King Charles III, a filmed adaptation of the London production of Mike Bartlett’s Tony-nominated play, airs this Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. EDT as a one-off episode of PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre. The play was a success on the West End and on Broadway, with Timothy Pigott-Smith in the lead role. Here in DC, Robert Joy played the […]
Playwright Bekah Brunstetter: why NBC’s This Is Us is connecting with millions of fans
While women writers struggle for parity on American stages, television series have been hiring them. Six of the eleven writers on NBC’s hit night time drama This Is Us are women. Playwright Bekah Brunstetter, whose Oregon Trail was produced by Flying V in the first Women’s Voices Theater Festival, is writer/producer for the series that, if last week’s […]
Hairspray Live! Between commercials and cutaways, NBC proves they CAN stop the beat (review)
Now that we’re mired in Trump America, there’s unexpected profundity to the pop confection Hairspray Live!, the live TV version of the 2002 musical that aired Wednesday night on NBC. If Trump and his minions have their way, it’ll be the early 1960s all over again (the musical is set in 1962)—and we’ll have to fight […]
Grease Live Review: A New Genre of TV (but not Theater)
Grease Live was so smartly cast and so inventively staged — and so much communal fun — that it was easier to forgive the fact that it was still Grease, a dopey, dated, leather-deep show about the 1950’s manifestly inferior to such sharper, similarly-themed entertainments as Bye, Bye Birdie and American Graffiti. Danny Zuko (Aaron […]
Peter Pan Live!, did NBC delight the musical’s fans?
When The Sound of Music Live! aired on NBC last year, reactions were, you could say, mixed. And yet, despite the devil’s advocates, the optimists, the doomsdayers and naysayers, one thing was pretty consistently said: “YES. Please try again!” And so we’re back, one year later. This time the musical is Peter Pan, and the […]
Peter Pan Live! tonight on NBC – first look at Christopher Walken’s Hook
Last year, beyond anyone’s wildest expectations, NBC’s broadcast of The Sound of Music Live!, starring Carrie Underwood, managed to shatter ratings records and break the Internet in ways Kim Kardashian could only dream. (For my complete thoughts on both the broadcast and the social media firestorm, click here.)
Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love on PBS tonight
Composer and conductor Marvin Hamlisch is profiled in the newest episode of the PBS series American Masters. Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love premieres tonight, Friday, December 27, 2013, 9 -10:30 p.m. ET on PBS, with new interviews his family, Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, Woody Allen, John Lithgow, Lucie Arnaz, Ann-Margret, and many others.
Slings and Arrows: Season 3:06 “The Promised End”
“I could have done this all summer.” – Ellen “Me, too.” – Barbara There’s a boatload of quotes in this episode, about finality, theatre, art, redemption, transience, and all sorts of beautiful concepts, and I had a harder than usual time picking one. After all, this is it, the last time I do this! I […]
Slings and Arrows: Season 3:05 “All Blessed Secrets”
Geoffrey: “Lear loses everything…and it is only when he is all alone, naked in a storm, that he is able to find…” Oliver: “His dignity.” The thing about rock bottom is this…it’s always far below where you thought it was. Secrets are seeping out all over the place around the companies of King Lear and […]
Slings and Arrows: Season 3:04 “Every Inch a King”
“At the end of it all, you’ve got to have some spectacular cock-ups, because THEN, you’ll have stories…and you’ll have had a life.” – Cyril It’s a long way to rock-bottom, isn’t it?
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