Friends Talking About Friends with New Friends A Conversation Series Review by Walter Murphy . . . . Friends talking about friends who have stayed friends for decades could easily become off-putting to casual listeners. Fortunately for the audience at Wednesday’s...

Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers and hot off the presses. Book Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . . 3rd edition: Carole King, A Natural Woman: A Memoir (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012). 488pp. It’s taken me a dozen years to...

Theater Review by Carol Rocamora . . . .  When was the last time you shed tears of joy upon seeing an elephant? It happened to me at last Wednesday's matinee when a life-sized one named Rosie appeared on Broadway.  Did I say Broadway? That’s right, I did—on...

Theater Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . . You might call it the Peter Principle. (No, not that one!) Teeth, the grisly new musical by Anna K. Jacobs and Michael R. Jackson at Playwrights Horizons, calls it “vagina dentata.” (Not to be confused with Hakuna Matata!)...

The Hummingbirds, Garret Jon Groenveld’s comedic drama that asks what meaningful work is within a dystopian society, is set for a limited engagement run April 3rd – 21st at The Chain Theatre, 312 West 36 Street. Directed by Kim T. Sharp, the production...

Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project is bringing you two live events to enjoy!  Please see details & links below: From Tin Pan Alley to the Harlem Renaissance Saturday, April 13th, 4-7 PM Bronx Music Hall, 438 E. 163rd St. Admission: $20 Celebrate the...

Jackie Draper/Beechman Theatre - Lorna Luft/54 Below - Quintin Harris/BirdlandJazz - Gotham Jazz Festival - Lea DeLaria/54 Below - Centennial Birthday Celebration Julie Wilson/Mabel Mercer Foundation - Becca Kidwell/DTM - Michael Ray Fisher/54 Below Gotham Jazz...

David Letterman/PACNYC - Philip Galinsky/31 Triggers - October 7/Actors Temple - Small Acts of Daring Invention/HERE - The Art of Life/Open Jar Studios - What Became of Us/Atlantic Theater Co - Lines/LaMaMa THE ART OF LIFE, a new play by Richie Abanes (original cast...

Academy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Ariana DeBose returns to host THE 77TH ANNUAL TONY AWARDS® for the third time, from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City on Sunday, June 16 (8:00-11:00 PM, LIVE ET/5:00-8:00...

Theater Review by Michael Dale . . . . As an actor, director, playwright, and teacher, Austin Pendleton’s sextet of decades as a mainstay of American theater, film, and television can certainly be summarized as no less than an extraordinary career. And yet, when I...

Theater Review by Carol Rocamora . . . .  The Notebook, a supremely sentimental new musical now on Broadway, might very well be upstaged this high-flying season by powerhouse productions like An Enemy of the People or the soon-to-arrive Cabaret. But it would be...

Broadway Celebrates Earth Day Concert - Epic Players/Spring Awakening - Extension of 20at20 Off Broadway - Tammy Faye/Palace Theatre - Sunset Blvd/St.James Theatre - Jennifer Hudson/Smash Producer The Off-Broadway Alliance announces the extended registration for the...

Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers and hot off the presses. Book Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . .  2nd edition: The Age and Stage of George L. Fox 1825-1877 (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1999; expanded ed.). 286pp. ...

Cabaret Review by Marilyn Lester . . . . Remember that 1984 hit film whose eponymous song had the call-and-response refrain: “Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!” Well, for aspiring cabaret performers, that “who ya gonna call?” can only also be answered by one...

Theater Review by Carol Rocamora . . . .  “Our town is sick . . . diseased . . . All our spiritual sources of life are poisoned, and our society is built on a heap of lies.” Sounds like a line from a new play about our ailing times, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t....

Theater Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . .  Like many reviewers, I’m always being asked what shows I’ve liked lately. Normally, my octogenarian brain is too crammed with recent shows to say at once what I really liked—or even what I really hated. However, I’m now...

Music review by Andrew Poretz . . . . When is the last time you saw an entire audience clapping, singing along and dancing to a 78-piece orchestra? The New York Pops orchestra has had some of the most thrilling seasons in its 41-year history under the direction of...

54 Below welcomes back star of stage and screen Tony Danza on May 28, 29, 31 & June 1 at 7pm. Tickets can be purchased at 54below.org/TonyDanza.  Tony Danza and his four-piece band return with his hit live show, Standards...

Honoring Stephen Sondheim’s birthday today March 22, 92NY re-released a 1971 audio recording of Sondheim on the closing night of the first Lyrics & Lyricists season – here’s a link. https://www.92ny.org/archives/ted-chapin-on-stephen-sondheim As it happens, today...

Music Review by Ron Fassler . . . . For more than a half-century, the husband and wife singing team of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé performed live the world over—producing best-selling albums together as well as separately—and recorded multiple singles and albums as...

Chavkin Way-Fabulation ReEducation of Undine-J2Spotlight Musical Theatre Season-Jennifer Roberts Loves Sheldon-Deborah & Joshua Zecher Ross-Best of Bway Flops-Origin 1st Irish 2024-Daryl Sherman Best Of Broadway Flops will be presented at 54 Below (254 W. 54 St)...

Theater Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . . Laurence Fishburne has been a TV, film, and TV presence for just about 50 of his vigorous 62 years. During that half-century of thespian activity, he’s accumulated acting chops that have gained him multiple awards and honors....

Cabaret Review by Ron Fassler . . . . Confession: I’ve been a fan of Leslie Uggams for more than sixty years, going back to when I first saw her on television as a small child. Of course, she was just a small child herself when she began in show business at age six...

Ben Platt will lend his vocals to an upcoming concert residency on Broadway this spring. The Tony Award-winning actor most recently seen onstage in “Parade” will offer audiences an 18-performance engagement at the newly refurbished Palace Theatre. Michael Arden, who...

Music Review by Marilyn Lester . . . . This year, 2024, marks the 125th birthday of one of America’s finest composers and musicians: pianist and band leader, Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington. For 100 of those years, The Duke Ellington Orchestra has been in continuous...

Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers and hot off the presses. Book Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . . Michael Meyer, Not Prince Hamlet: Literary and Theatrical Memoirs (London: Secker and Warburg, 1989). 292pp. Last year, after having...

Theater Review by Michael Dale . . . .  A 333-year-old woman and a pregnant robot walk into a studio apartment in Williamsburg . . .  While the initial premise behind playwright/director Micharne Cloughley’s 43 Stages of Grieving: A Comedy may seem a bit...

Theater Review by JK Clarke . . . . It seems oddly disconcerting this year that there are two significant Off-Broadway productions that confront eroding global standards of journalism. But the fact that both MCC’s excellent musical The Connector (which ended a...

Lempicka, the highly anticipated sweeping new musical portrait celebrating the gripping true story of renowned artist Tamara de Lempicka, released a new portrait of the principal company, ahead of the first preview on Tuesday evening Mar. 19th. The cast...