Backstage

“Thanks to her beautifully buoyant, intoxicatingly sensual revival, I am a convert.”

“Thanks to the lazy writing and acting, Mengers goes missing.”

“Similarly, Shaw’s vocal mannerisms and dramatic use of physicality increasingly seem not only imposed and inorganic but also repetitive.”

“Obviously, those were patrons unconcerned with being in the dramatic moment, and that is undoubtedly the audience for ‘Jekyll & Hyde.’”

“‘Orphans’ remains as synthetic as ever, only now Tom Sturridge, Ben Foster, and Alec Baldwin do the bravura thesping.”

“Roundabout Theatre Company adds to Broadway’s Clifford Odets renaissance with the first Main Stem revival of his 1949 drama about Hollywood, “The Big Knife.”

“I spent most of ‘The Nance’ fascinated by the subject matter but frustrated by Beane’s execution.”

“There’s no use putting up a fight with ‘Kinky Boots.’ This is the feel-good musical of the season. Yes, Harvey Fierstein’s funny book is a bit too bald, Cyndi Lauper’s catchy songs are more lyrically repetitive than they should be, and director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell slights character and story in favor of splashy production numbers.”

“The tuner coarsens its self-effacing, quietly observant source with cheesy soap-opera backstories, forced Lifetime-movie subplotting, and self-righteous hot-button-issue pressing in an obviously manipulative attempt to stir our emotions.”

“Capote’s wispy memory tale, told principally in carefully carved prose, may be hypnotic on the page, but it’s dull onstage, with too much narration and not enough drama.”

“Both breathtakingly funny and quietly poignant, this Chekhov-inspired work—for which knowledge of the Russian master’s plays is not a requirement—is pure joy from start to finish.”

“Taylor lays her out there, warts and all, with relish and consummate skill.”

“Johansson's mangled rhythms and self-consciously thick Southern accent frequently impede clarity, and the actor is never able to show us Maggie's shifting strategies for achieving her goal.”

“Coarse, excessively anxious for laughs, and deficient in the repression rampant in 1950s small-town Kansas, the production strands its 12 actors in several very different plays.”

“Bold, unflinching, and ingeniously constructed, this is a show not to be missed.”

“In Daniel Sullivan’s unevenly directed production, Pacino entertainingly holds the stage, winning laugh after laugh, but he makes a miscalculation fatal to the play’s core.”

“‘Golden Boy’ is grand and glorious theater.”

“Mamet certainly believes in punishing his audience.”

“Unfortunately, Carmello’s miracle work doesn’t extend to Gifford’s flimsy, expository musical, which features uncertain direction by David Armstrong.”

“I can come up with no other excuse for the presence of David West Read’s purported comedy about the adult-film industry, ‘The Performers,’ at the Longacre Theatre.”

“Alas, the show still makes my teeth hurt.”

“I would urge everyone to check out Roundabout Theatre Company's thoughtful, committed production.”

“Nobody escapes ‘Chaplin’ unscathed.”

“The show would probably feel more at home at Madison Square Garden than on the stage of the St. James Theatre.”

“The highlight of the evening is an exhilarating challenge sequence, with each member of the chorus delivering a stunning solo.”

“He is so convincing in his give-and-take with Harvey that we almost begin to see the mischievous sprite.”

“Unfortunately, most of the company in 'Dinner' seems mainly interested in grabbing laughs rather than following objectives.”

“You know you're in trouble at 'Leap of Faith' even before the show starts, when actors pretending to be revivalists distribute what are supposed to be dollar bills to the audience, so we will have something to put in the collection basket when it's passed.”

“John Lithgow delivers a riveting turn in the title role of this crackling entertainment.”

“Warchus has turned a touching silver-screen love story into an overly flashy showbiz musical that betrays the intimacy of its source.”

“The result is embarrassing and sad.”

“I'm happy to report that ‘Peter’ has not given up a speck of its fairy dust–infused whimsy.”

“You'll likely applaud much more than that in Wilson's grandly satisfying revival.”

“McAnuff deserves credit for an admirable job of pacing—the show flies by at a little less than two hours—and a talented cast displays an array of powerful rock voices.”

“It's hard to imagine anyone but Kathleen Chalfant as the overbearing but brilliant Dr. Vivian Bearing.”

“This cute update of Aristophanes' classic comedy worked quite well at the gym at Judson Memorial Church.”

“I can't call Lydia R. Diamond's 'Stick Fly' a good play, not with its penchant for overripe secrets, melodramatic revelations, and lazy plotting.”

“Whatever made Bonnie and Clyde special is missing from this sentimental musical, as are sufficient character development, adequate dramatic thrust, and any kind of subtext.”

“I once saw a "Blithe Spirit" directed by Harold Pinter for London's National Theatre in which virtually every laugh was killed by Pinter's apparent desire to explore the dark underbelly of Noël Coward's frothy comedy. Director Richard Eyre hasn't gone quite that far with "Private Lives.”

“Arianda remains the engine that drives this intermissionless thrill ride, revving on all cylinders as she progresses from desperate actor to imperious seductress to all-powerful goddess.”

“When the cast hauls out the glitter cannons at the end of the first act, you know they're trying too hard.”

“First the good news: Woody Allen is as funny as ever. His one-act play ‘Honeymoon Motel,’ the capper on an evening of three short works collectively titled ‘Relatively Speaking,’ has so many laughs packed into its 60-minute running time that audiences had better make sure their health insurance is paid up.”

“This American incarnation is so broadly acted by Angela Bassett and directed by Tony nominee Kenny Leon that it reduces its complex subject to simplistic sitcom material.”

“For those well-acquainted with the work, the result is a cruelly tantalizing miss.”

