Standing Room Only

We grow up, seek partners and then we die. That’s the storyline of “Thornton Wilder’s Our Town”. There’s very little cutesy and kitschy about the play which begins in 1901 in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. So why has it become a classic? These are our lives on stage and although specific names and places may […]

Jez Butterworth’s latest play, “Hills of California” moves so smoothly that you are never aware of its 2 hours and 45 minutes running time. Arriving on Broadway after a successful London run, the drama is expertly directed by Sam Mendes. The play begins with Jill Webb (Helena Wilson) the one sister who remained at home.to […]

They say you can’t go home again. Yet in “Good Bones,” the new play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright James Ijames (“Fat Ham”) that’s what Aisha (Susan Kelechi Watson) is doing when she and her chef husband Travis (Mamoudou Athie) buy a home in the neighborhood where she grew up. The neighborhood is filled with […]

I’m a sucker for the Iron Man movies. I love Tony Stark who uses his wealth to combat crime and terrorism. Robert Downey, Jr plays Tony Stark aka Iron Man, and his role has won him a legion of fans. That was clear from the audience’s reception for him in his Broadway and LCT debut […]

It can’t be easy portraying a living person, and it must be even more daunting when the person you are playing is the person who wrote the play. Such is the task for Daniel Dae Kim, the good-looking Korean star of “The King and I,” and “Hawaii Five-O.” He portrays DHH (David Henry Hwang) in […]

This season Broadway is hoping to use star power to boost ticket sales. So popular movie and television performers are headlining new theatrical productions as well as revivals. Producers hope that fans will flock to the theaters attracted by proximity to their screen favorites. One of the first shows this fall using this approach is […]

They say you never forget your first time and one of the first shows I ever saw was “Once Upon a Mattress” starring comedienne Carol Burnett. It was unforgettable! Incomparable! For me, it was a wonderful introduction and the beginning of a lifelong love for theater. Now years later, after a successful run at New […]

Jane makes me uncomfortable. Maybe it’s her nervousness and twitching. Maybe it is the gun she is brandishing as the play JOB begins. According to Anton Chekhov, if a writer includes a gun in a story, it should be used later. Not sure if playwright Max Wolf Friedlich was thinking about that, but undoubtedly, the […]

Orthodox Jews won’t work on the Sabbath. Work includes simple tasks, such as turning on air conditioners and lights. Over the years they have enlisted the aid of a Shabbos Goy, a non-Jew who helps by performing some of these chores. Some famous people who have been Shabbos Goys include Barack Obama, Elvis Presley, and […]

What can the audience learn from the new production “Empire: The Musical” directed by Cady Huffman? The building was originally supposed to be named after former governor Alfred E. Smith. The then-tallest building was completed in only 410 days and opened on May 1, 1931. Six workers were killed during the construction of the building. […]