> For a new play, WAR HORSE has strong movie connections.  The play is adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford from the 1982 novel by Michael Morpurgo, and that novel is also the basis of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film, which will be in theatres for Christmas (the script for which is by Lee Hall […]

Even the acceptance speeches are classier on THE TONY AWARDS.  Tonight’s telecast featured a eloquent salute to “All those who say ‘Yes’” in the name of theatre from the lead producer of Best Play winner Clybourne Park, and a little later on, an anecdote from Best Musical winner Once‘s producer incorporating Harold Clurman and Constantin […]

> Although a great work of art is great forever, the relevance of a given piece to a current moment in time does tend to fluctuate.  It turns out that Arthur Miller’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN, written 63 years ago, is so remarkably attuned to this here and now that despite its period setting, it […]

> Buzz has it that Jon Robin Baitz’s play OTHER DESERT CITIES is one of the frontrunners for this year’s Best Play Tony Award, and it’s easy to see why. (Let’s leave aside the fact that so few new plays open on Broadway these days, whatever manages to stay open for more than a couple […]

> Once there was a time when Broadway musicals didn’t have to say anything about society, politics, art, literature, or really much of anything.  They were exercises in style, excuses for glamorous people to get up on stage in fancy costumes and sing tuneful, ingenious songs while dancing up a storm.  That’s the world of […]

>Steven Spielberg week on Broadway continues:  after War Horse, the director’s next film, we have CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, based on his 2002 comedy-drama (that film was written by Jeff Nathanson).   Spielberg’s movie may have been the sleekest entertainment of his career, a near-perfect piece of craft that boasted two great star performances from […]

> Despite the comparably dismal length of their Broadway runs, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG is an entirely different species of flop from Carrie. The latter was an intruder on the Great White Way from the start, the implausible musical version of a Stephen King novel and hit horror flick that mixed high school, pigs’ blood […]

> The Tony Awards aren’t quite like any other televised awards show.  They’re happily, unapologetically insular (and so are the ratings–thank god for CBS, where “young” audience is a relative term), and there’s hardly ever anything like an upset; this year the closest was probably Mark Rylance winning Best Actor In a Play for Jerusalem […]