Linda Winer News

ARCADIA arrives on Broadway from the West End where this production became an instant sold out hit in 2009 and was deemed 'Stoppard's most brilliant play' (The Observer), 'one of the most exquisite plays of the 20th century' (The Independent), and 'sexy, sophisticated, and killingly funny.' (The Evening Standard). Did it receive the same warm welcome on Broadway? Find out here!

New York Theatre Workshop presents Peter and the Starcatcher, written by Rick Elice, directed by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, based upon the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. The cast of Peter and the Starcatcher features Adam Chanler-Berat as Peter next to normal; Christian Borle as Black Stache Angels in America, Legally Blonde, Spamalot, Mary Poppins, and Celia Keenan-Bolger as Molly 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Les Miserables, Bachelorette.

BroadwayWorld.com was the first to report that multiple critics from major newspapers have indeed purchased tickets in recent days to SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark, and they have come out in force. All but a few papers have filed reviews timed to tonight's performance which was, until the most recent delay, scheduled to be the show's opening night. Here are all the reviews for SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark to date and we'll keep updating as new ones come in.

Best Plays Theater Yearbook editor Jeffrey Eric Jenkins has accepted the position of Director of Theatre Studies in the Department of Drama at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Tickets go on sale this Sunday, January 30 at 10 a.m., for the scathingly funny, Tony Award-winning Best Play "God of Carnage."

Tickets go on sale this Sunday, January 30 at 10 a.m., for the scathingly funny, Tony Award-winning Best Play "God of Carnage."

The original Broadway cast of the smash hit comedy GOD OF CARNAGE comes to the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles for six weeks only! Hear what Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden have to say about the play, which took New York by storm last year.

An unflinching and darkly comic depiction of life in blue collar Connecticut, Blood From A Stone zeroes in on a working class family wrestling to keep it together as day-to-day struggles exert their squeeze. When Travis pays a visit to his parents' home, he finds an already volatile household imploding and his close-knit but deeply conflicted family teetering on the brink.

Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden, the original Tony Award-nominated Broadway cast of the scathingly funny, Tony Award-winning Best Play "God of Carnage," will reunite in Los Angeles for six weeks only to bring this comedy of manners without the manners to the Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre, April 5 through May 15, 2011.

Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden, the original Tony Award-nominated Broadway cast of the scathingly funny, Tony Award-winning Best Play "God of Carnage," will reunite in Los Angeles for six weeks only to bring this comedy of manners without the manners to the Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre, April 5 through May 15, 2011. Opening night is April 13.

Back at Christmas, Newsday and Bloomberg were the first publications to release reviews of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, despite the fact that the show is not set to open until next month. But, in the words of Newsday critic Linda Winer: 'After four premiere push-backs (now to Feb. 7), four high-profile injuries, 19 previews at full price ($75-$150, almost double through brokers), and public investigations by state and federal safety agencies, it seems that critics are now the only interested parties who can't see the bride before the wedding.' Both the Newsday and Bloomberg reviews were lukewarm, with Bloomberg critic Jeremy Gerard noting: On the evidence of what I saw, the second act still has yet to be completed. We might expect more of a show that has been in the works for almost nine years.'

Theatre critic-turned-blogger John Simon has published his thoughts on the SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK review debacle.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the SPIDER-MAN team has finally weighed in on the controversial early reviews published by Newsday and Bloomberg News last week. Critics form both publications, Linda Winer and Jeremy Gerard suprisingly wrote reviews for SPIDER-MAN:TURN OFF THE DARK five weeks before the much delayed openning night.

Last Tuesday night I went out for some pre-holiday coffee with my good friend, BroadwayWorld Senior Editor Jessica Lewis (Actually we were so engrossed in conversation that we forgot to order coffee.  Sorry, Starbucks.), and naturally the topic of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark came up.  Jessica had seen the show already and I mentioned how comical it was becoming that, with what right now stands as an eight-week preview period, the reviewing press will be attending long after the Internet has helped establish a firm word-of-mouth opinion.

Here's a story I wasn't expecting to see, but as Newsday critic Linda Winer writes 'After four premiere push-backs (now to Feb. 7), four high-profile injuries, 19 previews at full price ($75-$150, almost double through brokers), and public investigations by state and federal safety agencies, it seems that critics are now the only interested parties who can't see the bride before the wedding.'

Christina Ricci, who is making her Broadway debut in TIME STANDS STILL, will appear on the Monday, December 20 episode of "Rachael Ray."

Christina Ricci, who is making her Broadway debut in TIME STANDS STILL, will appear on the Monday, December 20 episode of "Rachael Ray."

Having opened to a host of positive reviews and strong ticket sales, Vineyard Theatre's world-premiere production of Will Eno's play MIDDLETOWN will extend its run an additional two weeks - through December 5 - it has been announced by Douglas Aibel, artistic director of The Vineyard (108 E. 15 St.).

The Break of Noon is Neil LaBute's seventh collaboration with MCC Theater as Playwright-in-Residence, following the 2009 Tony Award-nominated Best Play, Reasons to be Pretty. Renowned for his darkly-comic morality plays (The Shape of Things, In a Dark Dark House), he teams up again with longtime collaborator, director Jo Bonney (Some Girl(s), Fat Pig), for this exploration of the daunting, sometimes harrowing process of 'finding religion.' David Duchovny ('Californication,' 'The X-Files') stars as John Smith, a man who, amidst the chaos and horror of the worst office shooting in American history, sees the face of God. His modern-day revelation creates a maelstrom of disbelief among everyone he knows. A newcomer to faith, John urgently searches for a modern response to the age-old question: at what cost salvation?

Brendan Fraser, star of Broadway's new comedy ELLING, will appear on LX-TV tomorrow, Tuesday, November 23, on WNBC-TV between 5:00pm and 5:30pm.