All stories by Jan Simpson on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

"Regrets" is Stuck in the Past by Jan Simpson

The main image on the cover of the Playbill for Regrets, the new drama playing at the Manhattan Theatre Club through the end of the month, is of a smiling All-American family, circa 1954.&nb…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 09:50AM
Saturday, April 14, 2012

Is "End of the Rainbow" the End for Judy? by Jan Simpson

Movies and plays in which actors impersonate more famous celebrities aren’t my favorite form of entertainment. And yet I had really looked forward to seeing End of the Rainbow, the new mus…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 11:39AM
Wednesday, April 11, 2012

“The Big Meal” is a Savory Treat by Jan Simpson

It’s becoming Sam Gold’s world. And we theater lovers will just have to content ourselves with living in it.  Which is fine with me. For over the last three years, Gold has surfaced…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 09:28AM
Saturday, April 7, 2012

The Latter-Day Resurrections of "Godspell" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" by Jan Simpson

Here’s a question for the Baby Boomers among you:  was the substance you abused in your youth more likely to be speed or hashish? I ask because the answer could determine which of t…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 07:59AM
Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Tribulations of a Bloodless "Carrie" by Jan Simpson

It’s been a big season for remixed musicals. But while newcomers did the controversial nipping and tucking on Porgy and Bess and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, it’s the original tea…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:16PM
Saturday, March 31, 2012

Why "Now. Here. This." is Not for Me by Jan Simpson

“What do you do,” a friend once asked me.  “If you don’t like something that everyone else likes?”  Well, we’re about to find out right now.  Because I really didn…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 07:59AM
Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Real Shame of "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" by Jan Simpson

There’s no one who enjoys clever stagecraft more than I do.  But I’m old-school enough to believe that everything that appears on a stage—the acting, the set, any coup de theatre�…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:21AM
Saturday, March 24, 2012

How "Once" Managed to Charm Even Me by Jan Simpson

Once, the new musical that opened at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre this week, may be the sweetest show to open on Broadway in years.  And I had worried about that.  My theatrical t…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:25AM
Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Mad About NYPL'S "The World of Noel Coward" by Jan Simpson

The best new show in town right now is at Lincoln Center.  But I’m not talking about the mighty War Horse, which even after a year is still packing them in at the Vivian Beaumont, or …

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 05:55PM
Saturday, March 17, 2012

"The Maids" Should Be a Little Dirtier by Jan Simpson

Jean Genet was the enfant terrible of French writers.  And, as a convicted thief and a defiantly openly gay man, he reveled in his status as an outsider. So it was perfectly in characte…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 09:42AM
Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Totally Mesmerized by "The Total Bent" by Jan Simpson

If you see The Total Bent— which, if you haven’t done, you’ll have to rush to do because it closes this weekend—you may or may not see the same show I saw. For The Total Bent, the la…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:53AM
Saturday, March 10, 2012

A Great Visit from "The Lady from Dubuque" by Jan Simpson

All great playwrights strive to make the people who see their plays think as well as feel.  And with Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams now gone, Edward Albee is not only our greatest…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:59AM
Saturday, March 3, 2012

"How I Learned to Drive" is a Great Ride by Jan Simpson

Whenever I’ve had the good fortune to talk to young playwrights, Paula Vogel’s name always seems to come up.  They’ve all read or seen her work.  Most have been inspired by i…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 04:11PM
Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Real Pain of "Hurt Village" by Jan Simpson

A bumper crop of talented young playwrights has popped up over the last few years.  Annie Baker, Tarell Alvin McCraney and Amy Herzog have all had plays produced by major companies, rec…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 09:04AM
Saturday, February 25, 2012

"Blood Knot" Connects Strongly to the Past by Jan Simpson

Almost everything is new and sleek at the Pershing Square Signature Center, the sprawling, reportedly $70 million, theater space on 42nd Street that starchitect Frank Gehry designed to be th…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 03:58PM
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

"CQ/CX" Asks Some Provocative Questions But Cops Out When It Comes to Answering Them by Jan Simpson

