Jonathan Mandell — Theater Critic

There are certainly some highlights in 'Flying Over Sunset,' chief among them Tony Yazbeck's phenomenal dancing as Cary Grant, accompanied step by step by 14-year-old newcomer Atticus Ware as his younger self. The choreographer, Michelle Dorrance, was a star performer in Stomp, and we hear the influence. The rest of the cast is also first-rate. However, after sitting through the nearly three hours of this unique fusion of high-minded spiritual contemplation, gossipy biographical tidbits, subtle comedy and fabricated hallucinations all presented in song and dance, I was never completely persuaded that these three famous figures belong in the same musical; indeed, it seemed unlikely that they would have had anything to do with one another.

The production, an import from England directed by Marianne Elliott, cannot be called definitive. Its most attention-getting feature is the switching of the genders of several of the characters, which at its best feels like an interesting thought experiment about the difference in our attitudes towards men and women. Even when the gender switching feels less than completely thought out, the musical proves to be sturdy enough to allow for such noodling around without undermining the essence of the show. It helps that this 'Company' also showcases a company of some of the finest actors on Broadway, and several must-see performances - Patti LuPone, yes of course, but also Christopher Fitzgerald and Matt Doyle.

An observation Sondheim made about the history of musical theater comes to mind here: 'After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.' Yes, there is a story in 'Mrs. Doubtfire' (the same one as the movie), but Princess Diana is not part of it (her musical is five blocks away.) There are too many ornamental moments like 'Make Me A Woman,' when 'Mrs. Doubtfire' seems to be bringing us back some 90 years to pre-revolutionary Broadway when musical numbers did not advance the plot but served primarily as entertainments between comedy scenes.

An observation Sondheim made about the history of musical theater comes to mind here: 'After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.' Yes, there is a story in 'Mrs. Doubtfire' (the same one as the movie), but Princess Diana is not part of it (her musical is five blocks away.) There are too many ornamental moments like 'Make Me A Woman,' when 'Mrs. Doubtfire' seems to be bringing us back some 90 years to pre-revolutionary Broadway when musical numbers did not advance the plot but served primarily as entertainments between comedy scenes.

In 'Clyde's,' a savory comedy written by Lynn Nottage, better known for her bitter tragedies, Uzo Aduba portrays Clyde, the sexy but heartless owner of a truck stop where all four of her employees are ex inmates, as is she. The chief joke of the play, which is running at Second Stage's Helen Hayes Theater through January 16, is how seriously the employees take the art and craft of sandwich making, especially Ron Cephas Jones as Montrellous, whom the others worship for his culinary gifts. The chief delight of this production, directed by frequent Nottage collaborator Kate Whoriskey, is the art and craft of the theater making, by an extraordinarily talented cast, and also by the designers, who get whimsical and weird (in a good way.)

In 'Clyde's,' a savory comedy written by Lynn Nottage, better known for her bitter tragedies, Uzo Aduba portrays Clyde, the sexy but heartless owner of a truck stop where all four of her employees are ex inmates, as is she. The chief joke of the play, which is running at Second Stage's Helen Hayes Theater through January 16, is how seriously the employees take the art and craft of sandwich making, especially Ron Cephas Jones as Montrellous, whom the others worship for his culinary gifts. The chief delight of this production, directed by frequent Nottage collaborator Kate Whoriskey, is the art and craft of the theater making, by an extraordinarily talented cast, and also by the designers, who get whimsical and weird (in a good way.)

There are a total of nine actors in 'Trouble in Mind,' the size of the cast one of the signs of a play written years ago. If a few of the characters come to feel extraneous, and some of the scenes feel like filter, the actors each have at least one scene where they are put to good use. Brandon Micheal Hall portrays John Nevis, a brash young Black newcomer to acting, which gives the playwright an opportunity to impart her hard gained wisdom about dealing with the white people in charge of show business: 'White folks can't stand unhappy Negroes... so laugh, laugh when it ain't funny at all.' John generally ignores her advice, thinking she's behind the times, and starts sounding just as glad-handing and fatuous as Al Manners. Chuck Cooper, a standout as usually, portrays Sheldon, a Black actor who has learned the lesson of accommodation too well. But there's one arresting moment when Manners is urging the cast to express more fear. 'I'm not asking you to dream up some fantastic horror... it's a lynching. We've never actually seen such a thing, thank God... but allow your imagination to soar, to take hold of it... think.' Sheldon speaks up and says he has, in fact, seen a lynching.

The surprise of 'Diana the Musical,' which is opening tonight at the Longacre Theater, is that it's more enjoyable - better! - on Broadway than it is on Netflix, where a recording of this stage musical about the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, has been streaming since October 1. Critics, especially British ones, eviscerated it: 'comically misconceived' (The Times of London) 'cringey...confusing..ickiest' (The Standard) 'What? What? WHAT?' (The Guardian.) Now, nobody on this side of the Atlantic is going to nominate 'Diana' for a Pulitzer Prize. But the show I saw on stage has several things going for it.

