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

Catch Me While You Can It pains me to bring you this news, dear readers, but Catch Me if You Can will end its Broadway run on September 4. When the show closes on Broadway, it will have played 32 previews and 170 regular performances. Though its time on Broadway is ending, the show will live on via a national tour, which is launching in fall 2012 in Providence, Rhode Island. (Providence, by the way, is where the hilarious Safe Men takes place. Just saying. Good things happen in Providence.) Make sure you avail yourself of the opportunity to see this great, fun show - with a sensationally talented cast - either on Broadway, on tour or both! Visit catchmethemusical.com to stay up to date on this jet setting show. Sutton Foster Talks Anything Goes , Joel Grey NYC Ballets Moves in Vail Last week I mentioned that NYCB was in Vail, Colorado, for the Vail International Dance Festival. This week, thanks to NYCB's Facebook feed ( like them !), I found these great photos taken ...

Broadway in Bryant Park If it's summer, it's Broadway in Bryant Park. Last week, the talented folks at Catch Me if You Can performed three songs from the show, "Jet Set," "Fly Fly Away" and (my favorite) "Goodbye." Broadwayworld.com has great photo coverage of the event, which also included performances from the casts Chicago , Newsical the Musical and Million Dollar Quartet . They also have video of Catch Me 's performance . Watch and enjoy! (And here's bonus video coverage, courtesy of Playbill.com!) Summer of Love! Hair is back, Hippies !!! Though the Tony-winning revival of Hair closed over a year ago, a Tribe has been out on tour and has decamped at Broadway's St James theatre for the Summer of Love. The limited run began previews on July 5 (I saw it on the 6th) and they celebrated their official opening last week, on July 14. To help you celebrate, here are some Hippie yips for you: Photos from the gypsy robe ceremony and the...

With the 2011 Oscars come and gone, we have yet another award show season behind us. Unlike any other year, this year I've seen all ten Best Picture nominees and a majority of the acting, directing and screenwriting nominees. (The count: All directors; all screenplay nominees except Original Screenplay nominee Mike Leigh's Anther Year ; all supporting acting nominees except Best Supporting Actress nominee Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom ; all Best Actor nominees except Javier Bardem in Biutiful ; and all Best Actress nominees except Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole . Not a bad record, huh?) This is all to say that, like the 2010 Tony Awards , I have a justified opinion of the winners and nominees, which I happily express below in the list of winners. Of course, we'll wait to get to the winners after we discuss the more important part: the fashion! A big trend this year seemed to be sparkles. And lots of them. Perhaps best exemplified by the lovely ladies above, Michelle Williams...

American Idiot At this performance of American Idiot ... well, we had a few substitutions and changes this week. Most notably, on Tuesday night rocker Melissa Etheridge made her Broadway debut in the role of St Jimmy. You'll recall that original St Jimmy Tony Vincent played his last performance on December 30. At the next performance, Billie Joe came back into the show in the role he had performed back in September. Billie Joe is with the show as St Jimmy for 50 non-contiguous performances. For this week, during which Billie Joe was not scheduled to appear, the producers wrangled Etheridge to play the role. I was there on Tuesday night. Etheridge has a great voice for the music - she's got the soul - but she doesn't have the charisma for the role. She seemed a little sluggish and, at moments, like a deer caught in headlights. (She actually missed the cue for her first lyric and had to play catch up.) The latter point could have everything to do with a short rehearsal period...