BroadwayWorld's 2013-14 Season Wrap-Up!
By: BWW Special Coverage Apr. 28, 2014
Tomorrow is one of the most exciting mornings of the year for any theatre fan. The 2014 Tony Award Nominations will be announced from The Diamond Horseshoe at the Paramount Hotel. The Tony Nominations can be viewed LIVE (8:30am ET) on BroadwayWorld.com. Be sure to follow us throughout the day for reactions from the nominees, analysis and much more.
With only hours left until the big moment, catch up on all of this year's eligible shows and how they fared with the critics (including BroadwayWorld's own Michael Dale) in BroadwayWorld's Season Wrap-Up!
ACT ONE
Opening Night: April 17, 2014
Critics Report Card: 6.9/10
BWW Review: "Shaloub is hilariously exacting as the fastidious Kaufman who is frustrated by Hart's hero-worship and tries to train him to be an equal partner who can freely disagree with him. A familiarity with the final product will help audience members keep track as the pair expands on the characters' relationships and sharpen up the jokes. Though the comedy doesn't seem to live up to its potential in pre-Broadway tryouts, a newly confident Hart proposes major revisions that turn the fortunes of the play, and team, around." Click here for the full review.
AFTER MIDNIGHT
Opening Night: November 3, 2013
Critics Report Card: 8.4/10
BWW Review: ""With all due respect, this is truly an all-star production, and don't you dare think of leaving right after the curtain calls because the biggest stars of the evening are the sensational musicians taking us a bit closer to the midnight hour with a rousing turn at 'Rockin' In Rhythm.'" Click here for the full review.
ALADDIN
Opening Night: March 20, 2014
Critics Report Card: 6.8/10
BWW Review: "The hot Broadway orchestrations by Danny Troob and the sight gag about New York souvenir shopping barely a minute into the script are early signs that the Arabian nights setting is not going to be taken very literally in director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw's fast and funny production. The setting, Agrabah, is said to have "more glitz and glamour than any other fictional city in the world!" Chad Beguelin's book is written in jaunty contemporary English, full of pop culture jokes and ridiculous puns, and the multicultural cast members make no attempt to look or sound like a middle eastern cliché. Think vaudeville, think borscht belt, but don't think too much." Click here for the full review.
ALL THE WAY
Opening Night: March 6, 2014
Critics Report Card: 7.7/10
BWW Review: "A little bit U.S. Senate and a little bit New York Philharmonic, designer Christopher Acebo's spacious set, given location specificity through a parade of scenes by Shawn Sagady's projections, help the free-flowing pageantry of Robert Schenkkan's exciting and energetic drama, All The Way, gallop full speed in director Bill Rauch's pulse-racing production." Click here for the full review.
BEAUTIFUL
Opening Night: January 12, 2014
Critics Report Card: 6.6/10
BWW Review: "She's a sassy, confident young gal who idolizes lyricists like Lorenz Hart and dreams of writing clever, emotionally-rich words for the new genre called rock and roll. He's a neurotic New Yorker with a self-depreciating sense of humor who can bang out catchy melodies that itch to embellish great narratives. They're nuts about each other and he wants to make it legal, but as a modern woman of the liberation era, she avoids marriage for fear of evolving into the traditional gender roles of a wife, rather than breaking molds as an accomplished individual." Click here for the full review.
BETRAYAL
Opening Night: October 27, 2013
Critics Report Card: 8.1/10
BWW Review: "While the characters are scripted as reserved, cultured Brits who bottle up emotions nice and neatly, Nichols has his players broaden up their reactions in a manner that's flashy and more comical, but less interesting. Most of those legendary Pinter pauses, non-verbal displays of dominance or defeat when properly timed, are reduced to mere stammers." Click here for the full review.
BIG FISH
Opening Night: October 6, 2013
Critics Report Card: 6.8/10
BWW Review: "Big Fish, the new musical that tattoos its heart on its arm, displays no fear in plopping its unabashed wholesomeness right in your lap. Its spirit is steeped in Rodgers and Hammerstein decency that propels an evening that's adventurous, romantic and, yeah, kinda hip." Click here for the full review.
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
Opening Night: February 20, 2014
Critics Report Card: 7.6/10
BWW Review: "Broadway has seen its share of musical romances gliding on lush, passionate melodies, but rarely do they embrace such literate, specific and well-crafted words. There are no clever rhymes or bits of wordplay to quote. Just straightforward and deep-minded simplicity textured by Brown's own emotion-pulling orchestrations." Click here for the full review.
BRONX BOMBERS
Opening Night: February 06, 2014
Critics Report Card: 5.4/10
BWW Review: "The year was 1977, and the arbitration case of '75 that struck down baseball's reserve clause, which for nearly 100 years gave players no choice in who they played for and kept salaries relatively low, was suddenly making millionaires of the game's biggest stars as teams competed to sign the best free agents. One of those newly wealthy athletes was Reggie Jackson, hard-slugging outfielder who led the Oakland A's to three straight World Series victories and then in the winter of '76 signed with the New York Yankees for nearly three million dollars a year." Click here for the full review.
