Twenty years ago, the writer David Ives arrived on the New York theatre scene with a bang when his evening of short comic plays opened off Broadway, where they remained for some 600 plus performances. Since then, he has adapted 32 musical books for the City Center Encores! series, and his original full length play […]
Brad’s pick for Grammy Winner – Best Musical Theater Album
Next Sunday, February 10th, is the big night for the recording industry. The Grammy’s, which are, to that industry, what the Tonys are for Broadway, Oscars for movies and Emmys for television. This year, awards will be given out in no fewer than 81 categories.
Nice Work If You Can Get It (revisited)
This musical pastiche, put together with bits and pieces of a dozen old musical comedies, opened 9 months ago at the Imperial on Broadway, and it’s very much still there, doing business that defies the mostly negative reviews that first greeted it.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
It was interesting to see William Inge’s Picnic and Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on successive nights. Both first arrived on Broadway in the mid-fifties, both received the Pulitzer Prize, were great hits on stage and later on film. Both have major female characters at the center, each with unsatisfied yearnings. Both […]
Picnic
William Inge is one of those mid-20th century American playwrights who started late (he was 30 when his first play, Come Back, Little Sheba arrived on Broadway). It was a success, and ultimately was turned into a movie starring the same Shirley Booth who, after twenty years as a supporting player, became a genuine star […]
Old Jews Telling Jokes
As we approach the fiscal cliff (by the time you read this, we might be over the edge), as we battle the sleet and the hail and the snow and the rain, there is one oasis that puts all that unimportant stuff out of mind, and it’s in a little theatre on West 43rd Street […]
Golden Age
Every now and then Terrence McNally, one of America’s prized and prolific playwrights, having been off the boards for a season or two, sits down to write a play that isn’t about very much, sort of an exercise by which he keeps his typing fingers nimble.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Edward Albee’s master work has always been treated with great reverence, and is always talked about in hushed tones, indicating it is profound and probing in ways that few other domestic dramas have been. There’s no question it’s a corking good story, and it holds our interest for the full three hours it takes to […]
Exit the King, Chasing Manet and 33 Variations
Eugene Ionesco died in 1994, and left us the progeny of his Theatre of the Absurd in which he was a pioneer. He wrote some 28 plays, and is best remembered for The Bald Soprano, The Lesson, The Chairs and Rhinoceros. His ode to dying, Exit the King, played 47 performances on Broadway
Cruising with Chita, Early to Bed and Happiness
Two days after debarking from Celebrity Cruise’s SS Solstice in Ft. Lauderdale and flying back to NYC, I came down with the worst cold of my life and here I am, nine days later, still coughing and wheezing to beat the band.
Hedda Gabler, This Beautiful City, Music in the Air
Mary Louise Parker is one of those luminous ladies who will have allure on a stage as long as she agrees to set foot on one. Movie cameras are not so friendly, and the radiant Ms. Parker has thus far graced many more small screens than large ones. Embroiled for the past few seasons in […]
Billy Elliot, August: Osage County, The Third Story
Billy Elliot, August: Osage County and The Third Story by Richard Seff Here we are into February and I’m just catching up on two of last year’s big winners. I’d seen Billy Elliot in London last April, but saved the New York production until it properly settled in for its long run on Broadway. I […]
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