Monday, May 25, 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015

Whatever Happened to Playgoer? by G. Playgoer

Good question!Forgive me Blogger, for I have sinned. It has been two years since my last post.Actually I feel compelled to finally add something since the sight of that random April 2013 ent…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 11:46AM
Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The Still Shrinking American Stage by Garrett Eisler

Terry Teachout reflects on the latest TCG list of Top Ten Plays Produced in American nonprofit theatres: it's easy to forget that the latter-day dominance of the small-cast play is a fair…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 10:55AM
Tuesday, March 5, 2013

REVIEW: Henry IV, Pt 1 by Garrett Eisler

Sorry no blogging this past weekend. But I did write a mini-review of the Pearl's Henry IV for Time Out. (Warning: contains spoilers from 1597!)

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 10:41AM
Sunday, February 24, 2013

REVIEW: The Good Person of Szechwan by Garrett Eisler

Brecht's Epic He/She: Taylor Mac as Shin Te and Shui Ta. Taylor Mac is giving the performance of the year down at La MaMa in The Good Person of Szechwan. And unfortunately most of you will…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 10:44PM
Sunday, February 17, 2013

Playgoer's Rules of Playgoing by The Playgoer

You thought attending the theatre was entertainment? It's hard work! But if you abide by the following proscriptions, you will make playgoing pleasanter for you and all around you. First, d…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 11:56AM
Sunday, February 10, 2013

REVIEW: Clive by The Playgoer

If I told you that Ethan Hawke was enlisting playwright friend Jonathan Marc Sherman to adapt Brecht's Baal for him to star in (and direct) so he could sport a Billy Idol 'do, wheeze aw…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 12:27PM
Sunday, February 3, 2013

REVIEW: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by The Playgoer

If only the current Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof featured something as jarring and surprising as a "Ghost Skipper" floating in and out of the background. Despite the understanda…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 02:58PM

Playgoer Lives! by The Playgoer

Well that was some "hiatus," wasn't it?  Where were we... For the few of you that might still be tuning in, welcome back! Sorry for the prolonged, um, "intermission." My excuse is simp…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 12:04PM
Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Playgoer on Hiatus by The Playgoer

As has been apparent since the Tony Awards, The Playgoer has been taking the summer off. But I do indeed intend to resume blogging during the fall in some form. What does that mean? Shifting…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 01:14PM
Sunday, June 10, 2012

Tony Blogcast 2012 by The Playgoer

For Twitter followers: the blogcast doesn't update there, but there have been some extra bonus tweets (@theplaygoer) 11:10 Once Best Musical. What can I say. I didn't see it coming. And I'm…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 08:04PM
Saturday, June 9, 2012

The Annual Playgoer Tony Live Blogcast by The Playgoer

...is on! Yes, sorry we've been absent here a long time. But help nurse Playgoer back to life by visiting and taking part in the traditional Tony Live Blogcast here tomorrow night starting …

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 12:54PM
Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Tony Noms 2012 by The Playgoer

They're out there. Random thoughts: First I recklessly tweet that Once would not even make it to opening night on Broadway, now it leads the pack with 11 Tony nominations. Go figure. (And…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 10:14AM
Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Review: The Morini Strad by The Playgoer

My latest for Time Out: Willy Holtzman's The Morini Strad at Primary Stages. The takeaway: "Tuesdays with Morrie for the WQXR crowd." By the way, forgot to mention in the review that this …

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 11:10AM
Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Rush Tickets for All! by The Playgoer

Kudos to producer Jordan Roth for simplifying the rush ticket policy for at least one Broadway show: A limited number of lower-price general rush tickets will be available for every perform…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 10:41AM
Friday, March 23, 2012

Correction of the Day by The Playgoer

Time we had a little humor in the Mike Daisey affair... A writer named Jason Mick, at the Daily Tech site, criticizes, as I have, the things that Daisey got wrong or made up. Then he adds: …

