Standing Room Only

April 11, 2022 What a quandary! There was a new show to review, but it was opening night for my favorite baseball team. Which one should I choose? The theater won this time. A timely revival of Richard Geenberg’s insightful play, Take Me Out deals with all the current issues – discrimination, homosexuality, bigotry and […]

March 9, 2022 When was the last time you smiled for two hours? Were you wearing a mask? Under their masks, audiences at the Winter Garden Theater are grinning broadly eight times a week. Despite any criticism you’ve heard about the lack of innovation or creativity in the latest version of “The Music Man,” this […]

February 25, 2022 For many audiences, Phylicia Rashad will always be the elegant unflappable TV wife/mother/lawyer in The Cosby Show. She came into their homes every Thursday like a welcome friend. After the conclusion of her television stint, Rashad went on to appear in several Broadway productions, including Cat a Hot Tin Roof and Raisin […]

February 17, 2022 Lynn Nottage must be the hardest-working playwright in New York, having written three shows for the Fall 2022 season. First was Clyde, a terrific show about ex-convicts and second chances. Due to covid and despite great reviews, the play closed early. Nottage wrote the script for the new musical MJ,the show about […]

February 2022 A viewer should be prepared for intense theater when attending a Eugene O’Neill play. If the show is “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” she should be ready for a lengthy assault on her emotions. The original show ran close to four hours and had three intermissions. A trimmer version, pared down to an […]

When we see married actor couples working together on stage, we feel a special connection. It’s as if we are in on the joke. We expect chemistry and smile when they kiss and caress because we believe the gestures are honest. It’s even more satisfying when the couple is one we’ve known forever. This season […]

January 27, 2022 It’s been almost 25 years since the 1997 release of the first Harry Potter book. Its young readers have grown up, gotten jobs and now have families of their own. Do the Harry Potter characters, Harry, Hermione and Ron’s lives mirror their own? Considered the 8th book in the HP series, “Harry […]

September 28, 2021 Language plays a significant role in “Pass Over,” the play by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu, whether through repetition, ambiguity or cultural references. It begins with the title referring to Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Most of the action occurs in both the present and future in an inner city ghetto. But […]

October 8, 2021 To many, “Six the Musical” was the show that was mere hours away from opening night when Broadway shut down in March 2020. A smash hit in London’s West End, the show had already created buzz and excitement and was sure to win fans in the US. But then – silence. Except […]

October 19, 2021 Ruben Santiago-Hudson was raised by his grandmother. So he did what any talented theater person would do-he wrote a play about her! “Lackawanna Blues” is Santiago-Hudson’s paean to his grandmother, Rachel Crosby. She was Nanny to him but to the many people she fed, supported, encouraged and defended, she was affectionately known […]