As Vanya, Steve Carell, who’s been a low-level whiner for the first two Acts, suddenly gets so angry at his pompous-ass brother-in-law who’s been sponging off him for thirty years, that he pounces on top of the dinner table and slides the length of it on all fours.  Well,  I thought, that’s different. It was a rare moment of brash movement in the more usually sedate “Uncle Vanya” opening tonight at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, with a new translation by Heidi Schreck and a starry cast including Carell making his Broadway debut. This quirky moment, a depart ..read more

“Illinoise,” an exquisite stage interpretation of Sufjan Stevens’ acclaimed 2005 album “Illinois,” is opening on Broadway today just six weeks after it opened at the Park Avenue Armory, and my reaction to it then counts as ironic now. I said that regular New York theatergoers might need to adjust their expectations, for two reasons: 1.  It had already sold out its entire three-week run by the time my review was posted on opening night, and 2. It might be mistakenly assumed to be a Broadway musical in all but venue. But now it is literally a Broadway musical, the producers ..read more

“Dead Outlaw” leads the nominations for the 73rd annual Outer Critics Circle Awards, announced this by Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez. (video below) The winners will be announced May 13, with a private ceremony taking place May 23 at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Don’t know the difference between the Outer Critics Circle Awards and the New York Drama Circle Awards and the Drama Desk Awards? Check out my New York Theater Awards 2024: Calendar and Guide Complete list of nominations: O ..read more

“Very poppy,” a character says to Bobby (Corey Cott), the Leading Man, just after he’s performed “Do You Believe in Love,” one of more than two dozen songs from the 1980s band Huey Lewis and the News in this new jukebox musical opening tonight on Broadway. I knew “poppy” was meant as an insult only because the character saying it is the Villain, Tucker (Billy Harrigan Tighe), Bobby’s rival, the preppy ex-boyfriend of Cassandra (McKenzie Kurtz) who is the Leading Lady. It turns out poppy is fighting words to Huey Lewis cognoscenti. “We had a sound that no one else had,” the ..read more

Vladimir Putin was working as a taxi driver when he visited one of the richest and most powerful men in Russia to ask for a favor.  The previous month, Putin had lost his job as the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, and he wanted help in getting back into politics. “I am interested in liberalizing Russia. For too long we have defined ourselves as enemies of the West. We need to become close to the West.” That, anyway, is what Will Keen as Vladimir Putin says in “Patriots.” The play by Peter Morgan, the British writer probably best-known for “The Crown,” had a successful run in Lo ..read more

Below are the nominations for the 90th annual Drama League Awards, announced this morning (video below) by Vanessa Williams and Bebe Neuwirth. The awards will be held at The Ziegfeld Ballroom on Friday, May 17, 2024 at 12:00PM Don’t know the difference between the awards of the Drama League and the Drama Desk and the New York Drama Critics Circle? Read my New York Theater Awards 2024 Calendar and Guide OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY THE COMEUPPANCE  Signature Theatre  The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Directed by Eric T ..read more

Four musicals and a play that has a lot of original music in it, opened on Broadway this past week, and two plays opened Off Broadway. By the end of the day Thursday, which marks the official end of the Broadway season, SEVEN more Broadway shows will have opened. The Week in New York Theater Reviews Broadway openings, in order of my preference: Suffs   “Suffs,”  a show about the final seven-year push to win American women the right to vote, has been changed a lot since its Off-Broadway production two years ago. The show is more streamlined, more focused. At the sa ..read more

Orlando (Taylor Mac) has already been living an unusual life as a nobleman in Queen Elizabeth’s court when he suddenly becomes a woman. “Let biologists and psychologists argue. It is enough for us to state the simple fact: Orlando was a man till the age of thirty, when she became a woman and has remained so ever since.” So say members of the chorus in “Orlando,”  a stage adaptation by Sarah Ruhl of Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel, which is now being revived at Signature Theater, in what feels like the exact right time by the exact right cast. But the production doesn’t wind up feel ..read more

If so much of it weren’t so out of balance, this fourth Broadway revival of “Cabaret” would be impressive in its complete transformation of  Kander and Ebb’s great musical – physically, visually, and, in one respect, morally.  Much of the credit or blame  goes to Tom Scutt, who is the costume designer, scenic designer, and theater designer of the production, which was a hot ticket in London, and is opening tonight with a different cast except for Eddie Redmayne as the Master of Ceremonies. As costume designer, Scutt drapes Redmayne in a series of clownish outfits so ..read more

Alicia Keys’ lively, tuneful musical “Hell’s Kitchen” opens tonight at Broadway’s Shubert Theater, with the same principal cast and creative team as its brief sold-out run Off-Broadway at the Public Theater, which ended in January. There have been a few changes in the transfer, but it’s similar enough for me to resurrect my review from November, adding new photographs from the Broadway production, new videos and new information about venue, prices, and so forth: Shoshana Bean as Jersey and Maleah Joi Moon as her rebellious daughter Ali “Hell’s Kitchen” is not a musical biography of Alici ..read more