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

This week's Week in Review features news items from last week and this week. Casting News From Motown Philly to Teen Angel: the extant version of Boyz II Men will appear in the January 31 live Fox broadcast of Grease . They'll be singing "Beauty School Dropout" to Frenchy. The Grease Live cast is led by Aaron Tveit. Broadway.com has more. Samantha Barks , who wowed audiences as Eponine in the recent film adaptation of Les Miserables , has been cast in the film adaptation of Strike , a 2005 musical about the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. She'll appear alongside Alan Doyle and Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page . Broadway.com has more. Possible casting news: Tom Hardy ( The Revenant , Inception ), Mark Rylance ( Jerusalem , Twelfth Night ), and Kenneth Branagh (every Shakespeare movie you've seen) are in talks to star in Christopher Nolan 's WWII action thriller, Dunkirk . The Wrap has more. Casting for Familiar , the new Danai Gurira ( E...

There's a musical about two guys writing a musical. It's filled with musical theatre "in-crowd" references. Heidi Blickenstaff is a featured player. It's an original, on Broadway. Only this time, it's much more than four chairs and a keyboard, and there's a bigger budget. Where [title of show]  looked for the emotional touchstones of creating a musical—creating anything, really—the original musical  Something Rotten  looks for opportunities to (lovingly) lampoon the art form. That isn't exactly a dig. Something Rotten  is a hilarious love letter to the theatre, with tongue firmly in cheek. It was conceived by brothers Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick , both of whom wrote the score. (The book is by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell .) Set in 1595, the story focuses on the Bottom brothers, Nick (Brian d'Arcy James) and Nigel (John Cariani), two writers overshadowed by rock star writer William Shakespeare (Christian Borle). Looking for success, ...

You must get to the Delacorte this summer to see the Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado about Nothing . Director Jack O’Brien  finds tons of humor is one of Shakespeare’s great comedies, and the cast, led by the terrific pair of Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater (who’ve sparred well together in the past, as in Seminar ), is top notch. Rabe and Linklater, as Beatrice and Benedick, spark as they engage in a battle of wits, and both excel at the physical comedy that’s asked of them (especially Linklater). John Lee Beatty ’s scenic design will make you feel like you’re in a villa in the Italian countryside, and being out under the stars in the middle of Central Park ain’t too shabby. It’s a great start to another season of Shakespeare in the Park! ( King Lear  starring John Lithgow is next. Get in line now.) Bonus: the talented cast also includes John Glover ( Death ofa Salesman ); Pedro Pascal ( Graceland , Game of Thrones ); Steel Burkhardt ( Hair ); Br...

It was famous opening line day for me when I tucked in for a double-header of Shakespeare. Mark Rylance and the Shakespeare’s Globe Company are on Broadway with all-male repertory productions of Richard III and Twelfth Night . You know how Aaron Sorkin’s characters like to say, “If you haven’t seen ‘X’ then you haven’t seen Shakespeare the way it’s meant to be played”? Well, check out these productions and you’ll see the real thing. Striving for authenticity, the company is made up entirely of male actors, just as when the plays were originally performed. And that's not all. Designer Jenny Tiramani explains in the program notes the materials used for the scenic and costumes designs, and the process of construction and application of the latter. She notes that the “set” is modeled after the great halls in which Shakespeare’s plays were performed before he and his players called a space at the Blackfriars home. (And it is lit, to a great extent, by candles; lighting desig...