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 01:57PM
Monday, March 19, 2012

Orson at 24 by The Playgoer

Orson Welles in 1939, when he was still a stage and radio star, pre-Citizen Kane. From a new exhibit of Golden Age Hollywood color photos at the National Portrait Gallery in DC. Kinda looks…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 03:04PM
Sunday, March 18, 2012

About Mike D by The Playgoer

"We do not and cannot fact check our artists; we're a theater, not a news organization. The vast majority of what occurs on our stages is fiction. If we didn't believe fiction could reveal…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 12:04PM
Friday, March 9, 2012

A Site with a View by The Playgoer

From NYPL, an online Noel Coward archive with bio and lots of photos. Take a tour and add a little style to your weekend! The Lincoln Center Performing Arts branch will also have an on-site…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 11:03AM
Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Review: Beyond the Horizon by The Playgoer

For Time Out this week I review Eugene O'Neill's 1920 Broadway debut play, Beyond the Horizon. A title long familiar to me from theatre history books, nice to finally see it in this Irish Re…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 11:03AM
Saturday, March 3, 2012

Kickstarter: Better than NEA? by The Playgoer

Are you sitting down? The crowd-funding site, Kickstarter, will soon be able to boast a bigger arts-funding treasure-chest than the National Endowment for the Arts. Or, at least, so boasts …

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 05:09PM
Thursday, February 23, 2012

MTC's Big Buy by The Playgoer

So I'm up early today and I decide to tune into "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, and what do I see a commercial for? Manhattan Theatre Club!  No, not one of those 15-second blips at the end of t…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 07:54AM
Friday, February 17, 2012

Garofalo's Stage Debut by The Playgoer

"Stage-acting, she feels, is a true test of discipline for someone who is used to flying by the seat of their pants 'in that you've got to say this here and you must put that prop there. Yo…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 11:19AM
Thursday, February 16, 2012

Not Student/Not Senior by The Playgoer

Looks like 9-5 employed adults are finding it just as hard there as here to get a decent theatre ticket discount: While young people have access to youth ticket discounts (and so they shoul…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 10:06AM
Monday, February 13, 2012

Is Kickstarter Working? by The Playgoer

Yesterday, the fundraising website Kickstarter reached a milestone when not one, but two of its clients passed the million-dollar threshold. I mused last year upon the opportunities here fo…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 03:22PM
Saturday, February 11, 2012

The "Phantom" Menace by The Playgoer

Patrick Healy's lede for today's front-page NYT story on the 10,000th(!) performance of Phantom says a lot: “The Phantom of the Opera” will make show business history on Saturday with th…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 01:35PM
Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The Privatization of Censorship by The Playgoer

Nick Cohen in the Literary Review (UK) offers some useful ways to think about censorship in the 21st century: We cannot puncture our own myth that we are fearless seekers after truth, even …

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 05:30PM
Monday, January 30, 2012

Surprisingly Decent Theatrical Satire by The Playgoer

Normally I find any pop culture take on theatre to be oddly distorted.  But, catching up with a recent SNL rerun this weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to find not one, but two very f…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 05:06PM
Thursday, January 26, 2012

Venues for the Short Play by The Playgoer

Steve Waters in the Guardian sings the praises of the short play: So what is a short play, exactly? Is it simply defined by its length? I ask because as a form it's under-discussed and und…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 11:22AM
Thursday, January 19, 2012

That Tony Lure by The Playgoer

Something interesting happening on the Rialto right now: a number of recent Off Broadway successes will be descending upon available theatres this spring just in time for Tony Time. (That ti…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 12:39PM
Friday, January 13, 2012

The Arts vs "Austerity" by The Playgoer

English playwright David Edgar has a good, long essay in the Guardian on the UK's arts funding crisis and especially the crisis in how to argue for the arts in a time of official, imposed "a…

SOURCE: The Playgoer at 12:20PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards