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.
Two new CDs from Masterworks Broadway and PLAYBILL Editors' Choice feature two dozen star turns from performers who were little known on opening night.
In Transport Group's production of William Inge's classic, director Jack Cummings III takes a bold and extremely effective risk in interpreting the piece impressionistically as a nightmarish memory.
Sony Masterworks' reissues of the original Broadway cast recordings of Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday In The Park With George and Into The Woods feature heightened vibrancy and clarity.
At 70-something years of age, Marilyn Maye's pipes are still golden and her engagement at The Metropolitan Room is about the closest you'll get to an evening composed entirely of showstoppers.
In Al Grand's zesty and fun Yiddish translation of Gilbert and Sullivan's classic, young Frederick is a former Yeshiva student and the Major General is an Orthodox Jew who bakes fine honey cakes and is a friend of Benjamin Disraeli.
Brian Harris' innocuous trio of one-act comedies isn't nearly as entertaining as the attractive young couple sitting directly in front of me who were fondling, tickling, massaging, kissing and snuggling each other throughout the play.
The final production in the Signature Theatre Company's outstanding August Wilson season is the 1980's entry of the author's cycle of ten plays depicting a decade-by-decade account of black experiences in the 20th Century.
Lin-Manual Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes's musical celebration of Washington Heights is easily one of the best musicals to open in New York this season, if not the best.