As the title character of 'Caroline, or Change,' Sharon D. Clarke sings a breathtaking 11 o'clock number called 'Lot's Wife' that sparks thunderous applause; the audience at Studio 54 is clearly thrilled by the performer's soulful delivery. Some surely also burst into tears, saddened by the character's despair. But my enthusiasm for this first Broadway revival of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's inventive, thoughtful and affecting collaboration comes not just from those aspects of the show that satisfy audience expectations about big Broadway musicals. What makes this work so powerful, and especially timely, is how this splendid cast tells a small story about change - literal pocket change - while offering a larger glimpse into the complex undercurrents in a tense moment of change in American history.

As the title character of 'Caroline, or Change,' Sharon D. Clarke sings a breathtaking 11 o'clock number called 'Lot's Wife' that sparks thunderous applause; the audience at Studio 54 is clearly thrilled by the performer's soulful delivery. Some surely also burst into tears, saddened by the character's despair. But my enthusiasm for this first Broadway revival of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's inventive, thoughtful and affecting collaboration comes not just from those aspects of the show that satisfy audience expectations about big Broadway musicals. What makes this work so powerful, and especially timely, is how this splendid cast tells a small story about change - literal pocket change - while offering a larger glimpse into the complex undercurrents in a tense moment of change in American history.

'Dana H.' is unlike any play you've ever seen on Broadway. It's 75 minutes of an actress sitting on a chair, lip-syncing to a tape of a woman recounting the horrific story of a deranged criminal in Florida abducting her and terrorizing her for five months. Those intrigued by the show might have some basic questions: Is this really theater? Is the story really true? Is it really worth paying up to $199 per ticket to see? I don't have definitive answers for you. But I left the Lyceum exhilarated, thinking: This was an incredible work of theater. Then I thought more about it. What makes 'Dana H.' exhilarating, I realized, is the performance by Deirdre O'Connell.

The country has changed in the two and a half years since The Lehman Trilogy came to America, wowing audiences at the Park Avenue Armory with a theatrical epic, inventively staged and extraordinarily acted, if historically blinkered, that dramatizes the 164-year history of the Lehman Brothers - starting with the arrival in America of the first of the three brothers, Hayum Lehmann, in 1844, and ending (three and a half hours later) with the collapse of the venerable financial institution in 2008. Opening now on Broadway, 'The Lehman Trilogy' is also different than it was in 2019, some of it in evident response to the changing times. The question is whether it has changed enough.

Like Shange's seven all-female characters (called the Lady in Red, the Lady in Blue, etc. after the color of their costumes) who told the stories of Black women's lives through poetry, song and dance, Scott's seven all-male characters (called Anger, Lust, Happiness and other emotions or character traits) tell the stories of Black men's lives through spoken word poetry, and occasional song (sung, beautifully, by Luke James.). But like the various series in which the cast members have performed, 'Thoughts of a Colored Man' also presents credible characters in more or less straightforward scenes - watching a basketball game and bickering in a neighborhood barbershop (the best scene), working or shopping at a grocery store, discussing women while waiting endlessly for a bus, waiting at a hospital maternity ward, coaching basketball in a school gym, shooting the breeze on a line to get the latest Air Jordans.

Billed as a transfer of the production of the play done by the Old Vic in London, the set and costume design by Peter McKintosh emphasizes how British this play - they are both sumptuous and staid. The play, at two hours and 45 minutes (including intermission), takes its time. But the surprising humor, and the vibrant and detailed performances of the cast, especially Roger Rees, who noticeably deteriorates over the two years that the play takes place, and Charlotte Parry as his equally stubborn daughter, offer so much more juice than the more overtly relevant (and far duller) play of Rattigan's that the Roundabout revived two years ago starring Frank Langella , Man and Boy. 'The Winslow Boy,' the 18th production of a Rattigan play on Broadway, but only the third over the last 40 years, is more likely to make theatergoers wonder whether there is anything else of his as worth reviving.

'A Night With Janis Joplin' is more or less a concert, with some patter in-between the songs that could be called monologues. In these, we learn that Janis's mother was a talented singer in Port Arthur, Texas who decided not to move to New York for a professional career, and thereafter listened incessantly to Broadway albums like West Side Story and My Fair Lady, whose songs Janis memorized. Janis herself at one point wanted to be a painter; her artwork appear behind her. She also read a lot as a child; her favorite was F. Scott Fitzgerald. And she loved the blues, a subject she tells us about with almost scholarly disquisition.

Like many great stage actresses, Cherry Jones has a magic in person that doesn't translate well. It seems fitting that this performance, and this production, will really exist only in memory - but there it will lodge.

