I had a busy day yesterday, seeing two shows and doing two interviews. Finally feel like I'm up to speed with the pace of the city. First stop was lunch with multiple Tony Award-winning director Jack O'Brien (Hairspray, The Coast of Utopia, Henry IV) at a reliable and convenient theater district joint, Angus McIndoe's. He's very smart and articulate, has lots of projects in … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York No. 3: ‘Newsies’ has legs
Being the conscientious reviewer that I am, I spent Monday morning watching the 1992 movie Newsies, in preparation for seeing the much-touted stage version Monday night. Having revitalized its core business of animated features with such Alan Menken musicals as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, Disney tried a live-action musical 20 years ago with this fact-based … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York No. 2: ‘City Club’ and ‘The Columnist’
Saturday, the day I arrived, was sunny and slightly brisk. Sunday was continuous rain and much colder. The theater also was inclement. Few Broadway shows perform on Sunday night, so I headed off-Broadway to the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village, where a new musical called The City Club had its final preview prior to opening Monday evening. With so many shows opening … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York No. 1: A Saturday doubleheader
I am up in New York for a week to take a bite of the Broadway season, 12 shows in nine days. Ah, the sacrifices I make for the sake of my readers. By most accounts, it is a dismal year for musicals, with lots of screen-to-stage transfers, but little inspiration in the bunch and certainly no Book of Mormon -- still the hottest ticket in town a year later -- among them. We'll … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 7: Boca team backs sharp ‘Born Yesterday’
This afternoon I got to see the handiwork of those three young chargers from Boca Raton -- Philip Morgaman (27 years old), Frankie J. Grande (28) and Brian Kapetanis (28) -- the lead producers of the new revival of Born Yesterday that opened last Sunday night to very favorable reviews. That was the opening I missed taking a three-hop flight to New York by way of Detroit. It … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 6: War is hell, but ‘War Horse’ is terrific
Avenue Q arrived on Broadway some eight years ago with its snarky, often off-color humor to claim that puppet shows are not necessarily mere kids’ stuff. That heretical suggestion has now been confirmed forever by the emotionally charged War Horse, an epic tale of a young man and his trusty steed, set against the horrors of World War I. A transfer from the National Theatre of … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 5: ‘Mormon’ is best musical of the season
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been freaking out television’s Standards and Practices folks (a/k/a censors) for almost 15 years with their purposely profane animated series South Park, so it should come as no surprise that their first Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon, will never get any awards for good taste. They should, however, clear off their mantelpieces for the … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 4: Astonishing Rylance, lame ‘Picture’
Mark Rylance may just be the best actor working in the theater today. You might agree if you saw Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, a powerful, but somewhat overwritten three-hour marathon drama about an iconoclastic former daredevil stunt rider and occasional drug dealer who rails against the world. Rylance originated the role of Johnny “Rooster” Byron at the Royal Court Theatre … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 3: Three Boca producers, and struggling with Stoppard
Tuesday was an even better weather day in New York, with the temperature climbing into the 80s, and locals shedding their clothes like it was the second coming of summer. My dance card was busy with interviews and, in the evening, a much-anticipated viewing of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. But first, always in search of a Florida angle on the Broadway season, I met and spoke with … [Read more...]
Broadway Postcard No. 2: Timely reminders of the AIDS epidemic
The sun came out Monday in New York, a lovely crisp, cool day, but I spent most of it inside, thinking about AIDS. I spent the evening at one of the final previews of the revival of Larry Kramer’s impassioned, angry, autobiographical The Normal Heart, written in 1985, when the syndrome was a death sentence. Little factual was known about its cause or containment, let alone a … [Read more...]