Still Life, by Sam Tufnell. By Lucy Lazarony Everything about Lit — well, lights up. From playful neon lights, big bold works with bright bold words, to art created on Plexiglas and illuminated with LED lights, art made from packaging tape on acrylic panels, and art with motion detectors that changes colors when a viewer steps into view. The exhibition showcasing the unique … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 9: ‘Crucible’ still works, despite directorial mangling
Sophie Okonedo and Ben Whishaw in The Crucible. And so the week in New York ended with the 12th production, a love-it-or-hate-it revival of Arthur Miller’s historical epic, The Crucible, deconstructed by Dutch director Ivo van Hove. As you probably recall from studying the 1953 play in high school, Miller’s view of history is two-pronged. On the literal level, he is … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 8: Harrowing ‘The Father,’ sprawling ‘Shuffle Along’
The cast of Shuffle Along performs “Broadway Blues.” (Photo by Julieta Cervantes) My New York trip is starting to wind down. Saturday, was my last two-show day, beginning with the dramatic immersion into the world of dementia, The Father, by French playwright Florian Zeller. In the evening I saw a new musical based on a 1921 show called Shuffle Along. But this was no mere … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 7: Earnest ‘Tuck Everlasting’ falls a little short
Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Sarah Charles Lewis in Tuck Everlasting. (Photo by Joan Marcus) Before tonight's show, a new musical called Tuck Everlasting, I caught a little culture at the Museum of the City of New York. In addition to an artifact-rich exhibit on the Yiddish Theater and its influences on Broadway, the 5th Avenue treasure trove is currently featuring a retrospective … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway, No. 6: Newsmaker interviews, disarming ‘Bright Star’
With only one show on my schedule today, I could have relaxed, but this is New York City, where so many artists, writers and producers of shows on tour, heading to South Florida, reside. So I arranged to interview a couple of them today, to bank them stories for when the shows arrive at home. This afternoon, for instance, I met with Doug McGrath, screenwriter (Bullets Over … [Read more...]
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’
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 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. 1: 12 shows, 13 if I’m lucky
Another year, another spring trip to Broadway, timed to coincide with the annual Easter Bonnet Competition, which in turn is timed to coincide with the end of the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fund-raising period which, not coincidentally, occurs just before the season’s Tony Awards deadline. The Bonnet Competition — about which I will talk more in a few days — is a snarky … [Read more...]