Noises Off
Brooks Atkinson Theater

 Michael Frayn's Noises Off is the funniest play ever written, especially for those in the theatrical trade, and the current production is hilarious. The star-studded cast, including Patti LuPone, Peter Gallagher, Faith Prince, and the incredible Katie Finneran, whose quadruple-take alone is worth the price of admission, keep us laughing throughout this play about an English theater company on the road. Director Jeremy Sams has invented intricate schtick that constantly dazzles and amazes, and Robert Jones' set and costumes totally fulfill the script.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Oklahoma!
Gershwin Theater

 The Gershwin Theater has finally found a tenant sizable enough to fill its outsized reaches, and for the most part, Trevor Nunn's unsurprising but perfectly respectable revival of Oklahoma! makes good on being the latest Cameron Mackintosh spectacle. This transfer of the Royal National Theatre's acclaimed production (which catapulted Aussie Hugh Jackman to international stardom) makes good of the show's old-fashioned intentions, though its makers are clearly trying to fashion an Oklahoma! for the new millennium.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Oklahoma!
Gershwin Theater

 Before I nitpick Trevor Nunn's mounting of Oklahoma! to death, let it be said that his production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein tuner makes a full and lively evening of theater, that the orchestra - placed above the stage rather than under it - sounds lovely, and Susan Stroman's new choreography for the act one dream sequence proves highly effective. The musical as a whole still casts a spell -- its slapdash, should've-been-cut trial scene notwithstanding. Performances, however, are hit and miss.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2002
Oklahoma!
Gershwin Theater

The new Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! is, from start to finish, a gorgeous rendition. This is a musical for all time, one of the very greats, with a hit song every ten minutes. And this production outdoes all others I've seen in its integration of all the elements, particularly the dance numbers by Susan Stroman -- a perfect blend of music and movement. All the cast members can really sing -- I somehow like that in a musical.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Old Acquaintance
American Airlines Theater

 The Roundabout is now presenting John van Druten's 1940 romantic comedy Old Acquaintance on Broadway, directed by Michael Wilson, and it's mostly lots of fun. 

Harriet Harris is a great farceur (farceuse?), and her over-the-top portrayal of an idiotic, narcissistic pop writer lifts the entertainment level of the play and drives the show. Her literary-writing closest friend, in love with a younger man, is played by the beautiful Margaret Colin in a solid performance. Corey Stoll is fine as the young man. 

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2007
On Golden Pond
Cort Theater

 On Golden Pond, by Ernest Thompson is a sentimental and ultimately very moving play about diminishment in old age, as an elderly couple spend their last summer in Maine. Thompson's words are bright and insightful in the very realistic conversations between James Earl Jones and the beautiful Leslie Uggams as Jones' character, a man who is "losing it," expresses his anger and frustrations. In the beginning, it's homey dialogue but seems to be directed, by Leonard Foglia, at a snail's pace (which picks up later).

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2005
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Royale Theater

 One can visit this revival of Dale Wasserman's mental-institution drama about individuality vs. conformity and men vs. women without paying too much attention to those somewhat clumsily handled themes. It's enough to relish Gary Sinese taking a role utterly identified with another actor and giving it a compelling spin all his own. (By contrast, Amy Morton's Nurse Ratched is too reminiscent of Louise Fletcher's hushed control freak.)

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
One Mo' Time
Longacre Theater

 The history behind One Mo' Time, the current revival of the wildly successful late 1970s musical about a New Orleans black vaudeville house, is infinitely more interesting than anything contained in this well-meaning but lackluster update. Set cabaret-style amidst a deluge of revues (Ain't Misbehavin' was just one), it seemed right in its time, highlighted the underground movement of black jazz, and arguably paved the way for current acts like many you might see at Joe's Pub on a weekend evening.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
One Mo' Time
Longacre Theater

 Throughout the time One Mo' Time occupies the Longacre stage, we keep wondering when will the fun stop? When will the same-sounding songs start to grate? And when will we want more than a wisp-thin backstage plot to fill out the evening? Credit writer/director Vernel Bagneris for staring down those questions for two full hours, right up to the ebullient curtain call.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
One Mo' Time
Longacre Theater

 Don't go see One Mo' Time unless you want to smile for two hours. This show is basically a concert of happy New Orleans music, a 1920s "Colored Show" on tour. Written and directed by Vernel Bagneris, who, with his relaxed sleepy tone, defines the soft shoe dance. Singing and dancing, he's the epitome of cool. Co-starring three spectacular women who sing, dance and characterize, B.J. Crosby, Roz Ryan and Rosalind Brown, with a scintillating five-piece band, the show is part Bessie Smith, part minstrel show, all good natured, all entertaining, all fun.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Pacific Overtures
Studio 54

