Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Oscar Hammerstein II’s words to Jerome Kern’s melody “The Song is You,” could have been written to perfectly describe the songstress Marilyn Maye: Beautif…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 03:53PMWednesday, October 22, 2025
Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . Art of Leaving is the unpropitious title of an amateurish new domestic comedy by Anne Marilyn Lucas, whose cardboard dialogue and plywood acting had me pond…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 08:56PMSunday, October 19, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . The 34-year-old Ari’el Stachel is blessed with charm for days. Anyone who saw his Tony Award-winning performance in The Band’s Visit were enchanted by his i…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 10:07PMThursday, October 16, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Eleven months ago, the City Center Annual Gala Presentation of Ragtime, minimally staged by director Lear DeBessonet, received excellent reviews (mine among t…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 10:59PMTuesday, October 14, 2025
By Alex Eichholz . . . For a show that opens with the line “Prepare to be GOOPED!”, I was neither gooped nor gagged by Gwyneth Goes Skiing, which opened tonight at SoHo Playhous…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 07:10PMMonday, October 13, 2025
Sam Robards, Victoria Clarke, Camila Canó-Flaviá, and Will Harrison in “Punch” (photo by Matthew Murphy).October 13, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
If you’ve nev…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 10:44AMWednesday, October 8, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . It is with only a fleeting awareness of her media persona that I attended The Least Problematic Woman in the World, Dylan Mulvaney’s solo autobiographical pla…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 07:50AMTuesday, September 30, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . When the lights go up on Preston Max Allen’s new play Caroline, which opened tonight at off-Broadway’s MCC Theater, we see a 28-year-old mother (Chloë Grace…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 08:53PMSunday, September 21, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . The one time I attended Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival was forty years ago. I saw play after play and was charmed by much of the theatre, though a bit sur…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 09:04PMFriday, September 19, 2025
Review by Alex Eichholz . . . Whether you’re in the front pew every Sunday or you’ve never set foot in a chapel, you must let the dazzling company of the new musical Saturday Church, whi…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 06:56PMThursday, September 18, 2025
By Samuel L. Leiter . . . New York has a number of institutions part of whose function is to introduce the artistic expressions of a particular national culture. I don’t know of any that, …
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 10:56PMTuesday, September 16, 2025
Robert Redford (1936–2025).September 16, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
Robert Redford died early this morning at age eighty-nine. A major film actor, his star never d…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 11:43AMSunday, September 14, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . The last time I attended a production of Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music forty-eight years ago. The second time, in a full c…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 04:06PMSaturday, September 13, 2025
Review by Stuart Miller . . . The Brothers Size is a transportive meditation on siblings, the way they can (and can’t) protect or hurt each other and on how if you live with your head in t…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 05:26PMFriday, September 12, 2025
By Ron Fassler . . . Although Avery Sommers is coming to town doesn’t quite scan the same as Santa Claus is coming to town, the talented singer/actress will undoubtedly be spreading he…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 02:28PMThursday, September 11, 2025
LONDON REPORT: “THE PRODUCERS” IS BACK — JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT!
Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom in “The Producers” (2025).September 11, 2025: Thea…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 03:14PMFriday, September 5, 2025
By Ron Fassler . . . “Hirschfeld drew from life. He was drawing from personal experience. He was going to the theatre and making sketches there and then coming back to his studio and putti…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 04:56AMMonday, August 25, 2025
Jerry Adler (1929–2025).August 25, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
A dozen years ago, I had the pleasure of sitting across the table from the recently departed Jerry Ad…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 12:36PMTuesday, August 19, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Ben Jones has already proven that he’s a singer who is unafraid to charter new waters. Capable of singing in many different styles, he uses his extensive range…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 04:04PMMonday, August 18, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Comedian Jeff Ross is often referred to as “The Roastmaster General” for his X-rated celebrity roasts which have been a fixture on cable TV for thirty years…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 09:01PMThursday, August 14, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Headlining a review containing the word grief might not be the best way to get someone to go to Bubba Weiler’s excellent new play Well, I’ll Let You Go. But …
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 06:49PMWednesday, August 13, 2025
John Wood, Marian Seldes and Victor Garber in “Deathtrap” (1978).August 13, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
On this date forty-four years ago, Ira Levin’s Deathtrap…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 11:57AMThursday, August 7, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Whenever Isacc Mizrahi comes up with a new edition of his cabaret shows, no matter how he might advertise them with clever titles like “Movie Stars & Supe…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 03:20PMThursday, July 24, 2025
By Ron Fassler . . . Last October, 2nd Avenue’s Orpheum Theatre hosted The Big Gay Jamboree, a crazy spoof of Broadway musicals which I thought was a hoot and a half. Now, to challenge t…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 11:27PMFriday, July 11, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . When the film Heathers opened nationwide in March of 1989, George H. W. Bush had recently begun what would be his single term as President, Madonna’s “Like …
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 01:03PMThursday, July 10, 2025
By Ron Fassler . . . Having worked in the theatre for the past 50 years, Frank Verlizzo is one of the highest-ranking members of an elite circle. As the designer of more than 300 posters, hi…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 12:22PMTuesday, July 8, 2025
By Ron Fassler . . . For those in the know, eighteen-year-old Charles Kirsch has been producing podcasts devoted to Broadway since the age of twelve. His “Backstage Babble,” named for …
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 05:12PMFriday, July 4, 2025
The 1969 marquee for “1776” in its original production at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers).July 4, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
This is a re-worki…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 02:33PMThursday, July 3, 2025
By Ron Fassler . . . When Laurence Luckinbill made his Broadway debut in 1963 as a replacement in Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons he was twenty-nine years old and had already endur…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 05:41PMSunday, June 29, 2025
Frank Loesser (1910–1969).June 29, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
One hundred fifteen years ago today, composer-lyricist Frank Loesser was born on the Upper West Side o…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 01:00PMThursday, June 26, 2025
Review by Alex Eichholz . . . With Emmanuelle Mattana’s new play Trophy Boys, Danya Taymor once again cements herself as a whisperer for the Gen Z voice in theatre. Fresh off the directi…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 11:18AM 
