Sparkling lead performances help make Bay Street Theater’s new Annie Get Your Gun a warm, nostalgic visit to an earlier era.Continue Reading
SONDHEIM, JASON ROBERT BROWN & CRITICS ON HAL PRINCE
Jeremy Gerard, Frank Rich and Jesse Green published valuable reminiscences of Hal Prince, the prolific and hugely successful and influential producer and director who died yesterday, at 91.
Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, 89, wrote of their collaboration in his 2011 book, Look, I Made a Hat:Continue Reading
BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: ‘MOULIN ROUGE’ REVIEW
Three decades after The Phantom first dropped his chandelier in New York and Jean Valjean took up pursuit here, along comes another Paris-based musical spectacle and prospective blockbuster.Continue Reading
MERCEDES RUEHL IN SAG HARBOR CAMPUS POWER PLAY: REVIEW
Alan Fox’s Safe Space at Bay Street Theater is a provocative exploration of academic freedom in our call-out culture — and a three-character cage match to control the narrative during a campus crisis.Continue Reading
‘THE PROM’ TO CLOSE ON AUGUST 11
The Prom, the $13.5 musical comedy that developed a cult following but not a mass audience since opening in November, will close on Aug. 11.Continue Reading
‘A STRANGE LOOP’ EXPANDS BOUNDARIES: REVIEW
Did he really just say that? And sing that?Continue Reading
THE DEVIL MADE THEM DO IT: ‘HADESTOWN’ RAISES PRICES
EXCLUSIVE: With investors to repay and resellers on the prowl, the producers of Hadestown increased ticket prices by as much as 47 percent, coinciding with the show’s best musical win at the Tony Awards on June 9.Continue Reading
DANIELLE BROOKS IN JOYOUS ‘MUCH ADO:’ REVIEW
Halfway through the first act of Shakespeare in the Park‘s Much Ado About Nothing, I found myself on Danielle Brooks’ lap.Continue Reading
INCLUSIVENESS AS BIG BOX OFFICE & OTHER TONY TAKEAWAYS
Hadestown’s strong sales and its Tony Award for Best Musical may advance the cause of female theater artists more effectively than any speech advocating for industry inclusiveness.
The inventive folk opera, which won eight awards at Radio City Music Hall Sunday night, is an all-but-guaranteed hit — and just the latest musical written in part or entirely by a woman to demonstrate staying power.
Of the dozen new musicals running on Broadway longer than a year, six have a female composer, lyricist or book writer. (They are Wicked, Waitress, Mean Girls, Frozen, Come From Away and Beautiful, the Carole King jukebox show.)Continue Reading
TOOTSIE’S INSIDER ADVANTAGE AT THE TONY AWARDS
EXCLUSIVE: In competitive Tony Awards contests, can producers who vote for their own shows have an outsized impact? Apparently.
I obtained a list of voters in the 2017-18 season — which I’m told is largely current — and cross-referenced it with names above the title of this year’s Best Musical nominees.
I counted 17 Tootsie producers and co-producers who were eligible to vote, 16 on Ain’t Too Proud, 12 on Hadestown and nine on The Prom. With just 831 voters, those margins aren’t negligible. Continue Reading
