Kwaidan
Albert Simons Center, College of Charleston

 Normally, I despise puppets, marionettes, and their wooden brethren. But the artistry of director/adapter Ping Chong, production designer Mitsuru Ishii, and the puppeteers from the Center of Puppetry Arts is so exquisitely hypnotic, I surrendered to Chong's charms. And the trio of Japanese ghost stories adapted from the 1904 work by Lafcadio Hearn glow with a quiet intensity that I found quite unique. "Jhininiki" was a weird, ghoulish beginning.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
June 1999
Desire Under the Elms
San Diego State University - Experimental Stage

 Eugene O'Neill gave birth to Desire Under the Elms in 1924, placing it in rural New England. The 1958 film version starred Sophia Loren, Anthony Perkins, and Burl Ives. Under director Randy Reinholz, the San Diego State University version, currently in the Experimental Theater, moves the action to rural Ozark Mountains and adds some excellent, story-telling guitar music.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2008
Gathering, The
Cort Theater

 Playwright Arje Shaw tries to spice up this box of stale matzoh with some funny/insightful one-liners and the occasional gripping moment (a Holocaust survivor dancing on the grave of a Nazi soldier and later goading a young German guard), but he's undone by TV-level phoniness, overwrought melodrama and preposterous plotting. Director Rebecca Taylor makes matters worse by having everyone scream and overact. Hal Linden manages to stay engaging throughout, but the young kid is unwatchable.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Gem of the Ocean
Walter Kerr Theater

 August Wilson's remarkable play, Gem of the Ocean, part of his cycle of plays about the black experience in Pittsburgh, gives us a working-class family in 1904, not all that long after slavery was ended. Starting with flavorful ordinary conversation, like Horton Foote, the play grows and expands into real theater with unforgettable characters. There is lots of exposition, but it's grand, and the stories are vivid, with a sprinkling of folk humor.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2004
Gem of the Ocean
Walter Kerr Theater

 August Wilson's mighty ambition, stretching across a decade-by-decade, ten-play cycle of compassionate, poetically engaged playwriting, doesn't really stop at showing us the black experience in the 20th Century. No, Wilson is concerned with the full cargo of the African Diaspora, the history of suffering, the heritage of achievement, and the demons hatched in steerage and slavery that bedevil the race from within.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
January 2005
George Gershwin Alone
Helen Hayes Theater

 It's tricky putting someone's life on stage. Especially if they're quite famous, because growling watchdogs of accuracy will leap on your presentation of the facts, which almost always have to be fudged a little for the sake of drama. In the case of George Gershwin Alone, Hershey Felder's solo, 90-minute excursion through the life of the composer of the title, who died at a very young 38, you almost wish there were more created drama.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
July 2001
George Gershwin Alone
Helen Hayes Theater

 Hershey Felder makes but two mistakes in his solo tribute to George Gershwin: 1) he tends to crash-bang the piano keys a little too hard and a little too often; 2) he sings. Now as the show's narration (and, one assumes, history) tells us, GG was no warbler, but when Felder bellows, the results are painful to the point of embarrassment. That's a shame, because the show is otherwise a touching, amusing bio, with some fast if sloppy work on the keyboard.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Glass Menagerie, The
Ethel Barrymore Theater

 The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a good show. Really. Quite good. Despite a total misconception in the production by director David Leveaux, and some of the worst lighting I've ever seen on Broadway (by Natasha Katz - who is usually one of the best). The play itself and most of the cast provide us with a satisfying, moving evening of theater.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2005
Glengarry Glen Ross
Bernard B. Jacobs

 Oh Boy! Want to see a demonstration of how good, how vivid real acting can be? Check out Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet's dazzling drama now revived on Broadway. It's the most exciting acting ensemble in town. Alan Alda will give you a lesson on how to do a nuanced monologue - his encounters as a nervous, failing, older salesman with the very controlled Frederick Weller as his supervisor are like a mongoose darting at a cobra. The nervous energy Gordon Clapp exudes as he tries to con the stolid Jeffrey Tambor into a crime is full pf prickly tingles.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2005
Goat, The
John Golden Theater

 It's as if producer Max Bialystock is back in business, trying to mount a comedy about a subject so gross, the play will have to close after one performance. Credit Edward Albee for choosing an inconceivable plot, writing about a man who has sex with a goat and making us care about him. Not only that; Albee has written perhaps the wittiest of all his plays. Bill Pullman and Mercedes Ruehl are an apparently-happy married couple with a relatively normal gay son. Pullman is a world-famous architect, on top of the world at age 50.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
May 2002
Goat, The
John Golden Theater