“Finally where it belongs, on Broadway, it can be seen now for the towering American tragedy that it is, as essential to our culture as ‘Long Day's Journey Into Night’ or ‘Death of a Salesman.’”

“Arianda triumphantly makes the role her own, with perhaps just a gallant nod to Holliday's indelible performance, in director Doug Hughes' loving and intelligent revival at the Cort Theatre.”

“I don't think my problem with 'Jerusalem' is that I don't get it. I just don't buy it.”

“Hilferty's splashy Wonderland duds do create an arresting visual picture of a beguiling alternative universe, but when you go out humming the costumes, it's a sure sign of a failed production.”

“Under Jack O'Brien's impersonal direction, the talented cast works hard to make an impression.”

“The answer is a resounding yes.”

“It may be Stoppard's best play, and even an indistinct production can't subdue its poignancy and wisdom.”

“Renée Elise Goldsberry is best when scrambling to avoid the inadvertent cultural condescension this highly educated daughter of an African-American doctor keeps stumbling into with Margaret.”

“There are pleasures to be had, of course, and it's always instructive to watch the work of such consummate actors.”

“In its transfer to Broadway, 'Andrew Jackson' has gotten even wilder since its incarnations at Off-Broadway's Public Theater last season. This raucous combination political cartoon, rock concert, and extended 'Saturday Night Live' sketch now fills the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre with irreverent wit, in-your-face satire, and lots of sweaty sex appeal.”

“‘A Life in the Theatre’ is a rarity among David Mamet’s works. Rather than the usual corrosive vitriol against venal real-estate salesmen, corrupt politicians, racist lawyers, or profit-mad Hollywood types, this two-hander is a sweet valentine to the theater.”

“Whatever it lacks in technique it more than makes up for in expression.”

“Work as imaginative and wholly successful as ‘Brief Encounter’ doesn't come along every day.”

“We can use one more theatrical autobiography if it's as funny, quirky, and offbeat as Sherie Rene Scott's 'Everyday Rapture.'”

“Lavin is the raison d'être for the play's Broadway debut, an offering from Manhattan Theatre Club, which also presented the first New York outing. While director Lynne Meadow has not found anything new in the play—her production is quite close to the previous two—set designer Santo Loquasto's Greenwich Village apartment set is more spacious.”

“It's a deeply moving, hugely satisfying evening of theater.”

“A 1997. Encores! concert managed to unearth charms in the problematic material. No such miracle is occurring at the Broadway Theatre.”

“The resulting show is wise, warm, witty, and entirely wonderful.”

“Terry Johnson's London staging and its Olivier Award-winning star, Douglas Hodge, inject this 1983. Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical with ingenious razzmatazz and a heartbreaking humanity that its immediate predecessor lacked.”

“But if wisecracks are the highlight, you might as well put on a one-woman musical—as Tovah Feldshuh and Helen Gallagher have done—instead of a play, which requires sound structure and character development.”

“You should never stage ‘The Miracle Worker’ in the round.”

“Now Liev Schreiber, one of the few American star-level actors to return to the stage on a regular basis, sinks his teeth into this meaty steak of a character and has a regular feast.”

“There's an electrifying finale to 'Proud Mary' that will surely inspire you to cash in the coupon for a free ballroom dance lesson that a local dance studio is distributing outside the theater.”

“It's manufactured rather than inspired and so is much of what passes for fun in the show.”

“Despite the basic proficiency of the staging, it all feels too safe.”

“With Impressionism , 100 intermissionless minutes seem like endless hours.”

“‘Lombardi’ may bring a whole new audience of sports fans to Broadway, but theater fans will recognize it as an incomplete pass.”

“Surprisingly, Ephron seems more taken with the milieu than the man, who comes across as a rather standard-issue every-guy-for-himself narcissist.”

“Though director Thomas Kail tries to re-create the adrenaline rush of a basketball game onstage, his trite devices, coupled with Eric Simonson’s flat script, can’t deliver the same energy as a Final Four playoff. [...] The supporting cast—Deirdre O’Connell, Peter Scolari, Francois Battiste, and Robe...”

“Though the first few rounds are a trifle sluggish, the Donmar Warehouse production of Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart builds into a thrilling bout between battling royalty.”

“It's built to dazzle, and it does.”

“When the curtain call is the most exciting part of a show, it's definitely a problem.”

“If you prefer a well-written story with multidimensional characters that digs beneath the surface and uses song with dramatic acumen, then steer clear.”

“Nevertheless, the show still fails to persuade.”

“The Music Box management should be required to install restraints for the seats, as you're likely to be falling out of yours from laughing so hard.”

“There's barely a cliché left unturned in John Logan's 'Red,' a two-hander about the late-in-life creative struggles of artist Mark Rothko, arriving direct from London's Donmar Warehouse.”

“The humor level is so low and the characters so broad that interest in the story is lost after the first 20 minutes.”

“A ramshackle yet agreeable film comedy with plausibility issues has here become an even more ramshackle and outlandish musical comedy that consistently diminishes its source.”

“Unfortunately, what emerges is a thinly written, awkwardly constructed melodrama.”

“Fortunately, he says it through the interactions of interesting, well-written characters dramatized with wit, insight, and boundless affection.”

“Cromer leans too far toward the latter and misses the laughs.”

“Highly stylized and sleekly staged, this is probably the funniest and sharpest production of the comedy, a favorite on regional and community stages, I've ever seen.”

“‘The Trip to Bountiful’ is an American treasure, and Wilson and his wonderful company show us why in this not-to-be-missed production.”

“Will enough Broadway theatergoers pay more than $100 to laugh at themselves?”

“His vivid performance is rigorously honest, with a breathtaking emotional transparency.”