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

Coming Up The Barrow Street Theatre will be turned into a working pie shop this winter for an off-Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd , the Stephen Sondheim–Hugh Wheeler musical . Performances will begin February 14, 2017, with opening night set for March 1. The production comes via London, where the show was performed in Britain's oldest continuously operating pie shop. Broadway.com has more. A new comedy series is coming to Netflix. Created by Nick Stoller ( Forgetting Sarah Marshall ) and Francesca Delbanco , the series, Friends from College , focuses on (you guessed it) a group of people who've been friends since college (Harvard, to be specific). The cast includes Keegan-Michael Key ( Key and Peele ), Cobie Smulder ( How I Met Your Mother ), Annie Parisse ( The Layover , Vinyl ), Nat Faxon ( The Descendants ), Fred Savage , and Jae Suh Park . The series will shoot in New York this fall. Variety has more. Restless Creature , the Wendy Whelan documentary , will d...

Erivo and Henry Set for The Last Five Years Benefit Tony winner Cynthia Erivo  ( The Color Purple ) and two-time Tony nominee Joshua Henry  ( The Scottsboro Boys , Violet , Shuffle Along... ) will star in a one-night-only benefit concert of Jason Robert Brown's   The Last Five Years , which was last seen in New York in 2013 . Proceeds from the September 12 Town Hall concert will go to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence . (Brown has been a vocal support of gun safety measures.) Though Erivo and Henry are African-American performers, nothing about the show—dramaturgically speaking—will change. ( The Last Five Years  is specifically about a Jewish man, Jamie, and his shiksa goddess, Cathy.) Tickets go on sale Wednesday. Visit The New York Times  for more. Television Critics Association Awards Nominations The TCA Awards nominees have been announced. The Hollywood Reporter has the full list of nominees. Herein, some notable nominations: Rami Male...

New York City Ballet Teases New Season The full lineup, including specific performance dates, has not been announced yet, but New York City Ballet did announce the outline of its 2016-2017 season. Most noteworthy is that the season will feature two world premieres by female choreographers . (The last time the company premiered a ballet by a female choreographer was in 2011.) Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and principal dancer Lauren Lovette will choreograph ballets that will premiere at the company's Fall Gala, which will also include a new work by soloist and resident choreographer Justin Peck (one of three ballets he'll create in the season), and a new work by corps de ballet member, Peter Walker . Continuing its focus on new(er) works, the spring season will include a four-week festival of ballets that were commissioned in the last 30 years. Highlights of the festival, I'm sure, will be all–Peck, all– Christopher Wheeldon , and all– Alexei Ratmansky nights. (The company...

Ask a Star: Robbie Fairchild and Leanne Cope The Tony-nominated stars of An American in Paris are the latest to sit down on the Broadway.com couch and answer fans' questions (including mine!) in the latest installment of Ask a Star. Casting News Aaron Tveit ( Next to Normal , Graceland ) will lead the cast of a new CBS series, Brain Dead . The show is set in DC, and imagines what would happen if aliens took over the Capitol and started eating elected officials' brains. (Different from now how...?) The series is set to premiere next summer. Broadway.com has more. Full casting has been announced for Gigantic , the new musical set to play off-Broadway's Vineyard Theatre this fall. Bring It On alumnae Taylor Louderman and Ryann Redmond are among the cast members, as well as Leslie Kritzer ( A Catered Affair , The Memory Show ), Andrew Durand ( War Hors e ) and others. Previews begin November 11, with opening night set for December 3. The limited engagemen...

There was an exciting pre-show at the Biltmore Theatre on the night I saw Fool for Love . The older couples behind me were having a lively conversation, which, at one point, ventured into the uneven distribution of legroom among their seats. (When asked if one seat had more than the other, one of the gentleman quipped, "I don't know. I didn't bring my tape measure.") A few seats to my left, an older man was whistling to himself, providing the pre-show house music. As the theatre filled up, an awards prognosticator for The Hollywood Reporter  sat in front of me and Oscar nominee and playwright Jesse Eisenberg ( The Social Network ) sat next to me. Then the Sam Shepard play began. I wanted so badly to love it madly. I wanted to be enthralled with the tumultuous relationship between Eddie (Sam Rockwell) and May (Nina Arianda). But I just wasn't. It simply isn't something I can get excited about as a dramaturg, though the performances from the leading playe...

Nina Arianda Back on Broadway Rejoice! Tony Award winner Nina Arianda ( Venus in Fur , Tales from Red Vienna ) will be back on stage in NYC next fall. You might recall that the goddess starred alongside Sam Rockwell ( A Behanding in Spokane ) in the Sam Shepard play, Fool for Love , at the Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer. That production, with both stars in tow and directed by Daniel Aukin ( Bad Jews , The Fortress of Solitude ), will bow on Broadway (courtesy of the Manhattan Theatre Club) beginning September 15, 2015. Opening night is set for October 8. MTC also announced that David Lindsay-Abaire ( Rabbit Hole )'s latest comedy, Ripdcord , will be part of its off-Broadway offerings. Broadway.com has more. Foo Fighters "I Am a River" The documentary series Sonic Highways comes to a conclusion with the New York episode, airing this week. (Don't despair yet: Dave Grohl hinted at a second season when he spoke to Jon Stewart on Wednesday .) Che...