BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

The opera's called JENUFA, after the unfortunate young woman at the center of its story. But the star of the show at the Met's revival of this soaring musical masterpiece by Janacek is the Kostelnicka of the magnificent Finnish soprano Karita Mattila....

Returning to Carnegie Hall this year after more than 25 years, the Richard Tucker Gala—celebrating the current winner of the Richard Tucker Award, soprano Tamara Wilson, as well as the life and career of the famed tenor for whom it was named—was a grand night for singing....

Once a theatre kid, always a theatre kid, and even after Hollywood has called, one cannot seem to elude the song and dance beckoning of their Broadway roots. For proof of such a personification, look no further than Matthew Morrison, the smooth-crooning triple threat who made his Broadway debut i...

In many ways, '27'--the 90-minute the chamber opera about Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and their circle, composed by Ricky Ian Gordon to a Royce Vavrek libretto--is an old-fashioned love story. It just happens to be about two women who entertained and collected (in all senses) some of the most im...

On the penultimate night of the 2016 Cabaret Convention, presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation, 11 fantastic cabaret artists---those who are celebrated in the form as well as those who are emerging alike---assembled to salute the late and legendary Sylvia Syms. The evening, hosted by one of S...

Hold your hats and hallelujah. After an electrifying opening night, the Mabel Mercer Foundation's 27th Annual Cabaret Convention continued Wednesday night in a packed Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Hosted by Jeff Harnar and Andrea Marcovicci, the cabaret community gathered to salute the ...

Jon Bon Jovi has been making the world that much more special with his music for more than thirty years, and the listening party on October 20th to promote his newest album proved that he isn't quite finished rocking it yet. As an introduction to the band's fourteenth album entitled This House is No...

Often, when performers get their big break at a young age, they spend the ensuing years of their career attempting to escape out from under that encompassing shadow. For Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, who met in the original Off-Broadway production of RENT in 1995, that is only half true. In the 2...

The Cafe Carlyle is one of most renowned venues for cabaret in the country, seeped in history so rich it could fill a PBS special. In no way, though, does its historical significance relegate a show to seriousness. Take, for example, two-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole (42ND STREET, GRE...

The 27th Annual Cabaret Convention, presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation, kicked off on October 18, putting forth performances by some of the most iconic cabaret artists which the arena has to offer, as well as introducing new but equally captivating talent of the art form. Hosted by KT Sullivan...

Twelve years after his last full show and a full 36 since he performed at the venerable Laurie Beechman Theatre, entertainer (and Don't Tell Mama booker) Sidney Myer commanded the stage as if he'd been there yesterday. I attended the second of three sold-out presentations marked as fundraisers for T...

Simon Rattle is often called 'the one that got away' in Philadelphia - but he's not alone. The Philadelphia Symphony has a rich and storied history of losing great conductors to other institutions. Mr. Rattle is in town conducting a very well received new production of Tristan and Isolde at the Met,...

On the weekend of October 15 & 16, 2016, Taylor 2 returned to the Schimmel Center at Pace University to bring some of our favorite Paul Taylor pieces to a cozy and intimate setting. Taylor 2 was established in 1993 as a way to ensure Mr. Taylor's work could be seen by all audiences, even in the smal...

Invoking Barbra, Judy and a host of other mononymous musical divas, Anneliese van der Pol came to play during her solo show at Feinstein's/54 Below on September 29. Winningly self-deprecating, van der Pol (VANITIES) kept the show moving and refreshingly loose, joking after the first number, 'So I'm ...

When the Met's production of Rossini's L'ITALIANA IN ALGIERI made its debut in 1973, it must have seemed a welcome laugh riot. Think of it as a kind of Hope-Crosby “Road” picture from the '40s. Flip forward 43 years to last week, and the world has changed much--for better and worse--but “The R...

They say you only have one shot at a first impression, but in her Feinstein's/54 Below debut, Cady Huffman started her show twice. The double-take beginning was not attributed to a mistake or a technical difficulty; to the contrary, Tony Award-winning Huffman (THE PRODUCERS) was very intentional in ...

For the sheer magnitude of its singing, there hasn't been anything like the Met's ecstatic new production of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE--seen a week after it opened the season on September 26--in a very long time....

A good drag queen is ready for anything, and with a dash of Southern charm and a whole lot of hairspray, RuPaul's Drag Race alum Ginger Minj gave a performance at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on September 25 that was as gleefully unpolished as it was raucously funny. Above all else, despite it bei...

On Site Opera is one of New York's most endearing little companies, under Artistic Director Eric Einhorn, frequently giving us a chance to hear unfamiliar works in congenial settings and get up close and personal with the performers. For its first benefit dinner, the company presented a double bill ...

This year's Fall for Dance Festival includes twenty different dance companies and groups performing a potpourri of different styles of dance, four groups per performance, each performing on two consecutive nights. On Wednesday, September 28, 2016 I saw the first of two nights of four presentations....

When last seen at the Met , baritone Simon Keenlyside showed off his suave vocalism and superior acting skills in operas based on Shakespeare: He was elegant and intelligent in HAMLET by Ambroise Thomas and a charismatic Prospero in Thomas Ades's THE TEMPEST. He could have picked up on any of those...

Lynn Henderson delighted a small but enthusiastic audience at Don't Tell Mama in the final performance of her new show, T'AIN'T NOBODY'S BIZNESS IF I DO! With musical director Douglas J. Cohen, a multi-award winning songwriter (including a Drama Desk Award nomination and the Noel Coward Prize), and ...

At one point during WASTE OF SPACE, Chris Dwan began singing the lyric 'We're connected in our own sort of universe' again and again. That line came from an original track, 'All I Know,' co-written with Ross Baum. Making his New York City solo concert debut at Feinstein's/54 Below on September 6, Dw...

In preparation for her return engagement at Feinstein's/54 Below, Melissa Errico was looking for answers, but she ended up with far more questions. In fact, much of the Tony-nominated mother of three's life and career as of late seems to be cloaked in indefinable uncertainty. She recently penned an ...

If this is what the end of the GOLDEN AGE OF JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND looks like, here's hoping for an extension. Before capping off a yearlong celebration of Bond's 25th anniversary of being a performer with a VIVification benefit, v's---Bond's preferred pronoun---GOLDEN AGE was a fever dream, full of...