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Theater Review - 'Cornbury - The Queen’s Governor' - The Man Who Would Be Queen, at Hudson Guild Theater - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Cornbury - The Queen’s Governor' - The Man Who Would Be Queen, at Hudson Guild Theater - NYTimes.com.

If you had imagined that the follies of governors were a feature exclusive to the new century, a visit to the Hudson Guild Theater, where the rambling comic romp “Cornbury: The Queen’s Governor” is installed, will set you straight.

JFK Center Celebrates 12th Anniversary With BROADWAY TODAY

JFK Center Celebrates 12th Anniversary With BROADWAY TODAY.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts celebrates the 12th Anniversary of the Millennium Stage on January 31, 2009 with "Broadway Today"-a star-studded, free concert, produced by Michael A. Kerker and presented in cooperation with ASCAP, in the Opera House as a part of the Center's season-long artistic initiative Broadway: The Third Generation. With the composers at the piano, original cast members and Broadway stars perform signature songs that made these artists household names. Free tickets are required. Tickets will be given away one (1) per person in line in front of the Opera House beginning at 4 p.m. on Saturday, January 31, 2009.

New habit for Hancock | The Official London Theatre Guide

New habit for Hancock | The Official London Theatre Guide.

Esteemed British actress Sheila Hancock will don a habit for the role of the austere Mother Superior in the forthcoming London Palladium musical Sister Act. Sister Act tells the story of club singer Deloris Van Cartier, who, after witnessing a violent crime is put in protective custody in the one place the cops are sure she won’t be found – a convent. Disguised as a nun, she quickly finds fans amongst her fellow sisters, but manages to get on the wrong side of the convent’s Mother Superior. Soon the singer turns her attention to helping the convent’s off-key choir, but, with the mob on her tail, she risks blowing her cover for good. Making her West End debut, Patina Miller will join Hancock in the role of Deloris, the character that Whoopi Goldberg created in the original 1992 film of the same name. Dad’s Army and EastEnders actor Ian Lavender will star alongside the two as Monsignor Howard. Hancock’s extensive film, TV, radio and theatre career spans over 40 years. She first appeared on the West End stage in 1978 as Mrs Hannigan in the musical Annie. Her most recent stage credits include The Anniversary at the Garrick theatre, Under The Blue Sky at the Royal Court and In Extremis at the National Theatre. In 2007 Hancock took home the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Cabaret at the Lyric theatre. The actress has also twice been nominated for a BAFTA award, her television work including New Tricks, Bedtime, The Russian Bride, Bleak House and EastEnders. Last year she appeared in the award winning Holocaust film The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas.

Theater Review: Cornbury: The Queen's Governor - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Cornbury: The Queen's Governor - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

We could stand the wolf hunting, the senate seat selling and the prostitute traffic, but "Cornbury: The Queen's Governor" has gone too far with its portrayal of gubernatorial cross-dressing. David Greenspan is a perfect lady as the title character in Theater Askew's new production, but Tim Cusack's direction is hysterical in the worst possible way. William M. Hoffman and the late Anthony Holland may even have written a good play, who knows? It's impossible to understand a word of it here over the production's assaultive crassness.

Theater Review - 'Sixty Miles to Silver Lake' - Father-Son Road Trip, With Twists and Turns, at Soho Rep - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Sixty Miles to Silver Lake' - Father-Son Road Trip, With Twists and Turns, at Soho Rep - NYTimes.com.

Not much can be written about “Sixty Miles to Silver Lake,” a nifty new play by Dan LeFranc at Soho Rep, without ruining the central gimmick, which is to scramble the audience’s preconceptions. Suffice it to say that early on, when you’re thinking, “Gosh, these characters are inconsistent,” or “These two actors don’t quite have the script down yet,” you shouldn’t give up on the piece. If anything, you should be paying closer attention.

La Cage lengthens London run | The Official London Theatre Guide

La Cage lengthens London run | The Official London Theatre Guide.

La Cage Aux Folles, the hit musical set in a glamorous St Tropez drag club, has announced an extension to its current run at London's Playhouse theatre. The announcement that La Cage will continue until 26 September caps an exciting week for the fabulously camp show; Tuesday saw the Menier Chocolate Factory production named Best Musical at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.

