State of the Art

  "Cursed Child" has always been exactly what I expected - and that's both a wonderful and a...meh...thing. Warning: Spoilers Ahead (Though, in all fairness, the show has been out for years and the published script almost longer...) To sum it up: GO FOR THE TECH! In the early 2000's (just after "Wicked" opened) there was a huge backlash against "spectacle" on Broadway. Disney's "Little Mermaid" infamously made headlines when, in response to said spectacle criticism, they announced that when their show opened there would be "No water and no wires." The theater world was intrigued and excited. Ironically it was this dull, lackluster "Little Mermaid" that made the theater world rethink: "Actually we'd really love some water and wires...maybe spectacle isn't such a bad thing after all..."  The problem with spectacle isn't spectacle itself. It's with two sometimes adjacent things: 1.) Spectacle...

  "Liberation", the beautiful new play by Bess Wohl that just opened on Broadway, is the kind of timely piece we need in the commercial theater.  Framed right off the bat as a memory play, "Liberation" is an exploration by Wohl, through her onstage surrogate (played by the wonderful Susannah Flood) of the women's lib movement in America in the 1970's and, namely, why it not only never fully succeeded, but, just as importantly, how on earth we've come to find ourselves moving backwards forty years later. Her mother's generation fought for (and attained) Roe V. Wade. Her generation has watched it be taken away. Wohl's mother, Lizzy, was the catalyst for Wohl writing the play. In the 1970's Lizzie, also primarily played by Wohl, a struggling journalist relegated to weddings and obituaries (she had to fight for obituaries) and desperate to write about politics, started a women's lib group in the basement of an Ohio rec center. There she made ...

  I'm so grateful that pro shots (professionally filmed live performances) are becoming more of the norm. The release of "Hamilton" on Disney+ did more than lift our spirits during the pandemic, it made great art easily accessible to the masses, and preserved the show, forever (on a much wider scale than the Lincoln Center Archives.) In recent years the trend is becoming more and more mainstream - with England's National Theater Live leading the charge with their cinema releases of their MainStage shows, which are now also available to stream on their website.  Theater always seems to be a bit on the back foot when it comes to "keeping up with the times" in terms of technology and PR tactics. Actors Equity, the American union for stage actors, while claiming (and I'll take them at their word), good intentions regarding protecting their performers, has done a huge disservice to the very art, and artists, they're supposed to be championing. Yes, the wa...

If "The Opposite of Love" doesn't make Ashley Griffin a star, there is no justice in the world. I had the opportunity to see the off-Broadway premiere of the show last spring (though I did not review that production) and when I found out I would be in town for its L.A. debut, I had to make sure I saw it. This is a brand new production - the only hold over is Ashley Griffin (the author of the piece) reprising her role as Eloise.  I was (and am) a huge fan of the off-Broadway production. It was one of the best things I'd seen in a long time, and I'm still frustrated that it didn't transfer to a longer NYC run. I was nervous when I heard that the show would have a brand new team, but, I have to say, for me, this new production is, at least at the moment, the definitive one. As much as I loved the show off-Broadway, the L.A. production reveals elements of the original that weren't as strong as they could have been. I didn't think it could get much better -...

  All photos by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman  and feature Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen "Maybe Happy Ending" is the most charming musical to come to Broadway in a long time. Is it perfect? No. But what a breath of fresh air to have a beautiful, fully original new musical with a fantastic score that's sure to become a musical theater staple. It find it telling that, more and more, the best new musicals are no longer coming from the U.S., but from overseas. "Maybe Happy Ending", written by Will Aronson and Hue Park. Though Aronson is American, and Park was in America when he first got the idea for the show, it was originally produced in South Korea, in Korean (one wonders if, in the bureaucracy that is American commercial musical theater if such a gem ever would have gotten out of the development stage, as many brilliant shows never do.) Becoming a huge hit it is now on Broadway at the Belasco Theater starring Darren Criss and fantastic newcomer Helen J. She...

Thank goodness for this brilliant film adaptation.  There is so much that could have gone wrong with this film, in fact I avoided seeing it for quite a while because I was so worried it would hurt my heart. Like so many, "Wicked" has meant a great deal to me since it opened over twenty years ago. Indeed, with the exception of "Hamilton", one could easily argue that it is the most culturally impactful musical of the past two decades. And the piece is more relevant now than ever  - from the political under (and over) tones the musical does not shy away from (though it softens them from the book), and the idea of an ostracized but powerful young woman fighting against an all but worshipped leader who is destroying an entire population in the name of needing a "scapegoat" (pun intended by me and the show) to the fact that the Man Behind The Curtain never knew what he was doing in the first place, has gone from applicable to terrifyingly resonant. The film uses...

  Photos by Matthew Murphy Just give them all the awards. Thank God something truly good has opened on Broadway!  "The Roommate" is a brilliant example of the magic that can happen when a director gets out of the way and lets brilliant actors do their thing. This is not a jab at director Jack O'Brien, but a high compliment. Clearly O'Brien is a strong, intelligent captain of the ship... and the best captains know that their job is to help everyone else to THEIR job to the best of their ability... not let their ego get in the way and try to make it all about them. The best direction is the direction that doesn't advertise itself. The actual script of "The Roommate" (written by Jen Silverman) is...fine. And I don't mean that as a criticism either. If I picked it up in Drama Bookshop would I be captivated? No. But it does its job, which is far more than I can say for the majority of new plays I've seen recently.  The reason for this play's exist...