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

The winners for the 69th Tony Awards have been announced and honored! I thought hosts Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth were marvelous. (I especially liked Cumming's fake freak outs over Josh Groban.) The broadcast left something to be desired, though, namely all the design and "creative" (rather than performance) categories. It is unacceptable to be honoring excellence on Broadway and not show, in full, acceptance speeches from the people who created the shows—the book and songwriters; the choreographers; the lighting, scenic and costume designers. And the Tony Awards Administration Committee MUST reinstate the Sound Design categories. Finally, all shows that are nominated for Best Musical, Best Revival of a Musical and Best Score should perform, and only those shows. Without any further ado, here is the full list of winners, with winners in bold typeface and notated with an asterisk. (First the plays, then the musicals.) Best Play The Curious Incident of...

(Scroll down for your first look at the new Muppets show.) Theatre Award Season Updates Winners of the Outer Critics Circle Awards were announced this week, with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time leading the pack. The OCC is made up of critics who cover the New York Theatre scene for out of town outlets, and the awards honor excellence in Broadway and off-Broadway. An American in Paris also won multiple awards: Best Musical; Best Director and Best Choreographer, Christopher Wheeldon; and Best Actor in a Musical, Robbie Fairchild. Unsurprisingly, Hamilton took home the honor for Best Off-Broadway Musical, as well as Best Score and others. Visit Theater Mania for the full list of winners. The Lucille Lortel Awards were handed out on Sunday, and Hamilton led the pack. The Lortels honor excellence in off-Broadway. In addition to winning Outstanding Musical, Hamilton team members also won in the following categories, among others: Outstanding Director, Th...

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...