New York

Review: ‘Yours Unfaithfully’ at the Mint Theater Company

I regret to say that until I saw Mint Theater Company’s production of Miles Malleson’s comedy Yours Unfaithfully, I wasn’t aware of the author, hadn’t heard of him. A great lack on my part, because as...

Review: ‘Broadway Up Close: Vanessa Williams’ at the Kimmel Center

Continuing the exciting season of Broadway Up Close concerts on Saturday at the Kimmel Center, Seth Rudetsky hosted Broadway and recording star Vanessa Williams for an evening of her career highlights...

Review: ‘Jitney’ at Manhattan Theatre Club at The Samuel J Friedman Theatre

A remarkable new production of August Wilson’s play Jitney is now available to us all, thanks to the Manhattan Theatre Club, which has staged it on Broadway as the last of the Wilson 10 play cycle to...

Review: ‘The Full Monty’ at the John W. Engeman Theater at Northport

The John W. Engeman Theater at Northport rarely disappoints, and true to form their newest production, The Full Monty, is remarkably well done. This ten-time Tony nominee has a book written by...

Review: ‘Show Boat’ at Toby’s The Dinner Theatre of Columbia

Can’t help lovin’ that Show Boat at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Modern audiences are still likely to find the miscegenation drama that sets the story in motion more dramatically engaging than much of what...

Review: ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre and Children’s Theatre

“It is a glorious thing, to be a Pirate King” …but it is a far more glorious thing to spend a night at the Way off Broadway Dinner Theatre in Frederick, Maryland, seeing the first show of their 2017...

Review: ‘Legally Blonde The Musical JR’ at Bravo Productions

Legally Blonde The Musical JR, based on the 2001 hit film starring Reese Witherspoon about a sorority girl who goes to Harvard Law in order to get her boyfriend back, and the 2007 Broadway production...

Review #1: ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade: 75 Years of Streisand’ at The American Pops

Streisand came to DC for a quick pre-inauguration visit. Well almost, but not quite. Well, maybe my first sentence is a little bit of a “fake news” headline. I am writing about a blissful, musically...

Review: ‘Recent Tragic Events’ at St. Mark’s Players

The American theater has generated some great plays prompted by the tragic events of 9/11. I remember vividly Neil LaBute’s powerful 2002 drama The Mercy Seat, in a production LaBute directed...

Review: ‘Saloon’ at the Merriam Theater

Montreal’s Cirque Éloize explodes on stage at the Merriam Theater with a two-day run of its touring production of Saloon, presented collaboratively by the Kimmel Center and the Shubert Organization...

Review: ‘Mamma Mia!’ at Hippodrome Theatre

Countering the brisk winter temperatures outside, Tony-nominated Broadway jukebox musical sensation Mamma Mia! unleashed flash bolts of pulsating heat with bold bright lights, zesty dance numbers and...

Review: ‘The Present’ at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre

In the beginning there was a play by Anton Chekov that was simply called “a long play without a title”. He’d written a first draft of it in 1878, later called it Fatherlessness. He gave it to his...

Review: ‘The Complete History of America (abridged)’ at Vagabond Players

History can best be summed up at times with satire. Do we really want to know every detail about events past, no matter how trivial? Humor can go a long way to helping us, as Americans, laugh at...

Review: ‘Holden’ at New Ohio Theatre

The current remount of George & Co.’s critically-acclaimed Holden, first developed in New Ohio Theatre’s 2015 Ice Factory Festival, is as relevant and unnerving now as it was then, in a country long...

Review: ‘Off the Top’ at The Huron Club at SoHo Playhouse

Who would have thought that a fact-filled illustrated lecture on neuroscience could form the basis of a popular and critically-acclaimed Fringe show? Or that rap music could hold appeal for...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #11: Best Performances and Ensembles in Plays and Musicals in Philadelphia, New York, Delaware, and New Jersey

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #11: Best Performances and Ensembles in Plays and Musicals in Philadelphia, New York, Delaware, and New Jersey Are: Caroline Aaron as Ruth Zweigman in All the Days at...