Theater Review: Pope Joan - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Pope Joan - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Vet Broadway producer Michael Butler ("Hair") has instilled impressive production values into this finely wrought but thematically underwhelming tuner perusal into the life of a mythical ninth century female-in-monk's-clothing who briefly ascended to the title of Bishop of Rome. Scripter-composer Christopher Moore does not offer enough plot substance or scenic evolution to buoy his melodious, eclectic pop/rock score, imaginatively staged by helmer-choreographer Bo Crowell. But "Pope Joan" is blessed with a highly talented 26-member ensemble that elevates the work far beyond its inherent credentials.

Theater Review - 'Aristocrats' - In Brian Friel’s Drama at the Irish Repertory Theater, a Family Comes Down in the World - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Aristocrats' - In Brian Friel’s Drama at the Irish Repertory Theater, a Family Comes Down in the World - NYTimes.com.

The O’Donnell family is on its last legs. In four generations its sons have gone from a High Court justice to a sausage-factory worker, and in Brian Friel’s elegiac play “Aristocrats,” which is being given a first-rate revival by the Irish Repertory Theater, what begins as a wedding celebration ends up as a wake.

Two new shows for Roundabout - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Two new shows for Roundabout - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Roundabout Theater Company has added two more Broadway productions to its lineup for the 2009-10 season, with the first Rialto revival of the 1960 musical "Bye Bye Birdie," about an Elvis-style singing sensation with a rabid teen fan base; and a return of the Noel Coward comedy "Present Laughter," starring Victor Garber as a vain 1930s matinee idol. While no theaters have been confirmed, "Bye Bye Birdie" is scheduled for the fall and has been rumored as a possible opening attraction for the Roundabout's third Broadway venue, the newly rebuilt Henry Miller's Theater. Robert Longbottom will direct and choreograph the show, which won Tonys in its original run for musical, lead actor Dick Van Dyke and for Gower Champion's direction and choreography.

Theater Review: Desire Under the Elms - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Desire Under the Elms - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

There are sets, and then there are sets. For the Goodman Theater's intense and emotionally still-evolving, Broadway-bound production of Eugene O'Neill's 1924 tragedy, "Desire Under the Elms," helmer Robert Falls and designer Walt Spangler have delivered a set to behold -- daring, imposing, acutely provocative and probably purposefully perplexing. Not at all an abstract version of O'Neill's own vision of an 1850 Connecticut farm and farmhouse, Spangler's creation reflects almost a direct counterpoint to it. When, as frequently occurs, characters look out at the sunset over this landscape and declare it "purty," there's a clearly intentional dissonance. It most certainly is not purty.

Theater Review: Aristocrats - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Aristocrats - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Brian Friel's achingly beautiful 1979 play about the disintegration of Ireland's gentry, "Aristocrats," is so Chekhovian, you keep expecting his distinguished family to put down the whiskey bottle and start swigging tea from a samovar. In the Irish Rep's meticulous revival, helmer (and company a.d.) Charlotte Moore assembles a dream cast to play the members of this diminished clan, gathered here at the bedside of their dying patriarch to wring their hands over their proud lost heritage and to illustrate Friel's belief in the healing power of storytelling to take a family, a village, a nation through troubled times.

Theater Review: Pippin - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Pippin - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Roger O. Hirson and Stephen Schwartz's 1972 "Pippin" meshes nicely with Deaf West Theater's performance style, though it falls well short of the company's "Big River," which sailed from the Mark Taper Forum into a memorable 2003 Broadway stint. Some shrewd choices have been made, but others seem underconceived or downright baffling. Is helmer-choreographer Jeff Calhoun, in the words of one of the better-staged songs, "On the Right Track" to repeat the eastward journey? Tuner's broader emotional lines first need attending. The problem isn't two Pippins (one hearing, one deaf), but a dramatic spine that's been halved.

Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities Announces Full Monty Cast: Theater News on TheaterMania.com

Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities Announces Full Monty Cast: Theater News on TheaterMania.com.

Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities has announced casting for their upcoming production of The Full Monty, to run February 11-March 1. The production will feature direction by Dan Mojica, choreography by Karen Nowicki, and musical direction by Dennis Castellano.

Since Jeremy Piven’s Departure, Mamet’s ‘Speed-the Plow’ Has Only Gotten Speedier - NYTimes.com

Since Jeremy Piven’s Departure, Mamet’s ‘Speed-the Plow’ Has Only Gotten Speedier - NYTimes.com.

