Eli's Comin'
Vineyard Theater

Revue uses songs by the late Laura Nyro to tell minimal, allegorical story of various women overcoming addiction. Despite the 50s-infused, stoned-soul pop tunes, it's a repetitive drag till the last couple of songs, when the show finally gets its groove on.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
June 2001
King Hedley II
Virginia Theater

This guy has written the same play five times now, said the disgruntled theater patron at a recent performance of August Wilson's newest Broadway offering King Hedley II, and while I mostly disregard such generalities as a reviewer, this one stuck with me the whole evening. Such cases have been made for people like filmmaker Woody Allen, who in his thirty-plus movies has generally gone to the same well several times in his effort to portray neurotic New Yorkers, usually played by himself.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
June 2001
Rocky Horror Show, The
Circle in the Square

I went to see The Rocky Horror Show as a virgin, and came out a fan. Soon after my initiation I went back to see it a second time, with some cast changes, and loved it even more. (As did my wife, who saw an earlier production in London.) Dick Cavett, as the emcee, asks at the start of each show, "How many of you are virgins?" The implication is that the show requires some inside knowledge, but that's not so. Neophytes are welcome and should have no problem understanding the spoof of horror movies from the 1950s or 60s.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
June 2001
I Sing!
Maverick Theater

I Sing! is the type of show that will have the real New York cynics vomiting in the aisles. Could a show be so unassumingly straightforward and unabashed about being a sentimental musical? For those of us who have yet to succumb to the "Everything sucks!" philosophy, I Sing! is one big sweetheart of a show.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
June 2001
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The
Minskoff Theater

The latest grade school pageant masquerading as a Broadway show, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer starts with the germ of an enterprising family entertainment: a romantic musical adventure tale of young Tom and pal Huck Finn and their involvement in a shady town murder. The tuner then proceeds to turn the germ into a deadly virus; that is, shows that have no business in 1700+ capacity theaters foolishly trying to put one over on the unsuspecting audience.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Actors Alliance Festival 2001
St. Cecilia's Playhouse

Actors Alliance San Diego's Actors Festival, an annual event, includes 24 plays, most of them new, many being showcased for the very first time. Each play is performed just twice, with itinerant Actor Todd Blakesley serving as the Festival Artistic Director. The schedule is hectic, mixing new works by talented local playwrights with works by McNally, Bradbury, Mamet, and Dr. Seuss.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
American Iliad
Victory Theater

Donald Freed, a rare writer of political drama, returns to the subject of Richard Nixon, a character whose dark, twisted soul he unraveled in a previous one-man play, Secret Honor. This time around, Freed works on a larger canvas, one filled with portraits of such personages as J. Edgar Hoover, Clyde Tolson, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Black Elk and Horatio Alger. The play takes place in Nixon's mind during the last 3 or 4 minutes of his life and is a reverie, a reflection, on America in the last century.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Art
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts

For a substantial sum, Serge buys a white-on-white painting; his two best friends' reactions and assessments nearly blow them apart. On the surface that's what Art is about. What it is, however, is itself art.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Catskills On Broadway
Wilshire Theater

Freddie Roman, the comedian/entrepreneur who put together the original Catskills on Broadway revue a decade ago, returns with an updated version of the show.  Three of the original cast members, Roman, Mal Z. Lawrence and Dick Capri, are featured, along with impressionist Scott Record.  Each of the four does a stand-up routine, backed up a six-piece band.  Jewish humor abounds in this paean to the Borscht Belt, though the subject matter also deals with topical events: George W.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Crimes Of The Heart
Second Stage Theater

Not quite a must-see but certainly a reminder of what made Beth Henley so special way-back-when (i.e., before all the imitators). Her two great skills: effortlessly moving a scene from one tone to its complete opposite, and taking a situation of believable awfulness and mining it for (still-hilarious) comic effect.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Chosen, The
Florida Studio Theater Mainstage

