All stories by Gordon Cox on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

‘Fat Ham’ Review: James Ijames’ Pulitzer-Winning ‘Hamlet’ Riff Is a Broadway Feast by Gordon Cox

New York stages are rarely without some version of Shakespeare’s mopey Danish prince, tormented by fatal family drama. But none has ever been quite like the protagonist of “Fat Ham,” J…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Tuesday, April 4, 2023

The Secrets, Tricks and Cheats That Make a Puppet Scary in Broadway’s ‘Life of Pi’ by Gordon Cox

Here are two wildlife facts you won’t learn in “Life of Pi”: Orangutans are quiet, and zebras stay silent when they’re attacked. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast be…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:00PM
Sunday, March 26, 2023

‘Sweeney Todd’ Review: Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford Lead a Soaring but Remote Sondheim Revival on Broadway by Gordon Cox

The cannibalist startup in “Sweeney Todd” kills two birds: For Sweeney, the ruined barber who holds a grudge as steadily as he does a blade, it means turning enemies into actual mincemea…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Thursday, March 23, 2023

‘Bad Cinderella’ Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Muddled, Sexed-Up, Broadway Spin on the Fairy Tale Is True to Its Name by Gordon Cox

The addition of “bad” to the title of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest maximalist spectacle, formerly known simply as “Cinderella” when it premiered for a short-lived run on the West E…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM
Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Why Tom Stoppard Is Driving Himself ‘Daft and Furious’ During the Hit Broadway Run of ‘Leopoldstadt’ by Gordon Cox

Celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard has a Broadway success on his hands with “Leopoldstadt,” his (very) loosely autobiographical play now in the sixth month of a long run currently set to…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:08PM
Sunday, March 19, 2023

‘Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ ” Review: A Rapturous Broadway Homage to a Great Choreographer by Gordon Cox

It’s hard to believe, but Bob Fosse’s definitive signature musical “Dancin’” has never been revived on Broadway since its Tony Award-winning debut in 1978. Huge kudos, then, to dir…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:29PM
Thursday, March 16, 2023

‘Parade’ Review: Ben Platt Stuns in a Powerful Broadway Production of an Essential American Musical by Gordon Cox

Traveling from the relative calm of the Clinton era to more perilous, contemporary times of mobs, mendacity and political mayhem, the much-admired but short-lived musical “Parade” has no…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM
Tuesday, March 14, 2023

‘Guys and Dolls’ Review: An Explosively Thrilling Production of a Masterpiece in London by Gordon Cox

Since Nicholas Hytner, former artistic director of the National Theatre, is one of the finest, most detailed Shakespeare directors in the land, you could be forgiven for forgetting that he r…

SOURCE: Variety at 08:01PM
Thursday, March 9, 2023

‘A Doll’s House’ Review: Jessica Chastain Shines in a Broadway Staging That Brings Sparkling Clarity to a Classic by Gordon Cox

There are no props in director Jamie Lloyd’s version of Henrik Ibsen’s drama “A Doll’s House” — no sets, no costumes (just plain contemporary clothing in dark blue), not even a c…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:26PM
Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Why Nathan Lane Says ‘Pictures From Home’ May Be His Last Broadway Show — And Why He’s Probably Kidding by Gordon Cox

The new play “Pictures From Home” is Tony Award winner Nathan Lane’s 25th Broadway show — and he’s threatening not to come back for a 26th. “This may be the last one,” Lane sai…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:27PM
Tuesday, February 21, 2023

How Anthony Rapp Has Begun to Heal in His Fight Against Abuse in Hollywood by Gordon Cox

Currently one of the stars of “Star Trek: Discovery,” Anthony Rapp has recently spent some time looking back and reliving his past. Off Broadway, he’s starring in “Without You,” hi…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:34PM
Friday, February 10, 2023

‘Pictures From Home’ Review: Nathan Lane Leads Well-Acted but Dull Broadway Play by Gordon Cox

Nice acting and sensitive direction characterize “Pictures From Home,” the starry new Broadway production of Sharr White’s meh family drama based on the photo-memoir by Larry Sultan.…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:35AM
Tuesday, February 7, 2023

How National Black Theatre is Making a New Home in Harlem — and on Broadway by Gordon Cox

National Black Theatre is in the midst of a building itself a new home in Harlem — but then, the company has been in the business of building a home for 55 years. Listen to this week’s …

SOURCE: Variety at 03:49PM
Monday, January 30, 2023

‘Fall On Your Knees’ Review: A Laborious Six Hours on Stage With One of Canada’s Favorite Novels by Gordon Cox

If nothing else, you’ve got to admire the epic scope and ambition of “Fall on Your Knees,” a two-part, six-hour adaptation of one of the most beloved Canadian novels of all time – An…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00AM
Friday, January 27, 2023

Inside Broadway’s Bifurcated Comeback by Gordon Cox

The Broadway musical “Beetlejuice” simply refused to die. After a 2019 eviction notice from its original theater and an unceremonious 2020 shuttering by the COVID-19 lockdown, the produc…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:00AM
Tuesday, January 24, 2023