Is it too late to send a thank you note to Jeremy Piven? This indisputably talented actor has been heaped with scorn and ridicule since he ducked out early (in December) on his contract for the Broadway revival of David Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow.” While the show’s producers have filed a grievance against Mr. Piven with the Actors Equity Association, I — in the forgiving spirit of a new American era — would like to point out the blessings that have arrived with his departure.

Theater Review: Taking Over - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Taking Over - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Can't we all get along?" Rodney King famously asked, and the answer that too often comes back is "Hell no." In "Taking Over," Danny Hoch's indictment of neighborhood gentrification, the hip-hop monologist identifies several root causes, notably our pervasive blindness to the reality of those (especially the underclass) with whom we share communal living space. His argument is borne more by rage than strict logic, but you can be moved by his pungent observations and performance savvy without relying on him for sober recommendations on urban planning.

Theater Review: Coming Home - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Coming Home - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Ghosts fill Athol Fugard's "Coming Home," a haunting yet clear-eyed play of lost dreams, receiving its world preem at New Haven's Long Wharf Theater. There's the ghost of a loving grandfather, reminding the leading character of her roots when she returns to her rural home after failing to carve a better life in Cape Town. But other spirits, not in the script, hover over the production, too. There's the ghost of the "new" South Africa set in stark contrast to its harsh, heartbreaking reality today. And then there's the spirit of a playwright whose works served as a moral beacon prior to Apartheid's fall in the 1990s.

The War of the Roses — Part 1 and Part 2 Movie Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Film The War of the Roses — Part 1 and Part 2

The War of the Roses — Part 1 and Part 2 Movie Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Film The War of the Roses — Part 1 and Part 2.

Cate Blanchett, who immortalized England’s Elizabeth I for modern screen audiences, has returned in fine form to monarchical territory, switching genders to portray King Richard II in a sprawling, two-part epic amalgam of Shakespeare’s history plays about the Plantagenet dynasty, "The War of the Roses." If only Sydney Theater Company’s ambitious production lived up to its co-artistic director’s vibrant lead performance.

Theater Review - 'Freshwater' - At Women’s Project, Proof That Virginia Woolf Did Have a Light Side - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Freshwater' - At Women’s Project, Proof That Virginia Woolf Did Have a Light Side - NYTimes.com.

The screech of electric guitars and the adenoidal whine of Johnny Rotten bring down the curtain on the Women’s Project production of Virginia Woolf’s “Freshwater,” which opened Sunday night at the Julia Miles Theater, 127 years to the day after Woolf’s birth

B.D. Wong, Claudia Shear, Terrence McNally, and More To Be Part of La Jolla Season: Theater News on TheaterMania.com

B.D. Wong, Claudia Shear, Terrence McNally, and More To Be Part of La Jolla Season: Theater News on TheaterMania.com.

The La Jolla Playhouse has announced the six productions for its 2009-2010 season. Exact dates will be announced shortly. The season will begin with Terrence McNally's Unusual Acts of Devotion, about five neighbors in a Greenwich Village apartment building. It will be followed by the world premiere of Claudia Shear's Restoration, directed by Christopher Ashley, in which Shear will play an art restorer who's hired to work on Michaelangelo's "David." The season continues with Glenn Slater and Stephen A. Weiner's musical adaptation of the Coen Brothers' film The Hudsucker Proxy, about a naive mailroom employee who is made CEO of a doomed corporation.. Next up, Roger Rees will direct the Tom Cone-Ellen McHugh-Skip Kennon multicharacter solo musical Herringbone, starring Tony Award winner B.D. Wong.

Theater Review - 'Caesar and Cleopatra' and '23 Knives' - Two Views of Julius Caesar - As Victor and as Victim - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Caesar and Cleopatra' and '23 Knives' - Two Views of Julius Caesar - As Victor and as Victim - NYTimes.com.

More than two thousand years after that fateful Ides of March, Gaius Julius Caesar is still a puzzle to historians and playwrights. Was the man who came, saw and conquered, cast the die and crossed the Rubicon the world’s greatest ruler? Or merely its most famous assassination victim? The Resonance Ensemble’s two plays in repertory — Shaw’s “Caesar and Cleopatra” and Christopher Boal’s “23 Knives” — examine the question from each standpoint.

