Category Archives: theater

Thoughts on Two Solo Shows

Posted on March 12, 2024 by dgsweet

Some years ago, a famous singer contacted me to explore the idea of my writing a solo show for her. We had a few pleasant meetings to talk about structure and tone and which out of her catalogue of songs … Continue reading →

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Review: “Brooklyn Laundry”

Posted on March 2, 2024 by dgsweet

I sometimes wish I knew less about how plays are built. I’ve been going to the theater regularly since my early teens and putting up plays professionally for more than 50 years, so the techniques and conventions of naturalistic dramatic … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on “Aristocrats” and “Appropriate”

Posted on February 27, 2024 by dgsweet

Brian Friel’s Aristocrats is set in Ireland and Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’s Appropriate is set in the American South, but they have similar things in mind. Aristocrats takes place in and near a crumbling Irish manor house. Appropriate takes place in a … Continue reading →

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Review: “Job”

Posted on January 24, 2024 by dgsweet

I’ve said it before, but what the hell: I think there is a difference between being a reviewer and being a critic. A reviewer is someone you check with to decide whether you want to see something. A critic is … Continue reading →

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The Buena Vista Social Club

Posted on January 8, 2024 by dgsweet

I would be delighted if someone with the wherewithal picked up The Buena Vista Social Club (currently running at the Atlantic) and brought it intact to Broadway. The show features a series of terrific musical numbers played by a large … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on MAESTRO

Posted on December 26, 2023 by dgsweet

One of the many posters on Facebook said he didn’t see where the drama was in Bradley Cooper’s film about Leonard Bernstein, Maestro. Here was an enormously successful and talented guy who had one artistic triumph after another who managed … Continue reading →

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Immmigrants

Posted on December 2, 2023 by dgsweet

It’s been a while since I’ve heard anybody use the term “the melting pot.” If I remember my high school history correctly, the idea was that people arriving in this country would bring with them the cultures they had left … Continue reading →

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Musicals in London

Posted on August 9, 2023 by dgsweet

I saw eight shows in London. I chose mostly productions I thought would be unlikely to move to New York, including three musicals. The immersive staging by Nicholas Hytner of the Broadway classic Guys and Dolls at the Bridge turned … Continue reading →

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“The Doctor” – written and directed by Robert Icke

Posted on July 9, 2023 by dgsweet

I do wish that Robert Icke the director had trusted Robert Icke the writer a bit more. Icke the writer has composed a script about a doctor named Ruth Wolff who strides through her life utterly certain of her ethical … Continue reading →

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“Days of Wine and Roses”

Posted on June 7, 2023 by dgsweet

Popular culture has stamped the Fifties in our minds with images of Elvis Presley, Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Mickey Mantle and Annette Funicello. The war was over, the economy was booming, bebop and abstract expressionism were bringing new ideas to … Continue reading →

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