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

Tony Prep The 2013 Tony Awards will be presented this Sunday night! Here are some tidbits to help you prepare: Read the full list of nominees . Throughout the week, the starry list of presenters grew. Presenters include:  Jake Gyllenhaal (who made his NY stage debut off-Broadway in Roundabout's If There is I Haven't Found it Yet );  Sigourney Weaver ( Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike );   Anna Kendrick (the 50/50 star was a Tony nominee several years ago for High Society ) Alan Cumming ( Macbeth ) Audra McDonald (a winner last year for Porgy and Bes s );   Jesse Tyler Ferguson (the Modern Family star is a stage vet currently appearing in Shakespeare in the Park's Comedy of Errors );  Tony winner Laura Benanti ( Women on the Verge... );  Megan Hilty (a Broadway vet now known for TV's Smash );  Zachary Quinto (who'll make his Broadway debut next season in The Glass Menagerie ); and  a nominee this year for Kinky Boots...

Second Stage Theatre’s uptown season is off to a good start with Erica Lipez’s The Tutors . Directed by Thomas Kail ( In the Heights , Lombardi ), The Tutors focuses on three roommates, two of whom are tutors and one of whom edits college admission essays, all of whom could use some life lessons of their own. We first meet Toby (Keith Nobbs) when he is covering for roommate and fellow tutor Joe (Matt Dellapina), tutoring Joe’s "tutee," Milo (Chris Perfetti). Toby likes what he does and tries to adhere to a noble ethical code, both in work and in life. Milo is a high school student, a snotty rich kid who is trying to do anything but learn academics. Back at Toby’s apartment, we meet his other roommate, Heidi (Aubrey Dollar), who gets through her days (which, for that last several weeks, she’s spent exclusively in the apartment) by fantasizing about Kwan (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a former client whom she’s never met. The three roommates (Toby, Joe and Heidi) are also t...

The New York City Ballet spring season is almost over but fortunately I got in one last program, and it was a great one. On Saturday afternoon, I had the pleasure of seeing George Balanchine’s Serenade , Richard Tanner’s Sonatas and Interludes , Justin Peck’s In Creases and my favorite, Jerome Robbins’s NY Export: Opus Jazz . When I first sat down, I was in such a foul mood because the MTA had thrown a hissy fit. But then the lights dimmed. The NYCB orchestra began to swell with Tschaikovsky’s score for Serenade . The curtain rose and the beautiful ballerinas were standing there, their crinoline skirts cascading down. They began to dance and I remembered there is beauty in this world. I feel like that mood transition actually helped me “get” Serenade even more this time. ( The last time I saw this , I liked it but didn't get into it the way I did on Saturday.) It’s beautiful for the sake of bringing more beauty into the world. What a glorious gift. Megan Fairchild...

The musical adaptation of Todd Haynes’s film Far from Heaven , now playing at Playwrights Horizons, is a faithful adaptation of the movie, which is sort of neither here nor there in terms of my taste. I passively liked the film and making it a musical doesn’t do it any favors, despite my expectations and proclamations of support before I saw it. Far from Heaven (you might remember the 2002 film, which starred Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert) centers on Cathy (Kelli O’Hara), a picture perfect housewife in Hartford, Connecticut, circa 1957. She’s married to successful businessman Frank (Steven Pasquale) and they have the requisite two children. Cathy’s life becomes unsettled when she discovers Frank is a homosexual, and, even more scandalous in her gossipy town, when she befriends her black gardener, Raymond (Isaiah Johnson), who has taken over the family business after the passing of his father.  When anticipating the musical, directed by the terrific Mi...

Theatre Award Season Tony Awards The Tony Awards are just over a week away (Sunday, June 9)! This week, we got to see the first series of promos for the award show, which will be hosted by Neil Patrick Harris. These commercials feature the leading ladies (mostly girls, actually) of Annie , Cinderella and Matilda , plus a cameo from the current cast of Jersey Boys and The Big Knife 's Tony-nominated co-star, Richard Kind. Check them out below and then tune into CBS on June 9 for Broadway's biggest night! In other Tony news, the first slate of presenters was announced . Nominee Tom Hanks , Tony winner ( in 2010 ) Scarlett Johansson (who starred this season in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ), Jesse Eisenberg ( The Social Network , Asuncion ), Martha Plimpton and more will present.  Coming to Broadway... Break out your Tanach —there's a rabbi coming to Broadway. Soul Doctor , a musical about the musician/rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, will play Broadway's Circle in ...

Diane Paulus’s revival of Pippin is a glorious and poignant production. The musical is a couple of generations old while the story is several hundred years old; but the visionary Paulus ( Hair , Porgy and Bess ) has tapped into the universal themes inherent in what is essentially another coming of age tale. Pippin , with a book by Roger O. Hirson (Bob Fosse’s contribution to the libretto is uncredited) and score by Stephen Schwartz ( Godspell , Wicked ), tells the story of the young Pippin, son of Charlemagne, and his quest for fulfillment in life. He searches in Glory (war), The Flesh (carnal desires, mostly, with some basic human connection thrown in), Revolution, Politics and (after gaining a little Encouragement) Ordinary Life. He keeps thinking his corner of the sky is something as big and boundless as the sky itself, not realizing until it’s almost too late that we can find fulfillment in more humble but no less satisfying places.  Paulus sets the whole thing in ...

Carol Burnett Receives Mark Twain Prize The incomparable Carol Burnett will be awarded the 2013 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor . The legendary, multi-talented funny lady will be honored at the Kennedy Center in October. The salute will air on PBS on October 30. Of the honor, Burnett says, "I can't believe I'm getting a humor prize from the Kennedy Center. It's almost impossible to be funnier than the people in Washington." Playbill has details. Theatre Award Season Tony Awards Tag along with nominee Annaleigh Ashford ( Kinky Boots ) as she shops for a dress for the big night. CBS has signed a new contract that ensures the Tony Awards are broadcast on CBS through at least 2018. Broadway.com has more. This week, the Tony Awards administration committee met to discuss a possible infraction by one of the nominated shows. The infraction stems from a brochure Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? producer Jeffrey Richards sent to voters. T...