BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

Performance Mix Festival returned to Abrons Art Center for its 30th Anniversary on June 6th, 2016. Founded in 1986 by curator Karen Bernard and presented by New Dance Alliance, this platform for experimentation and risk-taking has stood at the vanguard of showcasing established and emerging artists ...

ARGENTINA, A Movie Musical Like No Other, Opens in NYC June 17 at Lincoln Plaza...

Like sand through the hourglass, so is the choreography of Jacqulyn Buglisi. No one can argue that Ms. Buglisi knows how to craft beautifully lush movement. Her dances are ephemeral yet timeless, like a conjured dream held in stasis. But in the wrong hands, this ravishing quality becomes smothering....

Graham 2 opened its 2016 New York season on June 2, 2016 with a special benefit performance honoring the renowned choreographer and former Graham Company alumna, Patricia Birch....

ABT's Resident Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, who created the version of 'The Golden Cockerel' that had its company premiere on June 6th 2016, is quoted in a Playbill article by Caroline Hamilton as saying, 'This production is overwhelmingly theatrical'. Ah, so that explains why there is virtually ...

When New York cabaret community insiders and frequent club goers heard that Marissa Mulder was planning a Marilyn Monroe-themed show, the consensus was the vocalist's naturally breathy voice paired with a roster of songs from Monroe's films would be a good fit. Sidestepping expectations, Mulder and ...

I was delighted but not surprised by the polished professionalism of the teenage musicians and dancers from Michigan's Interlochen Center for the Arts who performed on the afternoon of June 5th 2016 at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center as part of the New York Philharmonic's Biennial celebration. I...

The guerdon in attending a repertory company's concert is being able to savor the variety of work on display. Such was the case for Nimbus Dance Works' recent concert at Gibney Dance Center's Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center. Founded by Artistic Director Samuel Pott - a former soloist with The Mar...

Ronny Whyte epitomizes everything gracious, refined, and sophisticated that's become rare in music presented by artists under a certain age and temperament. Even with jazz interpretation, his accessible choices and deceptively casual delivery present songs as their authors intended. When he composes...

“There is no sense in which [the play] THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST needs to be an opera.” Those words aren't mine, but come directly from an article by Paul Kilbey in the program at last week's U.S. stage premiere of Irish composer/lyricist Gerald Barry's 2010 opera THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING E...

Does the idea of listening to Yvonne Rainer read excerpts from news articles while six nominally enthusiastic dancers of a certain age perform movement patterns mixed in with jazz phrases appeal to you? Then you would have loved being at The Kitchen on June 3rd, 2016 for American Dance Institute's p...

In a cozy, familiar theater filled with memories and the history of dancers past, I took in the premiere of Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance's Veiled, held at the Jack Crystal Theater in the East Village. On the platform - literally and figuratively - where many great dancers get their professional start, t...

The afternoon performance on Saturday May 28, 2016 of the New York City Ballet (NYCB) was bubbling with children and balletomanes in anticipation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. This playful ballet, which was based upon the Shakespearean play, was delightfully displayed with the combination of music b...

At its best, classical ballet has the ability to utterly transfix, bending the boundaries of what we as human beings think is possible. With every gravity-defying grand jete and blossoming developpe, dancers transform into otherworldly beings, physicalizing that which can't be believed. At the 2016 ...

Joey Arias, vocalist/songwriter/actor/performance artist/host, has been on the scene here since the 1980s. Visually and vocally distinctive, Arias's signature black bangs and ponytail have been on stages such as Club 57, Astor Theater, HERE, and Abrons Art Center--not to mention playing Mistress of ...

Vivian Reed and her consummate band—led by conductor and pianist Billy McDaniel, and joined by guest vocalists Janinah Burnett and Raun Ruffin—dazzled a packed Metropolitan Room on May 23 with her new show, An Evening with Vivian Reed: Standards and More....

Saturday, May 21, 2016 was a special day. Not because of the many pre-Memorial Day sales in the stores or the beautiful weather we had the few days prior. But mainly because it marked the 10th annual Dance Parade and Festival. This year's theme was Decade of Dance to celebrate 10 years and to showca...

A funny thing happened on the evening of May 22, 2016, at the Metropolitan Opera House, where ABT was presenting Alexei Ratmansky's 'Shostakovich Trilogy.' There were lots of empty seats. Since Ratmansky's reputation has pretty much enveloped the entire ballet world, I was very surprised to see this...

The fourth time was the charm for Minda Larsen, winner of the 2015 MetroStar Competition: “I have an MFA in opera,” she joked during the debut of her show, My Southern Song, at the Metropolitan Room on May 21, “So it took four tries in six years to win that competition.” The remark is typica...

The Joffrey Ballet Concert Group, under the artistic direction of Davis Robertson, is performing at New York Live Arts, where I saw them on Friday, May 27, 2016. Robertson introduced the not-for-profit company as good dancers who are currently unemployed....

BWW Review: DANCEAFRICA 2016 Brings Color and Poignancy to BAM with SENEGAL: DOORS OF ANCIENT FUTURES...

Veteran performers Jim Brochu and Steve Ross have known one another since the 1970s, an era when New York was filled with piano bars, cabaret rooms, and nightclubs. Pause for a deep, wistful sigh. Framing their new show, Two Guys and a Grand (last Wednesday night at the Laurie Beechman Theatre), in ...

Slaying is 'doing the first thing that comes to mind and owning it.'...

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony under the guidance of musical director and conductor, David Bernard, presented yet another in a series of superb concerts this past weekend at the All Saints Church in NYC. The program included Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major (K. 313), The Elgar Cello Concer...

For whom is a dance made and why? This question kept coming to me as I watched the unveiling of Merce Cunningham's 'Cunningham Ballett' at Baryshnikov Arts Center on May 18th, 2016. Thought lost to time, a film recording of 'Ballett' was recently unearthed in the archives of Norddeutscher Rundrunk S...