When you listen to an Audra McDonald album or concert, you can probably have a pretty good idea of what you're signing up for: exquisite vocals and a broad swath of the best selections of the American theatre. Her latest album, the recorded-live Sing Happy, delivers all this and more, with stunning ... (more...)
Depending on how snobby you are about the belief that no American play can truly be said to have premiered until it has opened in New York, Paradise Blue, the ravishing new jazz noir drama by Dominique Morisseau is either the second or third installment in the playwright's trilogy set in her hometow... (more...)
FROZEN is Disney's latest foray of into moving musicals from the screen to stage. The story of sisterly love is currently melting frozen hearts on Broadway, joining its current counterparts ALADDIN and THE LION KING on the Great White Way (because of the snow, of course). Walt Disney Records also r... (more...)
Ranking up there with MEDEA and OEDIPUS REX, Eugene O'Neill's family tragedy LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT would most likely make any playgoer's list of inappropriate classics to revive on Mother's Day weekend.... (more...)
The first thing you ought to know about Lesli Margherita is that her Twitter handle is @QueenLesli. Actually, that might tell you all you need to know about this always wry, deeply fabulous singer-actress who's become a staple of the theatre world over the course of the past decade: she's a diva and... (more...)
Playgoers in the know will arrive at any production of the 1937 West End smash ME AND MY GIRL already humming a bit of its legendary Act I closer 'The Lambeth Walk,' looking forward to a rousing showstopper where composer Noel Gay's peppy earworm is matched with co-bookwriter/lyricists L. Arthur Ros... (more...)
'How're you gonna cap off your prepubescent years?', a stony-faced teacher asks his competitive dance team members, shortly after winning a competition that saw one of their own suffer a season-ending injury.... (more...)
Though the characters in bookwriter/lyricist Bill Russell and composer Janet Hood's sweet, funny and very entertaining new musical UNEXPECTED JOY are all women, there's a guy in the mix who still has a lot to say.... (more...)
Despite only three Broadway credits, Marin Ireland must be regarded as one of the absolute best actors to regularly grace New York stages during this century. Through her steady work Off-Broadway (15 productions since 2001 and playing leading roles for several of the city's major non-profits) local ... (more...)
Lena Hall rings in May with OBSESSED: P!NK, a tribute to the diva who transitioned from mercurial party girl to a songstress giving the world healthy doses of resilient strength, love, and feminism. With both artists being inspiringly bold, with vocals defined by their signature grit, and both posse... (more...)
Escaping disillusionment through the comfort of alcohol while clinging to hopeless pipe dreams is rarely depicted with such crackling energy as it is in director George C. Wolfe's puzzling production of Eugene O'Neill's tragedy THE ICEMAN COMETH.... (more...)
Kate Rockwell has made a career out of the peppy, poppy musicals that have been the hallmark of the past decade of Broadway, most recently as the hilarious ditzy Karen Smith in Mean Girls. But on her debut album, Back To My Roots, she steps away from these characters, instead compiling together the ... (more...)
'Raise your hand if you've ever been underestimated,' instructs Program Director Stephanie Ybarra before every performance of Shakespeare's HENRY V, as performed by The Public Theater's Mobile Unit.... (more...)
The title character of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan was burned at the stake nearly 500 years before the play premiered at Broadway's Garrick Theatre in December of 1923, but for many viewers there may have been a sense of topicality to the proceedings.... (more...)
Czech-born British dramatist Tom Stoppard, whose densely intellectual plays may be the most potent argument known for America's need to step up its public education funding, was first noticed on these Atlantic shores in the 1960s for shining a spotlight on two minor Shakespearean characters in ROSEN... (more...)
'Now, if you want to sing along, you just go right ahead and sing,' the hostess of Broadway's newest musical advises her audience at the top of the show. 'And if you want to dance, go 'head, flail around!'... (more...)
If, like this theatre reviewer, you've managed to survive the last twenty years without reading a word of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular series of Harry Potter novels, nor taking in a screening of any of the eight film adaptations, the most important thing to keep in mind about the Broadway transfer ... (more...)
Recently released CALENDAR GIRLS (Original London Recording)cis just perfectly nice. Based on the charming and quaint 2003 film by the same title written by Tim Firth, the musical itself garnered warm notices from London media. So, it is no surprise that the music and this cast was recorded for pres... (more...)