A stage framed in shelved books with a Hebrew legend above metaphorically sets up this story of a friendship between two Brooklyn Jewish boys (1944-49) and their relationships as sons to their fathers (1944-49). All are steeped in the Talmud, but from the differing stances of Orthodox Judaism and Hassidism. Lex Woutas, as adult Reuven Malter (and minor characters from the "outside world"), tells their tale articulately and with warmth.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Dame Edna: The Royal Tour
Shubert Theater

Possums, please know that Dame Edna Everage has checked into "the tucked-away Shooooobert Theatre" for a two-week stay that everyone can enjoy, even the "cheapskates" (better known as "Les Miserables," or Les mizzies) up in the second balcony. Edna, who began life forty years ago as a Melbourne working-class woman (in a gallery of impersonations by then unknown actor/writer Humphries) has worked her way up the social scale to her present status as self-anointed royalty, hobnobbing with the likes of the Queen Mother.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Driving Miss Daisy
The Fireside

One of the Midwest's most active dinner theaters takes a detour from its usual round of splashy musicals to present Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy, Driving Miss Daisy. At first glance, this sentimental favorite seems perfectly chosen for the Fireside's typically gray-haired audience. It revolves around Daisy, a crotchety, elderly Jewish woman, and a slightly younger black man hired to be her chauffeur. As the play is set in Atlanta during the dawn of the Civil Rights era, author Alfred Uhry gently weaves a bit of race relations into the story.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Fosse
Broadhurst Theater

More than three years into its Broadway run, Fosse has lost none of its sizzle. Indeed, the recent infusion of star talent (in this case, Bebe Neuwirth) has breathed new fire into this razzle-dazzler. It has been about 13 years since Broadway choreographer Bob Fosse dropped dead of a heart attack, but Fosse allows his spirit to live on. The audience is treated to a retrospective of dances selected from Sweet Charity, Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Eli's Comin'
Vineyard Theater

Right off the bat, I have to say that Eli's Comin', the long-gestating Laura Nyro project currently performing at the Vineyard Theater, has the best voices anywhere on a stage right now. The four leading females (Judy Kuhn, Mandy Gonzalez, Anika Noni Rose and Ronnell Bey) make every note their own, throwing in a healthy dosage of blues, R&B and rock to Nyro's beautifully crafted tunes, all of which sound better with age. Unfortunately, enthusiastic praise will have to cease there, because otherwise, Diane Paulus' "music-theater piece" never achieves lift-off.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Ensemble Studio Theater Marathon 2001: Series C
Ensemble Studio Theater

Series C of the Ensemble Studio Theatre's 2001 One Act Marathon has one great play, one awful one and two that are pretty good. Invitation to a Funeral by Julie McKee, about two women at the funeral of their common ex-husband, is written with rare wit, directed with impeccable timing by Deborah Hedwall, and performed by two brilliant actresses, Kathleen Doyle and Susan Pellegrino, each with the underplayed comic performance of a master. It's the last of the four on the program, and I'm still smiling a day later.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 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
King Hedley II
Virginia Theater

That King Hedley II has moments of soap-opera melodrama, confusing backstory, a few blatant metaphors and some time-biding patches in no way camouflages the fact that author August Wilson stands high among the world's greatest living playwrights. His facility with dialogue astonishes, as does his ability to offset lyrical scenes with nail-biting drama in an old-fashioned but rarely corny way.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The
Minskoff Theater

Swiftly-paced and agreeable rendering of Twain's tale, recommended for family outings. Passable tunes and okay lyrics are secondary to can't-miss storyline, inspired settings (by designer Heidi Ettinger), and nicely-staged climactic man-hunt in the cave. If only the Minskoff weren't such a barn, with the orchestra sounding like a car radio and the actors appearing to sing a quarter-beat behind because of the acoustics.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Blast!
Broadway Theater

More sedate (mercifully) than you’d expect a brass n’ drum extravaganza to be, Blast! has numerous moments of charm and good humor to go with its precision drills, banner juggling, and object twirling.

