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

Reviewing the Drama will be on a two-week Media Morsels hiatus beginning July 19, but will return on August 2. Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl Goes Off Camera The rocking muscian and music fan is on the cover of the current issue of Off Camera . In this penetrating interview, which you can read, watch or listen to here , Grohl talks about, what else, rock and roll, imparting wisdom like, " Sound City  was kind of a platform for me to talk about something that I really believe in, which is the sound of human beings playing music and people collaborating and the effect of the things that you don't necessarily take into consideration. ... Music's a big fucking deal, so I guess for me, it's important that everyone feels the way I feel about music, you know? It's such a luxury in life that everybody has music available to them..." along the way. I love the music this man makes and I love listening to him talk about music. This is why. Broadway Updates F...

Broadway Bites: Casting and New Shows Announced Lots of news this week about shows that are coming to Broadway in the 2013-2014 season. Casting : Additional casting has been announced for the upcoming repertory productions of Twelfth Night  and Richard III . Joining the all-male cast led by the incomparable Mark Rylance  are several members of the Shakespeare's Globe company. Visit Playbill for the full cast list. New show : After Midnight , a re-conception of  Cotton Club Parade and filled with the music  Duke Ellington , will play the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Previews begin October 18 and opening night is set for November 3.  Playbill  has details. Casting : Lead casting has been announced for the previously announced Broadway run of Jason Robert Brown 's stage adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County . The busy  Kelli O'Hara  and Steven Pasquale  will star in the production that begins previews in January 2014. The ta...

(Scroll down for some awesome Muppet news!) Tony Awards Extras The 67th annual Tony Awards are behind us and so the 2013-2014 Broadway season has commenced. In case you missed it, here's my Tony Awards Wrap Up , complete with the full list of winners and lots of photos. And herein is some post-Tonys news: On the heels of its win for Best New Play, Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike has extended its run . The already-extended play will now run at the Golden Theatre through August 25. Though original cast member Sigourney Weaver must exit the show to prepare for a film role, Tony-winning actress Julie White will take over the role of Masha. Weaver plays her final performance July 28; White joins the cast July 30. Playbill has details. Tony nominee Carrie Coon ( Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ) has been cast in the new HBO pilot for The Leftovers , the series adaptation of the Tom Perrotta novel. Coon joins the previously announced Jus...

Never fear, dear readers. Murder Ballad is just as raw and sexy and passionate in its downtown home as it was in midtown this past fall . Transferring seamlessly, this production, which features Rebecca Naomi Jones, John Ellison Conlee and Will Swenson reprising their roles and the lovely Caissie Levy tackling the role of Sara, sizzles and pulses as it tells the woeful tale of tangled lovers. Written by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash and directed by Trip Cullman, Murder Ballad is the story of Sara (Levy), a young woman who finds herself caught between her husband, Michael (Conlee), and her bad boy former flame, Tom (Swenson). The intoxicating Jones is our Narrator.  It’s a true rock opera—the entire show is sung through and the score really does rock. As many of the cast members have been pointing out in interviews, unlike many of the rock musicals of late this one is by, for and about adults. Unlike its predecessors, in Murder Ballad rock and roll is used to express...

Casting News: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Bobby Cannavale and Leonardo DiCaprio... and More! Al Pacino will be joined by his  Glengarry Glen Ross costar Bobby Cannavale as well as Annette Bening , Michael Caine and Jennifer Garner in the upcoming film Imagine . Written and directed by Dan Fogelman ( Crazy Stupid Love ), Imagine is based on the true story of a musician (Pacino) who, inspired by a letter from John Lennon , decides to straighten out his life, including reconnecting with his son (Cannnavale). The Wrap has more details. Pacino's The Godfather II costar, Robert De Niro ( Silver Linings Playbook ), has just signed on to star in Legacy of Secrecy , a JFK assassination conspiracy film that is being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio 's ( The Great Gatsby , Django Unchained ) production company, Appian Way. According to Thompson on Hollywood , "the film centers on FBI informant Jack Laningham and Mafia kingpin Carlos Marcello (De Niro), who confided to Lanin...