Broadway
BirdmanWednesday, 24 December 2014![]() Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu,Birdman is the story of a fading star’s search for professional rehabilitation and personal redemption that perches adroitly between dark humour and darker despair and injects a familiar story of mid-life... Read more... |
Forbidden Broadway, Vaudeville TheatreTuesday, 16 September 2014![]() “It takes a star to parody one,” wrote theartsdesk’s Edward Seckerson, nailing the essence of this immortal spoof-fest’s last incarnation at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Star quality was assured given the presence of Damian Humbley, peerless in... Read more... |
Dear World, Charing Cross TheatreThursday, 14 February 2013![]() It's odd that Jerry Herman merits only a passing mention in Stephen Sondheim's two-volume autobiographical take on Broadway words and music, Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat. In a couple of subjects Herman chose no less daringly than the... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Composer John KanderSaturday, 15 December 2012![]() In 1972 John Kander and Fred Ebb were invited by Bob Fosse to a private screening of his film version of their hit stage musical, Cabaret. The movie starred their protégée, Liza Minnelli, who at only 19 had won her first Tony in Kander and Ebb’s... Read more... |
Interview: 10 Questions for Rob AshfordMonday, 10 September 2012![]() Rob Ashford occupies a unique perch in the Anglo-American theatre. Florida-born, raised in West Virginia and a product of Broadway, where he began as a dancer in shows including Parade, Victor/Victoria and the celebrated Lincoln Center revival of... Read more... |
Without You, Menier Chocolate FactoryThursday, 06 September 2012![]() Who says you can't go home again? American actor-singer Anthony Rapp does that, and then some, with his solo show Without You, in which one of the original leads of the Broadway musical Rent relives the passions and pain of an extraordinary... Read more... |
Kiss the Day Goodbye: Marvin Hamlisch, 1944-2012Wednesday, 08 August 2012![]() Marvin Hamlisch’s three Oscars all came in 1974. "I think now we can talk to each other as friends," he said as he accepted his third award of the night. He composed the winning song "The Way We Were" (and the film's score) for Barbara Streisand,... Read more... |
Tony Awards 2012: One Guvnor, two Disneys, Once scores eightMonday, 11 June 2012![]() James Corden (One Man, Two Guvnors) made it past the finish line, Tracie Bennett (End of the Rainbow) did not, and the art-house musical Once trumped Disney’s latest Broadway entry, Newsies, at the 66th annual Tony Awards in New York last night. The... Read more... |
Wonderful Town, The Lowry, SalfordThursday, 05 April 2012![]() The cultural triumvirate of the Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Exchange Theatre and The Lowry have joined forces for this new production of the 1953 hit musical Wonderful Town. Leonard Bernstein would surely have been a happy man to hear his score,... Read more... |
Charles Dickens, Theatre and Dance Critic-at-LargeThursday, 09 February 2012![]() When a young Charles Dickens visited New York in 1842 with his wife, he strolled down Broadway, happened upon an unusual dance and naturally checked out theatreland. As his bicentenary is celebrated, here, from his journal, American Notes For... Read more... |
Pippin, Menier Chocolate FactoryThursday, 08 December 2011![]() Should the people who made Tron - or for that matter James Cameron - ever decide to take on a Broadway musical, they owe themselves a trip to the Menier Chocolate Factory's ludicrous production of Pippin to find out how not to do it. Just because... Read more... |
Driving Miss Daisy, Wyndham's TheatreThursday, 06 October 2011![]() You can accuse Alfred Uhry's 1987 play Driving Miss Daisy of many things – being overtly sentimental is top of the charge sheet – but you certainly cannot claim that it’s a case of false advertising. Even if, like this critic, you missed the... Read more... |
