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

The nominations for the 67th Tony Awards are in! Without any further ado, here is the full list of nominees, first the plays, then the musicals: Best Play The Assembled Parties , Richard Greenberg Lucky Guy , Nora Ephron The Testament of Mary , Colm Toibin Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike , Christopher Durang All of these are spring shows, leaving new plays from the fall, like Grace and Dead Accounts , out of the running. My vote is for the hilarious Vanya... , though I hear good things about Lucky Guy , written by the late Nora Ephron. Best Revival of a Play Golden Boy Orphans The Trip to Bountiful Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Is this even a competition? Virginia Woolf?  was the best show on Broadway this year - play or musical, revival or new. It was an absolutely flawless production. Tony voters, do the right thing, otherwise George and Martha will come after you, and they know how to fight! Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Pl...

My first thoughts during intermission at Orphans , the play by Lyle Kessler, were, “I really like this! It’s fun and efficient; it’s funny and intriguingly pulpy.” I continued to like the play as the second act played out and as I left the theatre. However, as I was walking home, I started wondering if, despite the fact that I was certain I liked it, the play was actually good. I’m not so certain about that.  Set in North Philadelphia, this three person play focuses on Treat (Ben Foster), his brother Phillip (Tom Sturridge) and the stranger Harold (Alec Baldwin). Treat and Phillip (both young adults) live on their own, having been orphaned at a young age. Treat, whom Phillip describes as having always been a delinquent, “provides” for himself and Phillip through thievery. Phillip has some (unspecified) mental challenges and is a shut in. They live in squalor but they entertain each other with grand fantasies. Enter Harold, a well-to-do businessman Treat meets at a bar. Drunk ...