From SOUTH PACIFIC to THE KING AND I to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and now MY FAIR LADY, director Bartlett Sher has been spending the better part of this young century perfecting his method of mounting ravishing, emotionally stimulating productions of classic 20th Century musicals.... (more...)
Among the Broadway names of the past several decades, producer and director Hal Prince surely stands as one of the greatest. His name has been attached to some of the most iconic musicals of all time: She Loves Me, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Company, Evita, Sweeney Todd, and The Phantom of the Op... (more...)
"When I was young I was taught by my grandmother to listen to the night," says the title character of Lynn Nottage's nobly lyrical drama of the ivory trade, MLIMA'S TALE.... (more...)
The willingness to suspend disbelief is a long-standing tradition in live theatre, and as long as playwrights and directors firmly establish their boundaries of realism, it's reasonable for audience members to go along with them.... (more...)
During the first half of the 20th Century, there was no artist as important to the development of American musical theatre from strictly light entertainment to a legitimate dramatic art form that addressed controversial issues and exposed the country's uglier norms than bookwriter and lyricist Oscar... (more...)
NBC's live concert staging of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR aired this past Easter Sunday. Largely sung from the perspective of Judas, listeners join THE JOURNEY through final week in the life Jesus Christ, from Palm Sunday to the arrest and crucifixion. Performed live on a set of exposed scaffolding in Br... (more...)
While audiences gather at Lincoln Center to see Lerner and Lowe's musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's classic, there's a different kind of Pygmalion story being played out at Studio 54, where Mark Medoff's 1980 Tony winner for Best Play, Children of a Lesser God is receiving its first Broadw... (more...)
BWW Album Review: Audra McDonald Sings Us All Happy
BWW Review: Dominique Morisseau's Captivating Jazz Noir Drama, PARADISE BLUE
BWW Album Review: FROZEN Original Broadway Cast Recording Is Perfect Storm of Heart-Warming Humor
BWW Review: Jeremy Irons and Lesley Manville Star in Eugene O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
BWW Album Review: Lesli Margherita Is Queen Of Her KINGDOM
BWW Review: Christian Borle and Laura Michelle Kelly Lead a Top Shelf Encores! Cast In a Smashing ME AND MY GIRL
BWW Review: Prepubescent Battles Rage in Clare Barron's Exhilarating DANCE NATION
BWW Review: Rocker Grandmom Clashes With Her Gospel-Singing Daughter in Sweet and Funny Musical UNEXPECTED JOY
BWW Review: Marin Ireland Delivers a Must-See Performance in Tennessee Williams' SUMMER AND SMOKE
BWW Album Review: Lena Hall's OBSESSED: P!NK Satisfies Fully
BWW Review: Denzel Washington Stars in George C. Wolfe's Oddly-Energized Mounting of Eugene O'Neill's THE ICEMAN COMETH
BWW Album Review: Kate Rockwell Embraces Her Roots
BWW Review: The Mobile Unit Brings Free Performances of Shakespeare's HENRY V To The Public
BWW Review: Shaw's SAINT JOAN Gains Fresh Relevance As Condola Rashad Plays a Teen Inspiring a National Movement
BWW Review: Tom Stoppard's TRAVESTIES or A Novelist, A Communist and A Dadaist Walk Into A Library
BWW Review: LaChanze, Ariana DeBose and Storm Lever Share The Title Role in SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL
BWW Review: A Complete Neophyte's Guide To HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD
BWW Album Review: CALENDAR GIRLS (Original London Recording) is Just Nice
BWW Review: Bartlett Sher's Contemporary Spin On MY FAIR LADY Allows Lerner and Loewe's Musical To Speak For Itself
BWW Album Review: PRINCE OF BROADWAY Honors Broadway Royalty
BWW Review: Lynn Nottage's Ivory Trade Drama MLIMA'S TALE Honors The Beauty of The Beast
BWW Review: Lindsey Ferrentino's THIS FLAT EARTH Explores a Child's Reaction to a School Shooting
BWW Review: Joshua Henry Thrills in Jack O'Brien's Drastically Edited Version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's CAROUSEL
BWW Album Review: Let The Praise Rise For JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LIVE IN CONCERT Original Soundtrack
BWW Review: Echoes of G.B. Shaw in Mark Medoff's CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD