All stories by Michael Dale on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

BWW Review: Caryl Churchill's ESCAPED ALONE Yearns For a Post-Apocalyptic Return To Normalcy by Michael Dale

When tragedy strikes a community, after the initial shock and the effort to neutralize the situation, there's always a strong desire to return to normalcy.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:36AM
Tuesday, February 21, 2017

BWW Review: Wallace Shawn's EVENING AT THE TALK HOUSE Explores Fascism And The Fall Of Theatre by Michael Dale

Those who have yet to have their fill of half-price post-Valentine's Day candy will be happy to discover that what looks like crudites when you step into Derek McLane's environmental set for…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:40PM
Saturday, February 18, 2017

BWW Review: It's Norman Mailer Vs. Feminism in Wooster Group's THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR by Michael Dale

It would be nice to be able take in The Wooster Group's intriguing docu-theatre piece, THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR, as a look at the grotesquely blatant brand sexism of nearly 50 years ago that we …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 04:32AM
Thursday, February 16, 2017

BWW Review: Reed Birney Beautifully Sensitive in Tracy Letts' Riveting MAN FROM NEBRASKA by Michael Dale

Deceptively, little seems to happen in the first several scenes of Tracy Letts' riveting 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Man from Nebraska, now receiving a superb New York premiere at Second S…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 05:12AM
Tuesday, February 14, 2017

BWW Review: York's BERLIN TO BROADWAY WITH KURT WEILL Tells How A Refugee Made Good In America by Michael Dale

When Nazis began publicly burning copies of his latest musical theatre piece, composer Kurt Weill took it as a hint that he might be better off sailing to America and writing for Broadway.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:11AM
Sunday, February 12, 2017

BWW Review: Encores!'s BIG RIVER Matches Mark Twain's Humor With Roger Miller's Melodies by Michael Dale

One would assume that Mark Twain would have been amused that his 1884 novel condemning America's history of enslavement of Africans, 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' has occasionally been c…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:54PM
Saturday, February 11, 2017

BWW Review: La MaMa Explores Robert Patrick's Past, Present and Future in HI-FI | WI-FI | SCI-FI by Michael Dale

After establishing himself as resident doorman, stage manager and sex slave at the Caffe Cino, the historic Cornelia Street birthplace of Off-Off Broadway and America's gay theatre movement,…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 04:16AM
Thursday, February 9, 2017

BWW Review: Glenn Close Is Luminous As The Faded Star of SUNSET BOULEVARD by Michael Dale

With all due respect to the world class singers and dancers who trod Broadway's boards every season, watching Glenn Close completely enthrall and mesmerize an audience with her two dramatic …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 06:31PM
Monday, February 6, 2017

BWW Review: A Puerto Rican Singing Legend Symbolizes Better Days In TELL HECTOR I MISS HIM by Michael Dale

The legendary Puerto Rican salsa singer Hector Lavoe, who died of AIDS in 1993 at age 46, has been long gone when Paola Lazaro's humorous drama, Tell Hector I Miss Him, takes place, but his …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 04:36AM
Friday, February 3, 2017

BWW Review: Anna Jordan's YEN, An Unsettling, Hard-Edged Drama by Michael Dale

As soon as you enter the Lortel for director Trip Cullman's tight and tense production of Anna Jordan's unsettling, hard-edged drama, YEN, the intention to catch audience members a little of…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 04:28PM
Wednesday, February 1, 2017

BWW Review: Jerry Herman's MILK AND HONEY Gets A Spirited Concert Staging at The York by Michael Dale

When Jerry Herman was pegged by producer Gerard Oestreicher to write the score for a Broadway musical set in the fledgling State of Israel, he was a 28-year-old composerlyricist mostly known…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 07:41PM
Tuesday, January 31, 2017

BWW Review: The Mint's YOURS UNFAITHFULLY, An Intriguing 1930s Look At Open Marriage by Michael Dale

Teetering somewhere between an incisive study of human fidelity and a sexy comedy of manners, Miles Malleson's Yours Unfaithfully is the kind of play that, under different circumstances, mig…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 05:48AM
Monday, January 30, 2017

BWW Review: David Ives' Verse Comedy, THE LIAR, Offers Alternative Corneille by Michael Dale

Press performances for David Ives' sharp and funny verse comedy THE LIAR began just around the time when political headlines were being made about the phrase 'alternative facts.'

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:32AM
Friday, January 20, 2017

BWW Review: August Wilson's Compelling JITNEY Finally Arrives On Broadway by Michael Dale

When August Wilson's Jitney had its 1982 world premiere at Pittsburgh's Allegheny Repertory Theatre, there were no plans for it to serve as 110th of the greatest achievement in American dram…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 05:36AM
Wednesday, January 18, 2017

BWW Review: Marga Gomez Honors Her Music Icon Father in LATIN STANDARDS by Michael Dale

'Are you ready for autobiographical solo performance' Marga Gomez would enthusiastically ask the crowd to commence performances of her recently concluded run at the Public Theater's 2017 Und…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 04:30AM
Tuesday, January 17, 2017

BWW Review: Belarus Free Theatre Brings Illegal TIME OF WOMEN To Under The Radar Festival by Michael Dale

Traditionally, you can regard the name of the Public Theater's annual January festival, Under The Radar, as a reference to the relative obscurity of the theatre companies and artists involve…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:01PM

BWW Review: Tony Winners Garry Hynes and Marie Mullen Revisit Martin McDonagh's THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE by Michael Dale

The 1998 Tony Award ceremony was quite a history-making night, as THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE's Garry Hynes became the first woman to be awarded a Tony for directing a play. Her honor was r…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 04:42AM
Sunday, January 15, 2017

BWW Review: Watergate's Deep Throat Sings Again In MARK FELT, SUPERSTAR by Michael Dale

While the title MARK FELT, SUPERSTAR may receive befuddled reactions from those not fully familiar with American political scandals, you can't blame bookwritercomposerlyricist Joshua Rosenbl…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:47PM
Saturday, January 14, 2017

BWW Review: US Army's BLUEPRINT SPECIALS Enlists Laura Osnes and Will Swenson by Michael Dale

When Americans think of the shows that entertained soldiers during World War II, visions of Bob Hope on a temporary outdoor stage wisecracking for thousands of servicemen, courtesy of the US…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:42AM
Wednesday, January 11, 2017

BWW Review: New York City Opera Returns With A Princely CANDIDE by Michael Dale

The opening fanfare of one of the most exhilarating overtures ever to hit Broadway signals the joyous return of New York City Opera. After financial woes threatened to pull down the curtain …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 06:05AM
Monday, January 9, 2017

BWW Review: Gifted Cate Blanchett Adds Life To THE PRESENT by Michael Dale

Those introspective, philosophical, womanizing man-children who inhabit the oeuvre of Anton Chekhov tend to be annoying bores, so even though the unpublished manuscript discovered after the …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 07:54AM
Wednesday, January 4, 2017

BWW Review: New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players Turn THE MIKADO Topsy-Turvey by Michael Dale

As the history books and Stephen Sondheim tell us, in 1853 Matthew C. Perry, Commodore of the United States Navy, sailed to Japan on a mission to forcibly end the island empire's policy of n…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:19PM
Wednesday, December 21, 2016

BWW Review: National Theatre of Scotland's THE STRANGE UNDOING OF PRUDENCIA HART An Immersive Highbrow Delight by Michael Dale

While the McKittrick Hotel's ongoing attraction SLEEP NO MORE requires audience members to seek out its immersive entertainment as they venture from floor to floor and room to room, the venu…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:03AM
Saturday, December 17, 2016

BWW Review: David Yazbek and Itamar Moses' THE BAND'S VISIT Is A Captivating Cultural Blend by Michael Dale

While David Yazbek's moxie-driven melodies and clever, character-creating lyrics are best known from his fast and funny Broadway hits THE FULL MONTY and DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, his captivat…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:14AM
Wednesday, December 14, 2016

BWW Review: John Kevin Jones Delightfully Re-creates Charles Dickens' Readings of A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Michael Dale

Since its first publication in 1843, Charles Dickens' holiday classic, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, has been adapted countless times for various stages, screens and pages, but undoubtedly the most aut…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:14PM
Sunday, December 11, 2016

BWW Review: IN TRANSIT Sets New York Stories To Glorious A Cappella Vocals by Michael Dale

When the a cappella musical In Transit played Off-Broadway in 2010, most musical theatre fans would identify 'Let It Go' as composerlyricist David Yazbek's finale song for musical version of…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:12PM

BWW Review: Nia Vardalos' TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS Offers Spoonfuls of Sugar by Michael Dale

Sometimes when somebody offers you a job you have no time for that's a lot of work for no pay and no credit you just have to reply, 'Yeah, I'm in.'

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 04:24AM
Saturday, December 10, 2016

BWW Review: Mark Blum and Mare Winningham Encounter SoCal Suburbia in RANCHO VIEJO by Michael Dale

Dan LeFranc's RANCHO VIEJO, now receiving its world premiere in a handsome Playwrights Horizons production featuring a terrific cast, is one of those three-hour long plays that may find you …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:18PM
Friday, December 9, 2016

BWW Review: THE PORTAL Offers Brain-Cleansing Bombardment of Sounds and Images by Michael Dale

As audience members enter the Minetta Lane Theatre's auditorium for producerdirector Luke Comer's abstract multi-media theatre piece THE PORTAL, they're greeted by a projected slide summariz…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:06AM
Wednesday, December 7, 2016

BWW Review: Richard Greenberg's THE BABYLON LINE Is a Warm and Funny Excursion by Michael Dale

The Long Island Rail Road doesn't have a station in Levittown, so the central character of Richard Greenberg's clever, sentimental and occasionally steamy drama travels the play's namesake, …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:57PM

BWW Review: Variety Returns To The Palace With THE ILLUSIONISTS - TURN OF THE CENTURY by Michael Dale

The Twentieth Century was only in its teens when playing Times Square's Palace Theatre was established as the pinnacle of success for vaudeville artists, so it's very appropriate that the la…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 01:21AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre