New York

Review: ‘You for Me for You’ at InterAct Theatre Company

Is there any place on Earth more mysterious than North Korea? Aside from the grand ambitions of the brutal dictator (known to his subjects as “Our Dear Leader”) who runs the country without any...

The League of Professional Theatre Women’s 2017 Awards Celebration and Big Mingle

Founded in 1981, the mission of the League of Professional Theatre Women, a non-profit advocacy organization headquartered in New York City, is to promote increased opportunities, greater visibility,...

Review: ‘Sweat’ at Studio 54

It took a while, but the Oregon Shakespeare Festival helped by staging this remarkable play in the summer of 2014. It caused enough of a stir for the Public Theatre in New York to pick it up for a run...

Review: ‘Mamma Mia!’ at Westchester Broadway Theatre

Westchester Broadway Theatre is currently delighting audiences with a dazzling performance of Mamma Mia! This is their 200th production and is well worthy of the honor. From the beautiful peaceful...

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

In the new Beauty and the Beast at Toby’s Dinner Theatre, it’s not just the accursed Beast and his castle of talking knickknacks that are caught in a magic spell of enchantment. So were lucky...

Review: ‘Church & State’ at New World Stages

Religion, gun control, and the impact of social media are the hot-button issues addressed by playwright Jason Odell Williams in Church & State, a political dramedy now making its New York premiere at...

Review: ‘The Glass Menagerie’ at The Belasco Theatre

This is the play that introduced me to the writings of Tennessee Williams long ago, in 1945! That was the original production at the Playhouse Theatre on Broadway, and it contained the now legendary...

Review: ‘Sub-Basement’ at Athena Theatre Company

It’s not always easy to decide who you are and what you want to be when you grow up, especially if your father, ex-boyfriend, new date, and society at large, in both Canada and the US, are pulling you...

Review: ‘The New Yorkers’ at New York City Center’s Encores!

Producer Jack Viertel and his merry band of music makers at Encores! have unearthed another great example of the beginnings of American dominance in the field of musical theatre. Our heritage is so...

Review: ‘The King and I’ at the Academy of Music

More than sixty years after its debut, The King and I remains one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most popular and enduring musicals. The handsome national touring company of the recent Broadway revival...

Review: ‘The Shattering Frame: A Bridgette Miakowski Mystery’ at Annex Theater

It was night like any other night in Charm City; me and my fella were sitting home, gabbin’ about what to do. We remembered hearing some buzz about a brand new play that ain’t never been seen before....

Review: ‘My Son the Waiter, A Jewish Tragedy’ at Bucks County Playhouse

Nearly everyone in the arts has taken another job such as waiter, receptionist, or office temp just to pay the rent. Brad Zimmerman has an unfortunately typical problem: He’s Jewish and his parents...

Bethesda Little Theatre’s New Musical Revue “Let’s Not Talk About Love” Opens Tonight: ‘Inside The Numbers’: Part Two

Bethesda Little Theatre’s New Musical Revue “Let’s Not Talk About Love” Covers All the Bases, by Christina Ling “Let’s not talk about love,” Cole Porter once implored, and who would disagree with the...

Review: ‘Home/Sick’ at The Assembly

The original cast and design team of 2011 return for The Assembly’s powerhouse revival of its critically-acclaimed hit Home/Sick. Presented at Brooklyn’s JACK, and directed by Jess Chayes (recipient...

Review: ‘Deconstruction’ at The Storm Theatre Company

“Who are you?” That is the philosophical question and moral issue raised in playwright Jonathan Leaf’s Deconstruction, a world-premiere three-hander (presented in conjunction with Christopher Ekstrom...

Review: ‘Come From Away’ at The Schoenfeld Theatre

One thing is certain about this new musical, now on Broadway at The Schoenfeld Theatre – it had the youngsters in the audience hooting and hollering and having themselves a fine time from start to...

Review: ‘Viva la Zarzuela! The Music of Spain’ at Concert Operetta Theater

Concert Operetta Theater was founded in 2008 to revive and preserve the type of musical theater that’s more lighthearted and accessible than opera, but a bit grander than Broadway. These tuneful...

