In the “Camelot” now on the stage of The Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, magic has been replaced with science, wizardry replaced by wisdom, romance replaced by practicality, and fantasy is overcome by reality. This all falls at the hands of Aaron Sorkin who penned this new book based on the original by Alan Jay Lerner, in an attempt…
After all the hype and waiting it is here. The new Broadway musical “Shucked,” with a book by Robert Horn, and music and lyrics by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, has opened and is currently playing at The Nederlander Theatre. The result resembles the aftermath of a collision between “The Music Man” and “Hee Haw” that took place in a…
There are two questions you should probably ask yourself when deciding to attend a performance of the revival of “Dancin” which was originally produced in 1978, when it was nominated for seven TONY awards. First, do you like the choreography of Bob Fosse and second, do you like dance? The first is actually not as important as the second, which…
Yann Martel’s 2001 novel “Life of Pi” is a coming-of-age story, the story of “one boy, one boat, one tiger.” Walker/Canongate published Martel’s Booker Prize novel in 2010 as a young adult novel which found its way onto school bookshelves across the United States (and beyond). It was a popular read in the high school where I taught. My colleagues…
Most, if not all, of my colleagues did not like “Bad Cinderella.” However, the performance I recently attended was sold out and that often undervalued pundit known as “the audience” could not have been more appreciative of what they experienced on the stage of the Imperial Theatre. It is important for us theatre critics to remember that often unheralded phenomenon…
Perhaps one of the best reasons to attend the present revival of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is to hear the exceptional score by the late Stephen Sondheim, gloriously presented by a twenty-six-piece orchestra, which resounds through the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, echoing a menagerie of emotional themes. There is a Brecht-Weil semblance, as a populace from London’s underbelly…
The musical “Parade” opened on Broadway in 1998 and was subject to a short run, closing in February of 1999 before eventually winning two TONY awards for Best Book of a musical by Alfred Uhry and Best Original Score by Jason Robert Brown. This original production received critical acclaim but was received poorly by audience members, sighting the subject matter…
Unlike the typical one-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle where the completed puzzle matches the image on the cover, “The Collaboration’s” dénouement and resolution are nothing like the playwright’s supposed intention when writing the script. Anthony McCarten sets us up for a scuba diving expedition. The playwright teases us into a deep-sea dive into the wreckage that is the lives of two disparate…
Fans of jukebox musicals and Neil Diamond will be thrilled with the current production of “A Beautiful Noise” now playing at the Broadhurst Theatre. This production is packed with plenty of the superstar’s mega hits that will entice any audience member to start singing along, which happens a couple of times during the show at the invitation of Will Swenson…
Years after August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” was first produced on Broadway in 1990, Black playwrights have continued to grapple with this enduring question which defines the struggle between Bernice (an indomitable and passionate Danielle Brooks) and her brother Boy Willie (a broken but resilient John David Washington) in Wilson’s epic drama: “Is it possible to build one’s future without…