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

In A Small Fire , the new Adam Bock play currently running at Playwrights Horizons, a small fire that is actually just a smolder is actually just the beginning. Throughout this brief, at times uneven, small play, we see the many little fires that spark crises in a small family. This four character play, directed by Trip Cullman, centers around the Bridges family: mom, dad and daughter, Emily (Michele Pawk), John (Reed Birney) and Jenny (Celia Keenan-Bolger), and Emily’s colleague, Billy (Victor Williams). Jenny is getting married - the wedding is just a few weeks away - and at rise, Emily doesn’t really like the fiance. That’s not particularly important except that through this difference of opinion, we see early on that Emily and Jenny have a troubled relationship. To wit: When John tells Jenny about the small fire Emily almost started, Jenny quips that she doesn’t know why John, her father, didn’t leave Emily, her mother, a long time ago. This strain between mother and daughter, and ...

The Broadcast Film Critics Choice Awards were handed out on Friday night. (If the broadcast of this had to be described in one word, I’d use awkward. Seriously, the Governator isn’t funny. Ditto for Ashton Kutcher. Although, Joan Rivers and Sarah Silverman were actually kind of funny... but still awkward.) There's a lot going on this weekend, including preparations for the Golden Globes (I'm making my customary award show baked ziti...) so this will be rather brief. Without any further ado, here in are the (not at all surprising) award winners (+commentary): Best Acting Ensemble: The Fighter (Christian Bale looks like he belongs in a 90s alt-rock band!) Best Young Actress - Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit Best Supporting Actor - Christian Bale, The Fighter (nice speech about the actual family, then got choked up about his own family) Best Action Movie - Inception (Christopher Nolan singled out Joseph Gordon Levitt for “letting us hang him by his toes.” Nice shout out!) ...

American Idiot Keeps on Rockin' The amazing, important, incredible, thrilling experience that is American Idiot on Broadway celebrated its 300th performance this week! Lead producers Ira Pittleman and Tom Hulce and director Michael Mayer were on hand to help the cast, which now features Billie Joe Armstrong as St Jimmy, and crew celebrate this milestone. Speaking of Billie Joe's return engagement to the show (you'll remember that I saw him make his Broadway debut in September; he was equally as electric on New Year's Day (truly, no better way to start the New Year than with the Idiots)), NY Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood, who gave the show a glowing review when it opened in April, has more wonderful things to say ( and a slide show to share ) about the show and Billie Joe's performance. Congratulations to all the Idiots on a glorious 300 performances. Here's to 300 (+ 300 + 300 + 300...) more! ( Check out photo coverage of the momentous occasion ...

New Year, New(ish) Theatre Playbill.com took the occasion of the New Year to list some productions audiences can look forward to in 2011, both on and off-Broadway. Of those they mentioned, on Broadway I'm looking forward to Catch Me if You Can , starring Aaron Tveit and new daddy Norbert Leo Butz ; Arcadia , with Billy Crudup and Raul Esparza; Jerusalem , with Mark Ryalnce; Anything Goes , with Sutton Foster; and Good People , from David Lindsay-Abaire and starring Frances McDormand. (This last one I'm most looking forward to because it's a new, American play coming to Broadway - we don't get a lot of those. Jerusalem is new but it comes via London.) Off-Broadway , I have my sights set on Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures , starring American Idiot 's Michael Esper; Peter and the Starcatcher , a Peter Pan tale co-directed by Roger Rees (that's Lord John Marbury, to you fellow West...

You know how there’s that “it” movie? It generates a lot of buzz, whether for a performance, a particular scene or the direction, and everyone’s talking about it before most of us have seen it? And then you see it and it just couldn’t live up to the hype? That’s how I felt about Blue Valentine . I was very excited to see it, mostly because I like Ryan Gosling, but also because it was getting lots of buzz and the trailer made it look like a good, indie relationship drama. Which it was, but something was missing. What was missing, in my opinion, was the middle. Blue Valentine takes a look at a couple, Dean and Cindy, at different points throughout their relationship. Well, not quite throughout but rather at the beginning and at the end. We see them come together. We see them in tatters. But we never see them unraveling. As the film went on and I could feel we were near the end (because, much like in The Last Five Years , the film built each part of the story so that the happiest momen...

Happy New Year! Ring in the New Year with American Idiot ! The cast will be performing on NBC's New Year's Eve with Caron Daly . (You may remember that the Tribe performed on a New Year's Eve special last year.) Also appearing on the show will be Bono and The Edge, who will chat with Daly about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark . (Scroll down for the latest injury and casting updates.) After counting down to 2011 with the Idiots, why not start off the year right? On New Year's Day, Billie Joe begins his return engagement with the powerful show. He's only appearing for 50 performances, so catch him now. Casting News I'm very excited to report that the multi-talented Raul Esparza (!) is joining Billy Crudup (!!) in the upcoming Broadway revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia !!! Crudup's return to the stage (and this work) was announced several weeks ago, but this week we learned that Esparza would join him and that the play will run at the Barrymore Theatre (home ...