BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

Perhaps you have attended a wedding and, despite repeated refusal, you are forced by your date or young family member to get up on the dance floor. You moan and groan and detest at the cloying silliness that is boogying to some horn-heavy interpretations of Top 100 hits or a once-inescapable Whitney...

At IN WAR & PEACE, HARMONY THROUGH MUSIC, her Carnegie Hall concert the other night with the Baroque ensemble, Il Pomo d'Oro, mezzo Joyce DiDonato was in fine voice, if not in high spirits—and who could blame her? The state of the world is about as bad as it has been for a long time, with death an...

On paper, it might seem that Kaija Saariaho's L'AMOUR DE LOIN (LOVE FROM AFAR), libretto by Amin Maalouf, couldn't possibly fill a stage the size of the Met's: three characters and a chorus that bobs in and out of the action. Yet, in action, this breathtaking, shimmering piece not only seems at home...

'For 47 years, the world of entertainment was blessed with a force of nature called Judy Garland,' Michael Feinstein begins, 'and for Judy, it all began at MGM.' As the artist takes his time with Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz's 'That's Entertainment,' screens on either side of the stage show clips fr...

This season, explore Manhattan's major museums and give the gift of thought-provoking art....

In THE WORLD ACCORDING TO KURT WEILL, one of the more than 20 shows put together to form the Winter Rhythms festival benefiting arts education, old met new and timeliness met timelessness. At Urban Stages on December 6, six skilled performers were assembled to interpret several of the most well-k...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and just one example of that is found in modern hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty's 'An Irish Christmas - A Celebration of Carols' concert tour. They're playing different U.S. cities most nights, and while I was fortunate enough to see them at Washingt...

Despite some fine singing from soprano Patricia Racette (who also went the Full Monty in the title role), the Met's revival of Richard Strauss's SALOME was a little tame--something that it should never be....

Cafe Carlyle is a low-ceilinged room with walls covered in paintings that lend credence to the illusion of being locked in another world, a jazzy rendition of 80 years ago that's all glitz and glam. It is in this room that Ana Gasteyer performed, making her debut at the venue. There was an immedi...

Raconteur/vocalist/historian/producer Harvey Granat's entertaining series SONGS AND STORIES at 92Y ended for the season Thursday with ON BURT BACHARACH (with Special Guest, author/columnist/producer Will Friedwald and pianist David Lahm)....

Laura Osnes, Tony-nominated for originating title roles in BONNIE & CLYDE and CINDERELLA, has devoted an entire cabaret act to pondering that hypothetical what if. Bringing an updated version of her show THE PATHS NOT TAKEN back to Feinstein's/54 Below for a four-performance run beginning November 2...

Sitting in my seat watching Lance Horne and his many friends perform at NEW WORK NEW WORK I: EXTRAORDINARY DAYS at Joe's Pub, I couldn't help but feel like I was at a really great dinner party (if I were invited to dinner parties with some of the most talented artists in the city). The seats---and, ...

Because Britney Spears grew up in the spotlight, we've seen her as a singer, an actress, a girl, a woman, and everything in between. One thing we haven't seen is Britney the Broadway star, but since that seems about as likely as the second coming of Britney and Justin, it's a damn good thing BROADWA...

Early on in Tori Scott's SEEING DOUBLE, the woman of the hour deadpanned, 'I've been in a rut since birth.' If that's the case, we should all be so lucky. But on the subject of things that could be going better, throughout Scott's performance at Joe's Pub on November 13, the unofficial theme of t...

Barb Jungr is a maverick. She sings R&B and blues from her gut, can slide into jazz phrasing like muted brass, dismantles what we classify as rock so it's stripped to its meaningful bone, has a fervent moral compass, and is characteristically acerbic. Whether her voice rips or ripples, it's authenti...

With its retrospective of a North American painter of grandeur and grace, the Guggenheim gives top billing to Agnes Martin and her finely-wrought abstractions....

The iconic Rockettes remain supreme with their eye-high kicks, razor-sharp precision and synchronized choreography. They prance as reindeer, dance as teddy bears, march as wooden soldiers, and tap as rag dolls, all to stunning effect....

Georgia O'Keeffe dressed in monk-like clothes and probably wouldn't have worn lipstick on a dare--hardly the image you'd associate with glamorous soprano Renee Fleming. But when Fleming opened her mouth and began to sing the first of the five songs in Kevin Puts' song cycle, LETTERS FROM GEORGIA, at...

Three days after the presidential election, with much of the country still in a daze, attempts to reclaim a sense of 'normalcy' felt futile, but a collective grasping for comfort was ever-present. In her return to Feinstein's/54 Below on November 12, a one-night concert benefiting Art House Asto...

There's no easy way to talk about a performance ostensibly thrown in honor of a presidential candidate who didn't end up winning. Let's be clear: Randy Rainbow's ELECTION EVE PARTY held on Monday, night at Birdland wasn't exactly a non-partisan event. The performers dropped more 'I'm With Her' re...

Hirschfeld might draw Judy Collins as a halo of white hair, doe eyes, and a long black line curving, unbroken, to cradle her guitar. She's the image of unstudied elegance, natural, and despite the artist's thanks to Elizabeth Arden, soulfully organic. Judy Collins has been performing for 57 years...

'I want every child to have the highest level of arts education and you learn by doing, not by reading about it or seeing it on TV. Our children become the dancers. It changes how they see themselves,' Ellen Weinstein, Artistic Director of NDI....

Jarrod Spector began performing at three years old. A film of his singing 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie' with emphatic gestures shows the talented artist preternaturally polished. We're then treated to a clip from Ed McMahon's Star Search in which the six-year-old, pint-sized pretender performs Bertolt Brech...

At times hard to decipher, but always fascinating to watch, Bill T. Jones's "Lance: Pretty aka the Escape Artist" tells the story of dancer, rapper, hustler, and addict Lance T. Briggs, aka Pretty....

By all accounts, Kate Baldwin is pure Broadway Baby. Having made her Great White Way debut in the 2000 production of THE FULL MONTY, she went on to star in Broadway's THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, WONDERFUL TOWN, and the celebrated 2009 revival of FINIAN'S RAINBOW, banking a Tony nomination for the latt...