Review: ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder’ at The Hippodrome Theatre

From time to time in the mock-Edwardian musical farce A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder you may be reminded of the inspired antics of an old “Carol Burnett Show.” When actor John Rapson cavorts on...

Review: ‘Mamma Mia!’ The Farewell Tour at the Merriam Theatre

With shows like Green Day’s American Idiot and Carole King’s Beautiful, musicals based off of pop hits have become more popular in recent years. However, there is one show that is the mother of...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #6: Best Plays in Professional Theaters in Philadelphia, New York, Delaware, and New Jersey

Here are the DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s honorees for Best Plays in Professional Theaters in 2016 in Philadelphia, NYC, New Jersey, and Delaware. Congrats to all our honorees! A Moon for the...

Review: ‘Ride the Cyclone’ at The Lucille Lortel Theatre

In 1964 Bob Dylan wrote that ‘the times they are a-changin’, and he might just as well have been referring to the musical theatre in America as he was to the war in Vietnam. Ever since Galt McDermott...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #4: Best Plays in Professional Theaters in DC/MD/VA

Here are the DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s honorees for Best Plays in Professional Theaters in 2016. Congrats to all our honorees! A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas at Olney Theatre Center. A...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #3: Best Musicals in Professional Theaters in Philadelphia, New York, Delaware, and New Jersey

BEST MUSICALS IN PROFESSIONAL THEATRES IN PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, AND DELAWARE: A Bronx Tale at The Longacre Theatre. A Christmas Story: The Musical at The Media Theatre. A Taste of Things...

‘Wilde Tales’: An Interview with Director Jeremy Bloom, on the Quintessence Production

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), famous and controversial Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet, also authored thought provoking fairy stories for children that appeared in various magazines. Married...

Review: ‘Broadway Up Close: Matthew Morrison’ at the Kimmel Center

Beginning a new season of Broadway Up Close concerts on Saturday at the The Kimmel Center, Seth Rudetsky hosted Broadway leading man and television’s favorite choir teacher, Matthew Morrison, for an...

Review: The Twelve Dancing Princesses’ at Camden Repertory Theatre

The Twelve Dancing Princesses, an original musical being presented by Camden Rep, teaches its young audience lessons about love, strength, forgiveness, and family ties. It also has a peppy score and a...

Review: ‘In Transit’ at Circle in the Square Theatre

I first ran into this musical which deals with the lives of several New York subway commuters in 2010 when it first bounced into town onstage at the 59 East 59th Street Theatre off/Broadway. It was a...

‘Take A Bow!’ Part 3: The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ Favorite DC/MD/VA Fall 2016 Performances/Directors/Designers by DCMetroTheaterArts Staff: DC/MD/VA/PHILLY/NYC AREAS

Here is the staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ 3rd series of ‘Take A Bow!’ Fall 2016 honorees: Caroline Clay as Florynce Kennedy in (Re)Acts: Where Do We Go From Here? at Forum Theatre. It was a...

Review: ‘Murder for Two: Holiday Edition’ at Bucks County Playhouse

When I found out that the creators of the musical comedy Murder for Two were premiering a special Christmas-themed version at Bucks County Playhouse, I was intrigued. After all, the show has been a...

Review: ‘Dot’ at Everyman Theatre

There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays. When Everyman Theatre (“Everyman”) Founding Artistic Director Vincent M. Lancisi left the Humana Festival of New Plays in Louisville, Kentucky last year,...

Review: ‘La Cage aux Folles’ at City Theater Company

Wilmington’s City Theater Company ushers in its 23rd season with lots of glitter for the holidays. But it’s not the usual tinsel on the tree, it’s the fabulous drag fest that is La Cage aux Folles!...

Review: ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ at The Music Box Theatre in NYC

This highly imaginative and moving musical was presented off Broadway by the Second Stage company in May of this year. It enjoyed a sold out run for a month, and was honored by a dozen awards for...

Review: ‘A Bronx Tale’ at The Longacre Theatre in NYC

Chazz Palminteri’s career as actor and writer was given a big boost when his one-man play A Bronx Tale began its life off Broadway with the author as its star. The material was honed from his early...

