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

The nominations for the 69th Tony Awards are in! (And, big news, Tony winners Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming will host the Tony Awards !) Without any further ado, here is the full list of nominees. (First the plays, then the musicals.) Best Play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time , by Simon Stephens Disgraced , by Ayad Akhtar Hand to God , by Robert Askins Wolf Hall , by Hilary Mantel and Mike Poulton You know what I like about this slate of plays? They represent diversity in storytelling, tone, subject matter and size. Though I haven't seen Wolf Hall (I'm watching the BBC film adaptation, starring Mark Rylance, on PBS, instead), I feel confident in saying this race comes down to The Curious Incident and Hand to God , with The Curious Incident favored to win. (And with good reason: it's incredible!) That said, I am saddened to see Constellations left off the list. Best Revival of a Play The Elephant Man Skylight This is Our Youth ...

I didn't know anything about this extraordinary new play when I went in. Well, that's not entirely true. I knew the lead character was a teenage boy who is autistic. Other than that, I didn't know anything, and I kept laughing at its long and somewhat unwieldy title. My skepticism was silenced as soon as the show began. Brought over from a hit, Olivier–winning run in London, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time  is a great story about discovering yourself, and it's brought to life in a marvelous production. The play opens with our protagonist, Christopher ( Alexander Sharp ), standing over a dead dog, the victim of a gruesome killing. Christopher vows to find out who killed the dog, and while pursuing that line of detection, as he would call it, he finds out that he's capable of great things—that the world is, in fact, open to him. Making an impressive Broadway debut, Sharp gives an astonishing performance. Sharp imbues Christopher with curiosity...