All stories by Frank Scheck on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

‘Luce’ fizzles out despite performances by Frank Scheck

Fireworks figure prominently in “Luce,” about parents who realize that the child they adopted from Africa a decade ago isn’t what he seems. Sadly, JC Lee’s new play fizzles out...

SOURCE: The New York Post at 05:22AM
Sunday, October 13, 2013

Sting’s wife leads cast of a new, prosaic take on ‘The Seagull’ by Frank Scheck

The sounds of an Irish jig fill the theater before the action starts — our first tip-off that this Culture Project revival isn’t going to be your typical “Seagull.” And it’s...

SOURCE: The New York Post at 05:53PM
Friday, October 11, 2013

NYC teacher despairs in ‘And Miles To Go’ by Frank Scheck

Its title may be poetic — thank Robert Frost — but “And Miles To Go” begins with a profane tirade. From a NYC teacher, no less. After 40 years at...

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:05PM
Monday, October 7, 2013

Delightfully ditzy ‘Honeymoon in Vegas’ parachutes into NJ by Frank Scheck

Theater Review: Honeymoon in Vegas, 3 stars, Paper Mill Playhouse, 22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, NJ; 973-376-4343. Through Oct. 27. Running time: 150 minutes, one intermission. The fun begin…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 01:57PM
Friday, October 4, 2013

‘Peter Pan’ gets an unsentimental update by Frank Scheck

There’s no flying and not a treacly song to be heard in this Aussie take on J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan.” Here at the New Victory Theater, the title character isn’t played by a wo…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 07:27PM

Lady Day: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

Dee Bridgewater plays the late, great Billie Holiday in this combined bio-musical/concert.read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 02:17PM
Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Bike-trip take comes up flat by Frank Scheck

A lot of ground is covered, to increasingly diminishing effect, in “Bike America,” Mike Lew’s play about a young woman’s search for identity on a cross-country bike trip. Although it…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 11:32PM
Sunday, September 15, 2013

Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

Anne Washburn's anarchic dark comedy set in a post-apocalyptic future imagines the survivors reenacting a classic episode of "The Simpsons."read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 07:00PM
Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Old Friends: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

Playwright Horton Foote's Southern-drenched melodrama receives a posthumous, world premiere production.read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 07:00PM

Fetch Clay, Make Man: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

Will Power's drama concerns the unlikely real-life friendship between Muhammad Ali and the controversial screen star Stepin Fechit.read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 07:00PM
Thursday, August 29, 2013

Making a play for fall by Frank Scheck

The biggest name in new plays this season will be in the program, not on the stage. It’s John Grisham, whose legal thrillers and other works have sold a whopping 275 million copies worldw…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:11PM
Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Southern-fried Gothic comedy’s DOA by Frank Scheck

The Savannah tourist board won’t be endorsing “The Cheaters Club” anytime soon. Derek Ahonen’s supernatural dark comedy portrays Georgia’s famously haunted city as a hotbed of sin …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:46PM
Monday, August 19, 2013

Here, the scum also rises by Frank Scheck

‘i’m sick to death of cleverness,” exclaims a character in the cutely titled “The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway.” But while the line comes from Oscar Wilde’s “The Import…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:27PM
Thursday, August 15, 2013

Soul Doctor: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

This new Broadway musical tells the real-life story of Shlomo Carlebach, the "Rock Star Rabbi."read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 07:00PM

LBJ’s ABCs become TMI by Frank Scheck

Forty years after his death, Lyndon Johnson is suddenly a hot topic for the stage. “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston plays the late president in the bio-drama “All the Way,” opening…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:37AM
Monday, August 12, 2013

Love's Labour's Lost: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman of "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" fame collaborate on this new musical based on the early Shakespeare comedy.read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 10:01PM
Thursday, August 8, 2013

First Date: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

Zachary Levi of TV's "Chuck" and Krysta Rodriguez star in this Broadway romantic musical comedy.read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 07:00PM
Monday, August 5, 2013

‘B’ shorts brings its A-game by Frank Scheck

A man and woman meet on a blind date. She’s a struggling freelance writer, he’s a struggling actor. Gradually — over potent cocktails and “Asian soul food” oddities like cornbread …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:42AM
Sunday, August 4, 2013

Point Break Live!: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

This wacky theatrical version of Kathryn Bigelow's cult film features its trademark silly dialogue and over-the-top action.read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 09:37AM
Friday, August 2, 2013

Off with their heads! by Frank Scheck

‘the King’s Whore” bills itself as “a modern/historical mash-up of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s debacle of a relationship.” But Rob Santana’s play — the first effort by …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:59PM
Thursday, August 1, 2013

Mystery takes a B’klyn stroll by Frank Scheck

We were told to meet at a phone booth at the Montague Street entrance to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, near the famous Low Mansion. There, a man in blue-rimmed glasses introduced himself a…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:48AM
Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Take off, Gipper! by Frank Scheck

In 1981, President Reagan famously fired some 11,000 air traffic controllers after they went on strike in defiance of their contract. Now, “I Forgive You, Ronald Reagan” is doing to hap…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:15AM
Thursday, July 25, 2013

Lady & the tramp by Frank Scheck

Charlie Chaplin would be proud: The Lincoln Center Festival’s “Murmurs,” conceived and directed by his daughter Victoria Thiérrée Chaplin and starring his granddaughter Aurélia Thi�…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:11PM
Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Nawlins flavor on-key, but a note short on plot by Frank Scheck

You can practically feel the humidity wafting from “Story-ville.” Set in the final days of the famed New Orleans neighborhood — a notorious red-light district that’s also considered …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:49PM

Let It Be: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

This theatrical concert by an expert Beatles cover band follow in the heels of such similar predecessors as "Beatlemania" and "Rain"read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 07:00PM

Girls serve up angst in NYMF's "VOLLEYGIRLS" by Frank Scheck

SUSAN BLACKWELL of "[title of show]" winningly plays an English teacher pressed into coaching them.

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 04:45PM
Monday, July 22, 2013

Girls serve up angst by Frank Scheck

After the cheerleader musicals “Bring It On” and “Lysistrata Jones,” it’s nice to see girls finally take the court. And they do so — winningly — in “Volleygirls,” about a h…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:39PM

'Marry Harry' isn't worth the commitment by Frank Scheck

A romantic comedy that’s light on both romance and comedy, this New York Musical Theatre Festival offering concerns the travails of Little Harry (Robb Sapp), a chef who yearns to leave his…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 04:49PM
Sunday, July 21, 2013

The Designated Mourner: Theater Review by Frank Scheck

Wallace Shawn stars in a revival of his landmark 1996 play about a bourgeois society of intellectuals who fall victim to a totalitarian regime.read more

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter at 01:53PM
Saturday, July 20, 2013

Abe’s war, bravely sung by Frank Scheck

For a conflict responsible for the most casualties in American history, the Civil War had one heck of a soundtrack. “Dixie,” “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” “The Battle Cry of F…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:16AM
Wednesday, July 17, 2013

All the whirl is a stage by Frank Scheck

If the actor’s nightmare is finding himself onstage without knowing his lines, the theatergoer’s is realizing he’s actually part of the play. That’s the dizzying idea behind “roger…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:41PM