Review: ‘The Price’ at Roundabout Theatre Company at The American Airlines Theatre

This is one of Arthur Miller’s successes, and though it’s been revived three times on Broadway since it first appeared in 1968, it has never attracted the audiences that flocked to Death of a...

Review: ‘The Gravedigger’s Lullaby’ at TACT

Jeff Talbott established himself as a writer of great promise with the MCC Theater production of his first play The Submission in 2011. This excellent actor/playwright joined The Actors Company...

Review: ‘John & Jen’ at The Eagle Theatre

Welcome to the world It’s such a funny place The people who you love the most Are also the ones Who make you cry I’m not sure why A girl sings these lines to her newborn brother in the opening moments...

Bethesda Little Theatre’s ‘Let’s Not Talk About Love’ Plays March 24-26th: ‘Inside The Numbers’ Part 1

We’re not going to be talking about love, but I bet you can guess what we will be doing…singing about it…a LOT! So strap in, because you’re going to get two solid hours of some fantastic musical...

Review: ‘Evening at the Talk House’ at Pershing Square Signature Center

With the spate of openings in March, I wasn’t able to get to Wallace Shawn’s new play, the New Group’s production which played a strictly limited engagement through March 12, 2017, only until the day...

Review: ‘The Circle of Life: The Songs of Tim Rice’ at Young Artists of America

When you have over 100 talented musicians and singers filling the Strathmore stage, you know you are in for some great singing and playing from Young Artists of America. In a world premiere concert,...

Review: ‘Side Show’ at The Media Theatre

Come look at the freaks Come gape at the geeks Come examine their aberrations Is this any way to begin a Broadway musical? Well, if the subject matter is any individual who has been the victim of...

Review: ‘Linda’ at Manhattan Theatre Club

I don’t know all the works of author Penelope Skinner, but based on The Village Bike and the currently running New York production of Linda, I suspect she is now on the short list of the best female...

‘COME HEAR THE MUSIC PLAY:’ Memories of My Twenty Years as Agent For John Kander by Richard Seff: Part Two: ‘The Curtain Rises’: ‘Flora, the Red Menace,’ ‘Cabaret,’ ‘Zorba,’ and ‘The Happy Time’

John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Richard Seff at a dinner honoring Harold Prince. Photo courtesy of Richard Seff. THE CURTAIN RISES. One of the properties for which I tried to get this new team hired was...

Meet the Cast: The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.’ Part Three: Rinaldo Martinez

In Part Three of a series of interviews with the cast of The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, meet Rinaldo Martinez who plays J. Pierrepont Finch....

Review: ‘If I Forget’ at The Laura Pels Theatre in the Steinberg Center

I know Playwright Steven Levenson only from his work as librettist on the musical Dear Evan Hansen, so this for me is his first play. It more than fulfills the promise shown in the musical, where his...

‘COME HEAR THE MUSIC PLAY:’ Memories of My Twenty Years as Agent For John Kander by Richard Seff: Part One: The House Lights Dim’

COME HEAR THE MUSIC PLAY: Memories of My Twenty Years as Agent For John Kander by Richard Seff OVERTURE. John Kander and Fred Ebb have written some fifteen musicals for Broadway as well as an...

‘Come Hear The Music Play’-A Behind-The-Scenes Look at Kander and Ebb’s Musicals by Their Former Agent Richard Seff Begins Tomorrow on DCMetroTheaterArts

On March 18th composer John Kander will mark his 90th Birthday and to honor that happy occasion I’m going to unearth some of the memories I have of the twenty years in which I represented him as his...

Meet the Cast: The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.’ Part One: Michael Aylward

In a series of interviews with the cast of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s (GMCW) production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, meet Michael Aylward. Please introduce yourself...

Review: ‘Significant Other’ at the Booth Theatre

It’s hard to accept the realization that your BFFs aren’t really F, especially if you’re the single, and more-than-somewhat-neurotic, Jordan Berman. Feeling increasingly alone and abandoned after...

Review: ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ at the Academy of Music

Words like breathtaking, awe-inspiring, and touching only begin to describe the epic journey experienced in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, currently playing at the Academy of...