Theater Review - 'The American Plan' - Rapunzel in the Catskills, in a 1990 Play by Richard Greenberg - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'The American Plan' - Rapunzel in the Catskills, in a 1990 Play by Richard Greenberg - NYTimes.com.

Fear itself is something to fear in “The American Plan” by Richard Greenberg, an elegant and incisive 1990 play that has been given the revival it deserves by the Manhattan Theater Club. In David Grindley’s subtle yet shimmeringly clear production, which opened Thursday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, a scared wariness defines and confines the existences of people in retreat or out for conquest at a Catskills resort in 1960.

Theater Review: Thriller Live - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Thriller Live - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

"Thriller Live" cannot be faulted for lack of admiration of its subject. Over nearly three hours of often expertly executed song and dance, the production provides an exhaustive showcase for Michael Jackson's back catalog. Only a wisp of chronological narrative and its presence in a West End house link this outing to traditional theatrical fare; it's a tribute concert played out with remarkably high production values, including studio-quality live music from a six-piece band. But the tone of adulation and sheer volume of material covered seem likely to overwhelm and eventually alienate all but the most devoted Jackson fans.

Estelle Parsons set for 'August' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Estelle Parsons set for 'August' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Estelle Parsons will topline the national touring production of “August: Osage County,” launching in Denver in July. Parsons currently plays vitriolic matriarch Violet in the Broadway incarnation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer- and Tony-winning family saga. She’ll reprise the role for the tour, although no end date for her Rialto stint has yet been nailed down. Tour stops set so far include Denver (July 24-Aug. 8) and San Francisco (Aug. 11-Sept. 6).

Signature Theater and Hartford Stage to Produce Nine-Play Cycle by Horton Foote - NYTimes.com

Signature Theater and Hartford Stage to Produce Nine-Play Cycle by Horton Foote - NYTimes.com.

Signature Theater Company in Manhattan and Hartford Stage in Connecticut are teaming up to produce the world premiere of a nine-play cycle by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Horton Foote, performed in repertory over eight months.

Theater Review: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Number one -- never mix music with politics," says lunatic Ivanov in "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour." But with trademark topsy-turvy logic, Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn ignored their own advice. Their dissidents-meet-dissonance piece does exactly that. If few have seen it since its 1977 premiere that's because it requires numerous actors plus an onstage symphony orchestra. But despite sometimes dazzling stagecraft, the National Theater's revival gradually gives way to the feeling there's rather less here than meets the eye and ear.

Theater Review: Be Near Me - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Be Near Me - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

It's a tantalizing proposition: John Tiffany, helmer of the world-conquering "Black Watch," teaming with Ian McDiarmid, vet actor and former director of London's Almeida Theater, on an adaptation of an acclaimed novel by Andrew O'Hagan. If the results are not as explosive as that lineup portends, the National Theater of Scotland production of "Be Near Me" is nevertheless an absorbing, thoughtful drama, as befits a story of loneliness, self-deception and misplaced sexual desire. It also recalls the knotty theatrical arguments of Ibsen, Shaw or Miller.

Theater Review: Rich and Famous - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Rich and Famous - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

  Still flush from two heady, early '70s first successes -- tragicomedy "The House of Blue Leaves" and musical libretto "Two Gentlemen of Verona" -- John Guare chose to look backward, toward a struggling playwright's bottomless hunger and horrific first flop, in his 1974 play "Rich and Famous." Newly revised by the author for ACT's revival, this manic farcical picaresque nonetheless shows its age, not to mention the hit-and-miss heedlessness of a play originally written in three days. However, there's enough real invention on both the page and the current stage performance to reward a sometimes wearing journey.

Theater Review: The Importance of Being Earnest - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: The Importance of Being Earnest - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

David Schweizer's fluent, assured staging dominates his wildly unconventional production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse, headlined and heightened by Lynn Redgrave as sternly hypocritical matriarch Lady Bracknell. The sparkling dialogue and verbal duels survive with elegance intact in Oscar Wilde's evergreen comedy of manners, despite some jarring visual intrusions and broad interpretations of Victorian behavior.