If you know the play's big secret, that spares you watching the first half hour, so here it is: the lead character, a successful architect and family man, confesses to a friend he's in love with a goat. The next hour shows his wife and gay son screaming at and insulting him while he tries to explain why. The last twenty minutes features a father-son reconciliation of sorts, and a wife who exacts revenge.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Goat, The
John Golden Theater

 What can you say about a play that makes you feel sympathy with a goatfucker? If you're offended by that word, don't go to the Golden and watch a brilliantly funny, deadly serious play that so provokes the audience to genuine moral reflection that, night after night, much of the crowd lingers under the marquee for a long, long time -- just talking it over. The Goat is that good.

David Steinhardt
Date Reviewed:
June 2002
Good Body, The
Booth Theater

 Eve Ensler is funny as a writer, performer, and philosopher, with universal deeply felt insights that go beyond comedy. She's sometimes hilarious but with depths that plumb the heart and consciousness. The Good Body explores being overweight -- with a Southern fat woman - and she gives us an 80-year-old Cosmo woman, a pierced lesbian, a Puerto Rican girl, a wife with an unsatisfactory sex life getting her vagina tightened, a high-fashion model, Botox, and a coda with an Indian summing up her "You're Okay!" philosophy.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2004
Good Vibrations
Eugene O'Neill Theater

 A quick view of Act One of Good Vibrations, the Beach Boys musical on Broadway: shallow, inane book by Richard Dresser; great set by Heidi Ettinger; some good singing voices; boring, unengaging. Director/choreographer John Carrafa's work had no dynamic in it. We escaped at intermission.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2005
Gore Vidal's The Best Man

 (see Criticopia review(s) under "Best Man, The")

Graduate, The
Plymouth Theater

 Okay, regarding what all you've heard about The Graduate: it's only half-true. Yes, Kathleen Turner bares all. Yes, the show often bastardizes Mike Nichols' benchmark counterculture motion picture. And yes, the cast is wildly uneven and, in one case, downright awful. But it seems to me the shuddering cold response by critics operates on a decidedly pro-American bias, almost as if to say, "How on earth could this be a hit in (gasp!) London!" (Let's also not forget that many American productions are now heading there, not vice versa lately).

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2002
Graduate, The
Plymouth Theater

 Though not the disaster most critics have tagged it, this is still a curious production, one that retains some of the classic film's humor but feels utterly divorced from context or meaning, despite the between-scene snippets of `60s pop.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2002
Graduate, The
Plymouth Theater

 The Graduate is a hoot. Kathleen Turner's star turn is in the best Bankhead mode, and her impeccable timing brings a heartfelt laugh to every punchline in this fun-from-start-to-finish comedy. We know what's going to happen in this tale of seduction and first love, and this play's success is all in the telling. Adapted and directed by Terry Johnson, with a brilliant sense of what real comedy is, and long knowledge of whom to cast in the leads, the show totally succeeds.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2002
Grease!
Eugene O'Neill Theater

 Well, I thought it was going to be fun. After a pre-show warm up by a smarmy, lip-synching dee-jay, Miss Lynch waddles to the stage as a prim but lovable homeroom teacher, bantering with the audience and getting laughs just by fixing her widened eyes on a "student" and devastating him with a shocked exclamation of "GUM???" But all too soon, the amps kick on and Grease! becomes the equivalent of a transistor radio on the beach: loud, canned-sounding, and too staticky to entertain. Authors/composers Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey tap into 50's nostalgia, but they do so witlessly.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 1994
Green Bird, The
Cort Theater

 Julie Taymor is the kind of theatrical inventor that prompts people to say things like, "She throws in everything but the kitchen sink." Well, her latest concoction (actually a revival, this was staged at the New Victory in 1996), The Green Bird, actually features a kitchen sink. And toilets. And naked women. And swing dancing. And much more, leaving one with the impression that nothing is disposable in eyes of the gifted Taymor. This is both her greatest curse and blessing. On the one hand, it tends to clutter her productions and distract from their initial intentions.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2000
Grey Gardens
Walter Kerr Theater

 If you're a Christine Ebersole fanatic, or if you harbor an unquenchable curiosity for all things even peripherally Kennedy, you may be able to work up some genuine enthusiasm for this dreary, static adaptation of the Maysles Brothers' documentary, "Grey Gardens." Not qualifying on either count, I found myself questioning the critical kudos.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
Gypsy
Sam S. Shubert

 So how's Bernadette? That question has surely taken on more meanings than the producers of the current Gypsy revival intended. Of course, everyone wants to know how Bernadette Peters stands up to the memories of Merman and Lansbury (and, for some, Tyne Daly). But Peters' numerous health-related absences ended up giving the question a more urgent slant -- will she be playing tonight or will her understudy be offering "Rose's Turn," "Some People," and the numerous other classics Mama Rose belts as she fights for her daughters' careers?

