Michael Dale
After 20-odd years singing, dancing and acting in dinner theatres, summer stocks and the ever-popular audience participation murder mysteries (try improvising with audiences after they?ve had two hours of open bar), Michael Dale segued his theatrical ambitions into playwriting. The buildings which once housed the 5 Off-Off Broadway plays he penned have all been destroyed or turned into a Starbucks, but his name remains the answer to the trivia question, "Who wrote the official play of Babe Ruth's 100th Birthday?" He served as Artistic Director for The Play's The Thing Theatre Company, helping to bring free live theatre to underserved communities, and dabbled a bit in stage managing and in directing cabaret shows before answering the call (it was an email, actually) to become BroadwayWorld.com's first Chief Theatre Critic. While not attending shows Michael can be seen at Citi Field pleading for the Mets to stop imploding. Likes: Strong book musicals and ambitious new works. Dislikes: Unprepared celebrities making their stage acting debuts by starring on Broadway and weak bullpens.
BWW Review: Philip Dawkins' THE GENTLEMAN CALLER
BWW Review: Mart Crowley's THE BOYS IN THE BAND
BWW Review: Kander & Stroman's THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE
BWW Review: Lois Smith in PEACE FOR MARY FRANCES
April 1 - Sondheim To Make Guest Appearance On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
BWW Review: Company XIV's CINDERELLA by Austin McCormick
BWW Review: Peccadillo Revisits George Kelly's THE SHOW-OFF
BWW Review: Angelina Fiordellisi and Michael O'Keefe Are Charming As Older Leftists in Charles Mee's FIRST LOVEJune 20, 2018
Is there anything more charming than watching two older people falling in love? Well, perhaps. Like when the romance occurs, as instructed by playwright Charles Mee in his 2001 one-act, FIRST LOVE, in 'the world of Magritte.'
BWW Review: Chukwudi Iwuji and Corey Stoll Give Memorable Turns in Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson's OTHELLOJune 19, 2018
From the very beginning, one of the most important tenants of Joseph Papp's vision of free Shakespeare in Central Park has been the insistence the company of actors audiences see on stage will always reflect the extraordinary and powerful cultural diversity of New York City.
BWW Review: Eve Ensler's FRUIT TRILOGY Examines The Treatment of Women as CommoditiesJune 17, 2018
'We are women more willing to be vile receptacles then we are willing to be dead,' says a character identified as Item 2 in Eve Ensler's FRUIT TRILOGY, which is receiving its New York debut at the Lortel, courtesy of the Abingdon Theatre Company.
BWW Review: Doug Hughes Sharply Directs Anthony Giardina's Biting Social Commentary DAN CODY'S YACHTJune 14, 2018
'Vassar. See yourself there,' a successful adult advises a high school student who has impressed him with her talent for writing poetry, but not with her low expectations for securing a spot in a good college.
BWW Review: Lauren Yee's THE GREAT LEAP Mixes Basketball and Politics in Communist ChinaJune 10, 2018
Commencing in 1958, Chairman Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward was a 5-year plan to convert Communist China's largely agricultural economy into government-run farming collectives, freeing up resources for manufacturing and building infrastructure. It didn't end well.
BWW Review: John Kander and Susan Stroman Mix Henry James With Henri Matisse in THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLEJune 6, 2018
From the mid-1960s through to the early years of this century, the musicals scored by the team of John Kander and Fred Ebb have exemplified Broadway pizzazz while exploring darker issues under the glitzy polish.
BWW Review: Fifty Years of Changes Makes Mart Crowley's THE BOYS IN THE BAND All The More IntriguingMay 31, 2018
A younger playgoer knowing nothing about Mart Crowley's classic 1968 Off-Broadway comedy/drama The Boys in the Band except, perhaps, that its original run is regarded as an important landmark in depicting gay men on stage, might be shocked to witness the happenings these days at the Booth Theatre, which now houses the piece's premiere Broadway production.
BWW Review: Lois Smith Brings Tenderness to Darkly Comic Dysfunctional Family Drama PEACE FOR MARY FRANCESMay 30, 2018
The fact that Broadway hasn't seen fit to provide a role for Lois Smith in over twenty years can be regarded as one of the top arguments denouncing the popular assumption that Times Square is where you go to take in the best of New York theatre.
BWW Review: Sexual Sparks Ignite When Tennessee Williams Meets William Inge in Philip Dawkins' THE GENTLEMAN CALLERMay 25, 2018
The setup would make a hell of a piece of theatrically-minded erotica. Call it Cat (On A Hot Tin Roof) and Mouse, as sexual sparks ignite when elegant playwright on the verge of stardom, Tennessee Williams, visits the home of shy aspiring playwright William Inge for a newspaper interview to promote the Chicago opening of what would be his landmark Broadway success, THE GLASS MENAGERIE.
