Monday, December 29, 2014
Photo: Matthew MurphySam Shepard came to prominence chronicling the battered and bruised families of the American West, so it should come as no surprise that he would set his sights on the m…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:55AMSaturday, December 27, 2014
It's not good. It's not bad. It's just nice. And perhaps that's why the long-awaited film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods, which opened Christmas Day, is lar…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:05PMWednesday, December 24, 2014
Rebecca Hall and Morgan Spector in Machinal.Photo: Joan Marcus2014 was, like most theatre-going years, a grab bag of exquisite highs, painful lows, and a wide, bland middle. But as Wendy and…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:23PMMonday, December 22, 2014
Marianne and Roland first meet at a barbecue. No, wait. It was a wedding. She's interested in him, but he has a girlfriend. Or was it that he was just out of a relationship, not ready to dat…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:35AMSunday, December 14, 2014
Call me Joanne Kaufman. I knew from the downbeat of the horrifically misguided new production of Henry Krieger and Bill Russell's Side Show, currently in its final weeks at the St. James The…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:03PMWednesday, December 3, 2014
photo: Jeremy DanielSince his brilliant debut play, A Bright New Boise, had its New York premiere in 2010, Samuel D. Hunter's output has been both prodigious and prolific. At 32, he's …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:57PMFriday, November 21, 2014
Lost Lake is a brief, largely unsatisfying two-hander that only catches fire in its final moments. As the title suggests, both Hogan (John Hawkes) and Veronica (Tracie Thoms) are lost: she's…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:53AMThursday, November 20, 2014
Unique questions arise when presenting differently-bodied characters in theatrical productions. Should one be painstakingly literal--either out of respect, or to offer the audience a chance …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:00AMWednesday, November 12, 2014
A classic boulevard comedy is back on Broadway. The side-splitting laughter that rings through the auditorium is fairly deafening. No, I’m not talking about the acclaimed revival of Kaufma…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:06AMThursday, October 30, 2014
photo: Monique Carboni I wasn't around forty-three years ago, when David Rabe's Sticks and Bones premiered at Joseph Papp's Public Theater, the second work in his trio of plays abo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:40AMFriday, October 24, 2014
photo: Joan Marcus The Real Thing, Tom Stoppard’s popular romantic comedy (if it can be called that), is back on Broadway in a starry revival from the Roundabout Theatre Company. This…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:59PMSaturday, October 18, 2014
Terrence McNally’s Lips Together, Teeth Apart was written at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and premiered Off-Broadway in 1991. The original production—which starred Nathan Lane, Swoos…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:14PMThursday, October 16, 2014
Tenzin is three years old. He lives in what is described as "an American city with a large Tibetan community." His Mother (Celia Keenan-Bolger) is a white American academic, whose literary s…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:34AMThursday, October 9, 2014
Photo: Brinkhoff/Moegenburg The only aspect of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time about which I am curious is what the appeal of this show is to so many people. Adapted by Sim…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:18PMMonday, October 6, 2014
Disgraced, Ayad Ahktar’s Pulitzer-winning powder keg of a play, is finally making its Main Stem debut. Produced once again by Lincoln Center, it has arrived at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:55AMSaturday, October 4, 2014
It should come as no surprise that Lady Parts, the recently released memoir from Broadway favorite Andrea Martin, is often hysterically funny. Along with Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, an…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:46PMSaturday, September 27, 2014
Billy Porter, the talented, Tony-winning star of Kinky Boots, makes his playwriting debut with the autobiographical drama While I Yet Live. The production, directed by Sheryl Kaller and pres…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:21PMThursday, September 25, 2014
A new Broadway revival of On the Town began previews over the weekend at the oft-renamed Lyric (nee Foxwoods, nee Hilton, nee Ford) Theatre. There were no survivors.This is not going to be a…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:47AMFriday, September 19, 2014
[As with my review of Indian Ink, this post contains what may be considered spoilers to some. Read ahead at your own risk. -CK] Photo: Joan Marcus The Country House is a rare--and a rather w…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:07PMMonday, September 15, 2014
Portrait by Ken Fallin A.R. Gurney's Love Letters has long been a favorite of regional theatres and one-night-only benefits. Its conceit is simple: two performers--a man and a woman--sit sid…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:53PMSaturday, September 13, 2014
[Note: This review contains potential plot spoilers. You have been warned. -CK] Photo: Joan Marcus Roundabout is starting its Broadway season with an all-star revival of Tom Stoppard’s The…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:12PMMonday, September 8, 2014
The acclaimed, awarded Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch is currently benefitting from addition by subtraction. Neil Patrick Harris is gone, and he's understandably taken some…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:53AMThursday, September 4, 2014
The new Broadway revival of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s You Can’t Take It With You is spectacularly bad. This, perhaps, shouldn’t be surprising. New York theatre no longer specia…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:29AMSaturday, August 30, 2014
Photo Credit: Michael Brosilow In 2014, a play written in 1996 and set in 1982 is making its Broadway debut. Still with me? The play is This is Our Youth, the first major work by Kenneth Lon…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:43PMHi, everyone! I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. Or, depending on your history with this blog, re-introduce myself. I’m Cameron Kelsall, and I’m the new (old) writer for Show…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:22PMMonday, October 24, 2011
When I first heard the commotion regarding the new Broadway adaptation of Porgy & Bess--directed by Diane Paulus, with a new book by Suzan-Lori Parks and musical adaptations by Deirdre Murra…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:10PMWednesday, September 14, 2011
photo: Broadway.comThe criminally underrated musical adaptation of Sister Act (by Alan Menken and Douglas Carter Beane, at the Broadway Theatre) is notable for many reasons, including a brea…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:57PMOver the next few weeks, the ShowShowdown team will be providing our opinions on a variety of theatre-related questions that often come up. These are questions that interest us, fascinate us…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:49PMSunday, June 19, 2011
Having actors direct is always a tricky prospect. It's complicated even further when the actor who is directing is also playing a leading role in the same production. That's the main problem…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:35AMThursday, June 9, 2011
As a playwright, Jez Butterworth seems to be keenly interested in the implied. The words that he puts in his characters' mouths are often meant to signify something that's three steps remove…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:19AMSaturday, June 4, 2011
I saw Lynn Nottage's new play this afternoon--ironically, two years to the day after I first saw her Pulitzer-Prize winning Ruined. In those two years, rarely a day has passed when I haven't…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:41PM 
