Grease!
Eugene O'Neill Theater

 Well, I thought it was going to be fun. After a pre-show warm up by a smarmy, lip-synching dee-jay, Miss Lynch waddles to the stage as a prim but lovable homeroom teacher, bantering with the audience and getting laughs just by fixing her widened eyes on a "student" and devastating him with a shocked exclamation of "GUM???" But all too soon, the amps kick on and Grease! becomes the equivalent of a transistor radio on the beach: loud, canned-sounding, and too staticky to entertain. Authors/composers Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey tap into 50's nostalgia, but they do so witlessly.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 1994
Green Bird, The
Cort Theater

 Julie Taymor is the kind of theatrical inventor that prompts people to say things like, "She throws in everything but the kitchen sink." Well, her latest concoction (actually a revival, this was staged at the New Victory in 1996), The Green Bird, actually features a kitchen sink. And toilets. And naked women. And swing dancing. And much more, leaving one with the impression that nothing is disposable in eyes of the gifted Taymor. This is both her greatest curse and blessing. On the one hand, it tends to clutter her productions and distract from their initial intentions.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2000
Grey Gardens
Walter Kerr Theater

 If you're a Christine Ebersole fanatic, or if you harbor an unquenchable curiosity for all things even peripherally Kennedy, you may be able to work up some genuine enthusiasm for this dreary, static adaptation of the Maysles Brothers' documentary, "Grey Gardens." Not qualifying on either count, I found myself questioning the critical kudos.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
Gypsy
Sam S. Shubert

 So how's Bernadette? That question has surely taken on more meanings than the producers of the current Gypsy revival intended. Of course, everyone wants to know how Bernadette Peters stands up to the memories of Merman and Lansbury (and, for some, Tyne Daly). But Peters' numerous health-related absences ended up giving the question a more urgent slant -- will she be playing tonight or will her understudy be offering "Rose's Turn," "Some People," and the numerous other classics Mama Rose belts as she fights for her daughters' careers?

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 2003
Gypsy
Sam S. Shubert

 Bernadette Peters herself is a great theatrical experience, and in the current Gypsy on Broadway she brings a vulnerability as well as the strength and power of Mama Rose to her performance. Directed by Sam Mendes, it's a very entertaining, imaginative production, a tuneful treat with strong dramatic content, lively Sondheim lyrics, hummable music by Jule Styne, book by Arthur Laurents.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2003
Razorback
Theatre Theater

 The formula that draws youthful audiences to the movies today -- extreme violence interspersed with raunchy wisecracks -- has been tapped by John Pollono in the writing of his new play, Razorback, now in its world premiere run at Theatre Theater. A lurid melodrama filled with killings, profanity and jokes, Razorback drew laughter and cheers from those in attendance on opening night, most of whom seemed were in their twenties.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
September 2008
Hairspray
Neil Simon Theater

 Harvey Fierstein in a jumbo housedress and croaking his trademark "Hellaaaooh" is already enough reason to see any show he's in, so it's a hair-hopping pleasure to report that his current vehicle, Hairspray, adapted from John Waters' break-out commercial film, boasts a half-dozen other reasons for its instant hit-dom. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's punchline-filled lyrics hit the mark often enough to keep our ears on ever-perk, matched as they are to Shaiman's intentionally-derivative but buoyant tunes ("Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" being the catchiest).

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
August 2002
Hairspray
Neil Simon Theater

 Cute and cartoon-y, a campy, cardboard comedy with heart, this bouncy, bubble-gum bauble is already a favorite among those whose entertainment requirements are non-cerebral. Marissa Jaret Winokur as Tracy is every tubby teen's heroine as she blithely blitzes through weight-related insults and stereotypical barriers to achieve her dreams in remarkably short succession: to dance on the local TV's "The Corny Collins Show" (Clarke Thorell) and steal the beauty queen's (pouty Laura Bell Bundy) hunky beau (Mathew Morrison).

Jeannie Lieberman
Date Reviewed:
September 2002
Hairspray
Neil Simon Theater

 Your scribe was not permitted to see this amazing show for weeks and months. It had opened while I was still in Europe, before what used to be the Opening of the Broadway Season. By the time I returned, it was already so smothered with raves n' honors that - or so I was repeatedly told - the producers didn't need a website rave. Fortunately, I am (as non-recording Secretary of the Outer Critics Circle) an Awards Nominator and a Voter. Not to overlook also being a Voter for the Drama Desk Awards. So, shortly before the nominations, I suddenly got aisle-seats for this fabulous musical.

