My Name Is Lucy Barton on Broadway
My Name Is Lucy Barton on Broadway “LAURA LINNEY IS LUMINOUS” a sign outside Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater announces. If only the same could be said of My Name Is Lucy Barton. This one-woman show, which I am compelled to report, received rapturous reviews from the New York critics, is an adaptation, by Rona […]
Tootsie on Broadway – A Review
Tootsie on Broadway Tootsie, currently playing at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre, is a musical comedy that’s strong on the comedy and surprisingly weak on the musical side of the equation. Based on the 1982 film starring Dustin Hoffman, Tootsie tells the tale of Michael Dorsey (Santino Fontana), a forty-ish actor who, secure in his superior artistic […]
Richard III and Twelfth Night on Broadway: A Review
Richard III and Twelfth Night on Broadway At the Belasco Theatre, New Yorkers are being treated to an all-too-rare opportunity to see William Shakespeare’s Richard III and Twelfth Night performed under the “original practices” rubric favored at the reconstructed Globe Theatre in London. All costumes are authentically Elizabethan, meaning no zippers, no Velcro, no artificial […]
The Nance On Broadway, A Review
The Nance On Broadway Broadway used to be awash in larger than life comic talent – Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers, Zero Mostel, the list goes on. Today we have Nathan Lane in The Nance on Broadway and we should be grateful we do. Mr. Lane’s considerable talents are being lavished on The Nance at Broadway’s […]
One Man, Two Guvnors on Broadway, A Review
One Man, Two Guvnors One Man, Two Guvnors, currently packing them in at the Music Box, is billed as “based on” The Servant of Two Masters by Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni. But this show, fresh from a sold out run at London’s National Theatre, is not so much an adaptation of Goldoni’s work as it is a […]
Jerusalem on Broadway, a Review
Rylance is an actor of astonishing idiosyncrasy, as anyone who saw him in Boeing, Boeing, or La Bete, or as Richard II at the Globe will readily appreciate. Rylance’s hallmark is making choices no other actor would dream of and, improbably, making them work beautifully. Ironically his larger than life Rooster Byron is his most straightforward interpretation in years. Mark Rylance quite simply is Rooster Byron. His embodiment is so complete that it leaves no room for reinterpretation. It is hard to imagine the play being mounted without him.
La Bete on Broadway, a Review
Written in rhyming couplets in the manner of Moliere, set in Moliere’s France, and dealing with the sort of cultural hypocrisies that were Moliere’s bread and butter, Hirson’s play seems uncannily of the moment nearly twenty years on, with much to tell us about the current debased state of our entertainment culture. (Are you reading this Snooki?) Perhaps that is the definition of great dramatic art.
The Lion King on Broadway, A Review
“The Lion King” tells the tale of a murdered king, his feckless son, and a usurping uncle. Shades of Shakespeare! But this is a Disney production and the real source is a Disney animated film of the same name and anyone who says Disney stole the plot from a Japanese animated film is itchin’ for a fight. But that’s all beside the point. The wafer-thin and perfectly harmless story is just an excuse for a very enjoyable production.
Superior Donuts On Broadway, A Review
Arthur Przybyszewski (his unpronounceable name is a running gag) is an aging and lonely child of the sixties running his fading family donut shop in an iffy neighborhood of Chicago. Via rather awkward, to-the-audience, interior monologues, we learn he carries a burden of guilt over long ago decisions and his dead father’s disdain.
Boeing Boeing On Broadway, A Review
Rylance, making his Broadway debut, is a study in actorly technique. The shy, hestitant milquetoast he creates here is a wonderment of tics, pauses, hesitations, stammers, and schtick and a comic masterpiece. His portrayal of the play’s central figure is totally over the top, totally unbelievable and yet you buy every minute of it. He is the main, I might almost say only reason, a trip to the Longacre Theatre is warranted.