All in Broadway
Edward Albee’s 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece “Three Tall Women” is ferociously compelling under the smart hand of director Joe Mantello, and features a trio of astonishing performances by Glenda Jackson, Laurie Metcalf, and Alison Pill. This limited engagement of a towering work by a towering playwright and featuring three towering performances is not to be missed.
“Lobby Hero” is a funny, simple, and engaging play that follows the morally fraught actions of a quartet of uniformed personalities: two security guards and two police officers. Despite an anti-climactic ending, Michael Cera and Chris Evans give excellent performances and the play, touching on issues like workplace sexual harassment and racial bias in criminal justice, is eminently entertaining.
“Frozen”, the new musical based on Disney’s 2013 box office bonanza animated film, is a disappointing, self-conscious, and abundantly safe two-dimensional stage version of a two-dimensional cartoon, lacking grand gestures of sweeping inspiration or genuine smiles of magic, instead feeling mostly rote and composed by committee. You’re better off letting this one go.
“Escape to Margaritaville” is a reverse-engineered juke box musical fashioning the catalogue of beach bum rocker Jimmy Buffett into an abundantly sunny but soulless celebration of mindless inebriation and middling intellect where more fun is had on stage than in the audience. Opt out of this branding venture, and follow the Parrotheads to a Jimmy Buffett concert instead.
In Taylor Trensch, “Dear Evan Hansen” has welcomed a new star who not only delivers a superb and confident performance in a behemoth, marathon title part, but also reinvigorates the whole production. Mr. Trensch is, in a word: terrific.
Nearly a year into its run, “Hello, Dolly!” is buoyantly better, brighter, and tighter than on opening night. Bernadette Peters gives a stellar, steadier, and more grounded performance as Dolly Levi, alongside replacements Victor Garber, Charlie Stemp, and Molly Griggs—and Gavin Creel and Kate Baldwin, and the ensemble, are better than ever. This is the best musical comedy on Broadway. If you haven't seen it, get tickets now; if you have seen it, it's worth checking back in.
Thirty years ago tonight, on January 26, 1988, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical "The Phantom of the Opera" opened at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway; on Wednesday night, I attended the special 30th anniversary gala performance.
“John Lithgow: Stories By Heart” is actor John Lithgow’s love letter to storytelling in which he performs two short stories by Ring Lardner and P.G. Wodehouse and shares a few of his own. Mr. Lithgow is charming as ever, and gives an impressive performance, but the show itself is disappointing and long-winded. I wanted more Lithgow, and less Lardner and Wodehouse.
Mark Rylance shines as King Philippe descending into madness in “Farinelli and the King”, a light, present of a play granted a sumptuous, candlelit and music-infused production on Broadway. I recommend you catch a performance of this acclaimed and strictly limited import from Shakespeare’s Globe in London.
“The Children”, a new, dark tragicomedy by Lucy Kirkwood, offers an allegorical and humorous take on our doomed planet through the lens of the intergenerational guilt and responsibility of nuclear physicists in the wake of a disaster. An acclaimed transfer from London, the performances are pitch-perfect and the play both relevant and trenchant.
"SpongeBob SquarePants”—a bright, silly, and sweet new party of a musical—is big-hearted and big fun; director and conceiver Tina Landau has skillfully adapted the popular Nickelodeon cartoon for the stage in a buoyant and exuberant production that is both entertaining and moving for theatregoers of all ages, offering a welcomed antidote to these beleaguered times.
Thank the Gods, a gorgeous, creative, and first-rate production of the musical gem “Once On This Island” is back on Broadway, smartly re-imagined for 2017 and featuring ravishing performances and inventive staging that provide for a joyous and uplifting evening of theatre.
