Howard Shapiro

“In the new musical Chaplin, which is every bit as entertaining as Charlie Chaplin himself”

“It's good and often silly fun, greatly enriched by Parson's performance.”

“If the show offers any real revelation, it's that the playwriting does, too.”

“Straightforward is the way “The Columnist” goes, in Sullivan’s sure-footed direction, Auburn’s smooth narrative arc, and a sterling performance by John Lithgow, who makes a wonderfully nuanced Joseph Alsop.”

“In that case, I'll say, it's theater that really works.”

“Every detail in “Nice Work If You It” is finely tuned and beautifully turned out.”

“And there’s enough funny lashing to leave an audience happily smarting.”

“Whatever it is, I dare you to see it and not laugh out loud, a lot.”

“Adults will enjoy its complex theatricality... Kids will follow it for its bizarre and hammy characters and its constant sense of adventure.”

“Somewhere over the rainbow, Judy Garland never spotted her pot of gold. But a British actress named Tracie Bennett found hers - in the person of Judy. She is sensational in the erratic Broadway show End of the Rainbow, about Garland's last attempt at a comeback, which opened Monday night.”

“This big-star cast worth a wide shelf of past Tony and Emmy Awards deserves a worthwhile play - and they have one.”

“Newsies, which opened Thursday night on Broadway, is great fun, a rock-'em sock-'em American musical with all the trimmings, and an electrifying display that says, yes, formulas make sense when real artists make them work.”

“Not a bad suggestion for the audience, either.”

“Miller gives Death of a Salesman a muscular narrative arc, and this revival provides the intensity to flex it and strike.”

“For Nixon's part, she doesn't perform as much as live the character; you get the feeling they've imported her from a real hospital ward, where she has walked and lived the talk.”

“The delight in this production is that it seems to move along swiftly as something both new and old - taken on its own terms, as fresh as it is genuine.”

“Well, you get the picture, even if audiences may find it spotty.”

“Bonnie & Clyde is entangled in its own musical format, watering down the storytelling and, with it, the tension.”

“I can argue over the potential of Godspell to be a piece of compelling theater, in any setting. But I can't take issue with this particular staging, so richly realized.”

“Jon Robin Baitz has given them a terrific, insightful and often funny play, and they know just what to do with it.”

“It's all good fun and, in the end, not bad theology either.”

“Broadway's winning new Catch Me if You Can gives you lots of reasons to love the musical.”

“Ashford's meticulous production bulges with talent.”

“In that, The Book of Mormon is the ultimate feel-good musical, and Broadway's genuine paradox.”

“Leguizamo has an easy way with getting you involved in his life.”

“Spring Awakening — the breathtaking discussion of what it means to grow up — will become both a high mark of the season and a landmark musical.”