  Why write a play unless you have something to say?  The story of Jayson Blair, the young African-American reporter whose fabricated and plagiarized stories set-off a scandal…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 09:08AM
Saturday, February 18, 2012

"Assistance" is an Amiable Workplace Comedy by Jan Simpson

Nearly every writer starts off imitating someone else.  Then if the novice has talent, he or she eventually develops his or her own unique voice.  In the old days, young playwright…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:59AM
Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A Fifth Anniversary Message by Jan Simpson

Since yesterday was Valentine’s Day, my husband K and I took some time out to celebrate the great good luck of being able to share our love and lives with one another.   But&nbs…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:59AM
Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Living is Now Easy for "Porgy and Bess" by Jan Simpson

The producers of  the show now known as The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess announced this week that their controversial remix of the classic musical about lovers in a poor black fishing co…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 05:25PM
Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Will NBC's "Smash" Go Boffo or Bust? by Jan Simpson

Does it make me a heretic to say that I’m not yet sold on “Smash”? NBC has certainly done everything it can to push its new series about the making of a Broadway musical, including buy…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:59AM
Saturday, February 4, 2012

"Look Back in Anger" Looks the Wrong Way by Jan Simpson

The trouble with seeing the revival of a groundbreaking play is that the ground has already been broken—and has probably been well trod. Trying to recapture the impact of the thing is like…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 04:40PM
Wednesday, February 1, 2012

"Wit" Satisfies the Heart, Head—and Soul by Jan Simpson

One of the big mysteries of the recent theatrical past is why Margaret Edson hasn’t written more plays.  Wit, the first—and only one—she wrote was the surprise hit of the 1998-199…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:59AM
Saturday, January 28, 2012

A "Richard III" That Just Limps Along by Jan Simpson

People have been going to the theater to see stars since Thespis broke out of the chorus in the 6th century, barnstormed the cities of ancient Greece and gave his name to the acting professi…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:59AM
Wednesday, January 25, 2012

"Untitled Feminist Show" Offers Naked Truths by Jan Simpson

Every once in awhile, I like to venture outside my theatergoing comfort zone.  One of the surest ways for me to do that is to see a play by the comfort-be-damned playwright Young Jean L…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 07:59AM
Saturday, January 21, 2012

"The Road to Mecca" is a Long, Slow Trip by Jan Simpson

There are some plays that you out-and-out love.  And then there are others that you feel you ought to admire.  The latter is the way I feel about Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:59AM
Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Why "Seminar" Gets a Failing Grade From Me by Jan Simpson

My good friend Andrea recently came to New York for the first time in four years and, of course, she wanted to see a Broadway show.  After some research— reading the Times and talking…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 07:59AM
Wednesday, January 11, 2012

"Outside People" Tackles a Very "In" Topic by Jan Simpson

The Soviet Union was the bogeyman that threatened what Superman used to call “The American way” when I was a kid.  It lost the gig when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.  Since the…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 09:59AM
Saturday, January 7, 2012

"Lysistrata Jones" Fails to Score on Broadway by Jan Simpson

Despite recent balmy temperatures, the winter frost is beginning to settle in. The new year isn't even a week old and two shows have already announced that they’re folding their tents beca…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 08:59AM
Wednesday, January 4, 2012

"Close-Up Space" is Too All Over the Place by Jan Simpson

What are they teaching in drama schools and playwriting workshops?    I ask because so many playwrights today seem to think all they need is snappy dialog and then voilà, they hav…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 07:59AM
Saturday, December 31, 2011

The Best Theater of 2011 by Jan Simpson

If you read as many “10 Bests” lists as I do around this time each year, it quickly becomes obvious that the lists say a whole lot more about the people making them than they do about an…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 10:32AM
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

"Bonnie & Clyde" Got Gunned Down Too Early by Jan Simpson

Let’s be honest: what I think about Bonnie & Clyde isn’t going to matter one bit because the show has already posted its closing notice and will be moving out of the Gerald Schoenfel…

SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 11:59AM

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