Glenn Loney
Date Reviewed:
March 2003
Hedda Gabler
Ambassador Theater

 Everybody's favorite female monster is back on Broadway in a new translation by Jon Robin Baitz (Three Hotels), and none other than Richard Burton's capable daughter Kate playing the lead role. One of the unlikeliest of Broadway offerings, this Hedda Gabler is much like the bold, reptilian woman who bears the name: crafty and admirable but chilly and distant, making this well-mounted affair ultimately an exercise in futility.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
October 2001
Hedda Gabler
Ambassador Theater

 I've never understood why Hedda Gabler is considered one of the most interesting and complicated heroines in dramatic literature. She always comes off as a capricious, cruel viper without being decent enough to evoke sympathy or vivid enough to cast an Iago-like fascination. Nicholas Martin's current Broadway revival of Ibsen's drama, while solid and lively, does little to make the play a grabber for our times.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 2001
Hedda Gabler
Ambassador Theater

 The current production of Hedda Gabler, in a lively adaptation by Jon Robin Baitz, is a peculiar mixture: the play, as usual, starts off with so much exposition that it tends to bore. Then a gushing, very fey, Michael Emerson bursts in as Tesman, a mode he retains throughout the play, tilting all in a novel direction.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2001
Hedda Gabler
Ambassador Theater

 Plays in translation are bastard stepchildren of the originals, especially when the version presented is written by someone who cannot, and thus never has, read the original. I don't read Norwegian any more than Jon Robin Baitz does, but I have spent enough time in Norway, with Norwegian friends, and with direct translations of Ibsen plays, to know that Hedda is a peculiarly Norwegian type. (Buy me a drink and I'll tell you about the time, many years ago, when two local amazons abducted me off a railway bridge in Oslo, until they, both in their 20s, learned I was underage.

David L. Steinhardt
Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Henry IV
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

 Jack O'Brien, whose fluid, almost dreamlike direction of Stoppard's The Invention of Love nearly shook that drama out of its ivory-tower lethargy brings the same sense of style to Shakespeare - and here he even gets to have battle scenes, hold-ups, tavern carousing and a coronation. For all the legitimate excitement of the production, it should be noted that not much really happens in the first two hours(!), and that fine as the work by adapter Dakin Matthews is (he cobbled the two Henry plays into one), the piece does feel every bit of its 230 minutes.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
High Fidelity
Imperial Theater

 The musical, High Fidelity, based on Nick Hornby's novel, has closed. I liked it. Even though the problems and concerns of the record store owner, played by a charismatic, charming leading man, Will Chase, are naive and simplistic, the show, a mixture of 70's and contemporary sensibility, was a lot of fun. Amanda Green has the gift, and I found her lyrics to be clever and full of humor.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2006
High Fidelity
Imperial Theater

 Centering on the belated maturation of vinyl record shop owner Rob (Will Chase), David Lindsay-Abaire's script for High Fidelity had the misfortune of sporting a recurring Top 5 theme. The Times critic took aim at this irritating tick and enshrined the show among a makeshift list of Top 5 "All-Time Most Forgettable Musicals."

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
January 2007
History Boys, The
Broadhurst Theater

 What a pleasure to be in the presence of the product of a sparklingly brilliant mind. Alan Bennett's The History Boys is full of wit and wisdom in his construct of an English boy's school presented as an intellectual swordfight with musical interludes and film clips. It is so smart, it is thrilling.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2006
Hollywood Arms
Cort Theater

 There's an old saying: "Shoemaker, stick to your last." Remember when Michael Jordan tried to play baseball? Carol Burnett wrote a play (with her daughter), Hollywood Arms, now on Broadway. Sorry. She's a great performer. The acting, by Linda Lavin, Michele Pawk and Frank Wood, is fine, but you also know the one about a silk purse...

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Hollywood Arms
Cort Theater

 Creaky and unfocused, this semi-autobiographical play by Carol Burnett and her late daughter, Carrie Hamilton, has stretches of entertaining humor and believable familial squabbles, but its parade of short scenes and lack of dramatic thrust take their toll early. Not bad (Burnett should definitely write another), just incredibly familiar stuff. Think of it as a weak, third-generation Brighton Beach Memoirs, and then see something else instead.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Hot Feet
Hilton Theater

 Hot Feet, ultimately a rather good dance show conceived, directed and choreographed by Maurice Hines, throws us off by an over-zealous opening of dancers wigglin', jigglin', jumpin' and humpin' like really good cheerleaders with colorful Arabian Nights costumes (by Paul Tazewell). But a lot of it can be seen every weekend for free at Broadway and 50th Street. It takes a while for us to realize that they are doing a version of The Red Shoes and that there is a coherent show here.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2006
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Hilton Theater

 Jack O'Brien's lively creation, Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a bundle of familiar family fun with a great singing-dancing cast of grownups and kids, including a couple of stars: John Cullum as the Old Dog who tells the story, and the gruff, lovable Patrick Page as The Grinch.

Directed by Matt August, the tuner has an "Alice in Wonderland" feeling with stylized moves and bouncy choreography by John DeLuca and whimsical cartoonish costumes by Robert Morgan played on John Lee Beatty's fanciful set.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
Richard Rodgers Theater

 A secretary may not be a toy, but if you're Des McAnuff, a Broadway show is. McAnuff and designer John Arnone go all-out to turn this revival of How To Succeed into something out of FAO Schwartz -- all movement, eye-popping colors, sound and silliness. That it works, mmm.. 90% of the time, is a credit first and foremost to Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock & Willie Gilbert's miraculous book, one which, even played perfectly straight, could only offend the most humorless feminists.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 1996
Eyes Of Love, The
Producers Club Theater - II

 This is a shrink play. Three black, faux-leather swivel chairs become the offices of two analysts: level-headed Kathryn Brooks (Linda West) and earnest Mark Ryan (Thomas F. Honeck). Mark accepts an emergency call from volatile Annalisa Dominico, who is having boyfriend trouble. She pours out her problems to Mark, who in turn airs them with his own shrink, Kathryn. Annalisa has rapid-fire oscillations in her relationship with Anthony Fatima (Frank Caruso), to whom she is as addicted as to her cell phone.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
May 2000
Jose Feliciano
Iridium

 In 1964, I was the MC of The Hootenanny at The Bitter End Cafe in Greenwich Village every Tuesday night. One night a young woman came in dragging a blind Puerto Rican kid with a guitar. She said to put him on the stage, that he was really good. I said, "Sure," and put him on at two in the morning. When he sang his first song, I told the woman, "Bring him in any time -- I'll put him on any time you say." It was Jose Feliciano. About ten years later, at a club in Huntington Beach, California, I was his opening act doing my mime/comedy act, and he used to heckle me.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
One On One
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

 Robert Mansell has fulfilled many an actor's dream: gathering up scenes and roles he'd like to play and doing so in a well-directed, designed, entertaining program. Though without a thematic frame, the first half of this one-man show mainly presents men involved in monstrosities.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2007
Forty-Second Street Workshop One-Act Festival (1999) - Series A
42nd Street Workshop

 Maestro, which pays homage to Keaton, Chaplin and Leonard Bernstein, is performed entirely in silence, except for the sounds of an orchestra passionately playing a symphony, and equally passionately led by the Maestro, who, having entered with dignity and verve, bows to his audience, placed upstage, then faces his orchestra, in the direction of the actual audience. Gerber's baton doesn't miss a nuance, now gentle, now demanding, now almost losing control in his enthusiasm, and always appreciative of his players.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Forty-Second Street Workshop One-Act Festival (1999) - Series B
42nd Street Workshop

 In The Winning Ticket, sloppy employee Jimmy (David Allan Walker) is ecstatic: he's won the lottery, it's $37 million, and he's about to tell the stuffed shirt boss where to stuff it. Mousey secretary Stella (Elizabeth Ann Townsend) at first protects Jimmy, then avows her love and then hopes they'll quit together. Then...a highly amusing turnaround. The play's charming, funny, beautifully directed and acted, with a particularly winning turn by Ms. Townsend.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Forty-Second Street Workshop One-Act Festival (1999) - Series C
42nd Street Workshop

 In Charlie & Flo, the latter, an attractive widow (Celeste Mancinelli), meets her son Charlie's (Darien Scott Shulman) high school teacher Jerry (Bart Tangredi) and, after a slow start -- Flo can't readily forget her deceased husband -- sparks ultimately fly. Charlie, Jealous, cannot forgive his mother for "being unfaithful" to his deceased father. There are backs and forths between all, and ultimately a positive conclusion is reached. A nice, warm family story, well acted by the three plus Charles E. Gerber, who plays a bit as the Waiter, and does a fine job as director.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Freak Of Nature, The
Greenwich Village Center

 It is sometimes difficult to imagine how fresh these short plays must have seemed to Luigi Pirandello's contemporaries. Surprise and even shock cap a brisk spin through dangerous mental terrain leaving audiences intrigued. Director Slava Stepnov joined three one-acters using the author's own statements about his art, delivered engagingly by Leonardo Torres Vilar.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Company
New Victory Theater

 The Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Co. gives us two of the finest performance artists around (or is it "New Vaudeville?"). Garbo is a juggler, mime, clown and gymnast who has created a unique extravaganza using huge inflated cubes as his costumes and props. His partner, the stunningly beautiful Brazilian dancer Daielma Santos, does the acrobatics with him and lights up the stage with her dancing. The show, which runs at the New Victory Theater on 42nd Street, is an exposition of creative fun (for all ages) from start to finish.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Freedom Of The City, The
Lincoln Center Festival `99

 Brian Friel wrote The Freedom of the City in 1973, one year after the terrible Bloody Sunday massacre in Londonderry, in which 13 civil rights marchers were fired upon and killed by British soldiers. In his play, Friel artfully creates three unfortunate innocents: Lily (Sorcha Cusack), a mother of 11, the streetwise young Skinner (Michael Colgan), and the more serious and astute Michael (Gerald Crossan).