How Stephen McKinley Henderson Hears the Music in Playwrights by Gordon Cox

When Stephen McKinley Henderson talks about playwrights, he talks about music. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “August Wilson is, of course, the blues,” he said…

SOURCE: Variety at 03:37PM
Sunday, January 15, 2023

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ Review: Paul Mescal Is Explosive in Rebecca Frecknall’s Staggering Revival by Gordon Cox

“I don’t want realism. I want magic!” Blanche’s famously desperate cry holds the key to most approaches to “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Productions of Tennessee Williams’ master…

SOURCE: Variety at 03:31PM
Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Why Audra McDonald’s New Broadway Show Is Shocking Audiences by Gordon Cox

Audra McDonald knows her new Broadway show is surprising theatergoers. “Some people come to see ‘Ohio State Murders’ and they’re taken aback by how I’m speaking or the words that I…

SOURCE: Variety at 03:57PM
Tuesday, December 20, 2022

‘The Collaboration’ Review: Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope Play Art-World Icons on Broadway by Gordon Cox

Caesar meets Cleopatra, Stalin meets Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe meets the Kennedy brothers: Consequential connections all. So, too, is the meeting and eventual partnership arranged by savvy N…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Monday, December 19, 2022

‘Between Riverside and Crazy’ Review: Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer-Winning Dark Comedy Makes Marvelous Broadway Premiere by Gordon Cox

How well can you ever really know a person? Do you judge by their actions, their hopes or some combination? Like many city creatures, the New Yorkers of “Between Riverside and Crazy,” no…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM
Thursday, December 15, 2022

Tectonic Theater Project Reveals Robust Slate of Projects Aimed for Broadway, Touring and International (EXCLUSIVE) by Gordon Cox

Tectonic Theater Project, the 30-year-old company behind international stage successes “Gross Indecency” and “The Laramie Project,” has unveiled an upcoming slate of projects includi…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:30AM
Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Partners With Reframe to Launch Tech-Enabled DEI Initiative (EXCLUSIVE) by Gordon Cox

Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the 87-year-old regional-theater stalwart that has become a leading player in the theater industry’s push to increase diversity, equity and inclusion, has part…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:39AM
Tuesday, December 13, 2022

‘Mandela’ Review: New Musical Biography Drowns in Good Intentions by Gordon Cox

Delivering songs demanding freedom not only for the characters but the whole country under apartheid, the impassioned cast of the new musical “Mandela” (now premiering at the Young Vic i…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:42PM

Deirdre O’Connell’s Tony Award Hasn’t Changed Her Life — And She’s More Than Okay With That by Gordon Cox

After spending the last 30-plus years as an Off Broadway favorite, actor Deirdre O’Connell (“Becky Nurse of Salem,” “Corsicana”) walked away from the 2022 Tony Awards with a trophy…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:44AM
Sunday, December 11, 2022

‘Some Like It Hot’ Review: New Perspectives Bring Sizzle to This Bright Broadway Musical by Gordon Cox

Taking a classic film comedy — especially one that plays fast and loose with gender and sexuality — and turning it into a big Broadway musical is far from a sure thing in these contempor…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Thursday, December 8, 2022

‘Ohio State Murders’ Review: Audra McDonald Stuns in Adrienne Kennedy’s Long-Awaited Broadway Debut by Gordon Cox

It may be easy to take for granted that Audra McDonald, with six Tony Awards to her name, is capable of performances that creep delicately into your psyche and rattle around there as if clea…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM

‘Becky Nurse of Salem’ Review: Witch Trials, Trump and the Kitchen Sink in Sarah Ruhl’s Overstuffed New Play by Gordon Cox

You don’t get more American than descending from one of the witches burned at the stake in Salem, Mass. Unless, that is, you’re also an opioid addict in that same town during the Trump y…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:30PM
Tuesday, December 6, 2022

How Josh Dela Cruz Brought Broadway to ‘Blue’s Clues’ by Gordon Cox

When Nickelodeon revived its popular kids series “Blue’s Clues” in 2019, the show found its new host on Broadway. Josh Dela Cruz was doing eight shows a week in “Aladdin” when he w…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:13PM

‘Orlando’ Review: Emma Corrin Lights Up an Outstandingly Imaginative Look at Gender and Identity by Gordon Cox

The entirely beguiling lightness of touch is remarkable. Staging the startlingly prescient, gender-swapping, time-traveling 1928 novel “Orlando,” a lesser creative team would have gone …

SOURCE: Variety at 02:11PM
Monday, December 5, 2022

‘A Beautiful Noise’ Review: Neil Diamond Musical Unpacks Hitmaker’s Life in Therapy and Song by Gordon Cox

If you are looking to draw an audience into what seems like a typical biographical jukebox musical, starting and ending your drama in psychoanalysis is a great device. Then again, “A Beaut…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:45AM
Saturday, December 3, 2022

‘Ain’t No Mo’’ Review: Jordan E. Cooper’s Uproarious Black Comedy Takes Off on Broadway by Gordon Cox

The question at the heart of “Ain’t No Mo’,” the incendiary and incisive new comedy that opened on Broadway on Dec. 1, is riotously and fruitfully absurd. Consider it a gleeful refra…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:20PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 15, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic