Eureka Day
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

When Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day opened Off-Broadway in 2019, the dark comedy about the vaccination debate at a high-toned private school in Berkeley, California, was alarmingly relevant. Now, a new equally funny and moving Broadway production from Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman (after a London staging in 2022) is ever more timely. Between the two NYC productions, we’ve had the COVID pandemic which shuttered schools nationwide and notorious vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
December 2024
Sunset Blvd.

See review(s) under Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard
St. James Theater

While appearing on “The View” talk show, Patti LuPone described Sunset Boulevard (or Blvd. as it is titled in the current Broadway revival) as a “lumbering” musical. LuPone originated the role of Norma Desmond in London in 1993 for this adaptation of Billy Wilder’s 1950 film classic and was subsequently replaced by Glenn Close for the Broadway premiere.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
December 2024
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical
Marcus Performing Arts Center - Todd Wehr Theater

As the holiday season continues to provide myriad selections in the performing arts, none is more welcomed than the return of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer at Milwaukee’s First Stage, one of the nation’s leading theaters for children.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
December 2024
Heart Sellers, The
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

A two-hander that avoids being a “cute meet”, Lloyd Suh's The Heart Sellers unites two Asian women in a 1973 experience that has them revealing how they think and feel about coming to America under the Hart-Celler Act. That  opened the door to immigrants other than from mainly Western European countries. Much of the play’s effectiveness hinges on performances and, at Florida Studio Theater, it gets them.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2024
Cult of Love
Hayes Theater

Here we go again. It’s time for yet another dysfunctional family reunion. Cult of Love, presented by Second Stage at the Hayes Theater after a production at Berkeley Repertory Theater, is the third play this season (following The Hills of California and The Blood Quilt) to dissect the familial ties that bind. Once again estranged siblings gather and squabble over past hurts and present estrangements. The difference between Cult and the previous two is the parents are still living and providing an additional source of conflict.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
December 2024
I Never Sang for My Father
Sugar Maple Tavern - Back Room

The winter holiday period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is perhaps the ideal time to present Robert Anderson’s, I Never Sang for My Father. It’s during this time of year that families can be the most fractious. Anderson’s drama was presented as a staged reading by Milwaukee’s Boulevard Theatre, now in its 39th season.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
December 2024
All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914
Asolo Theater

All is Calm just officially opened, and the morning afterward news is that added performances are being made to satisfy public demand. The story concerns a lull in WWI fighting to bring together a front line group of British and German soldiers to celebrate a peaceful Christmas. The musical play as presented by Asolo Rep manages to be both calm and exciting about a historical incident that audiences seem to wish could be a model for our time.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2024
Death Becomes Her
Lunt-Fontanne Theater

Get ready for the most ghoulish Broadway fun you’ve had in years. The stage version of Death Becomes Her, based on Robert Zemeckis’s outlandish 1992 film comedy, now at the Lunt-Fontanne, is a riotous romp with something for everyone. Hardcore Main Stem fans get to see two legitimate musical-comedy divas clash and ascend to their rightful places in the theater firmament. Those who revel in special effects will get their fill of incredible, credulity-defying twists and turns (literal and figurative). If you just want a good laugh, this show has them in cascades.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
December 2024
Blood Quilt, The
Lincoln Center - Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

Katori Hall’s The Blood Quilt at Lincoln Center’s Off-Broadway Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, employs a familiar plot structure which it overcomes with strong acting and direction. This is yet another family dysfunction play where surviving, estranged siblings gather at the homestead to reveal secrets and confront long-held grudges after the death of a beloved/hated parent (depending on which sibling you are.) We’ve seen this type of show already once this season with Jez Butterworth’s The Hills of California.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Shit. Meet. Fan.
MCC Theater

Robert O’Hara’s scalding new comedy Shit. Meet. Fan. was sold out before it even opened, and it’s riotously funny, but it’s not really anything new. The hit status can be attributed to a cast stuffed with names familiar from TV (such as Neil Patrik Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing, and Constance Wu) and a limited run in a small Off-Broadway space at MCC Theater. The script is based on Paolo Genovese’s 2016 Italian film called “Perfect Strangers” which has had many remakes in various languages and the basic premise is familiar from numerous American plays.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Tammy Faye
Palace Theater

Confession: I never saw Tammy Faye or her husband Jim Bakker on TV.  I know their show was extremely popular, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. My image of Tammy Faye was just a photo of her with mammoth eyelashes and smeared mascara running down her cheeks. Advance publicity for this play tells us she was so much more. But was she? All I saw in Tammy Faye the musical was a woman who hugged a man with AIDS, sent a message to love everyone, and mastered lots of singing to music by the great Elton John.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Fifty-Ninth Street Bridge

see review(s) under 59th Street Bridge

59th Street Bridge
Florida Studio Theater - Goldstein Cabaret

Though it begins and ends with “Take Me Home, Country Roads” at Florida Studio Theatre’s Goldstein Cabaret, the revue’s title refers to a different hit from the 1960s into the early ‘70s. The song’s by Simon and Garfunkel and best known as “Feelin’ Groovy.” Ittypifies the revue’s celebration of newfound folk-rock songs which became classics still enjoyed.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Tammy Faye
Palace Theater

The musical Tammy Faye, centering on the larger-than-life televangelist Tammy Faye Baker, came to Broadway from London with high hopes. It had a sell-out engagement at the Almeida Theater, music by pop legend Elton John, an Olivier Award-winning performance by Katie Brayben in the title role, and it was the first production in the renovated and elevated Palace Theater. But the New York run has already posted its closing notice for Dec. 8, with a total of only 24 previews and 29 regular performances and at a loss of $25 million. So what went wrong?

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Oliver!
Broadway Theater Center - Cabot Theater

Skylight Music Theater ties a bow around the holiday season with an early theatrical gift: a joyous, eye-popping production of Oliver!. This production warms your heart even as it tickles your funny bone with colorful characters, a fantastic backdrop and a memorable score.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Swept Away
Longacre Theater

The temptation to come up with disastrous voyage metaphors when evaluating Swept Away, the new musical at the Longacre after runs at Berkeley Rep and Arena Stage, is great. The folk-rock tuner employing the music of The Avett Brothers mainly from their album “Mignonette,” even at a relatively short, intermissionless 90 minutes, is a difficult slog.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Elf: The Musical
Marquis Theater

The revival of Elf the Musical at the Marquis has no greater goal than to provide two-and-a-half hours of jolly Yuletide cheer and succeeds with “Sparklejollytwinklejingley” joy, to quote one of Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin’s clever songs. Based on the 2003 film comedy starring Will Farrell, this production staged by Philip Wm. McKinley is a stripped-down, speedy version of Casey Nicholaw’s original which played Broadway in 2010 and again in 2012. Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin’s sharp book remains a giddy delight, smart enough for both kids and adults.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Florida State University for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

Beautiful as a musical biography of Carole King is basically a jukebox musical, but in Asolo Rep’s version it becomes a scenic extravaganza. Its directors spare no technical effects, especially lighting on various levels and tiers of rectangles that contain scenes or parts of scenes. In every way, it’s a treat for the eyes as well as the ears.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Wonderful World, A: The Louis Armstrong Musical
Studio 54

What a wonderful show. A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical at Studio 54 after engagements and workshops in Miami, New Orleans, and Chicago, is an absorbing, dazzling musical focusing on the life of the titular beloved jazz icon. James Monroe Iglehart masterfully embodies the great Satchmo, precisely imitating his signature rumbling growl and conveying the enveloping warmth of his performance style as well as his roiling inner conflicts.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
We Live in Cairo
New York Theater Workshop

We Live in Cairo at New York Theater Workshop has ambitions beyond escapism and succeeds. Set during the volatile period in Egypt between 2010 and 2014, Cairo focuses on six young activists revolting against Hosni Mubarak’s autocratic government and the extremist regime of Mohammed Morsi which followed. The book and score by The Lazours (brothers Daniel and Patrick Lazour) combine Egyptian-influenced music with the complexity of political idealism clashing with harsh reality.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Big Gay Jamboree, The
Orpheum Theater

The Big Gay Jamboree at the Orpheum Theatre traverses the territory from simplistic parody to clever satire. Jamboree doesn’t settle for easy laughs based on stereotypes. The razor sharp book by lead actress Marla Mindelle and Jonathan Parks-Ramage and the songs by Mindelle and Philip Drennen mercilessly skewer musical theater tropes past and present as well as a plethora of pop culture targets from the “Real Housewives” franchise to the Upright Citizen Brigade comedy troupe to Mindelle’s own Titanique musical.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Curious Savage, The
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

Ethel is “The Curious Savage” who has been sent to a mental institution by her awful stepchildren because she wants to give away the considerable fortune she has inherited. But not to them. She’s hidden her bonds with the intention of enriching needy and worthy people. Will she meet some in her new situation? And what will be the result?

Despite Ethel Savage’s likability, quickly and firmly established in Calee Gardner’s performance here, her fate and the rest of the plot come over as banal. John Patrick’s play, set in 1950s, is indeed dated.  

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Maybe Happy Ending
Belasco Theater

The almost-human robot is a familiar protagonist in science fiction and social-commentary narratives. Karel Capek’s RUR, Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Klara and the Sun” and “Never Let Me Go,” Ian McEwan’s “Machines Like Me,” and Ray Bradbury’s “The Electric Grandmother” are just a few of the texts exploring the themes of artificial beings taking on human emotions and coping with obsolescence. The enchanting but hardly innovative new musical Maybe Happy Ending at the Belasco, after runs in South Korea and Atlanta, features a similar plot.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Drag: The Musical
New World Stages

The plot of Drag: The Musical is as thin as a spaghetti strap, yet the show is a crazy hoot and worth enduring a cliche or two. The exposition is delivered in a voice-over by producer Liza Minnelli accompanied by the gorgeous video design of Aaron Rhyne. Two rival drag clubs are faced with bankruptcy and eviction unless the performers can pull up their brassieres and pile up their hairdos to overcome the shuttering of their beloved establishments. The Fish Tank is headlined by Alexis Gilmore (Nick Adams), whose management skills don’t equal his pizzazz and flair.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Waitress
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz

It’s the performances that make Waitress a tasty treat at Florida Studio Theatre’s Gompertz. The plot centers on Jenna, leading baker and server for Joe’s  Pie Diner. She (versatile Kaitlyn Davidson) longs to leave husband Earl (James David Larson, fully conveying Earl’s abusive taking of her earnings and insisting Jenna not share love with anyone but him). Unfortunately, he impregnates her and she wants neither a child nor abortion.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Romeo + Juliet
Circle in the Square

Sam Gold’s sexy, rock-infused production of Romeo + Juliet is messy and unwieldy but succeeds in tearing our hearts out. Like Gold’s previous Broadway Shakespearean outings—his hodgepodge King Lear with Glenda Jackson and his jumbled Macbeth with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga— his R + J is messy, but there is a method to its scattered madness.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Left on Tenth
James Earl Jones Theater

Delia Ephron’s memoir “Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life” is a moving, heartbreaking account of the author’s reclaiming love and life after losing a beloved husband, finding a second amour, being diagnosed with leukemia and cancer, and dealing with endless phone prompts with Verizon. It’s funny, moving, and joyful. However, the material does not translate well from the page to the stage in Ephron’s theater adaptation now at the James Earl Jones. Perhaps it would have worked better on film since many of the scenes are so brief, some lasting only a few seconds.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2024
Hold On to Me Darling
Lucille Lortel Theater

Originally presented at the Atlantic Theater Company in 2016, Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold On to Me Darling focuses on self-centered country-western superstar Strings McCrane, struggling to find happiness in the aftermath of his censorious mother’s death. Lonergan’s nearly three-hour comedy-drama never drags in Neil Pepe’s solid-steel production (Pepe also directed the previous Atlantic staging). Adam Driver manages to make Strings sympathetic even though the character is constantly making impulsive decisions and leaving emotional wreckage in his glamorous wake.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
Vladimir
City Center - Stage 1

Manhattan Theater Club offers a piercing drama on an Off-Broadway stage at City Center’s Stage I. Erika Sheffer’s Vladimir may evoke comparisons to last season’s Patriots, Peter Morgan’s harrowing drama of the rise of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and the downfall of oligarch Boris Berezovsky. But, unlike Morgan’s penetrating portrait of Russian power struggles, Sheffer keeps Putin off-stage and makes her title character a menacing, unseen monster.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
McNeal
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

I love Robert Downey, Jr. He's one of my favorite actors; I try to see everything he does. But this show, McNeal, is just a major disappointment. I didn't like it, I didn't understand it, and I was just plain bored for much of it. I’m guessing many in the audience left before the show was over.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
Sunset Boulevard
St. James Theater

Nicole Scherzinger is the toast of Broadway! Her star turn as Norma Desmond in this latest production of Sunset Boulevard is nothing short of brilliant, astounding, gorgeous. With her amazing talent and beauty, it's astonishing that more people don't know her name.

