Friday, October 4, 2024
What is honor? That's a particularly relevant question as we head into the election. Is honor reputation? Or is it something between a person and herself? What value does honor have? Do most…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:12PMSaturday, September 21, 2024
The American Classical Orchestra (ACO), described by its founder/conductor as "our labor of love," utilizes period instruments to better produce classical pieces as the composers composed th…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:12AMSaturday, September 14, 2024
Annette is winning at life. She has just negotiated a major promotion; her boyfriend Charles is attractive, considerate, and wealthy; their major life challenge is whether to stay in the Upp…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:06PMFriday, September 13, 2024
One is not supposed to focus so much on trees that you miss the forest, right? I get that. But what if they're really big, ugly, focus-grabbing trees?
I suspect that Client-Attorney, Alex…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:32AMThursday, September 12, 2024
There's a little gem playing at the Wild Project through September 28th. One set, 80 minutes, with terrific and compassionate writing (Matthew Freeman), directing (Jessi D. Hill), and acting…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:32PMThursday, August 22, 2024
On one hand, there could never be too many books about Stephen Sondheim. On the other hand, each book should be able to justify its existence through untold stories (are there any?), a new p…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:36PMMonday, August 12, 2024
First, how cool is it that Suffs exists, and that it's so good, and that it's been recognized and rewarded? And how sad is it that the show is still timely? But things are changing. The nig…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:20PMWednesday, August 7, 2024
A lovely, if somewhat overlong, dance revue about humans telling stories and being oh-so-human, Illinoise is based on the beautiful songs of Sufjan Stevens and an original story by choreogr…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:15PMMonday, June 24, 2024
The Transport Group's Follies in Concert had all the makings of a magical evening, but for many of us, the magic was intermittent at best. For a fascinating, multifaceted discussion of the …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:24PMSunday, June 23, 2024
Second Stage's Breaking the Story (closing today) has a lot of goals for its 85 minutes: depict the PTSD of a war journalist, discuss the meaning and ethics of journalism, show a woman try…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:18PMTuesday, June 18, 2024
Well, this is an opinion piece, so I should perhaps make the subtitle "A Very Satisfying Event for Me." A quick glance around the web reveals that I was not in the majority.
I do, of cours…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:02PMMonday, June 17, 2024
Seers, we ain’t.
(Categories are in the order the awards were given.)
Here’s how we did:
Sandra
Liz
Wendy
TOTALS (out of 26)
…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:36PMThursday, June 13, 2024
It's Tony time again. Was this an exciting year on Broadway? Yes! Was it a disappointing year on Broadway? Yes! Same as it ever was.
And here we go:
(A complete list of nominees is provide…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:12AMSunday, May 26, 2024
The fabulous TON (The Orchestra Now), associated with the master's program at Bard, recently gave the final performance of its 2023-2024 season. The orchestra started with Debussy's "Prelude…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:06AMTuesday, April 23, 2024
A lovely production of A Little Night Music is running at Theatre 2020 in Brooklyn Heights thru May 12th. I highly recommend it.
The show has some excellent acting and much wonderful singing…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:24PMWednesday, April 17, 2024
The Orchestra Now (TON) regularly presents concerts keyed into exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The most recent, William Grant Still and the Harlem Renaissance, focuses on Stil…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:12PMSaturday, March 30, 2024
The recent collaboration between MasterVoices and Doug Varone and Dancers was nothing short of amazing. Brilliant dance, gorgeous singing, thrilling musicians--it was the proverbial feast fo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:24PMFriday, March 22, 2024
Having thoroughly enjoyed the 2005 production of Austin Pendleton's Orson's Shadow, I was looking forward with excitement to the current production, directed by Pendleton, at the Theater for…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:02PMWednesday, March 20, 2024
The current production of John Patrick Shanley's play Doubt (starring Amy Ryan, Liev Shreiber, Zoe Kazan, and Quincy Tyler Bernstine) is not as good as the amazing original production fro…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:04AMSaturday, March 2, 2024
In Deb Margolin's new play, This Is Not a Time of Peace, directed by Jerry Heymann, Alina's father, Hillel, has become unstuck in time. He "travels" in memory (metaphorically? metaphysica…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:48AMFriday, February 23, 2024
The title I Love You So Much I Could Die hints at a deeply emotional, even fervid, show.
Nope.
For reasons that remain obscure to me, I Love You So Much I Could Die extends a great…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:02PMWednesday, February 14, 2024
Last weekend, the Program in Vocal Performance at NYU Steinhardt presented a musically gorgeous production of Titanic: The Musical. The NYU Broadway Orchestra, led by Ted Sperling and featur…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:48PMTuesday, January 16, 2024
I reviewed Here's to the Ladies over at Talkin' Broadway:
Eddie Shapiro's three books of long-form interviews with musical theatre performers provide a unique, entertaining look at the r…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:42AMThursday, December 7, 2023
New York Magazine's annual "Reasons to Love New York" issue came out at just the right time for this review. After three successive evenings experiencing amazing talent and creativity in New…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:48AMTuesday, November 14, 2023
Last night, Broadway Close Up presented yet another lovely night of talented people singing wonderful songs. The evening was devoted to shows that Hal Prince produced and/or directed, which …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:12PMTuesday, November 7, 2023
The time is the present. The place is Ancient Greece. The fabulous lyrics and music are by the one-and-only Sondheim. The hysterical book is based on Aristophanes' The Frogs, as loosely adap…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:02PMTuesday, October 31, 2023
Over the years, the Broadway Close-Up series has featured selections from musicals-in-development, including discussions with their creators; salutes to established composers and writers o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:13AMFriday, October 20, 2023
The fabulous Mint Theater Company is presenting Partnership, the third in their "Meet Miss [Elizabeth] Baker" series. The first, The Price of Thomas Scott (review here), from 1913, movingly…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:43AMMonday, October 2, 2023
It's difficult to decide where to begin discussing the wonders of Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch. The incredibly funny, smart, musical writing; the extrao…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:55PMSaturday, September 16, 2023
What do you get if you stir together abortion rights, cancel culture, and Hamlet, throw in hints of Becket and Brecht, and add sharp writing, excellent acting, and fabulous make-up and cost…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:37PMTuesday, August 29, 2023
In this sad time of theatres' laying off staff, shortening seasons, and disappearing altogether, there is at least one bright spot: the York Theatre Company's Musicals in Mufti are back!!
Mu…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:37AM 