The first surprise of “Bring It On The Musical'...is that people as awesome as Tony winners Lin-Manuel Miranda and Tom Kitt were drawn to remake a largely forgettable film that spawned four direct-to-video sequels. Is Broadway really the obvious next step in this commercial franchise?...Questions of audience aside, was it a mistake for these young theatrical talents, who I feel hold the future of Broadway in their hands, to collaborate on such a trifle? It would be un-cheerleader-like of me to say so. It is better to think of it as their summer vacation. And that’s the second surprise: “Bring It On The Musical,” though overly long and inevitably formulaic, works as a kind of summer entertainment, by building on the strengths of the original movie, and avoiding some of its flaws.

Does anybody believe that “Leap of Faith” is trying to convert all of us atheists and Jews in the audience? It’s an ersatz experience, emotionally and musically. Menken’s 17 appealing songs (Including three show-stoppers, “Step Into the Light,” “Are You on the Bus?” and “Leap of Faith”) are mostly good, ersatz gospel music. Sergio Trujillo’s choreography is mostly energetic swaying in gospel robes, which mimic the movements of an actual gospel choir. (The set, mostly a rotating revival tent, is as fake as the story.)...Should lovers of gospel music pay $100+ to see “Leap of Faith?” Why not? But they could have the authentic gospel experience at one of the many churches in New York City with gospel choirs. And if they are not comfortable going to church, they can attend one of the city’s many gospel brunches.

Ghost the Musical is a literally spectacular stage show. It makes better use of video projections than any previous show on Broadway...No other current Broadway show – and, I would wager, no Broadway show ever – has had an illusionist as part of the design team...Director Matthew Warchus, whose previous directorial efforts on Broadway have tilted toward sophisticated comedies, the Broadway equivalent of art house movies — Art, God of Carnage, The Norman Conquest – is here trying something new. I’m not sure he is presiding over the Broadway equivalent of a date movie; it seems closer to the Broadway equivalent of a theme park ride. That’s not a put-down. The best rides are exhilarating.

On second viewing now that it has transferred to Broadway, I find the performances broader and the play slighter...One can suspect these changes were effected to accommodate the more mainstream theatergoers of Broadway, but, even if so, I am not scandalized. What worked in “The Lyons” downtown still works. The acting still could not be better. Linda Lavin gives a nuanced (if louder) performance that should not be missed. She may initially seem little more than a quirky caricature but she winds up something more, different, thought-provoking.

There are two main aesthetic reasons I can think of to justify Mann’s reinterpretation of “A Streetcar Named Desire” through multi-racial casting – – to have the audience look at a classic work in a fresh light, thereby adding to our understanding of it; and to give us the chance to see great actors in roles normally closed to them. The director clearly achieves the first aim. She is only partially successful in the second.

On the whole well-acted, and wonderfully directed by Pam MacKinnon making her own Broadway debut, “Clybourne Park” has provocative things to say about race relations, about community, about our failures at communication, about whether generational change is real change. It says them with humor and with insight. There are also some moving moments, and eerie moments that can pass for moving. The play is without question worth seeing, the reward of doing so the satisfaction not only of crackling theater but of keeping up with what’s happening in the culture. But will “Clybourne Park” endure the way “A Raisin in the Sun” has? Will it stir people 50 years from now?

I can picture a lonely member of the audience finding “One Man, Two Guvnors” less funny than the people guffawing in the surrounding seats. Perhaps the English accents will present a barrier, or they will be put off by the show’s willingness to include jokes involving protected classes (the hard-of-hearing, gay people, supporters of Margaret Thatcher), or by the persistent silliness or mildly off-color air: A lawyer character works for the firm of Dangle, Berry and Bush. The most likely scenario is for a theatergoer to be disappointed because of the high expectations set by word of mouth, or reviewers like me, giving the impression that “One Man, Two Guvnors” is the funniest thing on earth.

“Peter and the Starcatcher” is also still, for my taste, too long and busy for what it is; it is still a struggle to stay engaged throughout. It is best to appreciate the play if you don’t expect it to do for Peter Pan what “Wicked” does for The Wizard of Oz – best, in other words, to see it not as a clever take on a beloved story but as a new entertainment with its own delights. But the Broadway production brings more Peter Pan into the show, especially a scene built around a J.M. Barrie line that could be the slogan for this successful transfer: “To have faith is to have wings.”

The most powerful moment for me in “Magic/Bird,” a play about the rivalry and then friendship between basketball stars Magic Earvin Johnson and Larry Bird, occurs after Johnson announces that he has HIV, retires, and then returns to play the 1992 NBA All-Star Game. There is so much emotion in Larry Bird’s normally stoic face during the game that I nearly burst into tears. But there is a catch. It is Larry Bird’s actual face up on a screen, one of many video snippets that are used in “Magic/Bird.” Virtually nothing that the live performers do on the stage at the Longacre Theater has anywhere near the impact. And the videos are not enough to fill the gap in drama or excitement.