Palm Beach Dramaworks takes its motto, “Theater to think about,” seriously, as seen in its current mainstage production, The History Boys. But it also likes to slip in some entertaining education in its ancillary programs, like Dramalogue, a series of live interviews, lectures and roundtable discussions that introduces the audience to some of the behind-the-scene artists who … [Read more...]
Broadway veteran Reams bows in ‘Dolly!”’ –- with a twist
Last season, Lee Roy Reams was a sensation at Boca Raton’s Wick Theatre, playing drag queen Zaza in La Cage aux Folles. So it was probably inevitable that managing executive producer Marilynn Wick would say to him, “I’ve got to have you back next year. What do you want to do?” Reams said, “I want to do ‘Hello, Dolly!,’” a show that he had directed numerous times before. … [Read more...]
Broadway reviews, continued: ‘Finding Neverland,’ ‘It Shoulda Been You,’ ‘Wolf Hall’
With the same umbrage that it greeted the arrival of the Disney machine two decades ago, the theater community has turned a cold shoulder to Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who has muscled his way onto Broadway with Finding Neverland, a musical adaptation of his 2004 film. The show received absolutely no Tony nominations, but audiences are flocking anyway to this mawkish … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 9: “Hand to God”
Hand to God, the wickedly irreverent new comedy by Robert Askins, will likely not win the Tony Award for best play (though I do think it will be nominated). But if there were a category for best advertising campaign, it would win “hands” down. You see, in most of the Playbills for other shows, Hand to God has an ad specifically commenting on that show. For instance, in the … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 2: ‘Finding Neverland’
Arrived in New York on Saturday, to gorgeous, crisp, sunny weather. But Sunday turned downright cold and rain is expected today. Sunday evening I saw Finding Neverland, the new musical based on the 2004 movie that starred Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, and Kate Winslet as the widow whose four kids inspired the timeless fable of the boy who never grew up. … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway, No. 1: A stopover in D.C. for ‘The Originalist’
Like Neil Simon's alter ego, Eugene Morris Jerome, I am Broadway-bound, with 11 shows lined up to see in nine days. I arrive today and will soon be in a theater, seeing the musical adaptation of Boris Pasternak's great Dr. Zhivago. (Fill in your own punch line.) But before New York, I spent a week in my hometown of Washington, D.C. While there, I went to Arena Stage, the … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 4: Theaters dark, but Legos illuminating
Mondays are even harder to find a show to see than Sunday nights. In fact, with most of the city’s museums closed, it was shaping up as a day without art. Until... After breakfast, I was walking the streets around Times Square when I spied a poster for the Discovery Museum and “the world's largest display of Lego art.” It seems there is a guy named Nathan Sawaya, a lapsed … [Read more...]
Broadway’s Brian Stokes Mitchell does Jupiter
A decade ago, Tony Award-winning performer Brian Stokes Mitchell was asked to help out The Actors Fund, the national social service provider to theater professionals. Fast forward ten years and now he is chairman of the fund’s board of directors. So he is busy raising money for the fund with a series of five benefit concerts at major regional theaters across the nation. That … [Read more...]
A look at Broadway’s best, and our fearless Tony predictions
On the eve of the 67th annual Tony Awards, recognizing the season’s bests, here are reviews of some of the season’s standout productions: Matilda: If there were an award for best British import with highest level of hype, this engaging, but often unintelligible musical from the Royal Shakespeare Company would win hands down. It did win London’s Olivier Award and looks poised … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York No. 8: ‘The Memory Show’
Most theatergoers recoiled when they heard that someone had written a musical about a woman with bipolar disorder, but Next to Normal won the Pulitzer Prize and ran almost two years on Broadway, spawning regional productions all over the country. Now the idea of such a show seems, well, almost normal. Still, are audiences ready for a musical about a woman facing the brick wall … [Read more...]