Interview: Playwright Jonathan Leaf Discusses His New Play ‘Deconstruction,’ Playing at The Storm Theatre Company in NYC March 3-25th

Full disclosure – I’ve known Jonathan Leaf for a long time. We hung out in New York City in the early 2000’s when he was a budding playwright and I was finishing up grad school. Since then, Jonathan...

Review: ‘Connected’ at Take the Stage Performance Company

Take the Stage Performance Company’s latest production, Connected, took place last weekend at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington. A musical review of 15 songs from current Broadway hits such as...

Review: ‘Nibbler’ at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Making the transition from high-school graduation into adulthood can be a challenge, especially for teens who haven’t quite yet found themselves. Ken Urban’s Nibbler, a world-premiere production by...

Review: ‘Jonah and Otto’ at The Lion Theatre

Robert Holman is a British playwright whose plays have been done under the auspices of the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, he’s had productions of his many plays at half a dozen...

Review: ‘Motherhood Out Loud’ at Vagabond Players

There’s no one like your mother, as an old song goes. Vagabond Players’ production of Motherhood Out Loud, wonderfully directed by Rikki Howie Lacewell, explores that theme and nearly every angle of...

Review: ‘The Hot New Deal’ at Glenelg Country School

The Great Depression sure had a great soundtrack. That’s one take-away from the debut of a new “jukebox musical” named The Hot New Deal, now through February 25th at Glenelg Country School. Carole...

Review #2: ‘Kid Victory’ at Vineyard Theatre

When seventeen-year-old Luke returns home to small-town Kansas after being missing for a year, he must come to terms with what transpired and face the aftermath with his family, church, and community,...

Review #1: ‘Kid Victory’ at Vineyard Theatre

John Kander, who will soon be celebrating his 90th birthday, has now confirmed that his collaboration with 39 year-old playwright Greg Pierce, is on solid ground, and offers us great promise for more...

Review: “The Bodyguard: The Musical” at the Academy of Music

Whitney Houston is a tough act to follow, especially in a version of the vehicle created just for her to showcase her most popular songs. Deborah Cox, as the star singer Rachel Marron, holds her own...

Review: ‘The Matchmaker’ at People’s Light

An effervescent all-star ensemble of fourteen actors and two musicians under the ebullient direction of Abigail Adams brings to life the eccentric characters, madcap situations, and old-fashioned...

Review: ‘Uncle Vanya’ at Hedgerow Theatre

A group of people are seated at a dinner table. They discuss the weather. Meanwhile, their lives are falling apart. With the revealing use of subtext like this, Anton Chekhov and others introduced...

Review: ‘Sunset Boulevard’ at The Palace Theatre

The Palace Theatre is back in business with a big time headliner on the bill. It’s Glenn Close, returning to the role of Norma Desmond, direct from her recent great success in it at London’s Coliseum...

Take The Stage Presents ‘Connected’ at The Rockville Jewish Community Center on Fri 2/24; Sat 2/25; and Sun 2/26

Take the Stage Performance Company, one of DC’s hottest up-and-coming young performing ensembles, announces their new Broadway Revue Showcase, Connected. Get a front row seat for the best Broadway and...

From PlayPenn to Lincoln Center: A Conversation about ‘Oslo’ with Paul Meshejian and J.T. Rogers

Following its development in 2015 at PlayPenn — the respected thirteen-year-old Philadelphia-based artist-driven organization dedicated to supporting and fostering new work — playwright J.T. Rogers’...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at 2nd Star Productions

2nd Star Productions’ over-the-top presentation of Peter and The Starcatcher is a recent addition to the cannon of lore surrounding the first appearance of that ever-young, pre-tween character, Peter...

Review: ‘The Object Lesson’ at New York Theatre Workshop

As an avid collector of art, antiques, and memorabilia, with a PhD in Art History, I have spent a lot of time around objects, studying, explaining, and appreciating them. And I’ve always known that...

From the Artful Dodger and Peter Pan to Romeo: An Interview with Brandon O’Rourke of The Media Theatre’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’

Henrik: You left quite an impression portraying the Artful Dodger in Oliver! (2009) and Peter in Peter and the Starcatcher (2016) — both at the Walnut Street Theatre. Seen from the perspective of...