An Interview With Jay Kuo, Composer and Lyricist of ‘Allegiance.’ A film of the Broadway Musical Will Show in Theaters Across the Country on Tuesday, December 13th

Allegiance, the 2015 Broadway musical based on the forced relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II, will be shown in movie theaters around the country for one...

Review: ‘A Christmas Story: The Musical’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Humorist Jean Shepherd left us in 1999 but his folksy memories of being a child in Indiana at Christmas time live delightfully on in A Christmas Story: The Musical. Now making its Baltimore debut...

Review: ‘School of Rock’ at Cherry Hill High School West

Back when I was in high school, we didn’t do musicals where the songs had titles like “Stick It to the Man.” (I don’t think our principal would have allowed it!) But now Cherry Hill High School West...

Review: ‘Christmas Inn’ at Westchester Broadway Theatre

Christmas time, as it says in the famous song, “is the most wonderful time of the year.” So during the month of December, Westchester Broadway Theatre is taking a break from its scheduled lineup and...

Review: ‘Mary Poppins’ at the Players Club of Swarthmore

The Players Club of Swarthmore’s new production of Mary Poppins may surprise some devoted fans of the movie. This stage adaptation, which had a successful run on Broadway a decade ago, isn’t a slavish...

Review: ‘Black Nativity’ at ANKH Repertory Theatre and The Finest! Performance Foundation

Productions of Langston Hughes’ holiday classic Black Nativity are numerous in the DC area this holiday season, but the joint production by ANKH Repertory Theatre and The Finest! Performance...

Review: ‘Avenue Q-School Edition’ at Fairfax High School

Avenue Q is not your mother’s musical. Sure, the muppets might seem cute, but once they start singing you’ll see that they’re just as messed up as most people. Fairfax High School’s FX Players...

Review: ‘Black Nativity’ at New Freedom Theatre

Fifty years is a very long time for an arts group to exist in this changing world and economy, but Freedom Theatre is celebrating its golden anniversary with a reconceived production of its...

Review #1:’Copenhagen’ at Perisphere Theater

The storytelling in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen—which won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Play—is ingeniously done. The play’s three characters are deceased. They are actual historical figures whom Frayn...

Review: ‘The Outer Space’ at SEI Innovation Studio at The Kimmel Center

The Outer Space, is a new musical by Ethan Lipton. This production, at SEI Innovation Studio at the Kimmel Center, is like a cabaret with a narrative, weaving humor, storytelling and music together....

Review: ‘Shades’ at Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC

“I tell you, War is Hell.” So declared Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman in his 1879 address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy. In Shades, a New York premiere presented...

Review: ‘Once’ at National Theatre

From the moment one enters the National Theatre, it becomes clear that Once is not your typical Broadway fare. Rather than seeing closed drapes and hearing piped-in pre-show music, the first view of...

Review: ‘An American in Paris’ at the Academy of Music

If you “love a Gershwin tune” (and who doesn’t?), An American in Paris, presented by Broadway Philadelphia for a limited run this Thanksgiving week at the Academy of Music, is the show for you! Based...

Review: ‘A Name for a Ghost to Mutter’ at Urban Stages

In the summer of 2008 a group of artists, business people and supporters gathered to talk theatre, which led to the formation of Theatre East and an inaugural benefit in July 2009. Its core belief was...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ at Theatre Three: Broadway on Main Street

Theatre Three: Broadway on Main Street opened its 33rd annual production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Written in 1843, A Christmas Carol is a story which has endured throughout the years. It...

‘Mary Poppins’ at The John W. Engeman Theater at Northport

Everyone’s favorite high-flying nanny has landed at the John W. Engeman Theater at Northport! Mary Poppins will be playing until the wind changes on December 31, 2016. The script, based on both the...

Review: ‘Andrea Marcovicci: A Gershwin Valentine’ at The RRazz Room

The miraculous Andrea Marcovicci briefly returned to Philadelphia. One of the grandest divas of cabaret, Ms. Marcovicci seemed to own the fabled Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel for over 25 years. That...

Review: ‘A Christmas Story: The Musical’ at The Media Theatre

A Christmas Story: The Musical was a breath of fresh air when it debuted on Broadway four seasons ago. Based on the 1983 movie that’s become a television perennial, it retained a great deal of the...