BWW Review: Phylicia Rashad Directs Crackling Revival of Stephen Adly Guirgis' OUR LADY OF 121ST STREETMay 24, 2018
There's an empty casket on display and a pants-less mourner screaming. 'What kinda fuckin' world is this?!' when the lights suddenly go up on Stephen Adly Guirgis' wild New York escapade, Our Lady of 121st Street.
BWW Review: Dominique Morisseau's Captivating Jazz Noir Drama, PARADISE BLUEMay 21, 2018
Depending on how snobby you are about the belief that no American play can truly be said to have premiered until it has opened in New York, Paradise Blue, the ravishing new jazz noir drama by Dominique Morisseau is either the second or third installment in the playwright's trilogy set in her hometown of Detroit.
BWW Review: Jeremy Irons and Lesley Manville Star in Eugene O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHTMay 15, 2018
Ranking up there with MEDEA and OEDIPUS REX, Eugene O'Neill's family tragedy LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT would most likely make any playgoer's list of inappropriate classics to revive on Mother's Day weekend.
BWW Review: Christian Borle and Laura Michelle Kelly Lead a Top Shelf Encores! Cast In a Smashing ME AND MY GIRLMay 11, 2018
Playgoers in the know will arrive at any production of the 1937 West End smash ME AND MY GIRL already humming a bit of its legendary Act I closer 'The Lambeth Walk,' looking forward to a rousing showstopper where composer Noel Gay's peppy earworm is matched with co-bookwriter/lyricists L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber's jaunty lyric celebrating that part of London where 'everything's bright and breezy' and you can 'do as you darn well please-y.'
BWW Review: Prepubescent Battles Rage in Clare Barron's Exhilarating DANCE NATIONMay 9, 2018
'How're you gonna cap off your prepubescent years?', a stony-faced teacher asks his competitive dance team members, shortly after winning a competition that saw one of their own suffer a season-ending injury.
BWW Review: Rocker Grandmom Clashes With Her Gospel-Singing Daughter in Sweet and Funny Musical UNEXPECTED JOYMay 8, 2018
Though the characters in bookwriter/lyricist Bill Russell and composer Janet Hood's sweet, funny and very entertaining new musical UNEXPECTED JOY are all women, there's a guy in the mix who still has a lot to say.
BWW Review: Marin Ireland Delivers a Must-See Performance in Tennessee Williams' SUMMER AND SMOKEMay 6, 2018
Despite only three Broadway credits, Marin Ireland must be regarded as one of the absolute best actors to regularly grace New York stages during this century. Through her steady work Off-Broadway (15 productions since 2001 and playing leading roles for several of the city's major non-profits) local audiences have seen her portrayals grow from young women of the past sporting underestimated brilliance (SABINA, THE RUBY SUNRISE) to emotionally frazzled contemporary types (MAPLE & VINE, REASONS TO BE PRETTY) and struggling survivors (KILL FLOOR, IRONBOND).
BWW Review: Denzel Washington Stars in George C. Wolfe's Oddly-Energized Mounting of Eugene O'Neill's THE ICEMAN COMETHMay 2, 2018
Escaping disillusionment through the comfort of alcohol while clinging to hopeless pipe dreams is rarely depicted with such crackling energy as it is in director George C. Wolfe's puzzling production of Eugene O'Neill's tragedy THE ICEMAN COMETH.
BWW Review: The Mobile Unit Brings Free Performances of Shakespeare's HENRY V To The PublicApril 30, 2018
'Raise your hand if you've ever been underestimated,' instructs Program Director Stephanie Ybarra before every performance of Shakespeare's HENRY V, as performed by The Public Theater's Mobile Unit.
BWW Review: Shaw's SAINT JOAN Gains Fresh Relevance As Condola Rashad Plays a Teen Inspiring a National MovementApril 29, 2018
The title character of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan was burned at the stake nearly 500 years before the play premiered at Broadway's Garrick Theatre in December of 1923, but for many viewers there may have been a sense of topicality to the proceedings.
BWW Review: Tom Stoppard's TRAVESTIES or A Novelist, A Communist and A Dadaist Walk Into A LibraryApril 25, 2018
Czech-born British dramatist Tom Stoppard, whose densely intellectual plays may be the most potent argument known for America's need to step up its public education funding, was first noticed on these Atlantic shores in the 1960s for shining a spotlight on two minor Shakespearean characters in ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD.
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