All stories by Rob Weinert-Kendt on BroadwayStars

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Stuck on Hitch by Rob Weinert-Kendt

A favorite scene from Foreign Correspondent, referenced in David Rudkin's new play The Lovesong of Alfred J. Hitchcock. Some time in the early 1980s, my dad flagged a listing in our loc…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:53AM
Wednesday, April 23, 2014

‘The Lovesong of Alfred J. Hitchcock’ at 59E59 Theaters by Rob Weinert-Kendt

“The Lovesong of Alfred J. Hitchcock,” part of the Brits Off Broadway series at 59E59 Theaters, looks into the filmmaker’s youth and early career for clues to his later cinematic obses…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:36PM
Thursday, April 17, 2014

Hall Monitor by Rob Weinert-Kendt

I happened to catch Michael C. Hall in two early-ish stage roles: as the young kid in the Taper's exquisite production of Skylight (with Laila Robins and Brian Cox) and as the emcee in …

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 01:12PM

Michael C. Hall Finally Plays a Man Who Loves to Open Up by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Michael C. Hall, who became a television star on “Six Feet Under” and “Dexter,” is back on Broadway in Will Eno’s “The Realistic Joneses.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:49PM
Monday, April 14, 2014

Shaking in the Grass by Rob Weinert-Kendt

The 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama has just been announced, and I'm so happy to hear it went to Annie Baker's The Flick, I played I thoroughly enjoyed and admired. I don't know how Annie got …

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 03:35PM
Friday, April 11, 2014

Unnaturalism by Rob Weinert-Kendt

I came across this lede in an old review of mine while working on my recent feature on Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, and it struck as worth highlighting. The review is of the Mike L…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 04:43PM
Thursday, April 3, 2014

Full Circle by Rob Weinert-Kendt

One reason I was so disappointed by Classic Stage Company's muddled, soporific staging of Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle last year was that two of the most formative theatergoing experience…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 01:24PM

Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman Team Up in ‘Annapurna’ by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Nick Offerman (of “Parks and Recreation”) and Megan Mullally (of “Will & Grace”) are married and performing in Sharr White’s drama “Annapurna” at the Acorn Theater.  …

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:16PM
Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Why I Haven't Been Blogging by Rob Weinert-Kendt

This is the 10th year of the Wicked Stage blog (predated by its few years as a weekly-ish column in the inky pages of Back Stage West), but so far it's been a sparsely populated, as you may …

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 12:52AM
Friday, March 14, 2014

'Porgy and Bess' reboot perseveres despite its critics by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Although even Stephen Sondheim harshly dismissed the need for a musical-theater version of the Gershwin opera, the production arrives at the Ahmanson in April.Controversy of one kind or anot…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 10:45AM
Thursday, March 13, 2014

‘These Paper Bullets!,’ a Shakespeare-Beatles Pastiche by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day helps Yale Repertory Theater give Shakespeare a Beatlesque spin with “These Paper Bullets!”    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00AM
Thursday, March 6, 2014

Casey Nicholaw Directs ‘Aladdin’ on Broadway by Rob Weinert-Kendt

The director Casey Nicholaw prepares the new stage version of “Aladdin” for its March 20 opening on Broadway.    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:02AM
Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Can't Keep a Good Score Down by Rob Weinert-Kendt

When I spoke to Jeanine Tesori last year about her new Encores! summer series, at the top of her wish list of musicals she wanted to revive was Randy Newman's Faust, which had a mostly great…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:19AM
Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Pops’s Last Stand by Rob Weinert-Kendt

The following article ran in the July/August issue of American Theatre in advance of the play’s run at Shakespeare & Company and at the Long Wharf Theatre. The play is now in prev…

SOURCE: Theatre Communications Group at 12:46PM
Monday, February 10, 2014

This Time Around, The Play’s a Big Deal by Rob Weinert-Kendt

For its return to New York, John Cariani’s Almost, Maine is a proven hit — Extreme, near-Arctic cold can be an isolating purgatory–or, if northern Maine native John Cariani…

