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

New York City Ballet 2017-2018 Season NYCB teased the 2017-2018 season, which will be headlined by a centennial tribute to Jerome Robbins , one of the company's founding choreographers. 19 Robbins ballets will be featured, including favorites Fancy Free and the West Side Story Suite . Resident choreographer Justin Peck ( Everywhere We Go , The Times Are Racing ) will create at least two new ballets for the company, including one set to a Leonard Bernstein score, an homage to Robbins, who famously collaborated with Bernstein on the aforementioned ballets/shows. (2018 marks the centennial for both Robbins and Bernstein; the NY Phil's 2017-2018 program includes lots of Bernstein.) The season will also include new works by company members Lauren Lovette ( For Clara ), Troy Schumacher ( Common Ground ), and Peter Walker ( ten in seven ), as well as a new piece by 18-year-old SAB student, Gianna Reisen . (She'll be the youngest person to choreograph for the company.) S...

Remembering Don Rickles The great Don Rickles passed away this week, and Jimmy Kimmel used the opening of Thursday night's show to pay tribute: Shakespeare in the Park Casting Initial casting has been announced for the two Shakespeare in the Park productions, Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night's Dream , and it's already an embarrassment of riches. (And in keeping with the Public ethos (diversity), both casts include actors of color and non-traditional gender casting.) Among those in Julius Caesar are Corey Stoll ( House of Cards , Plenty ) as Marcus Brutus; Elizabeth Marvel ( House of Cards , Homeland ) as Antony; Tony winner Nikki M. James ( The Book of Mormon , Preludes ) as Portia; Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis ( Between Riverside and Crazy ) as Cinna the Poet; Chris Myers ( Whorl Inside a Loop ) as several characters; and Eisa Davis ( Preludes ) as Decius Brutus. Performances run May 23 through June 18, and will be direct...

Ticket Updates Dear Evan Hansen tickets are now on sale through March 18, 2018. Visit dearevanhansen.com to learn more and purchase tickets. The Broadway bow of Oslo , the new play by J.T. Rogers, will have an online lottery. Audience members can go to oslobroadwaylottery.com to enter for their chance to up to two $39 tickets to a performance. Playbill has more. There will be a digital lottery for War Paint , which is in previews and opens April 6. Beginning March 28, fans can visit lottery.broadwaydirect.com/show/war-paint to enter for a chance to win up to two $40 tickets to a performance. The production's previously announced rush and standing room policies remain in effect. Playbill has more. Tickets for Anastasia , which just began previews and opens April 24, are now available through January 7, 2018. Playbill has more. Casting News Zainab Jab ( Eclipsed , Homeland ), John Ellison Conlee ( The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence , Murder Ballad )...

I had the pleasure of seeing Joshua Harmon 's Significant Other in summer 2015 , when it premiered off-Broadway. I loved it. I had never laughed and cried so much in a single show. Just like in his breakout play, Bad Jews , Harmon beautifully fused humor with pathos, making for a thoroughly entertaining and moving work. It has lost nothing in its transfer to Broadway, and, in fact, gained the terrific Rebecca Naomi Jones ( American Idiot , Marie and Rosetta ) as a cast member. Significant Other deals with how relationships change over time, as seen through the eyes of Jordan (an affecting Gideon Glick ( Spring Awakening , Speech and Debate )), a 29-year-old single gay man whose three best girlfriends are beginning to marry off and develop their own lives. (Jordan also has regular visits with his grandmother ( Barbara Barrie ), whose age, of course, comes with wisdom.) We begin at Kiki's bachelorette party. Kiki (a hilarious Sas Goldberg ) is the first of the crew to w...

Casting News Andre Holland ( Moonlight ) will appear in the film, Widows , co-written by Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn, and directed by McQueen. Holland joins the previously announced Tony winners Viola Davis and Cynthia Erivo. Variety has more. Tony winner James Monroe Iglehart will join the Hamilton Broadway company as Lafayette/Jefferson in mid-April, succeeding Seth Stewart . Iglehart won his Tony for playing the Genie in Aladdin , and will conclude his three-year run in that show on February 19. Major Attaway will take over the Genie role beginning February 21. Theater Mania has more. Richard Armitage ( Love, Love, Love ) has joined the cast of Ocean's Eight , the female-led Ocean's 11 flick. Armitage joins stars Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, and Helena Bonham Carter. Deadline has more. Golden Globe winner Rachel Bloom ( Crazy Ex-Girlfriend ) and Jerry O'Connell ( Seminar , American Hero ) have joined the starry lineup of the Febru...

Casting News Tony nominees Tony Shalhoub ( Act One , Golden Boy ) and Jessica Hecht ( A View from the Bridge ,  Fiddler on the Roof ), as well as stage and screen veteran John Turturro ( The Cherry Orchard , Zorba ) will lead Roundabout's revival of Arthur Miller's The Price . Previews begin February 16, 2017, with opening night scheduled for March 16. The limited engagement will run through May 7. Playbill has more. (For news about Turturro and The Big Lebowski , scroll down.) SNL alumnus Jason Sudeikis will lead the world premiere of the Dead Poets Society stage adaptation. The Classic Stage Company production begins previews October 27. Broadway.com has more. Nia Long ( House of Lies ) will star opposite Idina Menzel in the Lifetime remake of Beaches . Long, who you might remember from her Fresh Prince of Bel-Air days, will play Hillary, who was played in the movie by Barbara Hershey. Deadline has more. Oscar winner Jared Leto ( Dallas Buyers Club , My ...