Jean Smart’s performance is so smooth – even through rough bits – that she appears not to be acting at all. She simply transforms over and over again as she slips into each chapter of Izzy’s story, making what is a complicated feat of magic look easy.
ctors and singers practice their entire lives for a chance to be on a Broadway stage. Hundreds of people involved behind the scenes bring you eight performances a week that are pure joy.
If you are Tina Landau and Adam Guettel, you would know that the premiere of Floyd Collins was presented in 1994 in Philadelphia, and 1996 was the year it premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. Its Broadway premiere was a mere 29 years later and has now taken a bow at Lincoln Center. It’s a good thing they waited so long, because Jeremy Jordan (Floyd Collins) clearly needed to grow into a man and be ready to take on the title role.
It is a situation devoutly to be wished – to be saturated with artistic excellence everywhere you look for over two hours. “Just In Time” – recently opened at Circle In The Square will do that to you. From the moment you enter the theatre, you are surrounded by glowing blue lighting, drapes, and a cocktail table scattered across the orchestra section. This is Bobby Darin’s world, and welcome to it. Your host for the show is the thrilling Jonathan Groff, who makes no bones about NOT being Bobby Darin. He is there to tell the story. Well, SING the story might be more accurate.
I am not a Gilbert & Sullivan aficionado – and it might have helped if I were. While there are no other writers listed, there are very few musical numbers that sounded like Gilbert & Sullivan. I know that this production has been adapted by Rupert Holmes. What he did remains a mystery to me. Perhaps that is the point. This is a stylized musical that reminds a person of Gilbert & Sullivan. Relocated to the New Orleans French Quarter, it is the tale of a Pirate King (and orphan) who has blown into town with an 8-man crew who are released upon the city to hunt down eligible women.
If you don’t LIKE Sondheim, you may be suffering from some heretofore unnamed or unknown condition. If, however, you do like/love/adore Sondheim, you might need smelling salts to get you through this two-hour extravaganza.
BOOP! The Musical will enchant, delight, and have you cheering for Betty and her cast of friends, feminists, and doubters. It is the ultimate New York show about the city and the many possibilities it brings to all who choose to venture into and experience every space and backspace she has to offer, creating hand-clapping, heart-grabbing, joyful, poignantly human musical scores that lift us to the top of our skyscrapers and beyond!
At the center of this storm is Audra McDonald as Rose. She is the locomotive that pulls this show along and so much the center that everything else, including the cast members, pretty much pales in comparison.
Watching O’Hara and D’Arcy James in Days of Wine and Roses is both thrilling and exhausting. These two thoroughbreds navigate this difficult and overwritten score with grace and self-assurance. Every song that O’Hara sings is an aria. D’Arcy James takes on his music with the precision of a fencing master. This is a master class in every way.
now playing at the Belasco theatre, is a marvelously quirky universal fairy tale fueled with love and perseverance.
