Follow the signs
Opera directors could learn a thing or two from Deaf Broadway’s vivacious performance of Jeanine Tesori‘s Violet.
broadway
Smash or pass
The long-awaited Broadway musical adaptation of the NBC series Smash is “not Bombshell – it’s just a bomb,” according to David Fox and Cameron Kelsall.
Like the poem said by a lady in red
Boop! The Musical arrives on Broadway with plenty of colorful glitz, glamour, and talent with an empowering message for women to find their inner confidence to succeed and lead
From California to the New York island
The new musical starring Idina Menzel, ostensibly a paean to back-to-naturism, could hardly feel more manufactured and synthetic.
Some old and then some new tricks
David Fox and Cameron Kelsall take on a new revival of Gypsy: Is there any gayer or more impassioned theater topic?
The music and the mirror
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.
Harmonic minor
It took more than 25 years for Harmony, the passion project of singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, to reach Broadway, where it opened recently at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
Unfit to print
You might wonder how this slimly plotted show, which had a brief Off-Broadway run in 2007 before fading into relative obscurity, ended up occupying a piece of prime Main Stem real estate nearly two decades later. To that end, I have four words: Josh Gad. Andrew Rannells.
The fuzzy end of the lollipop
That Some Like It Hot—this season’s high budget and high-profile Broadway musical—fizzles rather than sizzles is not only a disappointment, but also a bit of surprise.
A faint impression of the genuine article
Can we start by not using Barbra Streisand as a polestar here?
Trouble in River City
Jerry Zaks’ high-gloss production, which trades heavily on a bland Americana at odds with the sharp satire of Meredith Willson’s libretto and timeless score, operates on all cylinders but fires on hardly any.
Moving on
The Kennedy Center’s Opera House was a white-hot crucible of theatre kid energy on Friday evening for a luxurious 50 Years of Broadway at the Kennedy Center gala.
Lehman’s terms
The Lehman Trilogy had me in its thrall from the moment the lights went up. It’s absolutely spellbinding. That’s not to say I endorse it wholeheartedly, though.
Constant surveillance
It’s 2020, Ivo’s the new Ethel Merman, and I caught a preview of his fourth Broadway show and first Broadway musical, West Side Story.
“Jagged” — with sophistication
Jagged Little Pill is as manicured as the kind of Stepfordian society the material supposedly rails against.
Howards, endless
It’s not difficult to make an audience weep uncontrollably. But because it’s so easy, I think artists have a responsibility to not overuse that power.
Pink flamingos
Like any good gay theatergoers, we seek out Tennessee Williams revivals with the fervor of truffle-sniffing pigs.
We’ve been through the mill
We’re two gay men, with 30-plus years between us, who went together to see the Broadway adaptation of Buz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!
Sweeping down the plains
Within minutes, something wonderful happened. None of my reservations mattered.
Sophisticated Hades
The sexiest moment on Broadway this season features a 73-year-old man and a single button.
One more ‘Kiss’
Kiss Me Kate is a sophisticated soufflé of a show: a comedy of manners, requiring effortless verve and elegance in the playing.
Cult of personality
She makes it into a mash-up of Cours-la-Reine and “A Great Lady Has An Interview.”
Heaven is a place on Broadway
Broadway’s new Head Over Heels is anything but under committed; it’s a show with an irresistibly fun spirit and an infallibly good heart.
Chenez turn
Dapper countertenor Ray Chenez is temporarily putting aside the turbans of his operatic career for, well, the turbans of a Broadway diva as he appeals via Indiegogo for funding to record a CD of show tunes.
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).