Twenty years ago, the movie dynamo Disney Studios tried its hand at a Broadway musical with Beauty and the Beast, a stage clone of its Oscar-winning animated film. The show was rudimentary at best, not much more than a theme park diversion, but audiences ate it up and the show ran for 13 years. Since then, Disney has been a major producer of theater product, ranging from such … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 6: ‘Bridges of Madison County,’ ‘If/Then’
What are you doing next Wednesday, April 30? Take some time that day and lift a glass to lyricist Sheldon Harnick with a toast of “L’chaim,” for he turns 90 that day. Yesterday morning, I spent some time with Harnick in his Central Park West apartment, interviewing him about his career, pegged to his milestone birthday and the release of a new double-CD retrospective album, … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 5: ‘Bullets Over Broadway’ fizzles
One reason I usually come to New York this week each year is that it marks the deadline for Tony Award eligibility, and many shows open at the last opportunity, like doing homework in home room just before it is due. But the main reason is to catch The Easter Bonnet Competition, a two-day event that marks the end of the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraising season. To … [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...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 3: A little Easter, and ‘Heathers’
“Does anyone still wear a hat?” asked Elaine Stritch derisively in her legendary performance in 1970’s Company. I can now categorically answer “Yes,” having spent some time on Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday, when the swells and swell-wannabes strolled the street, open only to pedestrians for much of the day. But my chapeau-spying was brief, for my wife and I — both certified … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 2: ‘Act One’ and ‘A Gentleman’s Guide’
A few days before I arrived in New York, it snowed here, as most residents are eager to point out, as they enjoyed today's bright, sunny, 65-degree spring day. I naturally celebrated the great weather by burrowing indoors to take in two shows. In the afternoon, it was Act One, James Lapine's epic adaptation of writer-director Moss Hart's 1959 autobiography of escape from the … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 1: Eight days, 12 shows, and 42 degrees
I’m up in New York, where the temperature when my plane landed was a brisk 42 degrees, up considerably from the previous few days. Good thing I brought my winter coat. Over the next eight days, I'll be seeing 12 shows. That means I’ll be in the theater whenever there is a performance, including a rare Tuesday matinee of that perennial favorite, the Easter Bonnet Competition. … [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...]
Postcard from New York No. 7: ‘Assembled Parties,’ ‘Pippin’
My time in New York is coming to a close, but fortunately I saw two first-rate shows today that have Tony Award written all over them. The likely winner for Best Play is The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg (previously best-known for Take Me Out), who stubbed his toe earlier this season with the short-lived new adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Assembled Parties, by … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York No. 6: ‘The Nance’
If Wednesday was a dessert day where all I had to do was watch two splashy musicals, Thursday I had to do actual work. I ran around the city doing four different interviews about shows coming to the Kravis Center next season. First it was downtown to talk to Hal Luftig, producer of the Evita revival that is on the Kravis on Broadway schedule next year, then back up to the … [Read more...]