From the category archives:

Theatre

“Happy Birthday, Robert!”: Stephen Sondheim’s Company

June 17, 2011
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Two months ago, in April, I was ecstatic to learn that Neil Patrick Harris would be playing Bobby in a gala concert production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, with music performed by the New York Philharmonic. What most people don’t realize about Neil Patrick Harris is what a brilliant stage actor he is, on a level [...]

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“We All Fall Down”: The Normal Heart on Broadway

April 28, 2011
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The new revival of The Normal Heart might be the most important production Broadway has seen in years. Penned by playwright and LGBT rights activist, Larry Kramer, in 1985, when the show first opened at the famous Public Theatre, it is an intensely autobiographical work about living through the terrifyingly swift evolution of the HIV/AIDS crisis between [...]

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Heaven in a Handbag: The Importance of Being Earnest

April 9, 2011
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Throughout college, the majority of my coursework was in English Literature, and my Master’s Degree is in Theatre History and Criticism, so, naturally, I’ve had a great deal of exposure to Oscar Wilde (no pun intended, though I’m sure he’d appreciate the double entendre), and to The Importance of Being Earnest, in particular. Up until [...]

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“Colour My World”: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on Broadway

March 21, 2011
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Over the years, there have been many musicals that have been dubbed “the gayest thing ever on Broadway.” Shows like Xanadu, Legally Blonde, and Mamma Mia! have surely all been described thusly at one point or another, because they appeal directly to a gay sensibility and a gay audience, being bright, shiny, cotton-candy-colored, over-the-top musicals full [...]

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Spider-Senseless: Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

February 8, 2011
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I saw Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Julie Taymor and U2′s multimillion dollar musical of my favorite superhero, back in December, but didn’t feel it right to post a review until the show was in its completed form. Now that all major critics and their mothers have finally proclaimed their opinions, though, I felt I [...]

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“A Dream Within a Dream”: Nevermore

October 30, 2010
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What better tale to chill the soul and tingle the spine on Halloween than that of the man behind some of the eeriest, most horrifying tales to ever be transferred from quill to paper, Edgar Allan Poe?  This weekend and next at the New Victory Theatre on 42nd Street, New Yorkers have the unique opportunity [...]

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Beauty and the Fool: La Bete

October 20, 2010
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To be honest, the main reason my partner and I decided to attend the new Broadway production of David Hirson’s La Bete on the occasion of our third anniversary had very little to do with the play itself and more to do with its casting, and not only its casting in general but that of one [...]

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“Pas de Deux”: Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake

October 18, 2010
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A fairy tale prince stumbles upon a moonlit lake in the forest, where he finds a flock of swans, one of whom is revealed to be a beautiful princess, trapped in this form by a cruel wizard.  Or, at least, that is how the original version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, Swan Lake, goes.  Currently playing at [...]

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“Populism, Yea, Yea!”: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

October 14, 2010
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There has never been anything on Broadway quite like Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.  An outrageous meta-musical that doles out anachronistic gags and penis jokes with delightful aplomb, it is part historical pageant, part sketch comedy, part self-referential emo-rock opera complete with emo cutting and narcissistic self-pity, and clearly the Andrew Jacksoniest musical ever written.  At [...]

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Not Brief Enough: Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter

September 30, 2010
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As a fan of Noël Coward, I was extremely intrigued to see Emma Rice’s production of Brief Encounter (currently playing at Studio 54 in New York City, produced by Roundabout Theatre Company), a work with a rather interesting history.  It started off as a roughly-half-hour-length one-act play as part of Coward’s Tonight at 8:30 series, which [...]

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