 The Broadway revival of Pacific Overtures, with songs by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Jerome Weidman, is a mish-mash. Its sort of a "The Americans Are Coming! The Americans Are Coming!" in 1853 Japan, and the production is in several styles. It doesn't seem to know if it's a farce or a drama; real so that we can identify with someone or spectacle that we can watch without emotional involvement. It's like the director/choreographer, Amon Miyamoto, didn't trust the material to just say the words and sing the songs (and do the movements).

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2004
Pacific Overtures
Studio 54

 East meets West in Sondheim's quaint, oddly proportioned musical ceremony with book by John Weidman. The culture clash is multifold. Sondheim's characteristic Sunday in the Park manner is wedded to delicate, percussion-filled orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
January 2005
Pajama Game, The
American Airlines Theater

 How often in a modern musical do we get song after unforgettable song, production numbers that tickle all of our sensibilities, and from which we walk out humming memorable tunes that make us smile? I'd say just about never.

The Pajama Game, from out of Musical Theater's past, concerns a management-labor dispute over a raise of seven and a half cents. The show has it all in terms of material, and with its splendid cast of terrific singer-dancers, it is one of the most enjoyable times you can spend on Broadway.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Phantom Of The Opera, The
Majestic Theater

 Late in the first act, there are fifteen glorious minutes when everything comes together: music (the title song, "The Music Of The Night"), set (candelabras rising from the mist as the Phantom and Christine gondola their way across the prettiest sewer you ever saw), performance -- everything. When the Phantom first brings Christine down to his lair, the show is transported to the realm of legend.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
September 1994
Phantom Of The Opera, The
Majestic Theater

 Credit Andrew Lloyd Webber with creating -- from initial concept to the composing -- what has grown to become a timeless masterpiece in The Phantom Of The Opera, which in January celebrated a milestone on Broadway with its 10th Anniversary. And credit the creative team -- director Harold Prince, musical director David Caddick, designer Maria Bjornson, and lyricists Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe for a mesmerizing production. But especially credit the musical staging by choreographer Gillian Lynne!

Ellis Nassour
Date Reviewed:
1997
Pillowman, The
Booth Theater

 Kafka Lives! Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman is a gothic horror story of repression and cruel interrogation in a totalitarian state, and about child abuse creating Art. McDonough is a very good short story writer, and several of his graphic tales involving cruelty to, and butchery of, children are hung on the framework of a man's grilling about involvement in murders that replicate killings in his stories.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2005
Pirate Queen, The
Hilton Theater

 The Pirate Queen by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg, Richard Maltby and John Dempsey -- What a show! Action! Beautiful women! Strong men! Great voices led by the magnetic Stephanie J. Block (who reminds me of Maureen O'Hara), and music from Les Miz -- well, almost, but I guess they can steal from themselves.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2007
Play What I Wrote, The
Lyceum Theater

Fun, yes; but why wasn't it funny? A farce that wore its ridiculousness on its sleeve, its sight gags on its bum and its wordplay on its nose, The Play What I Wrote should have been the raucous laugh-riot it kept straining to be. Granted, the second-act Mystery Guest on the night I attended was Sir Roger Moore, who proved a good sport but had all the comic timing of an azalea bush. No knock on the other players, though, with Toby Jones winning a couple of huge laughs during a drawn-out story about his ailing mum.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2003
Play What I Wrote, The
Lyceum Theater

 Rubber-legged Sean Foley is a joy to watch, with his repertoire of John Cleese-like Silly Walks. Hamish McColl makes a good foil. But their act is either the epitome - or the nadir - of British Music Hall comedy. It is what killed Variety over there and Vaudeville over here. Some routines are so bad you cannot help laughing: How can they do this stuff with straight-faces? If you want sophisticated British male comedy-duos, try Hinge & Bracket or Kit and the Widow.

