Richard Seff

Review: ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ at Second Stage Theatre in NYC

In the rush of incoming Broadway and off/Broadway productions mid-season, I somehow missed the 2nd Stage mounting of this original and quite remarkable new musical by a new trio of writers. Dear Evan...

Review: ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ at American Airlines Theatre in NYC

Eugene O’Neill’s masterwork shows up in London or on Broadway every other season or two, and with good cause. It remains a bravely probing look into a particular family, one which produced an American...

Review: ‘Waitress’ at The Brooks Atkinson Theatre in NYC

I’m sorry to have to report that Jessie Mueller, the appealing young lead in last season’s Beautiful, the Carole King Musical, has moved on to the role of Jenna in the musical adaptation of the film...

Review: ‘Fully Committed’ at The Lyceum Theatre in NYC

As I gleefully watched Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s brilliant tour de force performance in this one man telephone marathon called Fully Committed, I pictured him playing so many leading characters from...

Review: ‘American Psycho’ at The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in NYC

From what would seem to be the most unlikely source material, Duncan Sheik and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa have fashioned a dazzling and original musical theatre piece. The source is Bret Easton Ellis’...

Review: ‘In the Secret Sea’ at The Beckett Theatre in NYC

A company called Wellington Road, LLC has produced this 80-minute play by Cate Ryan at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row on 42nd Street, with a company of five featured players, under the direction...

Review: ‘The School for Scandal’ at The Lucille Lortel Theatre in NYC

I doubt if in 1777 Richard Brinsley Sheridan was giving much thought to whether or not his comedy of manners would have any relevance to New York audiences in 239 years. But here he is again, at the...

Review: ‘The Father’ at Manhattan Theatre Club in NYC

Floria Zeller, the French playwright might have called his play The Father In Winter, for The Lion in Winter was already taken. In this one act and 90-minute tragedy, adapted from the French by...

Review: ‘The Color Purple’ at The Bernard Jacobs Theatre in NYC

This revival of The Color Purple opened at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre on Broadway in December of 2015 but I wasn’t able to get to it until tonight, in the fourth month of its successful run. It had...

Review: ‘Daddy Long Legs’ at The Davenport Theatre in NYC

Jean Webster’s novel, on which Daddy Long Legs is based, was written in 1911 in a farmhouse in Massachusetts. and much of its New England common sense, dry humor, and old fashioned virtues have been...

Review: ‘The Crucible’ at The Walter Kerr Theatre in NYC

Arthur Miller’s 1953 play has been resurrected by Producer Scott Rudin and 20 cohorts in a production staged by Ivo Van Hove, who performed similar service to Miller’s A View From The Bridge earlier...

Review: ‘Bright Star’ at The Cort Theatre in NYC

If you insist on edge in your musicals, Bright Star is not for you. On the other hand, if you care to spend a couple of hours in the mid 1940s and the early 1920s in rural areas of North Carolina with...

Review: ‘She Loves Me’ at Studio 54 in NYC

I once heard the late director Moss Hart say that when a show is a great hit, there were omens that predicted its future. “For example,” he said, “when we were fine tuning My Fair Lady in Philadelphia...

Review: ‘DISASTER!’ at The Nederlander Theatre in NYC

If you’re in the mood for a visit with a shipload of fun loving actors, many of whom you’ve seen and enjoyed in shows like Guys and Dolls (Faith Prince), The Producers (Roger Bart), Rent (Adam...

Review: ‘Blackbird’ at the Belasco Theatre in NYC

Under Joe Mantello’s keen direction, Blackbird begins with a bang and ends with a cry in the night. In the 80 minutes that elapse between one and the other, his cast of two holds us tightly and never...

Review: ‘Eclipsed’ at the Golden Theatre in New York City

Danai Gurira, the author of this white hot very topical play about sexual slavery in Nigeria, has made a remarkable start to a major career as playwright and actor. Perhaps best known as star of the...

