Steve Brustien News

What did our critic think of Tootsie in Costa Mesa? Despite a still problematic central premise, the non-equity national tour of the stage adaptation of TOOTSIE---now playing at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through June 12, 2022---is, for the most part, a funny but flawed musical sprinkled with lots of funny lines, rapid-fire humor, and amusing shenanigans.

Tootsie made its Northern California premiere at San Jose's Center for the Performing Arts and will be there now through April 24. With a Tony-winning book by Robert Horn, and with music and lyrics by the clever David Yazbek (The Band's Visit, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) Tootsie garnered eleven Tony nominations, two wins and much acclaim, as well as pointed critique centered on transmisogyny. There are other problems as well.

The musical Tootsie, now playing at the National Theater in Washington, DC, has exceptionally good intentions and flashes of show-biz brio but it tries to do too many disparate things at once. Of course, the cultural zeitgeist of the brilliant film is pervasive in the “mind’s eye” but that should ideally be of little concern with a musical that veers into making differing choices appropriate for the stage.

In the oft-repeated words of the character Sandy, sung in a hilarious patter-fest at strategic points in the musical of Tootsie, playing this week only at the Hippodrome, 'I know what's going to happen.' What's going to happen is that you will attend the show and have an uproarious good time.

Get a first look at the non-equity national tour of Tootsie in all new photos and videos! The cast includes Drew Becker as Michael Dorsey, Ashley Alexandra as Julie Nichols, Payton Reilly as Sandy Lester, Lukas James Miller as Max Von Horn, Jared David Michael Grant as Jeff Slater, Kathy Halenda as Rita Marshall, Steve Brustien as Stan Fields, and Adam du Plessis as Ron Carlisle.

Complete casting has been announced for the First National Tour of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Tootsie. Meet the cast of the tour.

The kids in Sweet Apple, Ohio are hooting and hollering over the arrival of Conrad Birdie and so is the audience over at the Broadhollow Theatre Company in Elmont. Bye Bye Birdie, the Broadway smash musical from 1960, is back and better than ever! Albert, Rosie, Hugo and Kim are also here to bring us back to a much simpler time when kids were kids and music sounded like music.