Theater Review: Battle Hymn - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Battle Hymn  - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Circle X Theater Company's world premiere production of Jim Leonard's new play "Battle Hymn" is excellent in all respects save one, and that one is, unfortunately, the play itself. The cast is outstanding, John Lang's direction is inspired and tech credits are uniformly superb. Leonard's writing is rich and often humorous, and he's skilled at creating memorable characters. But what works as a tightly observed piece of fable in act one explodes into a scattershot fantasy in act two, never quite regaining its balance or sense of purpose.

Kellett takes 'Knots' to the stage - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety

Kellett takes 'Knots' to the stage - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety.

"How I Met Your Mother" scribe Gloria Calderon Kellett is debuting her comedy project, "Tied in Knots," on Thursday at the South Beach Comedy Festival. Kellett wrote the romantic comedy as a play, but with the hopes that it could be adapted into a TV pilot or feature project. "Tied in Knots" centers on a couple surrounded by a group of single friends, all in their 30s. The duo wind up acting as parental figures to their pals, all of whom are still figuring out the dating world.

Theater Review - 'Terre Haute' - What If Gore Vidal Met Timothy McVeigh in Edmund White’s Imagination? - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Terre Haute' - What If Gore Vidal Met Timothy McVeigh in Edmund White’s Imagination? - NYTimes.com.

One estimable American novelist pays peculiar tribute to another in “Terre Haute,” a two-person drama by Edmund White that imagines a series of death row encounters between characters firmly based on Timothy J. McVeigh, the man convicted and executed for the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995, and the novelist Gore Vidal.

Theater Review - 'Leaves of Glass' - A Father’s Legacy of Pain, Explored by Philip Ridley - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Leaves of Glass' - A Father’s Legacy of Pain, Explored by Philip Ridley - NYTimes.com.

The suicide of a father leaves a stealthy, ultimately devastating imprint on the lives of his two sons in “Leaves of Glass,” a slow-burning but effective drama by the British playwright Philip Ridley (“The Pitchfork Disney”) that features a superb cast including the Tony nominee Euan Morton.

Will Ferrell as George W. Bush, One More Time - NYTimes.com

Will Ferrell as George W. Bush, One More Time - NYTimes.com.

IN late December, a CNN/Opinion Research poll disclosed that 75 percent of Americans were glad President Bush was leaving office, while 23 percent said they would miss him. Among those who, somehow, find themselves after all these years in that 2 percent “undecided” is the actor and comic Will Ferrell.

Walnut Street Theater turns 200 - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Walnut Street Theater turns 200 - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

America's oldest continuously operating theater, Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theater, celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, with a double-century birthday bash Feb. 3.

UNCLE VANYA with O'Hare, Gyllenhaal & Sarsgaard Begins Previews 1/17

UNCLE VANYA with O'Hare, Gyllenhaal & Sarsgaard Begins Previews 1/17.

Due to very strong ticket sales, Classic Stage Company's new production of Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA, starring Tony Award winner Denis O'Hare as Vanya, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Yelena and Peter Sarsgaard as Astrov, has extended its limited engagement through Sunday, March 8, it was announced today by CSC Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen. Directed by Austin Pendleton, UNCLE VANYA will begin previews tonight, Saturday, January 17 at Classic Stage Company at 136 East 13th Street, with an official opening set for Thursday, February 12.

Full Cast, Creative Team Set for Marvin's Room at Redtwist: Theater News on TheaterMania.com

Full Cast, Creative Team Set for Marvin's Room at Redtwist: Theater News on TheaterMania.com.

Full cast and creative team information has been announced for the Redtwist Theatre production of Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, December 18-January 18. Michael Ryczek will direct. The play is based on McPherson's experiences with AIDS in his family, and later when his lover died from the virus. The cast will feature Paul Allen (Bob, Goofy), Maud Gleason (Retirement Home Director), Jan Ellen Graves (Bessie), Paulette Hicks (Dr. Charlotte), Karen Hill (Lee), Sam Johnston (Hank), Tommy Lee Johnston (Dr. Wally), Evan Kedjidjian (Charlie), and Betty Scott Smith (Aunt Ruth). The creative team will include Christopher Burpee (lighting design), Kevin Durnbaugh (set design), Erin Fast (costume design), and Christopher Kriz (sound design). For more information, call 773-728-7529 or visit redtwist.org.