Review: ‘Hughie’ at The Booth Theatre in New York City

Jason Robards first played the central character in this Eugene O’Neill one-act mood piece; that was in 1964. That character isn’t “Hughie” — no, he’s gone to his reward just before first curtain. But...

Review: ‘The Humans’ at Roundabout Theatre at the Helen Hayes Theatre in New York City

“Suddenly there is God so quickly” is one of those gems in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, and it flashed into my mind as I watched Stephen Karam’s play, his first on Broadway. The...

Review: ‘Women Without Men’ at The Mint Theater Company in New York City

Playwright Hazel Ellis is not a name that comes readily to mind. Her play, currently running at City Center under the auspices of the Mint Theater Company, was first produced in her native Ireland by...

Review: ‘Prodigal Son’ at Manhattan Theatre Club

John Patrick Shanley is a prolific and gifted playwright who’s had a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony for his hugely successful play Doubt. He also wrote its screenplay and directed the film which was...

Reviews: ‘All the Way’ and ‘Ah, Wilderness!’ at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida

As a way of plugging in to the national conversation addressing issues of change in the United States, this highly regarded regional not-for-profit theatre has put several plays in to its current...

Nick Wyman: Character Actor in a Star Role as LBJ in ‘All the Way’

I talked with Nick Wyman only minutes after his performance as President Lyndon Johnson in All the Way at a matinee on February 13th. We met in the lobby of the stunning Asolo Repertory Theatre in...

Review: ‘Cabin in the Sky’ at Encores! at City Center in New York City

I’d seen the film, but never the musical on which it was based. The original, with a score by Vernon Duke and John LaTouche, opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway in 1940 and only managed a...

Review: ‘Our Mother’s Brief Affair’ at Manhattan Theatre Club at The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in NYC

Richard Greenberg’s new play is of the school from which the story “The Lady or the Tiger?” sprang. It has enigmatic hints of Harold Pinter in it as well, though Mr. Greenberg’s ear for his New York...

Review: ‘Noises Off’ at The Roundabout Theatre Company’s American Airlines Theatre

When you arrive at the American Airlines Theatre for a performance of Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off, along with your Playbill, you will also be given a program for Nothing On, which is the...

Review: ‘A View From the Bridge’ at The Lyceum Theatre in NYC

Arthur Miller, in this, the celebratory season of his 100th birthday, is having a banner year, with productions of his major and minor works popping up all over the place. From the first group we have...

Review: ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at The Broadway Theatre in NYC

I am so glad that Sheldon Harnick, the last surviving member of the creative team of the original production of Fiddler on the Roof, has been able to participate in this glorious revisical. His late...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2015 #11: New York’s Ten Best of 2015 by Richard Seff

It was an active year, heavily marked by new and revisited musicals. The attendance and box office numbers were good, both on and off Broadway. I, as the only writer covering New York theater for...

Richard Seff’s London Week: ‘Guys and Dolls,’ ‘Kinky Boots,’ ‘Twice Nightly’ and ‘Mr. Foote’s Other Leg’

Richard Seff recently flew over to London to see some shows and here’s what he thought: Guys And Dolls at the Savoy Theatre Guys and Dolls is or should be at the top of your list of favorite musicals....

‘School of Rock-The Musical’ at The Winter Garden Theatre in New York City

Full disclosure: I am not a rock ‘n roller, and think its music has little to offer what we’ve come to know as “musical theater.” Before you start cursing me out as an old codger let me tell you that...

‘Andréa Burns is On Her Feet!’: A Chat at The Marquis Theatre With Richard Seff

Andréa Burns. Note the accent over the e in the lady’s name. That puts the emphasis on its second syllable and indicates something latina in her background. And sure enough her mother Leda is a...

‘China Doll’ at The Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York City

In 1955, Johnny Mercer published these opening lines to a hit song of his: “When an irresistible force such as you meets an immovable object like me, something’s gotta give.” These words kept flashing...

‘Clever Little Lies’ at The Westside Theatre in New York City

Author Joe DiPietro has delivered a cozy little play that sits comfortably somewhere between situation comedy and family drama. It starts in a tennis club locker room as a brisk and brittle comedy in...

