Good times never seemed so dull. So dull. So dull. So dull. “A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond Musical,” which creaked open Sunday night on Broadway, begins in the most sedate and uninvolving manner imaginable. The lights come up on a plain-looking therapy session and the titular musician, now in old age (Mark Jacoby), sits … Read more
“KPOP: The Musical” producers demanded Friday that The New York Times issue an apology for an alleged racist remark that was made by theatre critic Jesse Green. Producers Tim Forbes and Joey Parnes slammed the critic for “casual racism” in a letter that was sent to New York Times Chairman and Publisher A.G. Sulzberger and … Read more
It will be hard to top the play “Downstate,” which opened Tuesday night at Playwrights Horizons, for controversy this season. Written by the fearless playwright Bruce Norris, the drama is set in a group home for sex offenders and pedophiles. From the location alone, you already know if you’re willing to buy a ticket or … Read more
The cute new musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” which opened Thursday night on Broadway, piles on weirdness with a dump truck. The mounting insanity almost becomes too much. Almost. First there’s the main character, Kimberly (Victoria Clark), who is 16 but suffers from a rare unnamed condition that makes her age at an accelerated rate. So, she … Read more
At the start of “Almost Famous,” which opened Thursday night on Broadway, the frontman of the fictional rock band Stillwater, Jeff Bebe, barks backstage in San Diego that a young Rolling Stone reporter in their midst is “the enemy!” Theater review 2 hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission. At the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, … Read more
After an onslaught of shaky Shakespeare plays in New York, Canada’s Stratford Festival felt like an oasis in Ontario. It was a much-needed palate cleanser to wipe away the foul taste left by Daniel Craig’s rank Broadway “Macbeth,” in which the entire cast spoke in monotone, wore plaid and waved smoke machines. And the 71-year-old … Read more
Fresh off the atrocious “Devil Wears Prada” musical in Chicago, Elton John is back on the boards a mere two months later with the Televangelist Wears Mascara in London. That’s right. The singer-songwriter’s latest musical is “Tammy Faye,” a biopic of the controversial religious TV personality Tammy Faye Messner, which premiered Wednesday night at the Almeida … Read more
LONDON — It’s one of the most stunning theatrical images in years. In an otherwise pitch-black theater, two giant eyes blink open and float to the front of the deep stage to reveal they belong to a humongous, fuzzy bear. Or is it a penguin? Or Pikachu? At this point, I don’t know whose eyes … Read more
The revival of “The Piano Lesson,” which opened Thursday night on Broadway, is mostly in tune. The August Wilson play’s greatest asset is its young leads John David Washington and Danielle Brooks, both of whom are already widely admired, but display an altogether new and enticing range of skills. Theater review 2 hours and 45 … Read more