BULLETS OVER BROADWAY
Opening Night: April 10, 2014
Critics Report Card: 7.3/10
BWW Review: "With a new musical adapted from Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath's screenplay for 1994's Bullets Over Broadway, Stroman heads back into full tilt musical comedy mode and lights up the St. James with a stylish, witty evening full of exuberant Broadway panache. It's a great big sophisticated musical comedy for adults filled with big laughs and imaginative visuals." Click here for the full review.
CABARET
Opening Night: April 24, 2014
Critics Report Card: 8.1/10
CASA VALENTINA
Opening Night: April 23, 2014
Critics Report Card: 7.6/10
BWW Review: "Casa Valentina is Fierstein's first non-musical on Broadway in 27 years, and since its two predecessors, Torch Song Trilogy and Safe Sex, were both trios of related one-acts, this is his first full-length play to ever hit the street. A specialist in the field of cross-dressing, the playwright digs up a fascinating piece of gender-illusion history, exploring a side of transvestitism rarely seen on stage." Click here for the full review.
THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN
Opening Night: April 20, 2014
Critics Report Card: 8.4/10
BWW Review: "The unique quality of The Cripple of Inishmaan is that McDonagh's comedy never shies away from jokes at Billy's expense ("Poor Billy'll never be getting kissed... unless it was be a blind girl."), and yet the audience needn't feel guilty for laughing. In such a depressing and isolated location, laughing at the misfortune of others is one of the only sources of amusement. For them, misfortune a common bond." Click here to read the full review.
FIRST DATE
Opening Night: August 8, 2013
Critics Report Card: 6.4/10
BWW Review: "Rather than have the couple communicate through traditionally integrated musical theatre songs, the zippy score penned by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner (who share music and lyric credits) consists primarily of moments that freeze time and musically reveal their inner thoughts. There's the number where they initially size up each other ("There's some Asian symbol tattooed on her wrist. / She's got the kind of look that says, 'Hello, world, I'm pissed.'"), aFidder On The Roof spoof mimicking "Tevye's Dream," where Aaron imagines his family reacting in horror upon finding out Casey isn't Jewish, and an internal dialogue where Casey, bored by Aaron's niceness and stability, tries confronting her attraction to the edgy, but emotionally unavailable guys from her past." Click here to read the full review.
A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER
Opening Night: November 17, 2013
Critics Report Card: 7.7/10
BWW Review: "The riotously versatile Jefferson Mays, not only plays the priggish present earl, Lord Adalbert, but all of the relatives Monty must dispose of in order to replace him. The first act covers a remarkable year of family misfortune with Mays portraying a dotty assortment of victims, both male and female, such as a doddering old reverend, a prissy bee enthusiast, an overtly charitable grand dame, a kindly businessman, a horrendous actress and a hulking body-builder. A true gentleman, Monty never gets his hands bloodied while performing the dirty deeds but rather creates situations that facilitate the demises of his rivals." Click here to read the full review.
THE GLASS MANAGERIE
Opening Night: September 26, 2013
Critics Report Card: 9.1/10
BWW Review: "Cherry Jones is arguably the finest American stage actor of our time and revivals of classics come to Broadway specifically so that artists such as her may make indelible marks in their leading roles. Here she is simply magnificent. Her Amanda Wingfield - part canary, part bulldozer - protects her delicate emotions with a brash, muscular exterior. The coy and flirtatious ways that nourished her southern belle youth are of no use to her in the grim reality of what her life has become, and yet she is determined to see her lame, awkward daughter nab a husband through girlish traditions." Click here to read the full review.
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH
Opening Night: April 22, 2014
Critics Report Card: 8.8/10
BWW Review: "Center stage for nearly the entire show, Harris is a dynamo musical theatre actor playing a tortured rocker finding freedom through attention, mixing sincerity with Al Jolson showmanship as his character throws herself into the safety of the spotlight. Though the theater audience plays the role of Hedwig's audience, the star is well-prepared for those who might cross over the line of appropriateness. ("I'll do the show, bitch.")" Click here to read the full review.
IF/THEN
Opening Night: March 30, 2014
Critics Report Card: 7.3/10
BWW Review: "Despite the efforts of Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Sarah Jessica Parker, American women can still find themselves feeling they have to choose between a satisfying love life and a challenging career. In Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey's (book and lyrics) ambitious new musical If/Then, our heroine is literally divided between the two all night." Click here to read the full review.
LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL
Opening Night: April 13, 2014
Critics Report Card: 8.4/10
BWW Review: "Audra McDonald's luxurious soprano with thoughtful lyric phrasing may not be the first voice that comes to mind when drawing comparisons to the emotionally thick, laconic blues of Billie Holiday. But then, Lanie Robertson's 1986 theatre piece, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, despite its inclusion of over a dozen Holiday-recorded standards in a 90-minute performance, is not merely a re-creation concert. It's a drama about how a great artist's self-destruction permeates into her art, and for that, an actor of McDonald's high caliber is certainly required." Click here to read the full review.
LES MISERABLES
Opening Night: March 23, 2014
Critics Report Card: 7.7/10
BWW Review: "The evening's best moment comes when Tony-winner Nikki M. James, as the love-struck Eponine, gathers up all of the character's gutsy determination into a splendidly-acted and vibrantly sung rendition of "On My Own." Those few extremely satisfying minutes serve as a reminder of what is missing from the performances of remaining principal players, who, for various reasons do not live up to expectations for an opening night cast of a major Broadway revival." Click here to read the full review.
MACBETH
Opening Night: November 21, 2013
Critics Report Card: 6.0/10
MACHINAL
Opening Night: January 16, 2014
Critics Report Card: 8.1/10
BWW Review: "Seems the quickest way for a woman playwright to get to Broadway in the late 1920s was to write a social commentary suggested by a recent headline-making murder case. Maurine Dallas Watkins' 1926 Chicago, whose leading lady, Roxie Hart, was inspired by Beulah May Annan, who claimed self-defense in killing her lover, was followed two years later by Sophie Treadwell's Machinal, which opened just eight months after Ruth Snyder died in the electric chair for the murder of her husband." Click here to read the full review.
MOTHERS AND SONS
Opening Night: March 24, 2014
Critics Report Card: 6.7/10
BWW Review: "In lesser hands, Katharine would come off simply as an obnoxious bigot ("After all these years, it still sickens me," sums up her view of gay relationships.) but Tyne Dalydraws you in with the subtle show of loneliness beneath the character's emotional armor. First seen wearing a full-length fur and spouting her ignorance with conviction ("Andre wasn't gay when he came to New York."), Katharine emerges as a woman who recognizes that the world around her has changed and though she insists that homosexuality is a choice, she battles her own guilt for the choices she once made." Click here to read the full review.
A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN
Opening Night: October 10, 2013
Critics Report Card: 6.6/10
BWW Review: "Between songs Davies' Joplin is an adorable, cherubic-faced gal sharing with the audience her preference for dive bars and gritty blues and bits of her life story through amusing patter. ("You know that a lot of people say the trouble with women is they don't think about what they say before they say it. That's the good thing about women, man. We sing our f-ing insides out!")" Click here to read the full review.
NO MAN'S LAND
Opening Night: November 24, 2013
Critics Report Card: 7.9/10
BWW Review: "Though the production comes to town as a star-vehicle event attracting fans of Stewart's and McKellen's blockbuster film and television work, those in the know recognize them as impeccable stage artists (Crudup and Hensley ain't no slouches in that respect either) who display intelligent craft and commitment in contrasting pieces. There is certainly no ambiguity about that." Click here to read the full review.
OF MICE AND MEN
Opening Night: April 16, 2014
Critics Report Card: 8.2/10
BWW Review: "Jim Norton gives one of his most beautiful and sympathetic stage portrayals as the elderly ranch hand, Candy, who relies on the friendship provided by his aging dog. Alex Morf is appropriately hotheaded as Curley, a former boxer always looking to prove himself to make up for his short stature, and Leighton Meester, as the character known only as Curley's wife, is touching in her attempts to find some simple friendship to make up for the loneliness she finds in her marriage." Click here to read the full review.
OUTSIDE MULLINGAR
Opening Night: January 23, 2014
Critics Report Card: 7.1/10
BWW Review: "Shanley tosses in a bit of weirdness at that point, played with impressive conviction, and then builds on it with a heart-grabbing admission that'll have you screaming for them to finally kiss already. But before the final blackout, there's the hint that the weirdness has only just begun." Click here to read the full review.
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
Opening Night: April 03, 2014
Critics Report Card: 8.5/10
BWW Review: "Excellent work is done by two notable actors taking on small roles. There's David Cromer as the community representative of the white neighborhood where Lena has put a down payment on a home, trying to buy her out with a hefty bribe, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, who has one quick scene delivering bad news of the big investment Walter Lee has been banking on. Wonderfully moving and realistically humorous, this is a sterling production of an extraordinary play." Click here to read the full review.
THE REALISTIC JONES
Opening Night: April 06, 2014
Critics Report Card: 7.3/10
RICHARD III
Opening Night: November 10, 2013
Critics Report Card: 8.9/10
BWW Review: "Despite any minor quibbles, it's the novelty of seeing these plays as they were originally performed that makes both evenings treasured events. They're only in town until February. After that we can go back to seeing Shakespeare set in dude ranches, punk rock clubs and swimming pools." Click here to read the full review.
