Unlike its recent seasons, Boca Stage has no Neil Simon plays in its current line-up. But with America’s Sexiest Couple, boy, does it come close. Its playwright, Ken Levine, is no stranger to sitcoms, having spent much of his career writing episodes of M*A*S*H, Cheers and Frasier. Still, this Levine stage comedy will bring to mind a couple of Simon classics --– Plaza Suite … [Read more...]
‘What’s Best for the Children’: Sharp topical comedy premieres at FAU Theatre Lab
Educating our youngsters --- deciding what and what not to teach them --- is a very serious matter. But apparently that news never made its way to playwright Idris Goodwin. For he has taken the subject of education in America today and turned it on its ear, examining the matter from an absurdist perspective in a jaunty little comedy called What’s Best for the Children, now … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 4: ‘The Notebook’ proves emotionally stirring
The weather turned cold in Manhattan today, but the passions boiled over in the musical version of The Notebook, based on Nicholas Sparks' rabidly popular novel and the subsequent cult favorite movie. As you probably recall, the movie divided the central lover roles in two ---- young romantics, Allie and Noah --- and their older selves, a woman who had drifted into dementia and … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 3: Gripping ‘Mary Jane’ from McAdams
After a lunch with some distant cousins of my wife's, we headed to the Broadway Theatre (the only Broadway theater actually on Broadway) to see one of the final previews of a musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Because it hasn't officially opened yet, my critical comments are embargoed, but suffice it to say the production brings to mind F. Scott Fitzgerald's much … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 2: ‘Elephants’ is a big winner
I arrived in a bracingly chilly New York this afternoon after an uneventful flight — always a plus. My first show of the trip was a solid winner, an unlikely stage musical version of Water for Elephants, based on the cult favorite 2006 novel by Sara Gruen and the subsequent 2011 movie version. I call it unlikely because a crucial character is a huge pachyderm named Rosie, … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 1: Off to New York
Tomorrow I fly to New York to sample the Broadway season, which accelerated in April just before the Tony Awards deadline. I'll be seeing eight shows in six days, including new musicals based on bast-selling novels that became popular movies and now stage shows. Among them are The Notebook, The Great Gatsby … [Read more...]
Strong performances in Wick’s ‘Buddy’ hampered by show’s weak script
In 1989, long before the onslaught of singer-songwriter biographical musicals — of Frankie Valli, Carole King, Tina Turner, Neil Diamond, to name a few — hit Broadway, a show about bespectacled, 1950s rock ‘n’ roller Buddy Holly was created in England, where it ran an unfathomable 14 years. A year later it crossed the pond, as they say, and lasted a more modest six months … [Read more...]
World premiere ‘What’s Best for the Children’ aims for laughs before message
When Idris Goodwin was commissioned by the Boulder (Colo.) Ensemble Theatre, he was drawn to writing about the challenge of education today, but he had no idea what shape the script would take. Eventually titled What’s Best for the Children, the play grew out of a performance piece he had written years earlier after reading an article about Texas and the power that state has … [Read more...]
‘Hamilton’ just as dazzling as original with national tour cast at Kravis
For the past 10 years, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop history lesson Hamilton has been enthralling audiences on Broadway, on tour and in productions around the world. So it is probably old news that it is a brilliantly original breakthrough work of musical theater. That it is, but by now the question on potential ticket buyers’ minds has shifted to the quality of the road show … [Read more...]
Cast members agree: There’s nothing like ‘Hamilton’
Playing immigrant founding father Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary, in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical phenomenon can be challenge enough. “First of all, ‘Hamilton’ has the most words of any musical ever. And the character himself says the most words ever said on the American stage,” according to Blaine Krauss, who will be playing the role … [Read more...]