by Brian Scott Lipton   Fifty years ago, The Beatles asked us if we wanted a revolution. In 1975, Michael Bennett delivered one to musical theater fans in the form of “A Chorus Line,” a seamless mixture of extraordinarily inventive dance, toe-tapping, brilliantly written...

    by Brian Scott Lipton   While much of the world sat glued to their TVs, waiting for one of the most important American stories of the past 20 years to unfold, lucky patrons at the Café Carlyle on Tuesday, November 6 (at least those who had the grace to put away their...

      By Brian Scott Lipton   As Joni Mitchell once famously sang, “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” Within mere seconds of her first appearance in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s Apologia, Stockard Channing reminds us how much we’ve missed witnessing her onstage...

  by Brian Scott Lipton     The world is full of natural, if not altogether obvious matches. (Think chocolate and peanut butter, perhaps.) Now, add to that list the great Irish playwright Conor McPherson and the singular American songwriter (and recent Nobel laureate) Bob...

    Review by Brian Scott Lipton   Put two women who have made TV audiences laugh out loud for years on a stage together and you can expect hilarity. Add in the fact that both have considerable singing chops and you can expect some musical magic as well. Put them on the stage...

  Review by Brian Scott Lipton     The cabaret world is chock full of great artists, but few measure up to Amanda McBroom. A California-based singer-songwriter whose compositions exhibit wit and wisdom (often in equal measure), McBroom can perform a tune she wrote 40 years ago...

    by Brian Scott Lipton   Blonde, beautiful and both possessed of stunning voices that soar to the heavens, Rebecca Luker and Sally Wilfert are almost a modern-day, grown-up version of the Doublemint Twins. And, indeed, there’s no denying these real-life besties will double...

    by Brian Scott Lipton     There are few more daunting theatrical challenges than making the familiar seem fresh, which is why one must salute solo performer Shane O’Regan’s ability to keep the audience so attentive throughout most of the 80 minutes of Private Peaceful,...

    By Brian Scott Lipton     For five decades, British pop icon David Bowie was one of the most prolific –and chameleonic – singers on the planet, changing his musical styles and physical appearance with unusual regularity. In the process, he maintained a consistently...

  by Brian Scott Lipton   It says something about Broadway star Jill Paice’s talent as an actress that I wasn’t completely sure if she was truly as nervous as she claimed making her solo cabaret debut at Feinstein’s/54 Below on Monday. However, it speaks more to Paice’s tremendous...

    By Brian Scott Lipton     Studs Terkel’s landmark book, “Working,” in which he interviewed dozens of people about the trials, tribulations and triumphs of their everyday jobs, remains one of the most important pieces of documentary literature ever penned. So it’s no...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   I’m not entirely sure what I find most confusing about This Ain’t No Disco, the extremely ambitious if hopelessly muddled rock opera now debuting at the Atlantic Theater Company: the show’s title (since much of the action takes place at the...

      EXTENDED THRU AUGUST 19!   by Brian Scott Lipton   Do we direct the course our own life or does life merely happen to us? That’s the major existential question faced by the title character of Mary Page Marlowe, Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts’ fascinating and...

  Carey Mulligan – Melissa Errico – Idina Menzel – Anika Noni Rose     by Brian Scott Lipton   Actresses may rightly complain that there are few great roles available to them in Hollywood, but they certainly can’t say the same about Off-Broadway, which is...

    By Brian Scott Lipton Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World has clearly amassed quite a following since its 1995 Off-Broadway premiere, or so it seemed given the hooting, hollering and visceral anticipation that preceded many of its numbers at Thursday night’s Encores! Off...

  by Brian Scott lipton   As Bob Dylan wrote over 50 years ago, the times they are a changin.’ If the first question you might have asked a gay person three decades ago was “Are you sick?,” the list has expanded considerably: “Are you married?,” “Do you have kids?,”“Do you still...

  by Brian Scott Lipton     One only has to watch the nightly TV news or read a newspaper to be aware of the plight of young black men in America being persecuted and even killed with alarming regularity by Caucasian policeman. While this unfortunate turn in American society...

    by Brian Scott Lipton   When did you first experience The Who’s “Tommy”? Did you run to your local record store in 1969 to be among the first to purchase this seminal concept album about a “deaf, dumb and blind boy” who becomes not only an international pinball...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   How do you solve a problem like “Measure for Measure?” Many directors have tackled William Shakespeare’s thorny play, but up until now, nobody but writers Peter Kellogg and David Friedman have been smart enough to lighten and simplify the plot, add...

  by Brian Scott Lipton   High expectations, tinged with just a little bit of dread and a pinch of skepticism, may be in the minds of many people as they enter the Booth Theater for the first-ever Broadway production of Mart Crowley’s landmark 1968 play “The Boys in the Band.” Will...

  By Brian Scott Lipton   Have you ever wondered (and I had) what would happen if the First Lady of Birdland paid homage to the First Lady of Song? That question was answered with resounding applause on Monday night as the room’s resident diva, Natalie Douglas, chose the late, great...

  by Brian Scott Lipton     Anyone who has ever made (or eaten) English trifle knows that you need the right ingredients, in the right proportion, or this singular dessert will taste too sweet, too gooey or too stale. The same recipe and care must be taken with musical English...

    by Brian Scott Lipton     “I am what I am, I am my own special creation,” six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald sang just seconds into her spectacular gala concert with the New York Philharmonic on Tuesday, and there can be little doubt (if there ever was) that...

  by Brian Scott Lipton   Partway through “Summer,” the new biomusical about the late disco queen Donna Summer at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, there’s a scene where the singer is given bad news and good news in that order. But I am going to do the reverse. First, “Summer” admittedly...

  By Brian Scott Lipton   If the great composer Leonard Bernstein was still alive today, he’d be just a few months shy of his 100thbirthday. And I have little doubt he’d still be tinkering with “Candide,” the gorgeous semi-operatic adaptation of Voltaire’s caustically satiric novel...