Here is a look at a handful of shows from Broadway’s spring season, in a run-up to the Tony Awards, which will be broadcast June 8. Real Women Have Curves: Although based on Josefina Lopez’s 1990 play and the subsequent HBO movie starring America Ferrera from 2002, the newly arrived musical, Real Women Have Curves, seems extremely timely in the current days of … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 6: ‘Real Women’ is an upbeat paean to empowerment
On my last full day in New York, I ended my theatergoing splurge with another new musical, Real Women Have Curves, based on the 2002 movie that introduced America Ferrera to the world. The musical tells of an East L.A. dress factory peopled mainly by undocumented Latina immigrants, in constant threat of deportation. And like in the movie, they get an order for 200 dresses to … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway, No. 5: ‘Purpose’ explores dysfunctional family dynamic
There are no matinees in New York on Fridays, but this Friday there was a public orchestra rehearsal with singers of that cult favorite Stephen Schwartz musical from 1972, Pippin, at the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Featured were three A-listers from the recent revival — Terrence Mann, Charlotte d’Amboise and Andrea Martin. Only in New York, as they … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 4: ‘Boop!’ a delightful throwback, led by a rising star
Do you remember the Max Fleischer hand-drawn black-and-white animated shorts from the 1930s? Director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell is hoping you do and are interested in his new musical, Boop!, centered on that spit-curled spitfire kewpie doll, Betty Boop. Besides harkening back to a Depression-era cartoon celebrity, Boop! takes us back to the days when musicals … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 3: ‘Dead Outlaw’ is weirdly compelling, ‘Smash’ is a wreck
After yesterday’s superlative Gypsy, tonight I saw another show that ranks as a superlative — the most peculiar musical I’ve ever seen — Dead Outlaw. It’s based on an allegedly true story of Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw and murderer who was himself killed and mummified before changing several hands and eventually being buried 68 years later. And yes, it’s a musical, composed by … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 2: Audra, the greatest Rose I’ve ever seen
Our first night in New York, we saw what is likely to be the high point of our trip — Audra McDonald in the latest revival of Gypsy. It is a show I have seen countless times, including with such Mama Roses as Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters, and none of them has come close to the dramatic impact of McDonald’s performance. Let me gush further. In my … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 1: Sussing out the Tony buzz
I fly out to New York tomorrow to check out the latest Broadway shows in a busy spring before the Tony Awards deadline. My week begins with the latest revival of Gypsy, starring Audra McDonald, said to be the front runner for her seventh Tony, which would break her own record. Next is a new musical based on Smash, the TV series about the making of a Marilyn Monroe … [Read more...]
In Boca Stage’s ‘Dry Powder,’ greed is not just good, it’s all there is
With most of our 401(k)s and stock portfolios hemorrhaging money and the economy apparently heading for a recession, you might think that Sarah Burgess’s dark-toned Dry Powder, a financial comedy, was written yesterday instead of 2016. Set mainly in the upscale offices of a New York capital management firm, amid the jargon-spewing and back-stabbing of its rival … [Read more...]
Maltz’s Island Theatre wraps season with searing ‘Virginia Woolf’
Deserving of a Pulitzer Prize, yet denied one when the jury’s recommendation was overruled because of the occasional, but entirely appropriate, profanity in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee’s marathon three-act, three-hour look at marriage and the illusions we cling to in our daily lives. First performed in 1962, and adapted into an Oscar-winning film four years … [Read more...]
‘Les Miz,’ even in anniversary revamp, an epic you don’t want to miss
Forty years ago, the Royal Shakespeare Company had the audacity to create a musical out of Victor Hugo’s classic 1,200-page novel, Les Misérables. It did not take long for the show to become a commercial success in London’s West End and on Broadway. In fact, it is currently the sixth-longest running show in Broadway history, having logged 6,680 performances of its original … [Read more...]