Glenn Loney
Date Reviewed:
April 2003
Play What I Wrote, The
Lyceum Theater

 Some people love old-time Vaudeville: Smith & Dale in "The Doctor Sketch" on "The Ed Sullivan Show," The Three Stooges, British knockabout comedy and eccentric dancing. If you're one of them, you'll love the ridiculous, slapstick, corny, very British comedy revue, The Play What I Wrote. Sean Foley, Hamish McColl and Toby Jones recreate the antique shtick with flair, falls, and fol-de-rol. Foley takes John Cleese's physicality to new heights of dementia with a rubber body like they don't make any more. Act 2 does a sendup of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" utilizing a guest star.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2003
Price, The
Royale Theater

 The excellent revival of Arthur Miller's The Price currently on Broadway is a fitting companion piece to this season's earlier, acclaimed production of his Death of a Salesman. In fact, it stands ever more firmly at the forefront of Miller's canon.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
November 1999
Private Lives
Richard Rodgers Theater

At times, Howard Davies' staging of Noel Coward's classic comedy feels like it's going to be the Private Lives. Lindsay Duncan, with her effortless glamour, smashing smile and insouciant delivery, could not be bettered as Amanda; while, apart from a couple of unnecessary winks to the audience, Alan Rickman casually underplays ex-husband Elyot. (He's so laid back, in fact, that he occasionally fails to project.) Adam Godley convinces as Amanda's stuffed-shirt new hubby; Emma Fielding makes a lively, wacky Sibyl.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 2002
Private Lives
Richard Rodgers Theater

Good theater doesn't get much better than Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan in Noel Coward's Private Lives. As directed by Howard Davies, the actors emphasize and embellish the human side of the brisk brittle characters we usually see in this play. Flip dialogue is not enough for these masters of comic timing; they also dig into the underlying conflicts of these smart, wealthy wastrels as their relationship survives through conflict. Act One is one of the funniest ever written.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2002
Producers, The
St. James Theater

 Despite what you've heard, it's not as great as the film, nor is it the shining beacon of American musicals. The Producers is, however, an utter delight, from the unexpectedly winning songs to Nathan Lane's endlessly wonderful antics, from a new sequence that puts Leo (Matthew Broderick) quitting Whitehall & Marx in context to a hilarious song- and-dance number ("Keep It Gay") at the Debries residence.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Producers, The
St. James Theater

 I went to see the current cast of Mel Brooks' The Producers. Boy! What a show! It's still a brilliant comedy, full of laughs, with super performances by Brad Oscar, Roger Bart, John Treacy Egan, Brad Musgrove, Gary Beach and, as Ulla the night I saw it, Charley Iazabella King. Robin Wagner's set, which goes beyond ordinary bounds in its extravagance, Susan Stroman's absurd choreography, hilarious costumes by Wiliam Ivey Long, all make this show The King of Broadway -- and "It's good to be the king."

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2003
Putting It Together
Ethel Barrymore Theater

 To put it bluntly, Putting It Together, the Stephen Sondheim "review" that just opened on Broadway, just isn't that well put together. A barrage of 35 of his greatest hits, including songs from Company, Merrily We Roll Along, A Little Night Music and Follies among others, is given tepid treatment, despite the mega-wattage of stars Carol Burnett, Bronson Pinchot, George Hearn and Ruthie Henshall. Quite honestly, I've never experienced Sondheim's admittedly wonderful music performed in such a bitter vein.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
QED
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

 In telling the life story of Richard Feynman, Peter Parnell's QED chops all the charismatic physicist's recollections into mini-bites that are endlessly interrupted by ringing telephones, knocks at the door and his own racing intellect. Alan Alda's charm keeps things percolating for the first hour, but a static and predictable second act - complete with a femme ex machina - dulls the evening considerably. Copenhagen it ain't.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
QED
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

 QED, now at Lincoln Center, is a visit with Nobel-winning physicist, drummer and humorist Richard Feynman, one of the most interesting men of the 20th Century, portrayed by one of the most likable actors on Earth, Alan Alda. Both men have a contagious life spirit, and this show is the rare one with intellectual and philosophical content that is unceasingly engaging. It's a treat for the mind and a theatrical delight. Peter Parnell has somehow fashioned Feynman's material into a play that is an uncommon treat -- it has fascinating content and is totally entertaining.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Rabbit Hole
Biltmore Theater

 David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole, Manhattan Theater Club's new show now on Broadway, is a domestic drama about a couple's obsession with the death of their child, and the aberrations that can grow out of grief. The entire cast, including Tyne Daly, Mary Catherine Garrison and John Slattery, is excellent, and Cynthia Nixon in the central role is powerful, real, and riveting.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Radio Golf
Cort Theater

