Eight years ago, Twyla Tharp won the Tony Award for choreography, using the music of Billy Joel for her quirky, alternately graceful and clumsy leaps and lifts in a show called Movin’ Out. The Playbill program for it contained a three-paragraph synopsis of the plot -- something about couples drifting apart as the guys went off to the war in Vietnam and then eventually coming … [Read more...]
Bulletin from Broadway No. 5: ‘Sondheim’ and ‘A Behanding’
It is the rare New York season that does not see a production of an existing Stephen Sondheim musical, but the brilliant composer-lyricist has not had a new show on Broadway since 1994’s Passion. So those of us who remain in awe of his abilities to push the boundaries of the musical theater have had to content ourselves with revivals, such as the current A Little Night Music … [Read more...]
Bulletin from Broadway No. 4: ‘The Addams Family’
After another downpour Tuesday morning, the rains ended but it got even colder. Don’t the weather gods realize that it is almost May? Nor did I have much luck with theater. I can be fairly Pollyanna-ish when it comes to refusing to believe the prevailing opinion about a bad show until I see for myself. And since Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth and Kevin Chamberlin seem so perfectly … [Read more...]
Bulletin from Broadway No. 3: ‘The Temperamentals’
More rain Monday and still way too cold for the end of April. Since it was a Monday, most Broadway theaters were dark, but there is a complex of converted discount movie houses at West 50th Street that has a handful of auditoriums -- an off-Broadway multiplex, if you will -- and an engrossing new play by Jon Marans (Old Wicked Songs) called The Temperamentals, which turns out … [Read more...]
Bulletin from Broadway No. 2: ‘Enron’ and a Busch-Halston cabaret
Well, so much for the nice weather. I had another great day Sunday in all respects except meteorologically. It rained most of this gray, dreary day and even when the rains halted briefly, it was cold and raw. Fortunately, I had excuses to stay inside for most the time. I went to a matinee of Enron, Lucy Prebble’s epically theatricalized chronicle of the Houston energy company … [Read more...]
Bulletin from Broadway No. 1: ‘Red,’ ‘Promises, Promises’
Oh, the sacrifices I make for you, my readers. I am currently in New York City, enduring a week of theater, to fill you in on the season here, either as a guide for your future visits to Broadway or to whet your appetites for potential touring editions to South Florida. Or, OK, just because I craved an immersion into good theater for my own sake. So I will be seeing 10 shows … [Read more...]
From Firebird, a peerless night of J.S. Bach
On the one hand, it's no mystery why the Brandenburg Concertos of J.S. Bach should be so rarely played in local concerts. Engaging as they are, canonical and popular as they unquestionably are, they are also very difficult. And in some ways, that only deepens the mystery: If you're an ambitious instrumental musician or conductor, why not spend some time learning or … [Read more...]
Tommy Tune takes audience on easygoing shuffle through his career
Bigger, or at least taller, than life, 6-foot-6-inch Tommy Tune made a one-night stop on the Kravis Center Dreyfoos Hall stage Tuesday evening with an amiable shuffle-ball-change through his career, appropriately titled Steps in Time. The nine-time Tony Award-winning director-choreographer-performer celebrated his 50th year in show business in 2009, which was excuse enough … [Read more...]