The roles she's had up to now reflect the long and winding road that even the most gifted performers must take to reach the top.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
Our Town
Barrymore Theatetr

Our Town has been touted as "The Great American Play." It show us not only what our country is but also what our country used to be. We used to have neighbors, not just people who lived near us. There was a politeness, a respect for each other. I remember my parents calling people they'd known for quite awhile Mr. or Mrs. or Dr. And children never called adults by their first names ever.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
In the Canyon
Broadway Theater Center - Studio Theater

The Constructivist’s fall season begins with a dystopian reality as portrayed in In the Canyon, an unnerving but occasionally humorous play by Calamity West. In her director’s notes, artistic director Jaimelyn Gray confesses that as soon as she read the script, she knew it was right for the Constructivists, a theater company known for its dark humor and bleak landscapes. After all, who else would debut with a play called, Gruesome Playground Injuries?

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
She Loves Me
Saber Center for the Performing Arts

There couldn’t be a sweeter introduction to fall’s spiced latte season than the sentimental musical, She Loves Me. Forte Theatre Company makes She Loves Me its first offering in the show’s fifth season. As directed by Randall Dodge, Forte’s artistic director, the show maintains all the elements that have turned this show into a cult classic over the years. She Loves Me first opened on Broadway in 1963, and it became a hit revival in 2016.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
Roommate, The
Booth Theater

The Roommate tells us "Being bad never felt so good." Uh oh. In this production, it just isn't really true. We came, as I think most of the audience had, to experience two splendid actresses working together. Mia Farrow is shy, quiet, and inexperienced Sharon. Patti LuPone is Robyn, the loud, angry woman who arrives to share the big empty house where Sharon lives. If you can't figure out most of what follows next, you have sat at home too long.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
Acts of Peace: A Journey Through One Acts
St. Christopher's Episcopal Church - Norvill Commons

A series of one-acts opens the fall season at Acacia Theater Company. Acacia performs in the lower level of a church in leafy River Hills, WI. Despite what one may imagine a “church basement” looks like, this handsome space has been refitted nicely with an impressive stage, lighting, seating and sound to bring the audience in close proximity to the actors. It is a black box theater equal to many of the “professional” performing arts space around town.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
McNeal
Lincoln Center Theater - Vivian Beaumont Theater

Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal starring Oscar winner Robert Downey, Jr. at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater certainly looks impressive in Bartlett Sher’s dazzling, special-effects-laden production. Akhtar’s script deals with a narcissistic, Nobel Prize-winning novelist facing his own mortality and the encroaching dangers of artificial intelligence. Sher stuns us with a sleek, futuristic staging. The time is “the very near future” when three of the top volumes on the New York Times best-seller list are authored by AI.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
Beacon, The
Irish Repertory Theater

Nancy Harris’s The Beacon, making its North American debut at Irish Repertory Theater, is a little too well-crafted for its own good. The plot-heavy melodrama crowds in too many themes, ideas, and relationships and collapses under its own weight. We’ve got the feminist, independent artist angle represented by Beiv, an iron-willed painter (Kate Mulgrew in a bravura performance) struggling with a deep, dark secret.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
October 2024
Counter, The
Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center - Laura Pels Theater

In The Counter, now at Roundabout Theater Company’s Laura Pels space, playwright Meghan Kennedy, director David Cromer and a loving, small cast have breathed new life into a reliable trope. In an upstate New York diner (beautifully designed with realistic detail by Walt Spangler) two lonely souls reach out to each other. How many times have we heard that one before? But the author, Anthony Edwards as misanthropic regular customer Paul and Susannah Flood as empathic waitress Katie cook up a satisfying meal of comfort food.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
October 2024

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