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

Nothing disappoints quite like high expectations. I've been an Alex Timbers acolyte since I first saw Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson off-Broadway, and that fandom only grew with Peter and the Starcatcher . After seeing the immersive disco-set musical Here Lies Love , his collaboration with David Byrne , I became a fan of their creative partnership. So when it was announced that the duo was bringing Joan of Arc's story to life on stage, I was pumped. When I left the theatre, I was deflated. I'll admit that I didn't know much about the titular heroine, now saint; there was, however, a handy timeline in the Playbill. This provided enough context that I was easily able to follow along (though they tried fitting a lot into just 90 minutes). I was able to understand everything, but Byrne and Timbers didn't make me care. The show starts off well, with Joan's transformation from poor farm girl into impassioned warrior a powerful moment ( Jo Lampert is giving a ...

What've we got? It's not now't, that's for sure. The new, original musical, The Last Ship , has set sail on Broadway and I love it. Conceived by Sting , the personal musical features a score by the rocker and a book by Brian Yorkey  ( If/Then , Next to Normal ) and John Logan  ( Red ). It tells the story of Gideon Fletcher (Michael Esper), who is returning to his working-class hometown of Wallsend (in the northeast of England) after turning his back 15 years ago. Wallsend is a blue-collar company town where the men build ships and everyone is family. Times are tough and the shipyard has closed; not knowing what to do with themselves, the men decide to build one last ship. While the town is struggling to find its identity, Gideon is struggling to find his home. He rejected the notion of following in the footsteps of his father and his father's father and so on; he did not want to be a ship builder, and so he fled Wallsend, leaving behind his love, Meg Dawson (R...

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...