THE LIFE OF PI Based on the novel by Yann Martel Adaptation by Lolita Chakrabarti Direction by Max Webster Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer High seas adventure. Eastern culture. Puppet animals. Extravagant theatricality. Philosophy. Alternate realities. Hit British import. Based on an international bestseller that also spawned an internationally successful hit movie. …
SHUCKED Book by Robert Horn Music and Lyrics by Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally Directed by Jack O’Brien Nederlander Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer You’ll already have heard a lot of enthusiasm about Shucked, the countrified musical comedy at the Nederlander, and none of it is misleading. Despite the kind of cornpone ambience that …
A DOLL’S HOUSE by Henril Ibsen A new version by Amy Herzog Directed by Jamie Lloyd Starring Jessica Chastain Reviewed by David Spencer A famous dramatist or perhaps it was a novelist—it’s been decades since I first read the quote and I can’t remember to whom I should attribute it—said he thought that classic works should …
PARADE Book by Alfred Uhry Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown Co-conceived by Harold Prince Directed by Michael Arden Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer I’ve always kind of admired Parade—the construction of its libretto by Alfred Uhry, the inventive brilliance of its apt score by Jason Robert Brown—without being …
SMART by Mary Elizabeth Hamilton Directed by Matt Dickson Ensemble Studio Theatre Reviewed by David Spencer Smart is being presented as a play about the part that technology can play as a balance-changing component in contemporary relationships. In the abstract, not a bad premise; in reality: well, who among us has not been profoundly affected …
BAD CINDERELLA Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber Book by Emerald Fennell (Adaptation by Alexis Scheer) Lyrics by David Zippel Imperial Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer Bad Cinderella—Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest—is worse than you might imagine, even from the jokes about Bad having been added to its US title as a warning; and the …