‘Dada Woof Papa Hot’ at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater

Peter Parnell has been writing plays, television scripts, books to musicals, and winning two Emmy Awards citations for his work as co–producer of The West Wing. I remember admiring his early play The...

‘Misery’ at The Broadhurst Theatre in New York City

The title is misleading. It leads one to think the play is going to be one long groan of sadness, and that’s not what unfolds for us in its ninety minutes of playing time. “Misery” is the name of the...

‘On Your Feet’ at The Marquis Theatre in New York City

On Your Feet joins its fellow juke box musicals Jersey Boys and Beautiful in the growing list of this new genre that delivers a full evening’s entertainment using pop hits of another era to tell a...

‘King Charles III’ at The Music Box Theatre in New York City

If you haven’t heard of Charles III of Britain, don’t berate yourself. He hasn’t happened yet, but playwright Mike Bartlett has conjured up what might happen if and when Queen Elizabeth leaves us...

A Talk with Michael Riedel on His Book ‘Razzle Dazzle’ by Richard Seff

Michael Riedel, the theatre columnist for the New York Post and the co-host of the long running PBS show Theater Talk, sat with me for an hour on November 2nd, to discuss his valuable and readable new...

‘Thérèse Raquin’ at Roundabout Theatre at Studio 54 in New York City

Young Therese Raquin is in terrible trouble. We realize this the moment the curtain rises revealing a small and desolate village on the Seine in the year 1868. The entrance of Therese, (Keira...

‘Sylvia’ at The Cort Theatre in New York City

AR Gurney is the rolling stone playwright that is certainly gathering no moss. As recently as August of this year I reviewed a new Gurney offering, Love and Money which deftly dealt with a matriarch’s...

‘Dames at Sea’ at The Helen Hayes Theatre in New York City

Way back in the dark ages (circa early 1930s) when musicals were musical comedies (if you don’t know what I mean, listen to “Musicals,” the showstopper in the light-hearted hit Something Rotten!), the...

‘Hamilton’ at The Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City

I was away in August when the musical Hamilton opened on Broadway so yesterday I caught up with it as it was about to enter its third month of sellout business at The Richard Rodgers Theatre. It is...

‘Ripcord’ at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City

David Lindsay-Abaire has an enviable record of success with a solid list of plays, and in many of them he has written rewarding roles for the actress Marylouise Burke. He’s done so again with Ripcord,...

‘The Gin Game’ at The John Golden Theatre in New York City

Donald L. Coburn was born in 1938 in Baltimore to parents who were divorced two years later. His early life was unexceptional; he graduated from high school in 1957, then served in the U.S. Navy until...

‘Rothschild & Sons’ at The York Theatre Company

Who doesn’t have great respect and admiration for the musical team of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick? Certainly no one who has seen and heard the great body of their work which includes She Loves Me,...

‘Travels with My Aunt’ at The Clurman Theatre in New York City

In 1969 Graham Greene published a light novel with this title, which was in the vein of earlier romps such as The Egg and I, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and most particularly – Auntie Mame – all of...

‘Fool For Love’ at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City

This play by Sam Shepard was first presented by Circle Rep in 1983; it was a great success for them with Ed Harris and Kathy Baker playing Eddie and May. It transferred from their home base to the...

‘Old Times’ at Roundabout Theatre at the American Airlines Theatre in New York City

Harold Pinter must be smiling down on 42nd Street where the Roundabout is currently presenting his Old Times at the American Airlines Theatre. For starters, that street would hardly seem an...

‘Spring Awakening’ at The Brooks Atkinson Theatre in NYC

Some time between 1890 and 1891 Frank Wedekind managed to complete a play in his native German, which contained all sorts of forbidden fruits. It dealt with adolescence, puberty, sexuality, rape,...

‘The New Morality’ at The Mint Theater Company in New York City

The Mint Theater, in a 100 seat space on the 3rd floor of an office building on West 43rd Street, has been fulfilling its mission of re-discovering forgotten gems from the past, and offering them at...