The last time Classic Stage Company tackled Shakespeare's Hamlet, it was a dynamic and inventive production mounted by artistic director Brian Kulick and starring Michael Cumpsty. This time around, however, director Austin Pendleton's production, though initially visually interesting, is marked by questionable acting and confusing staging. Click here for my full review of Hamlet. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 09:14 PM Posted by: Michael Dale
When reviewing the original Public Theater production of LIsa Kron (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori's brave and adventurous new musical, Fun Home in October of 2013, I expressed hesitation to use the word "groundbreaking," as it tends to be overused in musical theatre. Click here for my full review of Fun Home. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 09:14 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
With his new revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, director Bartlett Sher has essentially replicates the formula used to create his 2008 smash hit mounting of South Pacific. Click here for my full review of The King and I. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 09:14 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
Like an actress trying to play Pan when the Foy Team suddenly goes on break, there are a lot of talented people left hanging in Finding Neverland, the leaden new musical about the power of whimsy, taken from the story of J.M. Barrie's inspiration for his most famous play, Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Click here for my full review of Finding Neverland. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 09:14 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
"Old situations, new complications," promised Stephen Sondheim a half a century ago when offering Broadway audiences a comedy tonight. Indeed, the sharp and hilarious new musical comedy by Brian Hargrove (book and lyrics) and Barbara Anselmi (music), It Shoulda Been You, utilizes a lot of old - or shall we call them "classic" - situations in telling its story of a wedding day that almost goes disastrously haywire. But just as you're comfortably settled in for a night of sitcom zingers and zippy melodies, the neat little twists start piling up. Click here for my full review of It Shoulda Been You. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 09:14 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
After transferring from London in 2008 and spending the better part of two years on Broadway, Patrick Barlow's humorous adaptation of The 39 Steps was among the first Broadway hits to transfer Off-Broadway and enjoy an extended run in a smaller house. Click here for my full review of 39 Steps. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 09:13 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
"Let me tell you the story of my first presidency," a friendly and accessible Hillary Clinton tells us from behind the Oval Office desk. Click here for my full review of Clinton, the musical. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 09:13 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
Seventy years ago there was new musical on Broadway featuring the work of a choreographer who had previously been the exclusive property of the ballet world. Inspired by the symphonic jazz of Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins seamlessly blended dance into the natural movement of wartime New York City and On The Town launched the career of a director/choreographer who revolutionized the way dance was incorporated into musical drama. Click here for my full review of An American in Paris. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 03:04 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
"Henchmen Are Forgotten" goes a song from Triumph of Love, and sure enough, though the story of Henry VIII has been told countless times in drama and literature, the focus is usually on the king's obsession to sire a son or on the half-dozen women who endured his wrath. (Okay, #6 didn't have it so bad.) Click here for my full review of Wolf Hall. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 03:04 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
When it comes to Broadway musicals, Alan Jay Lerner was never exactly regarded as a feminist icon. Women in his shows have been sold or bargained for as wives (Paint Your Wagon, Camelot), treated as subjects for experimentation (My Fair Lady, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever) and have served as public ornamentation for powerful men (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). Not to mention Lolita, My Love, a musical version of Vladimir Nabokov's novel that shut down on its way to New York. Click here for my full review of Gigi. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 03:04 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
Plays as gleefully subversive and downright audacious as Robert Askins' Hand To God usually stay in their hole-in-the-wall 50-seat theatres until their cult followings are no longer strong enough to keep their seedy venues from being bought out by CVS or Starbucks, so it's a rare and wonderful thing to see director Moritz von Stuelpnagel's aggressively punk production, which started at the 99-seat Ensemble Studio Theatre and was then plunked by MCC into Off-Broadway's Lortel, now gracing Shubert Alley. Click here for my full review of Hand To God. Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 @ 03:04 PM Posted by: Michael Dale | Leave Feedback
|
Print
Newest Entry 
About Michael: After 20-odd years singing, dancing and acting in
dinner theatres, summer stocks and the ever-popular
audience participation murder mysteries (try
improvising with audiences after they?ve had two hours
of open bar), Michael Dale segued his theatrical
ambitions into playwriting. The buildings which once
housed the 5 Off-Off Broadway plays he penned have all
been destroyed or turned into a Starbucks, but his
name remains the answer to the trivia question, "Who
wrote the official play of Babe Ruth's 100th
Birthday?" He served as Artistic Director for The
Play's The Thing Theatre Company, helping to bring
free live theatre to underserved communities, and
dabbled a bit in stage managing and in directing
cabaret shows before answering the call (it was an
email, actually) to become BroadwayWorld.com's first
Chief Theatre Critic. While not attending shows
Michael can be seen at Shea Stadium pleading for the
Mets to stop imploding. Likes: Strong book musicals
and ambitious new works. Dislikes: Unprepared
celebrities making their stage acting debuts by
starring on Broadway and weak bullpens.
© 2019 - Copyright Wisdom Digital Media, all rights reserved.