Speed-the-Plow Producers File Equity Grievance Against Jeremy Piven: Theater News on TheaterMania.com

Speed-the-Plow Producers File Equity Grievance Against Jeremy Piven: Theater News on TheaterMania.com.

The producers of the Broadway revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, now at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, have announced they have filed a grievance with Actors Equity regarding the early departure of star Jeremy Piven from the production. No date for a hearing has been set.

Ambrose, Martin join 'Exit the King' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Ambrose, Martin join 'Exit the King' - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Lauren Ambrose and Andrea Martin will appear alongside Susan Sarandon and Geoffrey Rush in the upcoming Broadway revival of "Exit the King."

'Spamalot' rides into L.A. - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

'Spamalot' rides into L.A. - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

“Monty Python’s Spamalot” gets its first stint in L.A. as the initial offering of Center Theater Group’s 2009-2010 season. Toplined by John O’Hurley as King Arthur, the tuner begins a nine-week run at the Ahmanson Theater in July. O’Hurley played Arthur in the musical’s Las Vegas incarnation, which had been the tuner’s western U.S. outpost during a 17-month run that shuttered last summer. With book by Python alum Eric Idle and songs by Idle and John du Prez, “Spamalot” won three Tonys in 2005 including the top prize for tuner. Mike Nichols directs. Musical joins “Mary Poppins” on the Ahmanson’s 2009-10 slate, with further offerings to be announced.

Theater Review: Rich and Famous - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Rich and Famous - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Still flush from two heady, early '70s first successes --tragicomedy "The House of Blue Leaves" and musical libretto "Two Gentlemen of Verona" -- John Guare chose to look backward, toward a struggling playwright's bottomless hunger and horrific first flop, in his 1974 play "Rich and Famous." Newly revised by the author for ACT's revival, this manic farcical picaresque nonetheless shows its age, not to mention the hit-and-miss heedlessness of a play originally written in three days. However, there's enough real invention on both the page and the current stage performance to reward a sometimes wearing journey.

Theater Review: Soul of Shaolin - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Soul of Shaolin - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Like a swift kick to the head, "Soul of Shaolin" is a rushed, expertly trained assault that leaves you slightly confused afterward. Battered audiences will be able to discern enough continuity to get the kidnapped-child-becoming-a-warrior plot straight, but the Chinese government's first attack on Broadway is a little weak on storytelling and variety. Some of the stunts are amazing, but with a proscenium as high as the Marquis', spoiled Gothamite martial arts fans will likely be disappointed by a dearth of the aerial feats that, er, punched up better (and much cheaper) Korean actioners "Jump" and "Break Out."

Theater Review: My Name Is Asher Lev - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: My Name Is Asher Lev - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Not a dry eye in the house (well, maybe two). Even the piano sobbed. Capitalizing on the strong and schmaltzy traditions of Yiddish theater, Aaron Posner builds on his 1999 success, "The Chosen," with another adaptation of a Chaim Potok novel, "My Name Is Asher Lev." Generating considerable regional interest even before the new show opened, Posner has likely struck paydirt again with this three-actor play about a young man torn between his insular Hassidic community of Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn and the artistic gift that drives him to paint and ultimately leads him into the wide world.

Theater Review - 'The Cherry Orchard' - All Alone in a Crowded Country Home, via Chekhov and Stoppard - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'The Cherry Orchard' - All Alone in a Crowded Country Home, via Chekhov and Stoppard - NYTimes.com.

It feels right that the proportions are all wrong in Sam Mendes’s seriously comic production of “The Cherry Orchard,” which opened on Wednesday night at the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. From the play’s opening scene, in which full-size grown-ups sit on child-size chairs in the dusty nursery of a too-large country house, a sense of scale gone haywire permeates this enjoyable maiden offering from the newly established Bridge Project, a trans-Atlantic collaboration of British and American theater artists produced by the Academy, the Old Vic of London and Neal Street Productions.

Theater Review: Roaring Trade - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Roaring Trade - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

It's not just the financial downturn that makes Steve Thompson's satirical expose of the backstabbing antics of City bond traders feel dated and superfluous. It's the overfamiliarity of the material via countless previous depictions, from films ("Wall Street," "Working Girl," "Rogue Trader," "Boiler Room") and plays ("Glengarry Glen Ross," "Serious Money") to TV series. Thompson, whose political satire "Whipping It Up" transferred to the West End in 2007, certainly has a skill for nasty-snappy dialogue, and Andrew Scott offers a sinuously compelling central performance, but there's a numbing predictability to the subject matter, not enlivened by Roxana Silbert's flat staging.

