Sending a Message: From The Band’s Visit to Jerry Springer: The Opera By Barbara & Scott Siegel There is a famous quote, usually attributed to the famous Hollywood film director Frank Capra, who said, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.”...
The Siegel Column – Money...
Let’s talk about Money and SpongeBob Squarepants By Barbara & Scott Siegel If talent is the lifeblood of the theater, then money is at the heart of it all, because cash is what pumps talent into a show. What prompts this particular discussion is the rather surprising...
54 Sings Broadway’s Greatest...
by: Matt Smith As we all know, the late, great Irving Berlin once wrote, “There’s no business like show business.” While it may be argued that no one knows that statement better than him, there’s certainly no doubt Scott Siegel comes in a close...
The Siegel Column – A Look...
Songbook Summit, Charolais, Van Gogh’s Ear, and Prince of Broadway By Barbara & Scott Siegel In a new season that is, so far, more noteworthy for what is closing rather than for what is opening, we look to the mostly rare and unusual shows that have...
The Siegel Column – Some of...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel In recent years it seemed that the Summer was no less frantic in terms of theatrical openings than any other time of the year except right before the Tony cut-off. This season, however, it appears to have slowed down quite a bit. Some...
The Siegel Column – Tony...
Some Tony Talk Plus A Look at The Inspector General Come From Away (Jenn Colella) Photo: Matthew Murphy By Barbara & Scott Siegel The last thing you want to read is yet another column of Tony predictions by people who are no better at guessing than you are. So,...
The Siegel Column:What’s Going on...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel We’re now in that time period when it seems like almost everyone is obsessed with all the new Broadway shows that opened just in time to get in under the wire for the Tony cut-off date. But in the mad scramble for attention,...
The Siegel Column on Christy...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel This Season’s Breakout Star Discovery… Not every season boasts a breakout star, but when it happens, there is never any doubt about it. Watching Christy Altomare, who plays the title character in the big budget Broadway musical, Anastasia,...
The Siegel Column –...
A Welcome New Trend on Broadway: Homegrown Stars! By Barbara & Scott Siegel It wasn’t long ago when it was much remarked upon that the musical Memphis had become a hit Broadway show without using either TV or movie stars as its leads. When the show...
The Siegel Column: Off Broadway...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel At the elegantly produced Lortel Awards on Sunday night, it was noted that two of the four Broadway musicals competing for Outstanding Musical Tony Awards this season, and three of the four Broadway plays competing for Outstanding Play Tony...
The Siegel Column – Foaming...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Some Things You Should Know About This Theater Award Season… The crazy theater awards game of who was snubbed and what was over-praised is now in full swing after the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Tony Awards have announced their...
Scott Siegel Presents…15th...
By Elizabeth Ahlfors Those of us who remember going to a Broadway musical back in the good old days know that singers like John Raitt and Patricia Morison performed without amplification. Their pure voices reached the back of the house. Scott Siegel’s annual...
The Siegel Column – Indecent...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel In 1964 Fiddler on the Roof opened the floodgates for Jewish related fare on Broadway. It’s not that there weren’t Jewish plays and musicals on Broadway before – consider shows as specific as Bagels & Yox (1951) and Milk and Honey (1961), but...
The Siegel Column – The...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Theatrical Elite: Patti LuPone, Christine Ebersole, John Leguizamo, Harvey Fierstein, Kevin Kline…They’re Back! As we head toward the end of the 2016-17 theater season, never quite knowing if the waterfall of openings both on and Off...
The Siegel Column – The...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel The power of expectations: Church & State and The Glass Menagerie The way we react to a play depends a great deal upon our expectations. Lower the bar enough and a show can seem great compared to what you expected when the curtain...
The Siegel Column Talks Jack...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel The Most Talented and Consistently Innovative, and Entertaining Director Working Off-Broadway: Jack Cummings, III Play after play, and season after season, when you step back and look at the Off Broadway shows that receive critical...
The Siegel Column – Public...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Sweat Might Give The Public Theater the Tony Trifecta Back in the day, The Public Theater earned its place in the theatrical mainstream when, in 1968, Hair made its way from its downtown stage to Broadway. That could’ve been considered a...
The Siegel Column – When...
When Truth Enhances Fiction: Theater Based on True Stories… By Barbara & Scott Siegel If the true story upon which the new Broadway musical Come From Away had been made up out of whole cloth, it would be consigned to the category of pure, wish-fulfilling...
The Siegel Column: Death in the...
Death in the Theater: Everybody & Wakey, Wakey By Barbara & Scott Siegel With the recent passing of the Signature Theatre’s James Houghton, the company he founded – and some of the people he left behind – have turned their artistic efforts...
The Siegel Column – The...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel For all its awards, glowing reviews, and standing ovations at night, the secret truth about The Object Lesson at New York Theatre Workshop is that it is slow, tedious, and boring. At 100 minutes, it feels like an endless,...
Siegel’s Broadway Originals...
by Matt Smith Scott Siegel has done it again! Last Saturday, the indefatigable host-with-the-most delivered his latest incarnation of Broadway Originals, his monthly bash wherein a variety of Broadway performers sing the hit songs they first made memorable, either...
The Siegel Column – New...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel The British called their working class theater “Kitchen Sink Drama.” One is tempted to call the new American play created by the Neo-Futurists, “Everything Except The Kitchen Sink Drama” because in a brisk 90 minutes of playful, often-times tongue-in-cheek...
The Siegel Column on Sutton Foster
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Sutton Foster: Musical Theater’s Most Versatile Star! First, let’s get this out of the way at the start: despite having gone to the West Coast to star on TV (most recently in the hit series, “Younger”), Sutton Foster has not...
The Siegel Column
The Responsibility of Theater in the Age of Trump By Barbara & Scott Siegel There is a long history of political theater here in New York. Think back to the 1930’s with commercial Broadway shows with political agendas (Of Thee I Sing), or 1940’s (South...
The Siegel Column Takes Notice of...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel She has a famous last name, courtesy of her grandfather, director Elia Kazan, but she is fast becoming famous in her own right because she is, without doubt, among her generation’s most talented young actresses. So far, she has...