The somewhat recognizable journey from play, to film, and finally to musical delivers the new “Real Women have Curves” to the James Earl Jones Theatre on Broadway. It has morphed into a small musical with a big heart. The book by Lisa Loomer and Nell Benjamin is based on the play by Josefina Lopez and the screenplay by Ms. Lopez…
The “Match” in Kimberly Belflower’s thoughtful new play “John Proctor is the Villain,” currently playing at the Booth Theatre, is between the heavyweight team “Toxic Masculinity” and the underdogs “The Feminist Club.” The match takes place in Mr. Carter Smith’s (a far-too-transparent Gabriel Ebert) classroom “during spring semester, junior year, 2018 at Helen County High, the only high school in…
In Simon Stephens’s brilliant “Vanya,” the adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya, Andrew Scott portrays the eight main characters from the 1897 play. He depicts these familiar characters with a degree of believability and authenticity that is beyond remarkable. That would be impressive enough if he portrayed one character at a time, but there is often more than one character…
The latest import from London is a perfect example of the broad slapstick comedy that British audiences are fond of across the pond, and it joins the ranks of several similar shows that have invaded Broadway in the past few years. One of the reasons the new musical “Operation Mincemeat” is successful is the interesting and compelling storyline based on…
The widely anticipated revival of “Gypsy “on Broadway has finally arrived, along with the reopening of the Majestic Theatre after a healthy renovation, requiring the theatre to be closed for nearly eighteen months. Most of the excitement was generated by the return of the renowned Broadway star Audra McDonald to the stage who would take on the iconic role of…
Families of any number, age, or culture often meet for special occasions, some more special than others. Depending on the mix of those above descriptors, these get-togethers result in quite different outcomes ranging from collegial to catastrophic. These gatherings can be around any number of holidays or around some specific tradition. Those celebrating a specific tradition are often annual events….
Strings McCrane (a complex, unsettled, and conflicted Adam Driver) did not need to be overly mindful when he was a world-famous country and western singer and a movie star: he had teams deciding what was best for his present and future career, thus unburdening him from the pressure and uncertainty of being mindful about anything. After his mother’s untimely death…
If you did not read the Nicholas Sparks novel “The Notebook,” you most likely saw the movie of the same name based on the novel and if you saw the movie chances are you have plans to see the new Broadway musical, with the same name and somewhat the same story, with just a few changes. Bekah Brunstetter has penned…
The Comedian Harmonists was an internationally famous all-male German singing group that was formed during the Weimar period and was forced to disband in the early 1930’s when the Nazi regime came into power. The group consisted of six males, three of whom were Jewish or of Jewish decent and one that had married a Jewish woman. The story of…
There are two questions you should probably ask yourself when deciding to attend a performance of the revival of “Dancin” which was originally produced in 1978, when it was nominated for seven TONY awards. First, do you like the choreography of Bob Fosse and second, do you like dance? The first is actually not as important as the second, which…