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 2003
Gypsy
Sam S. Shubert

 Bernadette Peters herself is a great theatrical experience, and in the current Gypsy on Broadway she brings a vulnerability as well as the strength and power of Mama Rose to her performance. Directed by Sam Mendes, it's a very entertaining, imaginative production, a tuneful treat with strong dramatic content, lively Sondheim lyrics, hummable music by Jule Styne, book by Arthur Laurents.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2003
Razorback
Theatre Theater

 The formula that draws youthful audiences to the movies today -- extreme violence interspersed with raunchy wisecracks -- has been tapped by John Pollono in the writing of his new play, Razorback, now in its world premiere run at Theatre Theater. A lurid melodrama filled with killings, profanity and jokes, Razorback drew laughter and cheers from those in attendance on opening night, most of whom seemed were in their twenties.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
September 2008
Hairspray
Neil Simon Theater

 Harvey Fierstein in a jumbo housedress and croaking his trademark "Hellaaaooh" is already enough reason to see any show he's in, so it's a hair-hopping pleasure to report that his current vehicle, Hairspray, adapted from John Waters' break-out commercial film, boasts a half-dozen other reasons for its instant hit-dom. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's punchline-filled lyrics hit the mark often enough to keep our ears on ever-perk, matched as they are to Shaiman's intentionally-derivative but buoyant tunes ("Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" being the catchiest).

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
August 2002
Hairspray
Neil Simon Theater

 Cute and cartoon-y, a campy, cardboard comedy with heart, this bouncy, bubble-gum bauble is already a favorite among those whose entertainment requirements are non-cerebral. Marissa Jaret Winokur as Tracy is every tubby teen's heroine as she blithely blitzes through weight-related insults and stereotypical barriers to achieve her dreams in remarkably short succession: to dance on the local TV's "The Corny Collins Show" (Clarke Thorell) and steal the beauty queen's (pouty Laura Bell Bundy) hunky beau (Mathew Morrison).

Jeannie Lieberman
Date Reviewed:
September 2002
Hairspray
Neil Simon Theater

 Your scribe was not permitted to see this amazing show for weeks and months. It had opened while I was still in Europe, before what used to be the Opening of the Broadway Season. By the time I returned, it was already so smothered with raves n' honors that - or so I was repeatedly told - the producers didn't need a website rave. Fortunately, I am (as non-recording Secretary of the Outer Critics Circle) an Awards Nominator and a Voter. Not to overlook also being a Voter for the Drama Desk Awards. So, shortly before the nominations, I suddenly got aisle-seats for this fabulous musical.

Glenn Loney
Date Reviewed:
March 2003
Hedda Gabler
Ambassador Theater

 Everybody's favorite female monster is back on Broadway in a new translation by Jon Robin Baitz (Three Hotels), and none other than Richard Burton's capable daughter Kate playing the lead role. One of the unlikeliest of Broadway offerings, this Hedda Gabler is much like the bold, reptilian woman who bears the name: crafty and admirable but chilly and distant, making this well-mounted affair ultimately an exercise in futility.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
October 2001
Hedda Gabler
Ambassador Theater

 I've never understood why Hedda Gabler is considered one of the most interesting and complicated heroines in dramatic literature. She always comes off as a capricious, cruel viper without being decent enough to evoke sympathy or vivid enough to cast an Iago-like fascination. Nicholas Martin's current Broadway revival of Ibsen's drama, while solid and lively, does little to make the play a grabber for our times.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 2001
Hedda Gabler
Ambassador Theater

 The current production of Hedda Gabler, in a lively adaptation by Jon Robin Baitz, is a peculiar mixture: the play, as usual, starts off with so much exposition that it tends to bore. Then a gushing, very fey, Michael Emerson bursts in as Tesman, a mode he retains throughout the play, tilting all in a novel direction.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2001
Hedda Gabler
Ambassador Theater

 Plays in translation are bastard stepchildren of the originals, especially when the version presented is written by someone who cannot, and thus never has, read the original. I don't read Norwegian any more than Jon Robin Baitz does, but I have spent enough time in Norway, with Norwegian friends, and with direct translations of Ibsen plays, to know that Hedda is a peculiarly Norwegian type. (Buy me a drink and I'll tell you about the time, many years ago, when two local amazons abducted me off a railway bridge in Oslo, until they, both in their 20s, learned I was underage.

