Thursday, November 26, 2020
Let’s be honest: it’s been a tough year. For the world. For the nation. For the theater community. And yet, there are still things for us theater lovers to be grateful for, be it the p…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:03PMSaturday, October 24, 2020
A Zoomed scene from the staged reading of Lisa Loomer's docudrama Roe
It hit me unexpectedly. I’d been going along for the past seven months telling myself that I didn’t really miss …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 03:36PMSaturday, September 26, 2020
The first face-to-face debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is scheduled for this Tuesday, Sept. 29, and the uncertainty over the outcome of the election five weeks from now has me in a…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 04:36PMSaturday, September 5, 2020
Traditions are important even—maybe especially—in troubled times. And so although theaters remain dark and I’ve been posting here infrequently, I’ve decided to go ahead with my annua…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 02:36PMSaturday, August 1, 2020
Macbeth is a great gateway drug for Shakespeare newbies. It’s got a straight-ahead plot, some of the Bard’s most memorable lines, plus witches. Us Shakespeare oldies like it too. It’s …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMSometimes you want a gourmet meal filled with rare or surprising ingredients. But sometimes you just want a big yummy bowl of macaroni and cheese. Seared, the latest play by Theresa Rebeck, …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMThe monologue play is an odd hybrid. Unlike traditional monologues in which one actor talks directly to the audience, it usually features three or more performers. But unlike traditional pla…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMIn the old days, when tickets were cheaper, people went to musicals for the thrill of hearing new songs. Today, when seeing a Broadway show can cost more than a car note, they go for the sec…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMYes, I know it’s not a Saturday when I usually post but the holidays and other end-of-the-year obligations have turned my schedule topsy-turvy. So I’ve decided to invoke my old practice …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMIt’s been a while since I last turned on the ghost light that theaters use when they’re temporarily empty but I’m doing it now. That's mainly because I’ve been running around seeing …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PM..and a Happy Chanukah, a tardy Good Winter Solstice, a strong Happy Festivus, a slightly premature Joyous Kwanza and the all-around sincere hope that however you celebrate it, your holiday …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMFor those of us who write about culture, the holiday season includes making Top 10 lists. But this year, I’ve decided against trying to anoint the best shows I’ve seen or even tallying u…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMHappy New Year! Happy New Decade!! Here’s hoping that they’re both filled with more happiness (including lots of good theater) than not. Cheers!!!
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMSing Street, the new musical that opened last week at New York Theatre Workshop and which is the final big show of the fall season to open, arrived with high expectations. But that can hurt …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMBigger isn’t always better. The British director Richard Jones won deserved kudos in 2017 for staging The Hairy Ape in the vast drill hall at the Park Avenue Armory. That production lite…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMNo review post this week (although if you have a chance you should try to catch Talene Monahon’s How to Load a Musket, a really thought-provoking play about historical reenactors and the f…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMThe best preview for the spring 2020 theater season I’ve seen was the one that my friend and fellow theater junkie Howard Sherman posted on his Facebook page a couple of weeks ago:
I c…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMJust like Shakespeare, the great Greek playwrights staged their plays with all-male actors. But unlike the Bard, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides centered many of their plays around great …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMWither the musical? Not the jukebox musical or the ones that strap themselves to popular movies like a shipwreck victim clinging to a lifeboat or even those with rock scores whose songs self…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMOne of my best friends worked for the Negro Ensemble Company back in its heyday and so I got to see the original productions of such shows as Zooman and the Sign, The River Niger and the NEC…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMChristopher Chen’s intriguing memory play The Headlands works on so many levels that it’s hard for me to keep track of all of them.
It starts out as a crime procedural centered around …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PM© maksum iliasin | Dreamstime.com
Time flies. And this year it’s whizzing by so quickly that I almost forgot to take some time out to celebrate the 13th anniversary of Broadway & Me…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMI had planned to post a review this week but it was a pan of a play that I really didn’t like and that seems somehow wrong at this time when concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 virus…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMSpring doesn’t officially arrive this year until week after next but the spring theater season is already here, with new shows opening almost every day. And I’m already running behind as…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMIt's been a month since I last posted here. With theaters everywhere closed, there's been too little to say. But today is Shakespeare's birthday and I'm taking comfort from the fact that he…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMWe’re all longing for moments of clarity, sanity and even a little levity during these days of social distancing and self-isolating. But while there may be no live performances on Broadw…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMHappy Fourth of July! This is obviously a more unusual summer than most. COVID-19 continues its rampage across the country and most theaters remain closed. People are marching in the streets…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMGood news, particularly good news about theater, has been hard to find over the last two months since concerns about the coronavirus locked most of us indoors and closed theaters around the …
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMMy pals at BroadwayRadio invited me to join them for this past Sunday’s “This Week on Broadway“ podcast. We talked about some of our all-time favorite plays (you can hear us by clicki…
SOURCE: Broadway & Me at 12:12PMSaturday, March 14, 2020
The Stagecraft podcast is hosted by Jan Simpson. It is a series of interviews with playwrights (and musical book writers) of shows opening on Broadway and off-Broadway. Guest: Katori Hall, P…
SOURCE: BroadwayRadio at 12:01AMSaturday, February 15, 2020
The Stagecraft podcast is hosted by Jan Simpson. It is a series of interviews with playwrights (and musical book writers) of shows opening on Broadway and off-Broadway. Guest: Zora Howard, P…
SOURCE: BroadwayRadio at 12:01AM 