ROCKY
Opening Night: March 13, 2014
Critics Report Card: 7.2/10
BWW Review: "Those of a cynical nature may say that with its legendary pop culture name-recognition, Rocky on Broadway need only be decently written and mounted with a lot of flash in order to be a commercial hit. Instead, Rocky is a very good musical drama of the Golden Age style; an intimate love story about a man who would have lived and died a life of anonymity if a quirk of fate hadn't suddenly thrust the world's attention on him. Filled with honest sentiment and warmth, Rocky is an unusual romance for the musical stage, but one that sings beautifully." Click here to read the full review.
ROMEO AND JULIET
Opening Night: September 19, 2013
Critics Report Card: 5.6/10
BWW Review: "Regrettably, it's the stage-long row of flames that rises from the floor and makes the occasional dramatic cameo that provides any kind of heat in director David Leveaux's soggy production of Romeo and Juliet. Despite the presence of some fine actors who manage to light some sparks here and there, this gimmicky rendering of Shakespeare's tale of adolescent lust gone tragic is curiously lacking in tension, passion, romance and, for some cast members, clear diction." Click here to read the full review.
SOUL DOCTOR
Opening Night: August 15, 2013
Critics Report Card: 5.3/10
BWW Review: "There are plenty of borscht belt style yuks on hand (When a record producer asks Shlomo if he's ever heard of Peter, Paul and Mary, the young rabbi replies, "I don't know so much the New Testament.") but the second act wanders aimlessly toward the finale. The big 11 o'clock number is nicely belted by Zarah Maher, but she plays a minor character of little interest by that point." Click here to read the full review.
A TIME TO KILL
Opening Night: October 20, 2013
Critics Report Card: 5.8/10
BWW Review: "That action alone would make it a provocative story worthy of debate, but, despite a character's early insistence that the case is about murder and not about race, the fact that the father is a black man living in a small, predominantly white town in early 1980s Mississippi and the accused rapists (legally innocent because they were never proven guilty in court) are white, turns this more into a story of trying to get a fair trial for a black man in America; absolutely a worthy subject for dramatization, but presented here as little more than a battle of wits between equally corrupt "good guys" and "bad guys" who eventually wind up comparing scripture quotes to make their cases." Click here to read the full review.
TWELFTH NIGHT
Opening Night: November 10, 2013
Critics Report Card: 9/10
BWW Review: "Despite any minor quibbles, it's the novelty of seeing these plays as they were originally performed that makes both evenings treasured events. They're only in town until February. After that we can go back to seeing Shakespeare set in dude ranches, punk rock clubs and swimming pools." Click here to read the full review.
THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN
Opening Night: April 21, 2014
Critics Report Card: 5.6/10
BWW Review: "If the playwriting matched the acting, The Velocity of Autumn would be a heck of a night out, but though Coble's work is not without its charm, the familiar set-up - an adult child tries to keep a parent from doing something crazy to avoid being sent to a nursing home - is injected with a twist that fails to contribute any tension." Click here to read the full review.
VIOLET
Opening Night: April 20, 2014
Critics Report Card: 8.3/10
BWW Review: "Director Leigh Silverman's superlative production of Jeanine Tesori (music) and Brian Crawley's (book and lyrics) underappreciated musical gem, Violet, began as a one-night concert this past July as part of the new City Center Encores! Off-Center series. It wasn't long after that talk of a Broadway transfer began; partially because of a new generation of audiences discovering this elegantly-written and emotionally sophisticated material, and partially for the opportunity to let more people see Sutton Foster's captivating performance in a role that truly utilizes her skills as a musical actor." Click here to read the full review.
WAITING FOR GODOT
Opening Night: November 24, 2013
Critics Report Card: 7.9/10
BWW Review: "Though the production comes to town as a star-vehicle event attracting fans of Stewart's and McKellen's blockbuster film and television work, those in the know recognize them as impeccable stage artists (Crudup and Hensley ain't no slouches in that respect either) who display intelligent craft and commitment in contrasting pieces. There is certainly no ambiguity about that.
" Click here to read the full review.
THE WINSLOW BOY
Opening Night: October 17, 2013
Critics Report Card: 8.2/10
BWW Review: "There a famous old vaudeville sketch about a poor schlep who gets arrested for "expectorating on the street." He's willing to pay the two dollar fine and be done with the matter, but his lawyer won't hear of it. After being found guilty in court, the lawyer insists on filing an appeal, letting the felon spend months in jail waiting for his case while expenses pile up, his business goes bankrupt, his family is disgraced and his health is ruined. All the while the schlep keeps pleading with his lawyer to just, "Pay the two dollars! Pay the two dollars!"
" Click here to read the full review.
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