Zipper Factory closes suddenly - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety

Zipper Factory closes suddenly - Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety.

Off Broadway performance space The Zipper Factory has suddenly shuttered, yanking all its upcoming programming effective immediately. Closing, attributed to a disagreement over real estate, was announced by Zipper owner and proprietor Lee Z. Davis.

National Theater unveils new season - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety

National Theater unveils new season - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Variety.

A new push into the growing market for closed-circuit screenings of stage productions in movie theaters and a new play reuniting “The History Boys” scribe Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner highlight the National Theater’s 2009 season. Hytner, who is the National Theater’s artistic director, said Wednesday that the screenings, dubbed “NT Live,” are regarded by the National as an experiment. Four of its 2009 productions will be filmed in front of an audience who will pay a reduced price for those shows.

Jumping from FringeNYC to Off-Broadway THE NEW HOPEVILLE COMICS Begins March 10 at ATA

Jumping from FringeNYC to Off-Broadway THE NEW HOPEVILLE COMICS Begins March 10 at ATA.

Commander Squish Productions will present the Off-Broadway premiere of THE NEW HOPEVILLE COMICS beginning previews March 10 at American Theater of Actors. A hit at the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival, this new musical features music and lyrics by Nate Weida and a book co-written by Weida and Sarah Donnell. Jim Wren directs a cast that features an ensemble of 20 actors backed by a 5 piece rock band. Casting will be announced shortly. Opening night is slated for Saturday, March 14.

Theater Review: Around the World in 80 Days - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Around the World in 80 Days - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Live theater's unique ability to put over elaborate romantic epics with a few frantically doubling thesps and a dollop of imagination is the major selling point of "Around the World in 80 Days" at the Laguna Playhouse. Inspired by a "steampunk" fusion of techno and Victoriana, helmer Michael Butler's production, by way of Walnut Creek's Center REP and Laguna co-producer San Jose Rep, isn't the most seamless or sophisticated example of story theater. But it's attractive and diverting, certainly a swell introduction to the form for kids.

Theater Reviews - Under the Radar Festival - Under the Radar Festival at the Public Theater - ‘County of Kings - The Beautiful Struggle,’ ‘England,’ ‘First Love,’ ‘Transition,’ ‘Pataphysics Penyeach’ - NYTimes.com

Theater Reviews - Under the Radar Festival - Under the Radar Festival at the Public Theater - ‘County of Kings - The Beautiful Struggle,’ ‘England,’ ‘First Love,’ ‘Transition,’ ‘Pataphysics Penyeach’ - NYTimes.com.

“A thugged-up Campbell’s Soup kid” is how one of his former girlfriends described Lemon Andersen as a cocky teenager. The tag still fits the arrestingly paradoxical presence of this performance artist, whose “County of Kings: The Beautiful Struggle” is part of the Public Theater’s Under the Radar festival. Mr. Andersen — an alumnus of the youthful, adrenaline-charged rhyme fest “Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway” (2002) — retains the air of a choirboy with a shiv in his robe, forever putting the world on notice that he’s way tougher than his cherubic face suggests.

Arts, Briefly - James Gandolfini Is Broadway Bound - NYTimes.com

Arts, Briefly - James Gandolfini Is Broadway Bound - NYTimes.com.

Tony Soprano was a father who would go to any length to protect his kids. Now James Gandolfini, with “The Sopranos” behind him, will be looking out for the son of his character as two sets of parents square off over a playground altercation in Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage,” which is to begin previews at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater on Feb. 28 and open March 22. Mr. Gandolfini, above right, is in fine company: Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden also star in the play by Ms. Reza, the Tony-winning author of “Art.” The translation from French is by Christopher Hampton; Matthew Warchus is directing. ... Kristin Chenoweth (“Wicked”) is replacing Marin Mazzie in the cast of Kern and Hammerstein’s “Music in the Air,” the second Encores! production of the New York City Center season. Ms. Mazzie left the show because of the death of her father. The production is to run for five performances from Feb. 5 through Feb. 8.