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 slightly frustrating...

  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...

  by Brian Scott Lipton   Jump on or stay off – that’s the question for theatergoers considering attending the latest revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 1945 musical warhorse “Carousel,” which currently beckons at the Imperial Theatre. So, here’s the quickish answer: Those...

  by Brian Scott Lipton   Four decades after bursting onto the music scene, the British band Queen is definitely having an American renaissance. A number of their biggest hits, including “You’re My Best Friend,” can be heard on various TV commercials, the band (with vocalist Adam...

    By Brian Scott Lipton     The leading provocateur of his generation, playwright Bruce Norris (best known for “Clybourne Park”) has never been afraid to look his audiences in the proverbial eye and tell them the truth about their worst qualities –while also allowing...

  By Brian Scott Lipton   It will cost you much more than a quarter to catch Desmond Child’s thrilling, self-described “musical jukebox” at Feinstein’s/54 Below, but I heartily recommend breaking the piggy bank in order to witness both over 40 years of rock ‘n roll history and...

  NOW EXTENDED THRU MARCH 25!   By Brian Scott Lipton     Every theater critic (and fan) wishes they owned a time capsule to go view legendary moments in theatrical history, from Ethel Merman in “Annie Get Your Gun” to Laurette Taylor in “The Glass Menagerie.” Personally,...

  By Brian Scott Lipton   I imagine every Encores! subscriber –or musical theatre aficionado – had their own personal choice of show with which to open the beloved City Center series’ 25th anniversary season. Well, artistic director Jack Viertel had an entirely different solution in...

    by Brian Scott Lipton   There can be little argument that Isobel Mahon’s “Party Face,” now at New York City Center Stage II, plays out more like a very special episode of some TV sitcom than any sort of truly illuminating family drama. (Perhaps that’s not altogether...

  By Brian Scott Lipton   New York has so many ways to get you in the holiday spirit – the tree at Rockefeller Center, skating in Central Park, the store windows at Barneys ­– that “Home for the Holidays,” the Vegas-style revue of Christmas music at the August Wilson Theatre,...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   One must give kudos to the New York Pops for devoting an entire evening celebrating the work of female composers and lyricists, as they did on Friday, November 17, in their “Women of Notes” concert at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium,conducted by...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   Barring a quickly written biodrama about Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey, there will be no more topical play on stage this month than Actually, Anna Ziegler’s bracing two-hander about date rape on a college campus. Or make that possible date rape....

  By Brian Scott Lipton   With its now-prescient take on presidential politics, including plotlines involving beauty pageants, foreign collusion and impeachment – it’s almost shocking no one has revived the 1931 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Of Thee I Sing” this season. So one is...

      By Brian Scott Lipton   The rather ramshackle new jukebox musical, “Red Roses, Green Gold,” now at the Minetta Lane Theatre, inadvertently poses a rather thorny question: Who is this show really going to appeal to? Yes, it’s raison d’etre is to present the music of...