Tammy Faye, the musical biography of the infamous, free-spending televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, with a score by Elton John, was touted to be one of the Broadway season’s big hits. But yesterday afternoon, just hours before I saw the show, it unexpectedly posted its closing notice, surely reflecting weak advance sales. Tammy Faye opened Thursday and will close on December 8, … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 5: Culture break for retrospectives of two dance giants
Monday means that Broadway is dark, but I can still get some arts culture. This morning I went to the Whitney Museum to see Edges of Ailey, the first major show devoted to modern dance giant Alvin Ailey. Videos, artifacts and paintings by contemporary African-American artists. First-rate. In the afternoon, I went to the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center where the … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 4: Mary Todd Lincoln, played for (some) laughs
If these distressing times cry out for something silly to laugh at, an elfin young man named Cole Escola has emerged to deliver it with Oh, Mary. He wrote the 80-minute romp and stars as Mary Todd Lincoln, in a bouncy hoop skirt and ringlets wig. A spiritual descendant of Charles Ludlum and his Ridiculous Theater, Oh, Mary is too silly for my taste, but that is clearly a … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 3: New leads make for a scorching ‘Cabaret’ revival
“Immersive” and “environmental” are the hot buzzwords on Broadway these days, nowhere more evident at Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. The August Wilson Theatre has been gutted and transformed into the tawdry nightclub of Weimar Berlin, the site of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s landmark musical, which has grown edgier and more topical over the years. While their Chicago is … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 2: ‘Maybe Happy Ending’ a refreshing change from usual musical bombast
Putting quality aside for the moment, you have to concede that Broadway musicals have been distressingly unoriginal of late, being largely uninspired rehashes of movies and biographies of music icons. So it was eye-opening to encounter Maybe Happy Ending, a truly novel tale of romance between a pair of robots that originated in South Korea, of all places. Part rom-com and … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 1: Hello, Louis: An exceptional Armstrong from Iglehart
I'm up in New York this week to attend the bat mitzvah of a cousin, Emma. So while I'm here, I'll see six shows in seven days. I began last night with A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, a biographical show about the trumpet-playing "king of jazz." The best thing about it is James Monroe Iglehart, an enormously appealing performer who is probably damaging … [Read more...]
Powerful ‘Last Yiddish Speaker’ mixes Jewish identity, American dystopia
In 1989, Florida Stage introduced us to fledgling playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer and her humorous yet thought-provoking saga of assimilation, The Last Schwartz. Since then, she has produced two handfuls of scripts in South Florida, as well as theaters across the country and around the globe. With her latest effort, The Last Yiddish Speaker, she returns to the theme of Jewish … [Read more...]
‘Pillowman’ launches Zoetic Stage season with acting brilliance
At the root of all good theater is simple oral storytelling. So it goes in The Pillowman, a series of short stories from the fertile, feral brain of Ireland’s Martin McDonagh, directed by Miami’s Zoetic Stage artistic honcho Stuart Maltzer with a cast of four worthy accomplices. Unlike his usual darkly comic folk yarns set in remote rural villages of his native land … [Read more...]
First-class ‘Lost in Yonkers’ at Dramaworks sees star turn for actress’s Bella
As word association goes, if I said “Neil Simon,” chances are you would respond “comedy.” After all, there has been no more commercially successful purveyor of comedies in American history. Yet some of his best plays came in the latter half of his career when Simon learned to hold back on punch lines and wade into deeper, more heartfelt, dramatic waters. … [Read more...]
‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ adaptation unconvincing, despite strong Kravis cast
These days, if a family-friendly film gains popularity, chances are good that it will make the leap to the musical stage. And whether or not that transfer was deemed worthy, there are so many performing arts centers around the nation in need of product, the show will probably be sent on tour. That explains the arrival at the Kravis Center this week of Mrs. Doubtfire, a so-so … [Read more...]