In 2003, Mark Haddon wrote a well-received novel about a 15-year-old boy solving a mystery that's become a literary staple. But “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is atypical of the boy-detective form because the boy in Haddon’s novel is atypical. He has autism and experiences the world in a markedly different way from most of us, possessing, among other qualities, a keen visual sense and an aversion to being touched, in addition to the usual challenges of adolescence. Haddon’s ...
Dec 10, 2014•4 min•Ep. 157
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were riding high in 1947 on the successes of Oklahoma! and Carousel . For their next show they tried something with a Greek chorus and a stage with no sets and few props. The subject matter was unusual, too, a man whose story ends with him in a state of existential confusion. The show, Allegro , was not a hit. But now, director John Doyle has revived Allegro in a production for Classic Stage Company.
Dec 03, 2014•4 min•Ep. 156
Edward Albee’s 1966 play A Delicate Balance won him the first of his three Pulitzer Prizes. It has become one of his most highly regarded and frequently produced works, and returns for its third run on Broadway with one of the season’s starriest casts.
Nov 26, 2014•3 min•Ep. 155
A musical that spent just a few months on Broadway in 1997 has been re-tooled and returned to the Great White Way. Side Show is based on the lives of Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins born in Britain in 1908, who became famous on the vaudeville and sideshow circuit there and in the United States in the 1930s.
Nov 19, 2014•3 min•Ep. 154
On Broadway right now at the Neil Simon Theatre is The Last Ship , which might as well be called The Sting Musical , since the pop superstar has contributed not only music and lyrics, but most of the pre-launch publicity. The story is based on the world Sting knew growing up in an English seaside town where life revolved around the local shipyard.
Nov 12, 2014•3 min•Ep. 153
A short Off-Broadway run in 2012 was New York’s introduction to Disgraced . Novelist and screenwriter Ayad Akhtar’s drama is about the stresses placed on an American Muslim man struggling to resolve conflicting world views within himself and among his family and friends. The play now returns to New York, this time on Broadway and with bigger credentials, too, as a 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner.
Nov 05, 2014•3 min•Ep. 152
The hottest-selling show on Broadway this fall is, surprisingly, not a musical. Instead, it’s the revival of Terrence McNally’s 1982 comedy It’s Only a Play , set in a theater producer’s lavish New York apartment where a group of onstage and offstage principals anticipate the reviews after opening night. The reason for It's Only a Play's current ticket craze is the virtually all-star cast: Matthew Broderick is the playwright; Nathan Lane is his best friend; Rupert Grint is the genius director; M...
Oct 15, 2014•4 min•Ep. 151
To say that Tail! Spin! is true to life might be a bit of an understatement. Mario Correa’s play uses words taken from the public record to tell the sex-scandal stories of four politicians: Anthony Weiner, Mark Sanford, Larry Craig and Mark Foley. The four men are played by different actors, but all the women — “wives, tails, beards and Barbara Walters,” as the show’s website puts it — are played by former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Rachel Dratch.
Oct 08, 2014•4 min•Ep. 150
Steve Martin has quite a resume: comic, actor, writer, art collector, banjo player and now, musical book writer and musical theater co-creator. Martin and his collaborator, singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, have written the new show Bright Star , in which we see the lives of two people from the perspective of a couple of different decades in their lives.
Oct 01, 2014•4 min•Ep. 149
In the late 1980s, A.R. Gurney created an unusual play consisting only of a long correspondence between two people. But that play, Love Letters , has endured and has been seen in innumerable regional and amateur theater productions. Perhaps that’s because it’s easy to produce: no chorus lines, no costumes, no need for a balcony or a staircase on the stage set. The text is the lifelong correspondence between a man and woman of the East Coast upper crust and it is read by the actors on a bare stag...
Sep 24, 2014•3 min•Ep. 148
Playwrights Horizons, a New York theater company with a mission devoted to supporting works by American writers, has opened its new season with a bold new play. Bootycandy , written and directed by Robert O’Hara, is a surreal and sexually explicit comedy about growing up black and gay in America. Philip James Brandon stars as Sutter, who grows from boy to man to budding playwright in the course of the play.
Sep 17, 2014•3 min•Ep. 147
The prolific A.R. Gurney is among the playwrights in residence at the Signature Theatre Company this year. The first of three Gurney plays to be presented is a revival of his 1977 play The Wayside Motor Inn , in which 10 characters dealing with various life crises all check in to the same motel outside Boston. The production is directed by Lila Neugebauer.
Sep 10, 2014•3 min•Ep. 146
New York City’s new theater season is a great way to cure those end-of-summer blues. There are plenty of revivals and a few choice new offerings. There are musicals and straight plays. There are star-filled casts and productions in which the play’s the thing. New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood suggests a few — well, more than a few — shows that are likely to pique the interests of Broadway and Off-Broadway patrons.
Sep 03, 2014•4 min•Ep. 145
Robert Schenkkan’s All the Way , this year’s Tony winner for best play and for its leading actor, Bryan Cranston, was a hefty drama about Lyndon Johnson and the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. But, in fact, it was only half the story: The Great Society is the name of Schenkkan’s sequel.
Aug 27, 2014•3 min•Ep. 144
Summer is the slow season for Broadway, with few shows opening between the Tony Awards in June and the fall season kickoff in September. But it’s high season for theater festivals. New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood made a trip to the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, one of the largest festivals in North America.
Aug 20, 2014•3 min•Ep. 143
The nature of intimacy is one of the themes of Laura Eason’s new play Sex With Strangers , in which two writers first get busy and then get to know each other. Olivia is played by Anna Gunn, best-known for her portrayal of Skyler White on the AMC series “Breaking Bad.” Ethan is played by Billy Magnussen, a Tony Award nominee for his portrayal of the last of the four title characters in Vanya, Sonya, Masha, and Spike . There’s also a notable name behind the scene — the director is David Schwimmer...
Aug 13, 2014•3 min•Ep. 142
Your usual beauty contest features a lot of the same elements as this Off-Broadway musical making its return — lots of makeup, form-fitting costumes, noble speeches of rehearsed sincerity, and musical performances. The significant difference in Pageant is what lies beneath; the hyper-feminine contestants are all men. They're vying for the title of Miss Glamouresse and members of the audience help select the winner.
Aug 06, 2014•3 min•Ep. 141
Lili is young, beautiful and married to South Texas magnate Alberto, who never appears on stage in the new Off-Broadway play Mala Herbia by Tanya Saracho, who writes for the HBO series “Looking” and “Girls.” Those who are on stage in this story of a troubled Mexican-American trophy wife include Lili’s housekeeper, stepdaughter by one of Alberto’s earlier marriages and Lili's former lover, Mari. In spite of her name, Lili is the ostensible weed referred to in the play’s Spanish title, but she may...
Jul 30, 2014•3 min•Ep. 140
Classical pianist Mona Golabek is a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is also now a stage performer, telling the story of her mother’s life in the one-woman show The Pianist of Willesden Lane , now playing at 59E59 Theaters.
Jul 23, 2014•3 min•Ep. 139
The title of Brigadoon , the 1947 musical by Lerner and Lowe, refers to a mythical Scottish town that appears for only a single day every 100 years. Though not quite as seldom seen as the town, Brigadoon the musical — the first hit by the team that later created the legendary shows My Fair Lady and Camelot — hasn’t had a Broadway revival in more than three decades. But it has been given a big new production, now extended through Aug. 17, at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre....
Jul 16, 2014•3 min•Ep. 138
Cherry Jones, who won acclaim for her portrayal of Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie on Broadway this past fall, has made a quick return to the New York stage. She’s starring in a new play, When We Were Young and Unafraid , by Sarah Treem, a writer for the Netflix series "House Of Cards."
Jul 09, 2014•3 min•Ep. 137
Benjamin Scheuer is a New York City singer-songwriter and the star — in fact, the only performer — in a new Manhattan Theater Company production called The Lion directed by Sean Daniels. In this autobiographical show, Scheuer, who’s just 32, reflects on the ups and downs of a fairly turbulent life as told through story and song.
Jul 02, 2014•3 min•Ep. 136
Broadway's latest jukebox musical — a show built around pre-existing songs — is a new twist on this now-familiar theatrical form. Holler If Ya Hear Me is inspired by music of the late rap star Tupac Shakur. New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood discusses the show, its source material, the fictional story created to support the music and the challenges of turning a highly theatrical music form into actual theater.
Jun 25, 2014•4 min•Ep. 135
The playwright Ayad Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize last year for his breakthrough play Disgraced , about the clash between traditional Islamic beliefs and contemporary American culture. He returns to similar themes in his new play The Who & the What , which is being presented by Lincoln Center Theater as part of its LCT3 series at the Claire Tow Theater.
Jun 18, 2014•3 min•Ep. 134
If the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth need a lot of space to cook up their double helping of toil and trouble, they've got it at the Park Avenue Armory. That’s where the latest New York staging of Macbeth is being presented. The lavish and action-packed production is a joint effort between the Armory and the Manchester International Festival. It is also the New York stage debut of acclaimed actor and director Kenneth Branagh, who takes the title role (he is co-director here, with Rob Ashford)....
Jun 11, 2014•4 min•Ep. 133
The versatile actor Jim Dale takes the stage solo in his new show, aptly and modestly entitled Just Jim Dale . Accompanied by the pianist Mark York, the show, directed by Richard Maltby Jr., is an autobiography in song, story and even a little dance. It plays at the Roundabout Theatre Company's Laura Pels Theater.
Jun 04, 2014•3 min•Ep. 132
Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan isn’t even 20-years-old, but the play is already getting its third New York production. The latest does have a couple of special characteristics. The play is being presented for the first time in a Broadway house at the Court Theatre and leading the cast — and, presumably, the tourist-ticket trade — is Daniel Radcliffe, best known as the big screen Harry Potter.
May 28, 2014•3 min•Ep. 131
The latest silver-screener to migrate to the Great White Way is Bullets Over Broadway , Woody Allen’s 1994 film about a playwright who becomes entangled with mobsters. The musical-comedy, set in the 1920s, employs hits of the era such as "Let’s Misbehave," and lesser known Tin Pan Alley tunes, and includes a cast of seasoned Broadway performers, as well as TV star Zach Braff. The production is directed and choreographed by the award-winning Susan Stroman.
May 07, 2014•3 min•Ep. 130
Nominations for the 68th annual Tony Awards were announced Tuesday, with tough competition in several categories. For instance, Tyne Daly, Cherry Jones and Audra McDonald are among the nominees for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play; Sutton Foster, Idina Menzel and Kelly O'Hara are all nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.
Apr 30, 2014•3 min•Ep. 129
The Off-Broadway musical Violet has found new life on Broadway in a revival by the Roundabout Theater Company. Directed by Leigh Silverman, the production features Broadway star Sutton Foster.
Apr 23, 2014•3 min•Ep. 128
