Archives for: "April 2011"
Review: The People in the Picture
Apr 29th
A musical whose themes encompass the Holocaust and Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t exactly qualify as a feel good experience. That’s perfectly fine—there’s plenty of room on the boards for serious musicals these days. But the Roundabout’s The People in the P… more »
Review: The Normal Heart
Apr 28th
It may be a time capsule of a play, but the sterling new Broadway revival of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart reveals that it has lost none of its urgency or power. A semi-fictionalized account of the beginning of the AIDS crisis and the efforts of a grou… more »
Review: Baby It's You!
Apr 28th
You can’t say that the new musical Baby It’s You! is shy about its intentions. In the opening moments of this show about the mega-selling ‘60s girl group The Shirelles, an image of a jukebox is projected. Clearly this new effort conceived by Floyd Mutrux… more »
Review: The House of Blue Leaves
Apr 26th
In his revelatory production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, director David Cromer unearthed the darkness underlying a play that is usually presented as a paean to a more innocent America. He applies the same approach to the new Broadway revival of John G… more »
Review: Born Yesterday
Apr 25th
The title of Garson Kanin’s play proves all too accurate with the new Broadway revival of Born Yesterday. This comedy about a crooked businessman in cahoots with corrupt politicians may have been written in 1946, but it seems timelier than ever in this e… more »
Review: Jerusalem
Apr 22nd
Considering his brilliant comic turn earlier this season in the revival of La Bete and now his titanic performance in Jez Butterworth’s new play Jerusalem at the same theater, we might as well engrave actor Mark Rylance’s Tony Award right now. We also mi… more »
Review: Sister Act
Apr 21st
There’s fun, if not musical comedy heaven, to be found in Sister Act, the new Broadway musical adaptation of the hit 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg. Featuring plenty of talent both on and off stage, the show boasts some terrific performances, an eng… more »
Review: High
Apr 20th
That former sexpot Kathleen Turner, who so memorably raised temperatures in such films as Body Heat and Crimes of Passion, has become a formidable presence in middle age. Her body thickened and her voice now a husky baritone rasp, the actress cuts a stri… more »
Review: Sleep No More
Apr 19th
Attention, theatergoers. Sitting in a seat and watching a show is so yesterday.
The truth of that statement is well demonstrated by Sleep No More, the wonderfully immersive theatrical experience—presented, fittingly, by the EMURSIVE production compa… more »
Review: Wonderland
Apr 18th
Down the rabbit hole indeed.
Wonderland is the sort of horrifically bad Broadway musical that doesn’t come along too often these days. Based on-- you guessed it—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this new work by Frank Wildhorn isn’t numbingly ponder… more »
Review: War Horse
Apr 15th
Stage wonders of the most magisterial sort are delivered in War Horse, the hit London production that has been remounted by the Lincoln Center Theater. This epic drama about the bond between a British boy and his horse combines dazzling stagecraft with d… more »
Review: The Motherf**ker With the Hat
Apr 12th
The Motherfu**ker With the Hat has at least two things going for it right off the bat. The first is that marvelously profane--albeit generally unprintable--title. The second is the coup of having landed comedian Chris Rock for his Broadway debut in this… more »
Review: Charlie Sheen's Violent Torpedoes of Truth at Radio City Music Hall
Apr 12th
Charlie Sheen, he of the “Tiger DNA” and “Adonis Blood,” returned to Radio City Music Hall Sunday night as part of his Violent Torpedoes of Truth tour that has garnered endless media fascination. Unlike his first show at the venue on Friday night, which… more »
Review: Catch Me If You Can
Apr 11th
There’s so much that works about Catch Me if You Can that it’s easy to overlook what doesn’t. This adaptation of the 2002 Steven Spielberg film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks boasts the sort of old-fashioned aspects so many contemporary musical… more »
Review: Company
Apr 8th
The most surprising thing about the New York Philharmonic’s star-studded concert production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company is how unmusical it is. Sure, the orchestra sounds great under the assured conducting of the venerable Paul Gemignani. And it’s a pl… more »
Review: Anything Goes
Apr 8th
As Reno Sweeney, Sutton Foster may not have the powerhouse belt of Ethel Merman or the roof-shaking authority of Patti LuPone. But she’s got one thing that her predecessors didn’t. She’s got legs.
When this dazzling musical comedy performer aims tho… more »
Review: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Apr 4th
The title character of the new play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is pretty pissed off. His country is in ruins, with death and destruction all around him. He’s still locked up in a dilapidated zoo. And when he follows his true nature by chomping on a… more »
Review: The Book of Mormon
Apr 1st
Contrary to what you may have heard, The Book of Mormon is not the second coming.
But it is a raucously entertaining and exhilarating musical comedy that is impossible to resist. Written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone along with R… more »