Apart from the opening “Bolero” and a zany “Officer Krupke,” Blast! isn’t exactly memorable or even exciting, but the music can be pretty, and most of the time our eardrums are spared the usual Broadway assault.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Anatol
Powerhouse Theater

The always adventurous BNTC took on a difficult challenge with this play, if only because its theme -- the impossibility of faithfulness in male/female relationships -- cuts against the American party line, which treats infidelity as a cardinal sin. Arthur Schnitzler, an assimilated Austrian Jew writing in the 1920s about the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, rejects such a notion. In his view, infidelity is the norm, monogamy an illusion, which means men and women can't help but betray each other.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Bells Are Ringing
Plymouth Theater

The introduction of Julie Taymor to big-time Broadway has inspired other experimental directors to go for a similar route. More and more restagings are headed up by people whose initial strength doesn't lie in musical theater.  After Matthew Warchus' slapdash take on Follies, his first foray into such territory on Broadway, we now have Tina Landau's similarly lumpy Bells Are Ringing. Landau's background isn't unlike Taymor's, having worked with people such as Jose Rivera, Charles Mee and Ricky Ian Gordon, all downtown artists and proud of it.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Bells Are Ringing
Plymouth Theater

The obvious question is "why was this show revived?" But, once past this, and this production's slow start (a black-and-white montage of TV clips sporting the trends of the time, hula hoops et al), Bells Are Ringing makes an endearing, cheerful, optimistic, feel-good evening of old fashioned musical theater, with a sparkling Broadway score (orchestrated by Don Sebesky) which includes "Just In Time," "The Party's Over," the touching "Long Before I Met You" and the rousing "Its A Simple Little System." The Comden and Green/Jule Styne 1956 opus, made into a movie in l960

Jeannie Lieberman
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Blast!
Broadway Theater

Stomp. Tap Dogs. Rudi Stern's Theater of Light. Thwak.

What do these past and present shows have in common? They are or were very popular off-Broadway attractions that never moved to Broadway houses.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Blast!
Broadway Theater

I usually avoid public places that have masses of teenagers clumped outside them, but, true to my calling, since Blast! is at a Broadway theater, I felt I had no choice but to bite the bullet, take the earplugs and go. Well it is theater - smooth, slick, entertaining, energetic, serious and humorous, and I must confess I had a great time!

Jeannie Lieberman
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Blast!
Broadway Theater

Blast! is the best half-time show ever. A huge brass band, dancers, twirlers, lights, spectacle. I laughed, I was moved, I was thrilled. I walked out grinning.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Bat Boy: The Musical
Union Square Theater

The pastiche score isn't one for the ages (though you'll remember the "Hold me, Bat Boy" refrain), but this is cleverly crafted, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kitsch that grabs an audience and never lets go. And if you think - as with so many musicals - the second act will run out of ideas and steam, you're in for an invigorating surprise.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Bat Boy: The Musical
Union Square Theater

A few weeks ago, I remarked to a friend that I was deeply envious of anyone who got to see the megabomb musicalization of Carrie years back. There's something exciting about a live show that appears destined to flop hard; in fact, in theater communities, they are even more memorable years later, long after the latest sham revue musical has won the Best Musical Tony. Bat Boy the Musical looked like one of those shows -- on paper anyway.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Bachelors, The
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Stackner Cabaret

The Milwaukee Repertory Theater has undeniably scored another hit with the latest effort by the comedy team of Fred Alley and James Kaplan.  This is the same duo who previously struck comic gold with Guys On Ice, about life in a Wisconsin fish shanty, and Lumberjacks in Love, a far- lesser tale of life in the Wisconsin woods.  Their new musical, The Bachelors, probes the same general territory -- how man's idyllic existence is changed forever when a woman comes around.  Although this territory is so worn it's almost disintegrated into dust, director Jeff

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Beat For Sparrows
Ivy Substations

Beat For Sparrows brings back the `50s world of the Beats and hipsters in vivid, pungent fashion.  Charlie Leeds, the protagonist of this highly original and moving theatrical piece, was an early exponent of bebop, a bass player who honed his musical chops playing in swing bands before crossing over to avant garde groups led by such jazz pioneers as Al Cohn, Terry Gibbs and Brew Moore.  Many called Leeds the best bass player of his time, but his star shone only briefly before it was dimmed by his dark, self-destructive urges.  Like so many bop musicians, Leeds became

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Bicycle Country, A
Marilyn Monroe Theater - Strasberg Institute

The son of a political dissident jailed for a time by Castro, Nilo Cruz left Cuba with his parents when he was 10 years old and emigrated to the United States, where he eventually built a reputation as an outstanding young playwright (among his previous works are Graffiti, Dancing On Her Knees and The Museum of Dreams).  Cruz returns to his homeland in A Bicycle Country, which is set in the "Special Period," the years following the rupturing of relations between Cuba and the former Soviet Union in 1991.  Cut off from its subsidies, Cuba went into a sever

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Brassy Broads
Florida Studio Theater - Cabaret Club

Like fine old wine in a new bottle, Kathy Hallenda pours herself into velvet, deep and shiny scarlet as her lipstick. Jeweled at the neck above considerable cleavage and with a long fuchsia feathered boa as a wrapper, she's bubbly as spumante with a voice strong and clear as corks popping. A year ago she gave Sarasota a taste of Sophie Tucker and became the red-hottest, longest running attraction ever at Florida Studio Theater's Cabaret Club. This time, Sophie's just one of the "Brassy Broads" Kathy identifies with and persuades audiences to celebrate with her.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Children Of Eden
Derby Dinner Playhouse

Score another triumph for Derby Dinner Playhouse, the first dinner theater in the country given the rights to present Stephen Schwartz's grand-scale musical Children of Eden. What producer/director Bekki Jo  Schneider and her huge cast have wrought is sensationally good.  Schwartz's music and lyrics for his earlier Godspell (he keeps returning to Biblical and spiritual themes) are better known, but his mature Children of Eden score has greater depth and is far more dramatically satisfying.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Cinderella
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

While parents may have a problem finding magic in this hybrid  Cinderella, which tries to blend classic and contemporary elements, today's kids will probably love it. At least mine did. Although the rags-to-riches story is firmly entrenched in the current production, the show bears little resemblance to what audiences probably remember best: the 1965 TV version starring Lesley Ann Warren, or the most recent TV remake in 1997 featuring an African-American cast, including Brandy and Whitney Houston. Not that the story mattered one whit to the kids.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Crane, Mississippi
Elephant Space

Southern Gothic, a dramatic staple, gets an over-the-top workout in the world premiere of Crane, Mississippi Timothy McNeil gives us a redneck family so crude, mean and grotesque as to make Jeeter Lester and his brood look like Boston Brahmins. McNeil and director Kristin Hanggi also have them raging at each other from start to finish, a same-note mistake which turns what might have been a gripping drama into an excrutiating experience for the audience.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Follies
Belasco Theater

Follies has never been properly staged because of how tough the material ultimately is (though it's a damn good point to argue and probably true). Better to comment on the show at hand (which critics have already sharpened their claws on), which is a big `ol mess in so many ways but single-handedly rescued by Stephen Sondheim's impeccable gift of making magic even after so many years.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Forty-Second Street
Ford Center for the Performing Arts

Tap, glorious tap. You see it constantly in Mark Bramble's overproduced but charming revival of 42nd Street, and it makes you wonder how many shows have abandoned it altogether. These days, dancing onstage amounts to little more than overly literal gyrations, even in classic revivals, presumably because theater creators think that if you don't toss in a few sexual references, people will think it's old-hat.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Forty-Second Street
Ford Center for the Performing Arts

It's all about those dancing feet -- be they attached to the legs of literally dozens of young hoofers, or our own toes keeping time to Al Dubin and Harry Warren's evergreen tunes. Production values are handsome but not quite lavish, with Douglas W. Schmidt's settings running from grandly art-deco to too cartoony. Christine Ebersole, has both comic wattage and a singing voice to hush the house. Michael Cumpsty is an engagingly benign Julian Marsh - so much so that his hiring of goons to beat up a pest feels uncomfortably out of character.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
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
Invention of Love, The
Lyceum Theater

All the graceful staging in the world can't compensate for a play with no dramatic thrust and a tongue where its heart ought to be. Yawn.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2001

Pages