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

Sutton Foster Returns to Broadway There's no official word yet, but Broadwayworld.com reports that two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster will return to Broadway this spring in a mounting of the musical Violet . Foster starred in a one-night-only Encores! production of Violet in July. The musical boasts music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics and book by Brian Crawley. In the Encores! production, Foster ( Anything Goes ) starred alongside Joshua Henry ( American Idiot , The Scottsboro Boys ), Keala Settle ( Hands on a Hardbody ), Christopher Sieber ( Shrek ) and more. Since there has yet to be an official announcement, the dates of the production and its home is unknown, although Broadway.com reports that the show will play at Roundabout's American Airlines theatre, which has a slot open now that The Real Thing has been moved to fall 2014. I'll keep you posted. Award Season Coverage Governors Awards —These honorary awards, which, this year, honored Angelina Jolie...

“Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene.” We all know the opening prologue of William Shakespeare’s classic tale of star cross’d lovers, Romeo and Juliet , and I’m sure we’re all familiar with the story and the lovers’ tragic end. I’ve read the play several times, I’ve seen the Baz Luhrmann film (it starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as the title pair) and I’ve seen the ballet (Peter Martins’s balcony scene pas de deux is exquisite). But I’ve never seen Romeo and Juliet on stage, and, unfortunately, David Leveaux’s production, now playing at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, disappointed in that it didn’t tell me anything about the story I didn’t already know. This is a fine, if timid, production of one of Shakespeare’s best known plays. (I should note that some scenes or portions of them are cut, probably due to expediency, wanting to get on with the storytelling.) The ensemble is talented and Jesse Poleshuck’s sparse and fluid scenic ...

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...