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
French Defense, The
Abrons Arts Center at Henry Street Settlement

 The French Defense by Dimitri Raitzin is a fascinating look at a chess contest by then World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik (Robert J. D'Amato) and challenger Mikhail Tal (Daniel Hendricks Simon) in 1960. I'm not a chess player, but I was completely drawn into the drama of the contest between a champ and an annoying, insulting gadfly, and by the depth of the characterization by the actors, particularly D'Amato.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
From Door To Door
Westside Theater - Downstairs

 Few themes in playwriting are as reliable as that of parents passing their fears, traits, customs and traditions down to their children. In capable hands, the opportunities for nostalgia and recriminations can be inexhaustible. James Sherman, who showed a sweet knack for Jewish family comedy with his Beau Jest, mines a slightly darker vein in this tale of three women and the choices they made.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
March 2004
Fuddy Meers
Minetta Lane Theater

 Now playing in an open-ended run at the Minetta Lane Theater after a smash engagement at Manhattan Theater Club, David Lindsay-Abaire's wacky look at a really dysfunctional family has charms to spare but too often falls into that pseudo-Coen Bros. funk that has marked too many comic plays of late. The tone is so bustling at times; you just wish everyone would take a Valium and get some rest. Still, this would be more of a gripe if the cast weren't so wonderful and the overall look of the play so striking (by the remarkable Santo Loquasto, no less).

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
February 2000
Fully Committed
Vineyard Theater

One of the delightful surprises of the fall season, Fully Committed, is a shining example of economical theater. The gifted Mark Setlock, playing over 30 speaking roles all by himself, and the wonderful director Nicholas Martin (Betty's Summer Vacation) create an identifiable tale of an actor-hopeful in his stress-inducing job as a receptionist at a posh Manhattan restaurant. Left to his own devices, Sam must man the phone lines all by his lonesome while a flighty co-worker is off doing something vague. The trick in this show is that the actor is the whole she-bang.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Further Than The Furthest Thing
Manhattan Theater Club - Stage I

 Further Than the Furthest Thing is the absolute worst kind of bad play -- the kind where you cannot imagine anyone deriving any sort of pleasure from it. An unbearably downcast, coma-inducing story by Scottish playwright Zinnie Harris, it is the latest Manhattan Theater Club production that begs the question of why anyone there ever thought it would work. It is also the latest import from the West End that transfers so poorly in America, you wonder what's in the water over there.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Further Than The Furthest Thing
Manhattan Theater Club - Stage I

 Further Than the Furthest Thing at Manhattan Theater Club is basically about moronic people in a wretched situation. It starts with incomprehensible rapid-fire chatter from Jennifer Dundas and goes to the stupidity of dropping eggs so they break -- twice. A magician/capitalist enters, and things pick up a bit, and it's "should the factory come to this primitive island?" "Local Hero" did that one a lot better. The cast of five utilize five different accents as their community rolls towards death and destruction. Not a lot of fun.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Warrior, The
Backlot Theater

 Dog-tagged, in fatigues, dragging her huge canvas sling-bag, Tammy, veteran of Desert Storm and now Iraq, suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Giselle, an old school mate (heard but not seen), is filming a documentary. Tammy's agreed to be interviewed, desperately hoping it'll help win back her daughter from her soon-to-be ex-husband. He found another woman -- just one of the terrible things that happened to Tammy when at war in Iraq.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2007
La Discreta Enamorada
Southern Methodist University - Greer Garson Theater

 Southern Methodist University mounted a student production of Vern G. Williamsen's ill-conceived translation of La Discreta Enamorada by 16th century Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, in the Greer Garson Theater. The setting was updated to 1950s Madrid. This is a review of portions of Act I -- the parts I saw when not hiding in the lobby to escape the excessive stench of on-stage smoking, at times by two characters at once who paced back and forth downstage.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
Labor Day
Weiss Arts Center

 Summerfun is a true summer stock theater, changing shows every week, and as a result, the product varies greatly. Labor Day is one of its best successes, featuring a good cast in a well-directed, one-set play. Obviously autobiographical in part, the Gurney piece tells the story of John, a playwright, who for forty years has achieved moderate success although never a Broadway production.

Donald Collester
Date Reviewed:
July 1999

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