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

Mark Rylance Sets Broadway Return The three-time Tony Award winner and Academy Award winner will return to Broadway this winter. Rylance ( Twelfth Night , Bridge of Spies ) leads the cast of Farinelli and the King , a new play by Clair van Kampen that premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in 2015. As noted in the announcement on Playbill , Farinelli and the King is "inspired by the true story of the Italian castrato opera singer," and includes many Handel arias. Previews at Broadway's Belasco Theatre (where Rylance was last in the dual Twelfth Night/Richard III productions) begin December 5, with opening night set for December 17. The limited engagement is scheduled to conclude March 25, 2018. Casting News This is not a drill: Aaron Tveit will play Bobby in Company this summer! The stage and screen vet ( Next to Normal , Graceland ) will take on the lead role of Stephen Sondheim's musical at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA, August 10-Sept...

Fans of The West Wing  might recall a moment when President Bartlet is sarcastically called on his "Noel Coward-esque wit." President Bartlet would love this revival of Mr. Coward's Present Laughter . This fun and fluffy play, centering on the zany goings on at theatre impresario Garry Essendine's studio,  is filled to the brim with Noel Coward-esque wit, that kind of smart, snappy dialogue—especially among mixed company—that you rarely hear anymore. (No doubt it's the kind of repartee for which West Wing  scribe Aaron Sorkin aims.) The kind of dialogue that doesn't talk down to its audience or its characters; dialogue that proves women are smart and strong, equal to the men with whom they keep company. (Three cheers for director Moritz von Stuelpnagel  (a Tony nominee for Hand to God ) for the terrific pacing and for letting things go crazy without going off the tracks.) We're lucky to have such a pitch perfect production of such a play, and it...

I have to admit: I was exhausted when I saw the Roundabout revival of Arthur Miller 's The Price , and was fading in and out during the first act. It's possible I missed something but I think this just isn't a great play. In the program notes, Roundabout artistic director Todd Haimes acknowledges that this is not one of Miller's oft-produced plays (like Death of a Salesman  or A View from the Bridge ). There's a reason for that. While this has the classical elements of a well-made play (fidelity of time and location), those elements don't necessarily translate into riveting drama. The action of the play revolves around two estranged brothers, Victor ( Mark Ruffalo ( Spotlight )) and Walter ( Tony Shalhoub ( Act One )), coming together to settle their father's estate. Victor's wife, Esther ( Jessica Hecht ( Stage Kiss )), has her own point of view regarding the brothers' relationship, and interloper Gregory Solomon ( Danny DeVito ) is on hand...

"Art isn't easy," but when everything comes together just right, the results are sensational. Such is the case in the sumptuous revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Sunday in the Park with George . The Stephen Sondheim – James Lapine  musical follows the artistic endeavors of two Georges, the late-19th century painter, Georges Seurat, and George, an American artist (whom we meet in 1984) who, in this story, is a descendant of Seurat. Both artists (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) struggle with "putting it together," balancing (not always successfully) the different parts of their lives that ultimately make up their art. Both must contend with the continual push and pull of competing forces; Seurat's main contention is between his personal life (making room for his lover, Dot (Annaleigh Ashford), and his art) while George is consumed with the tension between commerce and art. In "Finishing the Hat," one of the show's most famous songs...

They don't make them like Sutton Foster anymore. Her go for broke comedic skills make her quadruple threat, and even though I know Gwen Verdon famously created the role, I can't imagine anyone else playing Charity Hope Valentine, the "dance hostess" with the heart of gold. Written by Neil Simon (book), Cy Coleman (music), and Dorothy Fields (lyrics), Sweet Charity centers on the titular showgirl who, though down on her luck, has optimism to spare. Charity (Foster) works at the Fandango Club alongside Nickie (Asmeret Ghebremichael), Helene (Emily Padgett), and other jaded dancers. She's been jilted by her lover, and is looking for something more. She thinks she finds it in Oscar (Shuler Hensley), a seemingly nice guy, who just might be her ticket out. Of course, like many of the musicals of its time (the mid- to late-60s), it gets darker at the end (I mean, Charity is just this side of a prostitute, so I guess it starts fairly dark.), which can throw you fo...

“Those most worthy of love are never made happy by it," but that doesn't stop the characters in Les Liaisons Dangereuses from pursuing it. The action of Christopher Hampto n's play is set in Paris and the French countryside in the early 1780s, and centers on the chess match being played by one-time lovers La Marquise de Merteuil ( Janet McTeer , making a meal out of Hampton's words) and Le Vicomte de Valmont ( Liev Schreiber ). The Marquise wants Valmont to seduce the virginal Cecile ( Elena Kampouris ) so as to humiliate Merteuil's ex. Valmont thinks that’s too easy, and, anyway, has his sights set on Madame de Tourvel ( Birgitte Hjort Sorensen ), a married woman with a reputation for moral certitude. Tourvel is, helpfully, staying with Valmont's aunt, Madame de Rosemonde ( Mary Beth Peil ). The Marquise and Valmont agree on a bargain: If Valmont can conquer the virtuous Tourvel—and provide written proof of the affair—his reward will be a night with th...

