC Theater; Off-Broadway cast of "Be More Chill" will transfer to Broadway; Lea Salonga will return to "Once On this Island"; Christian Dante White will be the next Freddy Eynsford-Hill in "My Fair Lady"; Jack O'Brien replaces Gregory Mosher as director of the upcoming Broadway revival of "All My Sons"; listen to Patti LuPone sing "The Ladies Who Lunch" on the forthcoming West End cast album of "Company"; Galt MacDermot, composer of "Hair" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona", dead at 89
FEATURE: Look Left – London Dispatch
On my recent trip to London, I caught six shows—a mix of musicals, plays, and dance, both new and in revival. Here I offer a roundup “look left” at “Caroline, or Change”, “A Christmas Carol”, “The Inheritance”, Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake”, “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical”, and “War Horse”
Faye Dunaway to play Katharine Hepburn in "Tea at Five"; "Torch Song" to close January 6th; Daniel Fish's Off-Broadway production of "Oklahoma!" to transfer to Broadway's Circle in the Square in March; "Avenue Q" will close Off-Broadway in April; Sara Bareilles and Gavin Creel will co-star in "Waitress" come January; Jessie Mueller and Norm Lewis will headline "The Music Man" in Washington, D.C.; Glenn Close teases "Sunset Boulevard" musical film adaptation; 2019 Golden Globe and Grammy nominations; listen to City Center cast recording of "Brigadoon"; Tony Award-winning actor Philip Bosco dead at 88
REVIEW: “The Illusionists – Magic of the Holidays”
For a fourth time, “The Illusionists” are back on Broadway, presenting a limited-run deluxe magic show featuring illusions, close-up magic, and mentalism performed by top practitioners in the field. If you’re a newbie to the form and are looking for an entertaining, well-produced, and mainstream magic show this holiday season, check it out.
REVIEW: “All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914”
“All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914” is a beautifully moving epistolary oratorio about the remarkable true story of British, French, and German soldiers emerging from their trenches and ceasing conflict on Christmas Eve 1914 to celebrate together. Gorgeously sung by an ensemble of ten men, and keenly structured and staged with gripping immediacy and emotion, this tribute to an unheralded moment in an increasingly forgotten war provides a glimpse of our common humanity at its greatest.