 Once again and with his final play, Radio Golf, August Wilson defines the term "wordsmith" and proves he is one of this country's greatest playwrights. This last of his brilliant, decade-by-decade explorations of the black experience in Pittsburgh is another powerful, moving experience. The five-member ensemble explore the ramifications of conscience in a contemporary economic and political situation, pitting the climber, James A. Williams, against the economically stable Harry Lennix, who is running for mayor. Both give strong performances, as does Tonya Pinkins as the wife.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2007
Ragtime
Ford Center for the Performing Arts

 Big and serious and rich and graceful and worthy. Apply any adjective to the new musical Ragtime and you won't be too far off. With a score by Ahrens and Flaherty (My Favorite Year, Once On This Island), and an adapted book by Terrence McNally, Ragtime wants to be both epic social history and powerful personal drama.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 1998
Ragtime
Ford Center for the Performing Arts

 Ragtime, one of the most ambitious musicals of our time, has all the makings of a classic. If it falls just a little short of greatness, it isn't because everyone involved in turning E.L. Doctorow's best-selling 1975 novel into a stunning, affecting and imposing musical hasn't done their job to the fullest. At its best, which is much of the time, Ragtime is as impressively propelled by its compelling interwoven dramas as it is by its splendid visual and musical texture.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 1998
Rainmaker, The
Brooks Atkinson Theater

 It never really became apparent to me how influential N. Richard Nash's 1954 The Rainmaker, was until watching WPIX recently where I suffered through "Three Men And A Little Lady" and noticed that Tom Selleck and Nancy Travis rehearse a scene from the play early in the picture. It is meant to parallel the Selleck-Travis budding romance, but when watching Scott Ellis' newest incarnation currently on Broadway, one finds it is just better to stick with the original source.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
Rainmaker, The
Brooks Atkinson Theater

In this forever lovely 1954 play, traveling con-man Bill Starbuck brags he can bring rain to the drought-beset western town by "pitching sodium chloride up to the clouds, electrifying the cold front, neutralizing the warm front, barometricizing the tropopause and magnetizing occlusions in the sky." With Scott Ellis' magical staging for the Roundabout Theater Company, there is little doubt in our gullible minds that he is going to do it.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
November 1999
Raisin in the Sun, A
Royale Theater

 Lorraine Hansberry's profound, funny, powerful play, A Raisin in the Sun,, now on Broadway, is as poignant and relevant today as it was in 1959 when it was first produced. This story of the struggles of a black family in Chicago in the 1950s to survive, to grow, to make it in a difficult, frustrating world, is a gripping domestic drama with a fine cast. Hansberry was a wonderful writer with a keen ear for the nuances of the flow of people's speech and deep insight into their inner workings.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2004
Real Thing, The
Ethel Barrymore Theater

 It has been far too long since New York has seen a Tom Stoppard play adorning Broadway, and after a season of soggy, overwritten debacles, one is happy to embrace anything that has already been tested, and just might deliver. The Donmar Warehouse production of The Real Thing, with its luminous London cast intact, proves to be the great reminder of the verve and wit plays once had.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2000
Reckless
Biltmore Theater

 Playwright Craig Lucas tries to dazzle us with footwork in his skewed mish-mash of a comedy, Reckless. Some of his writing sparkles with witty surprises, but ultimately, it is the cast that keeps the show alive and interesting. Mary-Louise Parker shines with an impeccable sense of comic timing as a wife whose husband confesses that he has taken out a contract on her life. A solid, strong, convincing Michael O'Keefe secures the center, and a quirky, charming Rosie Perez tickles us with whatever she says (or doesn't say).

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2004
Rent
Nederlander Theater

 It was the year's Cinderella story -- with a tragic turn: Rent, an off-off-Broadway rock musical with no "stars" and a virtually unknown author, moves to Broadway, wins the Pulitzer, garners rave reviews, standing o's and more awards, and does so only weeks after said composer/lyricist dies of a brain aneurysm at age 35. Little wonder Rent is considered this year's musical phenomenon, a little engine that not only could but electrified as it hurtled along.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 1996
Retreat From Moscow, The
Booth Theater

 Behind the British accents and literary allusions (which are underlined, italicized and bolded, just in case you couldn't figure them out for yourself) lies a very middlebrow drama about a couple nearing their sunset years and reaching a crossroad in their relationship.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Ring of Fire
Ethel Barrymore Theater

 Ring of Fire: The Johnny Cash Musical Show is a well-produced, well-sung depiction of country life through song. It's a good Country Music concert performed by first-rate Broadway singers who all have the range, emotion and proper twang for their roles. It's not a biography, and without a story through-line, its duration, like any concert, is arbitrary.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2006

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