SOURCE: TDF at 11:33AM
Monday, December 30, 2013

Tops of 2013 by Rob Weinert-Kendt

As my modest theater blog enters its 10th year, it now feels chiefly like a venue for links to my feature writing as it comes along (though I was too busy recently to trumpet my latest piece…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:20AM
Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Bards on the Boards by Rob Weinert-Kendt

For what it's worth, when I recently took issue with Charles McNulty's review of three high-profile New York Shakespeare productions, I had already filed my review of the fall's Bard glut, b…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:18AM
Monday, December 16, 2013

Yanked by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Charles McNulty is right on the merits and right in his reasoning in this new review lamenting the Lincoln Center Macbeth and adding his praise to the hosannahs for the Globe's Twelfth Night…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 01:27PM
Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Snapshot | Kyle Riabko: Kyle Riabko of ‘What’s It All About? Bacharach Reimagined’ by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Kyle Riabko, of “Spring Awakening” and “Hair” on Broadway, leads the show “What’s It All About? Bacharach Reimagined” at the Workshop Theater.    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:28PM
Monday, December 9, 2013

Stephen Todd by Rob Weinert-Kendt

In lieu of a new Sondheim show, the airing tonight of Six by Sondheim on HBO qualifies as an event for fans. I'm gratified that the great interview clips that showed throughout the othe…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 03:20PM
Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Got Scot? by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Capping this season's surfeit of Shakespeare productions is the Lincoln Center production of Macbeth, which I've taken to calling MacHawke after its star, Ethan Hawke (much as I will always …

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 09:30AM
Thursday, November 14, 2013

Putting the "God" in Godot by Rob Weinert-Kendt

How much does it matter how you say “Godot”? With Beckett, no detail is too small. As I’ve noted in this space before, the excellent 2000 Matrix Theatre production starring David Dukes…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 04:56AM
Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Filtered Water by Rob Weinert-Kendt

I've got a piece in the new BAMBill, also online, about Filter Theatre's new environmentalist drama Water, which I saw on video in advance of writing. An excerpt: A transatlantic mystery wi…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:43AM
Friday, November 1, 2013

The Book of Bobby by Rob Weinert-Kendt

The Book of Mormon has now been a Broadway hit for two and a half years, and it's now making its second trip to Denver--about as close to "Sal Tlay Ka Siti" as this irreverent if less t…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 09:32AM
Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Making Good by Rob Weinert-Kendt

There are no Playbills on offer at the Public's current production of The Good Person of Szechwan, a remount of the Foundry Theatre's beautiful, pitch-perfect queering/contemporizing of Brec…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 09:44AM
Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Cromer's Town by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation I confess I haven't followed David Cromer's busy New York directing career as closely as I could or should have; but how coul…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 01:54PM
Friday, September 27, 2013

Baitz on Film by Rob Weinert-Kendt

More than a dozen years ago, when L.A. native Jon Robin Baitz belatedly premiered his L.A.-set play Mizlansky/Zilinsky at the Geffen Playhouse, I had the chance to sit down with him and…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 09:57AM
Thursday, September 26, 2013

Watch This Space by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Early in my New York freelance career, I wrote about the opening of a new multimedia arts space not far from Ground Zero. It was almost exactly seven years ago, in early September, 2006, and…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 05:42PM

3LD Has Used Its Technology to Create a Revenue Stream by Rob Weinert-Kendt

3LD has confronted a lot of adversity and survived, thanks to its earned-revenue model, and has a full season ahead.    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:00PM
Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Jon Robin Baitz Rejoins “The Film Society” by Rob Weinert-Kendt

The playwright on his first major NYC revival — “It’s a little like the day an AARP card arrives on your 50th birthday and you blanch a little and then you grin a little,&#…

SOURCE: TDF at 01:00PM
Thursday, September 19, 2013

Is It Worth the Waiting For? by Rob Weinert-Kendt

My formative-album-replay project continues apace over at my Train My Ear blog, and I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't mention here that today's is a cast album, Oliver! (the original London r…

SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 01:24PM

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