David L. Steinhardt
Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Henry IV
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

 Jack O'Brien, whose fluid, almost dreamlike direction of Stoppard's The Invention of Love nearly shook that drama out of its ivory-tower lethargy brings the same sense of style to Shakespeare - and here he even gets to have battle scenes, hold-ups, tavern carousing and a coronation. For all the legitimate excitement of the production, it should be noted that not much really happens in the first two hours(!), and that fine as the work by adapter Dakin Matthews is (he cobbled the two Henry plays into one), the piece does feel every bit of its 230 minutes.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
High Fidelity
Imperial Theater

 The musical, High Fidelity, based on Nick Hornby's novel, has closed. I liked it. Even though the problems and concerns of the record store owner, played by a charismatic, charming leading man, Will Chase, are naive and simplistic, the show, a mixture of 70's and contemporary sensibility, was a lot of fun. Amanda Green has the gift, and I found her lyrics to be clever and full of humor.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2006
High Fidelity
Imperial Theater

 Centering on the belated maturation of vinyl record shop owner Rob (Will Chase), David Lindsay-Abaire's script for High Fidelity had the misfortune of sporting a recurring Top 5 theme. The Times critic took aim at this irritating tick and enshrined the show among a makeshift list of Top 5 "All-Time Most Forgettable Musicals."

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
January 2007
History Boys, The
Broadhurst Theater

 What a pleasure to be in the presence of the product of a sparklingly brilliant mind. Alan Bennett's The History Boys is full of wit and wisdom in his construct of an English boy's school presented as an intellectual swordfight with musical interludes and film clips. It is so smart, it is thrilling.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2006
Hollywood Arms
Cort Theater

 There's an old saying: "Shoemaker, stick to your last." Remember when Michael Jordan tried to play baseball? Carol Burnett wrote a play (with her daughter), Hollywood Arms, now on Broadway. Sorry. She's a great performer. The acting, by Linda Lavin, Michele Pawk and Frank Wood, is fine, but you also know the one about a silk purse...

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Hollywood Arms
Cort Theater

 Creaky and unfocused, this semi-autobiographical play by Carol Burnett and her late daughter, Carrie Hamilton, has stretches of entertaining humor and believable familial squabbles, but its parade of short scenes and lack of dramatic thrust take their toll early. Not bad (Burnett should definitely write another), just incredibly familiar stuff. Think of it as a weak, third-generation Brighton Beach Memoirs, and then see something else instead.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Hot Feet
Hilton Theater

 Hot Feet, ultimately a rather good dance show conceived, directed and choreographed by Maurice Hines, throws us off by an over-zealous opening of dancers wigglin', jigglin', jumpin' and humpin' like really good cheerleaders with colorful Arabian Nights costumes (by Paul Tazewell). But a lot of it can be seen every weekend for free at Broadway and 50th Street. It takes a while for us to realize that they are doing a version of The Red Shoes and that there is a coherent show here.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2006
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Hilton Theater

 Jack O'Brien's lively creation, Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a bundle of familiar family fun with a great singing-dancing cast of grownups and kids, including a couple of stars: John Cullum as the Old Dog who tells the story, and the gruff, lovable Patrick Page as The Grinch.

Directed by Matt August, the tuner has an "Alice in Wonderland" feeling with stylized moves and bouncy choreography by John DeLuca and whimsical cartoonish costumes by Robert Morgan played on John Lee Beatty's fanciful set.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
Richard Rodgers Theater

 A secretary may not be a toy, but if you're Des McAnuff, a Broadway show is. McAnuff and designer John Arnone go all-out to turn this revival of How To Succeed into something out of FAO Schwartz -- all movement, eye-popping colors, sound and silliness. That it works, mmm.. 90% of the time, is a credit first and foremost to Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock & Willie Gilbert's miraculous book, one which, even played perfectly straight, could only offend the most humorless feminists.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 1996

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