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.
As with her first Pulitzer-finalist play, BECKY SHAW, the title of Gina Gionfriddo's sharp-tongued comedy CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? is a literary reference.
"In a whirligig of grief" is how one character describes the emotional state of another in Hamish Linklater's ambitious new play, THE WHIRLIGIG, receiving a fine premiere mounting by The New Group's artistic director, Scott Elliott.
Traditionally, the human beings with uncommon attributes who are featured as carnival side-show attractions can hold a certain degree of power in their profession.
Kat, the woman who's at the center of the wildly fun and unpredictable new two-person musical comedy Ernest Shackleton Loves me, is not exactly in a good emotional place when the show begins.
Visitors observing the United States Senate in session from the chamber galleries are instructed to refrain from applauding, booing or - perhaps most crucial - laughing at their public servants as they undergo official business.
In the late-night hours of June, 14, 1994, when hockey's New York Rangers won their first Stanley Cup championship in 54 years, there were fans visiting the gravesites of loved ones, armed with six-packs of beer and radios, to share with long-gone fans a moment they thought they might never live to
The best thing about Classic Stage Company's small-scale, extensively trimmed production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's extraordinarily-written 1976 musical, PACIFIC OVERTURES, is a chance to see a terrific ensemble of actors taken from the New York stage's severely underutilized pool of Asi
Sixty years ago, Joseph Papp packed a truck with a small troupe of actors, some modest props and the firm belief that the plays of William Shakespeare belonged to everyone, and traveled throughout New York City giving free performances.
In 1957, Meredith Willson wagered he could get Broadway audiences to cheer for THE MUSIC MAN's serial swindler who cheats nice people out of their hard-earned money and harasses the leading lady on the street and at her workplace while lying his way into her arms.
When a classic play from the past is revived, there's always the temptation to point out its relevance to today, or at least to present it through a contemporary lens.
Long before websites like Friendster (Remember Friendster?) increased the awareness of how few people it takes for one's social network to spread worldwide, John Guare's smart and funny 1990 entry, SIX DEGREES OF SEPERATION, helped popularize the concept that you can connect any two people in the wo
No, that's not some forgotten Golden Age musical floating effervescently across the Broadhurst stage, but ANASTASIA sure has the old-fashioned romantic feel of one.
With two supporting actor Tony Awards under his belt, the versatile and immensely talented Christian Borle finally spent an opening night as a Broadway leading man earlier this season, playing neurotic New Yorker Marvin in a limited run revival of William Finn's FALSETTOES.
Yes, yes, we all know… Bette Midler is the above the title attraction and her presence is the reason the latest Broadway revival of HELLO, DOLLY! is the season's hottest new ticket.
With her throaty elegance, sharp comic bite and aggressively sexual allure, Tallulah Bankhead quickly earned a loyal following when she appeared in her first five Broadway plays in the years between 1918 and 1922.