Music Review By Ron Fassler . . . It’s hard to believe that Kelli O’Hara, an ingenue’s ingenue if there ever was one, first made her Broadway debut close to twenty-five years ago. Since then, those fortunate enough to have seen her in a dozen Broadway appearances have...

Cabaret Review by Ron Fassler . . . All is right with the world when Marilyn Maye is in town and performing in a small room packed with her fans. And at ninety-six, she still has the charm and charisma to make new ones like the couple seated cozily next to...

Theater Review by Walter Murphy . . .  Shakespeare's Twelfth Night has been around for a bit, since 1604, so there is little more to be said about the text that hasn’t been picked over by countless academics. The recent production by the Axis Theatre Company,...

Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers, and hot off the presses. Book Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . Katie Gee Salisbury. Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong. (New York: Dutton, 2024). 460pp. 31st Edition....

Theatre Review by Ron Fassler . . .  Picture the surprise gasp from the audience as the curtain rose on Our Town at its premiere in 1938. The sight of there being no scenery must have shocking since . . . Oh, wait, back up. There was no curtain. These were only...

Theater review by Adam Cohen... “What are you going to see?” asks my daughter as I make my way towards Paper Mill Playhouse – a theater in Millburn, New Jersey she happens to love. “Jersey Boys.  A musical.” “What’s it about?” “A band of singers that made it...

Review by Marilyn Lester... Each year at the beginning of October, The New York Pops has a special cabaret at 54 Below to support the organization’s significant educational program, PopsEd. Launching the evening, a champagne reception featured serenading by the PopsEd...

Theater Review by Ron Fassler . . . David Cromer is one of the most in-demand directors in the theatre. With his choice of projects his for the asking, when a play arrives with his name attached you know, more often than not, it’s going to be a quality piece of...

Cabaret Review by Ron Fassler . . . When I was a boy interested in musicals, the scores Anthony Newley wrote (with Leslie Bricusse) for Stop the World I Want to Get Off and The Roar of the Greasepaint—The Smell of the Crowd were major favorites. It also didn’t hurt...

Broadway’s brightest stars are gathering for an unforgettable night to celebrate and raise funds to save The West Bank Cafe. On Tuesday, October 8th, the iconic restaurant and its famed downstairs venue, The Laurie Beechman Theatre, will host a glittering gala packed...

Theater Review by Ron Fassler . . . It’s big (well, not that big). It’s gay (it’s very gay). And if a log line like “Stacey woke up in some b*tch ass Music Man world where everybody keeps bursting into song & dance, and where gay...

Theater Review by Stuart Miller... In the middle of “Yellow Face,” David Henry Hwang’s funny but pointed look at ethnic identity and bias in America, the character of David Henry Hwang emphatically declares, “When you write an autobiographical play, no one uses their...

Theatre Review by Ron Fassler . . . If you like a play that starts slowly and takes its time setting up characters and the world in which they live, then builds inexorably to a quietly devastating finish, then The Hills of California is for you. If you lack...

Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers, and hot off the presses. Book Reviews by Samuel L. Leiter . . . Richard E. Grant. A Pocketful of Happiness: A Memoir. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2022). 324pp. 30th Edition. Not until I read his...

Theater Review by Carol Rocamora . . .  Ghosts can be scary. Ghosts can be troublemakers. Ghosts can be destructive. Witness the ones in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, or Ibsen’s Ghosts, or Brendon Jacobs Jenkins’ Appropriate, or James Ijames’s Fat Ham. But that last...

Theater Review by Carol Rocamora . . .  Jacob McNeal, celebrated American novelist and playwright, has a problem. He’s trying to kill himself. Wait a minute, you say to yourself at the onset of Ayad Akthar’s profound new play McNeal, currently having its world...

Producers Wessex Grove, Gavin Kalin Productions, and Kater Gordon announced today that the Olivier Award®-winning actor Andrew Scott will reprise his wildly acclaimed performance in Vanya, a radical new adaptation of Chekhov’s...

Here’s exciting news about new music releases from Jane Monheit, Allyson Briggs and CelloVoci. Jane Monheit Jazz and adult contemporary vocalist Jane Monheit’s new eponymous album, Jane Monheit, which will be released on CD and streaming and digital formats by Club44...

By Barbara & Scott Siegel... A Summer Sampling: Once Upon a Mattress, Job, Forbidden Broadway, and More! Before all hell breaks loose with a flood of new shows opening between October and Christmas, we thought we would share some thoughts with you on the shows...

Cabaret Review by Ron Fassler . . .  This past spring, song stylist Ann Kittredge released an album titled “Romantic Notions,” her musings on the theme of love covering more than a dozen popular hits. The range of her choices span a century of...

Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers, and hot off the presses. Book Reviews by Samuel L. Leiter . . . Alan Rickman. Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2022) 469pp. 29th Edition Diaries come in all...

Theater Review by Walter Murphy . . .  George Tabori’s The Goldberg-Variations shifts swiftly between light and dark, serious and comical, while diffusing tension and disappointment with humor. The tone of the play’s dichotomy is set from the start with the displayed...

Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, written by Jenny Lyn Bader and directed by Ari Laura Kreith, will play at 59E59 from October 18 to November 10. The show stars Ella Dershowitz, Drew Hirschfield, and Brett Temple. The drama, set in 1933 Berlin, is...

Theatre Review by Ron Fassler . .  . Conceived and directed by Stephen Sachs, Fatherland is a powerful verbatim play that is currently at New York City Center Stage II through November 23. If you’re not familiar with the term verbatim, it means exactly what...

Theater review by Carol Rocamora... Come down to La Mama in the East Village and you’ll see an amazing sight: a David facing a (metaphorical) Goliath, on a basketball court, in a theatre. The intrepid Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) is back in town, dazzling us with its...

Cabaret Review by Ron Fassler . . .  Cabaret regular Renee Katz is back with a new show at Don’t Tell Mama titled “Lost in His Arms.” It doesn’t take much of a sleuth to figure out this is an evening dedicated to Irving Berlin. As such...

Cabaret Review by Ron Fassler . . . I’ve never had the pleasure until the other night at 54 Below of seeing Cheyenne Jackson onstage. Well aware of his talents, and having seen him in such films as United 93 and on television in 30...

Theater Review by Walter Murphy with Catherine Kemm . . .  Every time I see a show I learn something. After seeing A Fairly Odd Musical! at the Jerry Orbach Theater I learned that there are a lot of cartoons featuring bald-headed babies and one doesn’t have to be a...

Music Review by Marilyn Lester... When the Wynton Marsalis-led Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) plays the Rose Theater stage, the venue becomes known as the House of Swing. That appellation was never so true as in the 24-25 Season-opening concert entitled Hot...