One of the great things about a revival is that you get to revisit and, if you're lucky, reimagine a classic. British director Simon Godwin had the idea of getting an American take on Anton Chekhov 's notable work, and enlisted the help of Tony Award winning playwright Stephen Karam ( The Humans ). Together (and with the aid of a more diverse cast than most productions of The Cherry Orchard ), they put an American spin on the Russian staple, making it vital and relevant. (Oh, and funny. People don't often think of Chekhov as funny, but he is, even more so as interpreted by Karam.) As stated in my review of the CSC production of The Cherry Orchard , which starred John Turturro and Dianne Wiest, the plot revolves around Lyubov ( Diane Lane ). She and her brother, Leonid ( John Glover , whose clowning and slapstick is just right for the role), live beyond their means, and are faced with the prospect of selling their estate, the estate on which they grew up and which i...

Royal Baby News I don't typically include artists' personal or lifecycle event information in these posts, but I'm making an exception. Shuffle Along... leading lady, Audra McDonald , and her husband, Will Swenson , are expecting a child! (Both actors have a child/children from their respective previous marriages.) Of course, this means that a casting shuffle is due at Shuffle Along... The pregnant McDonald will continue with the show through July 24 before going on maternity leave; she intends to return to the show this winter. (This also means that the Lady Day... West End production is postponed. Broadway.com has more about that.) Filling McDonald's tap shoes will be Rhiannon Giddens , making her Broadway debut. In addition, over the summer, the show's Tony-nominated choreographer, Savion Glover , will appear in the show, though, as Broadway.com reports , it has not been announced which track he'll take on. Congratulations to McDonald and Swenson!!! ...

For Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night I give you a short review. The long journey is a day in the life of O'Neill's stand-in family, the Tyrones: patriarch James ( Gabriel Byrne ); matriarch Mary (Jessica Lange); older son James Jr, or Jamie ( Michael Shannon ), and younger son, Edmund ( John Gallagher, Jr .), who is, most agree, O'Neill himself. (The Tyrone family maid, Cathleen ( Colby Minifie ), is also around here and there.) In this personal work, O'Neill revisits his family to work through, understand, or maybe exorcise something from his past. Maybe's it's his tumultuous relationship with his father or brother, or maybe (probably) it's his elusive mother, who, in Long Day's Journey Into Night , is a dope fiend who slips in and out of reality. Plenty of people will tell you that plays are meant to be heard and seen, not read. Arguably, that rings true for Shakespeare, Albee, Pinter, Beckett, and others. Reading anoth...

The nominations for the Outer Critics Circle (OCC) Awards were announced today. These awards honor excellence in both Broadway and off-Broadway. The OCC includes critics covering New York theatre for out-of-town outlets. Note that Hamilton was not considered this year as it was considered (and awarded) last year, for its off-Broadway iteration; only new elements of the Broadway production were considered. In addition, at the request of the show's producers, Shuffle Along... was not considered this year because of the OCC nomination deadline; it will be considered next year. Winners of this year's awards will be announced May 9 and feted May 26. Herein, the full list of nominees (unless otherwise noted, categories include Broadway and off-Broadway): Outstanding New Broadway Play Eclipsed The Father The Humans King Charles III Therese Raquin Outstanding New Broadway Musical American Psycho Bright Star On Your Feet Tuck Everlasting Waitress Outstanding New Off-...

Ah, She Loves Me . It's a story we all know, thanks, mostly, to the movie You've Got Mail , which is based on the same source material as the musical. (That would be the Miklos Laszlo play Parfumerie  and the ensuing film adaptation, The Shop Around the Corner .) That familiarity doesn't mean it's not worth retelling. It's a lovely story, quaint, old-fashioned, and sincere, the kind of story we don't see these days, which makes this glorious revival such a welcomed treat. She Loves Me  comes from songwriting duo Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), who brought us  Fiddler on the Roof , and book writer Joe Masteroff , who wrote the libretto for the Kander and Ebb classic,  Cabaret . (What a winning trio; Bock and Harnick's score is a feast for your ears, and Masteroff's book is substantive and feels fresh.) It takes place in Maraczek's parfumerie in Budapest, circa 1934. (The locale is rather inconsequential; no one puts on a Hungari...