Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams in Blackbird. Wednesday is, of course, a matinee day, so I saw two productions today and, as it worked out, they were two highly intense, intermissionless plays, which packed a lot of gut punch in roughly 90 minutes each. The one with considerable star power was David Harrower's Blackbird, making its Broadway debut although it is … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2016
Postcard from Broadway No. 5: Two searing, powerful plays
Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams in Blackbird. Wednesday is, of course, a matinee day, so I saw two productions today and, as it worked out, they were two highly intense, intermissionless plays, which packed a lot of gut punch in roughly 90 minutes each. The one with considerable star power was David Harrower's Blackbird, making its Broadway debut although it is technically … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway, No. 4: Semi-sort-of seeing ‘Hamilton’
Oh well, the odds of winning the Hamilton digital lottery are said to be 80,000 to 1, and — what a surprise — I did not win. But the next day, I ended up seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Hamilton performing anyway. OK, they weren't actually performing the show Hamilton, but they appeared at the 30th annual Easter Bonnet Competition, where they did a new number … [Read more...]
Terry Teachout: Bringing ‘Satchmo’ to life, as playwright and director
Terry Teachout, 60, the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, is also a biographer and opera librettist. Five years ago, he adapted his biography of jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong into a one-man play, Satchmo at the Waldorf. In May, he makes his professional directorial debut with the play at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach (it runs from May 13 to June 12). Hap … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway, No. 4: Semi-sort-of seeing ‘Hamilton’
Alex Brightman and cast in School of Rock. (Photo by Timmy Blupe) Oh well, the odds of winning the Hamilton digital lottery are said to be 80,000 to 1, and — what a surprise — I did not win. But the next day, I ended up seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Hamilton performing anyway. OK, they weren't actually performing the show Hamilton, but they appeared at the 30th … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway, No. 3: Guilty pleasures of ‘Psycho’ win out
Benjamin Walker in American Psycho. If you work at it, Sunday can be a two-show day, for me capped by the malevolent musical American Psycho, based on Bret Easton Ellis's icy novel of a 1980s Wall Street account executive and serial killer. Yes, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd came first in making multiple murders an apt topic for the musical stage, but unlikePsycho's … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway, No. 3: Guilty pleasures of ‘Psycho’ win out
Benjamin Walker in American Psycho. If you work at it, Sunday can be a two-show day, for me capped by the malevolent musical American Psycho, based on Bret Easton Ellis's icy novel of a 1980s Wall Street account executive and serial killer. Yes, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd came first in making multiple murders an apt topic for the musical stage, but unlike Psycho's Patrick … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway, No. 2: Great cast enlivens so-so ‘Waitress’
Keala Settle, Jessie Mueller and Kimiko Glenn in Waitress. (Photo by Joan Marcus) So I arrived in New York on an uneventful flight late on Saturday morning, and two and a half hours later I was sitting down to my first show — the penultimate preview of a new musical, Waitress, based on the 2007 film of the same name that starred Keri Russell as a diner waitress and pie-baking … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway, No. 2: Great cast enlivens so-so ‘Waitress’
Keala Settle, Jessie Mueller and Kimiko Glenn in Waitress. (Photo by Joan Marcus) So I arrived in New York on an uneventful flight late on Saturday morning, and two and a half hours later I was sitting down to my first show — the penultimate preview of a new musical, Waitress, based on the 2007 film of the same name that starred Keri Russell as a diner waitress and … [Read more...]
The fierce beauty of irezumi, at the Morikami
Forget the butterfly, the thorny vine and the heart with initials. Imagine a colorful bird with a fish’s tail, a snake’s neck, and a turtle’s shell expanding from the neck all the way to the ankles. That’s what you can expect to see now at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. Perseverance: Japanese Tattoo Tradition in a Modern World features photographs of full body … [Read more...]