PART ONE: End-of-22/23-Season Tie-Up Reviewed by David Spencer This season has been such a personally busy time for me—family stuff (mostly positive, but complex); writing, completing, designing, revising a dream project book (publication imminent); and on the heels of that starting another dream project book—that I haven’t had time to review as much as I […]
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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
PICTURES FROM HOME by Sharr White based on the photo memoir by Larry Sultan Starring Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein and Zoë Wanamaker Directed by Bartlet Sher Studio 54 Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer Earlier this season, I saw, but was too over-extended to review, a play by Joseph Dougherty called Chester Bailey, at the Irish
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SOME LIKE IT HOT Book by Matthew López and Amber Ruffin Music by Marc Shaiman Lyrics by Shaiman & Scott Wittman Based on the screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond Directed by Casey Nicholaw Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer Billy Wilder’s film, Some Like It Hot, screenplay by him and longtime collaborator I.A.L.
A BRIGHT NEW BOISE by Samuel D. Hunter Directed by Oliver Butler Signature Theatre Reviewed by David Spencer A new employee is hired to be a cashier at an Idaho Hobby Lobby. For those who may only know that as the name of a national chain store not unlike Walmart, Hobby Lobby is famously a conservative
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THE WANDERERS by Anna Ziegler Directed by Barry Edelstein A Production of the Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels Theatre Reviewed by David Spencer Gosh, I’m not sure what to make of The Wanderers by Anna Ziegler, the Roundabout’s latest off-Broadway venture at their midtown Laura Pels space. A multi-generational story set in NYC, told
A BEAUTIFUL NOISE Music and Lyrics by Neil Diamond Book by Anthony McCarten Directed by Michael Mayer Broadhurst Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer A Beautiful Noise struck me as a kind of Merrily We Roll Along told forward, without the dramatic point. Well, forward from the vantage of a flashback. We start with Neil,
COLIN QUINN: SMALL TALK Written and Performed by Colin Quinn Directed by Bobby Moresco Returning March 30 Greenwich House Theater Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer I like Colin Quinn, I genuinely do. He’s a gifted performer, a smart, funny comedian, he holds an audience, he gets big laughs and he can sustain a themed set for
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Part I: DEATH OF A SALESMAN By Arthur Miller Directed by Miranda Cromwell Starring Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke Hudson Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer Where the classics are concerned, there’s legitimate reimagining through the prism of inclusion and diversity…and then there’s layer-adding and remonstration—most neutrally described as Theme-splaining. What
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Part II: A RAISIN IN THE SUN by Lorraine Hansberry Directed by Robert O’Hara Public Theater Reviewed by David Spencer When I attended the revival of A Raisin in the Sun at the Public, fairly late in its extended run, having avoided most of the publicity and press briefing info—I have no hard-and-fast rule about that,
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Part III: 1776 Book by Peter Stone Music, Lyrics and Conception by Sherman Edwards Directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus A Production of the Roundabout Theatre Company American Airlines Theatre Reviewed by David Spencer Presenting 1776 with an all-female cast is not a new idea. It’s not even, you should pardon the pun, a
Part B: & JULIET Book by David West Read Music and Lyrics by Max Martin Directed by Dominic Fallacaro Stephen Sondheim Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer More of the same to be found in & Juliet, in which, Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway (Betsy Wolfe), expressing dissatisfaction with the end of Romeo & Juliet, noodges
Part C: ALMOST FAMOUS Book by Cameron Crowe based upon his screenplay Music and Lyrics by Tom Kitt Directed by Jeremy Herrin Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer Almost Famous incurs my half-the-same show reaction in part because at least it’s not a tract. It’s about William Miller (Casey Likes), an
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TOPDOG/UNDERDOG by Suzan Lori-Parks Directed by Kenny Leon John Golden Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer There’s a lot of symbolism carried by Topdog/Underdog, an acclaimed play in an acclaimed revival at the John Golden theatre. Suzan Lori-Parks’ simple tale of two African-American brothers, in a one-room utility flat in an unidentified city. The
A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE Book by Terrence McNally Music by Stephen Flaherty Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens Based on the screenplay by Barry Develin Directed by John Doyle Classic Stage Company Reviewed by David Spencer I’m going to be cribbing from my original review of A Man of no Importance at Lincoln Center, 20 years
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REMEMBER THIS: THE LESSON OF JAN KARSKI by Clark Young and Derek Goldman Directed by Derek Goldman Starring David Strathairn Polonsky Shakespeare Center A Production of Theatre for a New City Reviewed by David Spencer To summarize the odyssey of Jan Karski is even more than his Wikipedia page can do, let alone this review,
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TWO JEWS TALKING by Ed. Weinberger Directed by Dan Wackerman Starring Hal Linden, Bernie Kopell and Tim Jerome Theatre at St. Clement’s Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer I am, at this point, perhaps not an old Jew, but a senior citizen Jew by a few years, and old enough to remember the kinds of
OUR MAN IN SANTIAGO by Mark Wilding Directed by Charlie Mount The AMT Theater Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer You kind of sense trouble from the title: Our Man in Santiago. The title is a riff on—no, that gives it too much credit—rather a way of capitalizing on (I bet you thought I was going
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KINKY BOOTS Book by Harvey Fierstein Music and Lyrics by Cyndi Lauper Based on a screenplay by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth Starring Callum Francis and Christian Douglas Directed and Choreographed by Jerry Mitchell Stage 42 Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer For all that Kinky Boots has returned as triumphantly as it left, seeming
THE KITE RUNNER Adapted by Matthew Spangler Based on the novel by Khalid Hosseini Directed by Giles Croft Starring Amir Arison Hayes Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer Received wisdom along The Street in the wake of some negative reviews (none of which I have read, as I start writing this review) is that The
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF by Tennessee Williams Directed by Joe Rosario Theatre at St Clements Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer Briefly taking a survey of my theatergoing past, I was surprised to realize how many times I’ve seen Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof…which, as I think about that further, means
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NOTRE DAME DE PARIS Book and lyrics by Luc Plamondon Music by Richard Cocciante Based on the novel by Victor Hugo Directed by Giles Maheu On Tour, See Official Website Original French Cast and Original Italian Cast on YouTube Reviewed by David Spencer Despite its just-completed two-week run at Lincoln Center, the reason to internet review
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INTO THE WOODS Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Book by James Lapine Directed by Lear deBessonet St. James Theatre Official Website Reviewed by David Spencer As I never tire of saying, every revival of a musical is a conversation with the original production. Sensibilities change over time and there’s always a negotiation—and often a war—between
