The Big Idea

What did our critic think of THE 39 STEPS at Westport Country Playhouse?

Hello, friends, and welcome to my 2023 Broadway World Year in Review. I literally doubled the number of articles this year from last year, and I’ve had the best time!

After a COVID-induced delay of nearly three years, Contra Costa Civic Theatre will bring the very first production of To Master the Art to Bay Area audiences.

Musical Remembrances, the new album from the Neave Trio (Anna Williams, violin; Mikhail Veselov, cello; Eri Nakamura, piano) is out today in digital formats with CDs to follow on May 6, 2022. 

The Neave Trio (Anna Williams, violin; Mikhail Veselov, cello; Eri Nakamura, piano) announce Musical Remembrances — the Trio's fourth album with Chandos Records, which will be available digitally worldwide on April 29, 2022, with CDs following on May 6, 2022.

The Wallis inaugurates their new pop-up performance space on the Promenade Terrace for live audiences with the world premiere of Tom Dugan’s TEVYE IN NEW YORK! June 23, 2021. Tom co-directs (with Michael Vale) his one-man show on the well-known musical theatre lead character of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Tom managed to find time amongst his many, many writing projects to answer a few of my enquiries.

Americans were listening to 'Goodnight, Irene' and Bing and Gary Crosby's interpretation of a 1914 song by Irving Berlin, 'Play a Simple Melody.' And Berlin's new musical, Call Me Madam, was opening at New York's Imperial Theater with an advance of over one million dollars, by far the largest in Broadway history.

Hideki Noda's powerfully dynamic, physically demanding, utterly engaging and thoroughly entertaining works have been seen across the world's stage and now he returns to one of the most significant homes of the underground theatre movement in NYC -- The Ellen Stewart Theater at La MaMa -- in One Green Bottle, playing from February 29-March 8th. The three-person gender-swapping show puts an absurdist spin on the current self-driven, self-obsessed 'selfie' society. One Green Bottle is unmissable, uproariously hysterical and absolutely delightful with depth that lingers long after the last 'one green bottle should accidentally fall...' as the song goes.

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG opens its 2018-2019 season with W. C. Handy and The Birth of the Blues. NYFOS celebrates W. C. Handy, often referred to as the "Father of the Blues," and his vast influence as a prominent African-American composer and publisher in the early 20th century.

Don't let the sweet, easy cover fool you: If you're a fan of Nicholas Sparks and Jojo Moyes, you're going to LOVE Julia Whelan's MY OXFORD YEAR!

Drag artist Varla Jean Merman's new show, WONDER MERMAN, pays tribute to inspirational women throughout history, both real and fictional. The idea that "behind every great man, there's a great woman" feels tone-deaf, at best. But a more arcane expression that may actually hold true is that behind many a great drag queen, there's a great man.

In a rediscovery commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, The Melting Pot by Israel Zangwill runs at the Finborough Theatre, playing Sunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday matinees from Sunday, 3 December 2017. The classic story of a young Russian immigrant fighting to uphold his dream of a new life in a new country. After his family are massacred in a pogrom, Jewish composer David Quixano escapes to New York City, in search of a new life. There he falls in love with Vera, a beautiful Russian Christian.

In a rediscovery commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, The Melting Pot by Israel Zangwill runs at the Finborough Theatre, playing Sunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday matinees fromSunday, 3 December 2017.

At first it was unconscious, then by design: the 34th season of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Long Island's longest-running classical music festival, has something of a water theme.

The performance schedule has been changed for 'Light Up The Night,' a theatrical concert of rediscovered and restored Yiddish theater songs by Ellstein, Goldfaden, Olshanetsky, Rumshinsky, and Secunda, to be presented by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) January 1 in Edmond J. Safra Hall at Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place, Manhattan.  Originally two shows were planned, at 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM.  The 2:00 PM performance continues as scheduled but the 6:00 PM performance has been canceled.

 To ring in the New Year, on January 1 National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) will present 'Light Up The Night,' a concert of rediscovered and restored pre- and post-WWII music from the theatrical works of the great composers of the Golden Age of Yiddish Theater.  These include Ellstein, Goldfaden, Olshanetsky, Rumshinsky and Secunda.  All are leading songwriters from the era of 'The Golden Bride,' which was presented by Folksbiene Theatre in 2015 and 2016.  The cast will feature performers who were acclaimed in that production, backed by a 16-piece orchestra.  The production is in Yiddish with projected supertitles.  The full concert will be offered twice, at 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM, in Edmond J. Safra Hall at Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place.

"Art isn't easy," Stephen Sondheim wrote famously in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. Some artists, however, make it look simpler than others--like composer Kevin Puts, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for SILENT NIGHT, with Mark Campbell's libretto, for his first try at the notoriously difficult art form. (The Southeast premiere is opening at Atlanta Opera on November 5.) Easy? Well, looks can be deceiving.

In honor of the centenary of Harold Chapin's heroic death on the battlefield in 1915, Mint Theater presents THE NEW MORALITY, opening tonight, September 21, 2015 off-Broadway.

In honor of the centenary of Harold Chapin's heroic death on the battlefield in 1915, Mint Theater (Jonathan Bank, Producing Artistic Director; Jen Soloway, Managing Director) is proud to present The New Morality, beginning performances August 22nd - one day earlier than previously announced.

In honor of the centenary of Harold Chapin's heroic death on the battlefield in 1915, Mint Theater (Jonathan Bank, Producing Artistic Director; Jen Soloway, Managing Director) is proud to present The New Morality, beginning performances August 23rd. This limited Off-Broadway engagement, directed by Jonathan Bank, will continue through October 11th only. Opening Night is set for Monday September 21st (7pm) at the Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street. Cast and design team will be announced shortly.

GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE, a solo one-act play with music, focuses on the life of George Gershwin. Along with providing a taste of Gershwin's arresting personality, the piece features several of the composer's most popular songs.

Acclaimed actress of stage and screen, Lauren Bacall, who passed away in August 2014, had formed an astonishing art collection which included works by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. The Bacall Collection, estimated at $3m, will be sold at Bonhams, New York – 580 Madison Avenue – in March 2015.

Following its ratings success in the U.S., MASTERPIECE and PBS have announced a second season of Mr. Selfridge, starring Jeremy Piven.

The 164th Annual Highland Games presented by the St. Andrew's Society of Detroit will be held on Saturday, August 3rd at Historic Greenmead in Livonia (Eight Mile and Newburgh) beginning at 8:30 a.m. Advanced tickets are $12.00 with children 12 and under free. Ceilidh (Scottish Party) will be held the night before at Greenmead. Tickets for Ceilidh are $15.00, advance purchase only. Highland bagpipes, heavy athletics, highland dancing, vendors and entertainment tents all included in the price of admission. www.highlandgames.com for more information.

As part of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's ongoing initiative to "ignite an explosive engagement between theatre artists and the community," Woolly is pleased to announce the House Lights Up events for its upcoming world premiere of playwright Aaron Posner's Stupid f**king Bird. Loosely based on Chekhov's The Seagull, Woolly Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz directs this re-imagined version May 27 through June 23, 2013.