The main problem with “Tammy Faye,” currently on at the Palace Theatre is not the vapid lyrics by Jake Shears or the bland book by James Graham. Unfortunately, the “New Broadway Musical” has nothing to do with the iconic PTL Club televangelist Tammy Faye. Not even the two-time Laurence Olivier Award winning Katie Brayben’s performance as Tammy Faye, or the…
In a recent “New York Times” guest essay, Drew Lichtenberg writes that although “the American theater’s relationship to the Bard might be fraying” with “a long history of theaters running from Shakespeare during times of political division or uncertainty, we need Shakespeare, especially in moments of conflict and unrest.” Currently running at Circle in the Square, Sam Gold’s production of…
Something old becomes new again with the current production of “Yellow Face” by Roundabout Theatre, which has been produced nationally, and internationally since it opened off-Broadway at the Public Theatre in 2007. That premiere production was directed by Leigh Silverman, who takes the helm in this current incarnation on Broadway. Penned by David Henry Hwang, it is difficult to decide…
It has been a long journey for “The Roommate,” the dark comedy by Jen Silverman, to finally arrive on Broadway since its premiere in 2015 at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival. It was well worth the wait, since the current production now playing at The Booth Theatre stars Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone in a two hander that…
“McNeal,” currently on at the Vivan Beaumont Theater, is playwright Ayad Akhtar’s exploration into the unexpected confluence of plagiarism, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the canon of western literature through the life and writing of renowned playwright Jacob McNeal (a cantankerous but magnetic Robert Downing Jr) who is, at the play’s onset, “badgering” Chat GPT on his iPhone to predict whether…
In Jez Butterworth’s “The Hills of California,” the four Webb sisters gather in the summer of 1976 at Seaview the guesthouse on the outskirts of Blackpool, an English seaside resort on the Irish Sea, where their mother Veronica (a once demanding and selfish Laura Donnelly) lies dying upstairs in what was their childhood home. Jill (an angst-ridden and spinsterish Helena…
The latest revival to open on Broadway is the classic “Once Upon a Mattress” with music by Mary Rogers, her first Broadway show, and an adapted book by Amy Sherman-Palladino, from the original by Jay Thompson, Marshall Barer and Dean Fuller. As soon as the on-stage orchestra begins the overture, the audience is reminded of, or in many cases introduced…
There are very few words not sung but spoken in the rock musical “Tommy,” but three that might be relevant are “Brilliant, wasn’t it?” spoken by a local lad that happens to be part of a larger audience, amazed, while watching Tommy play his first game of pinball in a pool hall. Unfortunately, they are not the three words that…
When does “life” begin? Depending upon one’s religious beliefs, or scientific beliefs, or social media threads, the answer to the question is different. Does “life” begin at conception; in utero; at birth; in childhood; in adolescence; in old age; in death; or after death? Seen through the eyes of his older self in “Water for Elephants” (currently on at the…
“Doubt” can produce several similar congenial feelings such as uncertainty, suspicion, uneasiness, apprehension, distrust and confusion. Usually there is a situation or event that occurs that may be the cause, or possibly misinformation that may initiate speculation and accusation. The striking Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s riveting drama, rightfully titled “Doubt,” now playing at the newly named Todd Haimes…