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

New York City Ballet's winter season is almost over, but Saturday afternoon I got to see five ballets during the 21st Century Choreographers program, bringing my season to a close on a high note. First were three shorter ballets. Peter Martins 's Ash got things going. Or, more accurately, the music did. Ash is set to an eponymous composition by Michael Torke , and was Martins's fourth ballet set to Torke's music. I found the music—especially the percussion section—to be more interesting and engaging than the choreography and dancing. Unfortunately, the ensemble (Sara Adams; Spartak Hoxha; Laine Habony; Sebastian Villarini-Velez; Ashley Hod; Devin Alberda; Unity Phelan; and Cameron Dieck) looked a little sloppy in the chaotic choreography. This is unusual for the venerable Company. Soloists Ashley Laracey and Zachary Catazaro were the featured dancers. They were good together, but they couldn't do much to make this ballet interesting. As I've noted ...

Casting News Taye Diggs ( Rent ) has been confirmed as the next Hedwig in the Tony-winning revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch . Diggs will begin performances on July 22, and continue for a 12-week run. The fantastic Rebecca Naomi Jones will continue in the role of Yitzhak. (Scroll down for her first backstage vlog.) Broadway.com has more. Uma Thurman ( Pulp Fiction ) and Kristin Chenoweth ( On the Twentieth Century ) will co-star in The Brits Are Coming , a comedic heist movie written by James Okaley and Alex Michaelides, and directed by Oakley. The Hollywood Reporter has details.    Tony winner John Gallagher, Jr. ( American Idiot , The Newsroom ) has his next gig lined up: The talented star has joined the cast of The Belko Experiment , a film written by James Gunn. Greg McLean will direct the picture, set to begin shooting in Bogota, Colombia, this June. Gunn posted the news on Facebook in a thoughtful message about the first time Gallagher auditioned for hi...

New York City Ballet's fall season continues, and on Saturday afternoon, I had the pleasure of seeing three of my favorites. But before the repeat viewings, the program began with George Balanchine 's Chaconne . Set to music by Christoph Willibald von Gluck , Chaconne  is a repurposed ballet that was originally part of the opera Orphee et Euridice . As program notes state, "a chaconne is a dance built on a phrase in the bass and was often used by composers in the 17th and 18th centuries to end an opera in a festive mood." My best guess says that this ballet did just that.  Chaconne  is a pretty ballet, with much pageantry, much like most of the ballets with roots in opera divertissements.  Chaconne  opens with a section that seems almost like a warm up. The dancing and the music are light and airy. The women wear their hair down, and their costumes are subtle and flowing. Soon, the music picks up, and we're treated to a series of five movements....

Well, unfortunately, it’s time to say a brief farewell to the New York City Ballet. This weekend marked the end of the Company’s winter season but the spring season is just around the corner, with performances starting on April 29. This weekend also marked, however, the farewell performances of beloved principal dancers Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici. The couple is moving out to LA, where Marcovici will be a ballet master for the LA Dance Project, which was founded by former NYCB dancer Benjamin Millepied. While I didn’t attend their final performance, I was there for their penultimate performance, and it was great to see them on stage one last time. (The photo above was taken as they took their farewell bows, and was shared on the Company's Facebook page .) But the afternoon began with a repeat performance of Liam Scarlett ’s Acheron . When I booked my season a year ago, this spot on the program was supposed to be filled with a new Peter Martins piece, the one that...