Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

A New Brain is William Finn 's deeply personal show about a fledgling composer who discovers there is a problem with his brain. (Finn wrote the show's score; he shares book writing credit with James Lapine .) In the program notes for this Encores! presentation of the show (directed by Lapine), Finn notes that he took some liberties with the details. Finn was not, for example, a struggling composer when he was diagnosed. Still, the emotion Finn packs in is real and honest. Finn's alter ego is Gordon Michael Schwinn (Jonathan Groff). Schwinn is working on a children's show, writing jingles to pay the bills. When he is admitted to the hospital and learns that the problem is in his brain, he is faced with his own mortality. Surrounded by his mother, Mimi (Ana Gasteyer), boyfriend, Roger (Aaron Lazar), and others, he contemplates what he's doing with his life and how; he thinks about the people around him; and he thinks about what his music means to him. In all, S...

What've we got? It's not now't, that's for sure. The new, original musical, The Last Ship , has set sail on Broadway and I love it. Conceived by Sting , the personal musical features a score by the rocker and a book by Brian Yorkey  ( If/Then , Next to Normal ) and John Logan  ( Red ). It tells the story of Gideon Fletcher (Michael Esper), who is returning to his working-class hometown of Wallsend (in the northeast of England) after turning his back 15 years ago. Wallsend is a blue-collar company town where the men build ships and everyone is family. Times are tough and the shipyard has closed; not knowing what to do with themselves, the men decide to build one last ship. While the town is struggling to find its identity, Gideon is struggling to find his home. He rejected the notion of following in the footsteps of his father and his father's father and so on; he did not want to be a ship builder, and so he fled Wallsend, leaving behind his love, Meg Dawson (R...