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Musicals in London
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 out to be as joyous as promised. I sat in a gallery and it was… Continue reading
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Review: “PATRIOTS” by Peter Morgan
Writing from London … I wonder if Peter Morgan is familiar with a similarly titled play by Sidney Kingsley called The Patriots. In 1943, to remind America what we were fighting for during WWII, Kingsley wrote about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Though he was obviously on Jefferson’s side philosophically, Kingsley used… Continue reading
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Small-Town Drama
During lockdown, not being able to see plays, I read them. I made a particular project of plowing through the first ten years of Pulitzer Prize winners. What struck me about those ten is that there were two dominant themes – the economic and social subjugation of women, and the repressive nature of small towns.… Continue reading
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“The Doctor” – written and directed by Robert Icke
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 imperatives at every turn. Well, whenever you introduce a character so full of certitude, you… Continue reading
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“Days of Wine and Roses”
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 music and art, and musicals like Guys and Dolls, Bells Are Ringing and The Music… Continue reading
Broadway, film adaptation, Golden Age of Television, movies, musicals, New York, off-Broadway, playwriting, television, theater12 Angry Men, 1950s, Adam Guettal, Atlantic Theater, Blake Edwards, Cliff Robertson, Craig Lucas, Criterion, Executive Suite, Fred Coe, Jack Lemmon, John Frankenheimer, JP Miller, Judgment at Nuremberg, Lee Remick, Leonard Bernstein, Mad Men, Marty, Michael Greif, Patterns, Philco Playhouse, Piper Laurie, Playhouse 90, Requiem for a Heavyweight, The, The Apartment, The Trip to Bountiful, United States Steel Hour, Westinghouse Studio One -
Jamie Lloyd Reminds Us of Some Essentials
A New York Post writer named John Oleksinski recently wrote an article in which he chided Broadway producers for productions that charge big money but offer skimpy production values. Oleksinski claims that chintziness in scenery is based in a desire to cut budgets. If you go to Broadway (or any theater) for the fun of… Continue reading
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Homeless, Lizzie Borden and Three Plays With Brooklyn Connections
A few days ago, as I was leaving the Upper West Side building where my wife and I live, I ran into one of our neighbors, a former state Supreme Court judge. She knows I’m a playwright and a theater journalist and she wanted my take on a play. A minute or two later we… Continue reading
A Doll's House, A Raisin in the Sun, Alexander Zelden, Anne Kauffman, August Wilson, Becomes a Woman, Betty Smith, Brooklyn, Crumbs From the Table of Joy, David Mamet, Eric Tucker, Fall River Fishing, Frederick Wiseman, Herman D. Farrell III, Jamie Lloyd, L:loyd Richards, Lorraine Hansberry, Love, Lynn Nottage, Mint Theater, National Theater of Great Britain, Oscar Isaac, Rachel Brosnahan, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window -
Shakespeare as Springboard
“Shakespeare lied.When Juliet died,Romeo didn’t take poison just because he’d lost his bride.What did he do?He got over it.He went back to junior high, and he got over it.And so will you.You’ll get over it.” A lyric by Carolyn Leigh from the musical How Now Dow Jones (with music by Elmer Bernstein) suggesting a different… Continue reading
AR Gurney, Bedlam Theater, Chimes at Midnight, Eric Tucker, Falstaff, Fat Ham, Hamlet, Henry IV, How Now Dow Jones, James Ijames, Jay O. Sanders, Keith Baxter, King Lear, Lanford Wilson, Love and Let Love, Margaret Thatcher, Merchant of Venice, Moira Buffini, Orson welles, Peter Ustinov, Queen Elizabeth II, Saint Flashlight, Shakespeare, The Will of the City, Theatre for a New Audience, Tom Stoppard, Twelfth Night, Your Own Thing -
“The Far Country,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and Revues
I should declare a conflict of interest. Lloyd Suh is a former student of mine. I have no idea what, if anything, he got from our classes a couple of decades ago at the New School, but he made a vivid impression on me at the time and I have followed his work with particular… Continue reading
Adolph Green, Atlantic Theater, Betty Comden, Daniel Radcliffe, Dramatists Guild, Eric Ting, George Furth, George S. Kaufman, Hal Prince, Hello Dolly!, Jerry Herman, John F. Kennedy, Jonathan Groff, Lee S.Wilkof, Lindsay Mendez, Lloyd Suh, Milk and Honey, Moss Hart, New York Theater Workshop, Roger Ailses, Stephen Rosenfeld, Stephen Sondheim, The Far Country
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Jeffrey Sweet--Making the Scene 