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Posts by Tulis McCall

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Tulis McCall

For my money, the theatre is up there in the ten top reasons to be human. I leave my home and go sit in a dark room with complete strangers and watch actors do their stuff because I want to be inspired. I’m asking to be involved. I’m volunteering to be led down any old path they choose as long as they don’t let go of my hand. And if I see a show, and it is NOT so very good – I will try to divert you, because I don’t want you to come to the temple when the preaching isn’t up to snuff. I will bar the door, I will swing from rafters, I will yell FIRE just to set your feet on a path that does not lead to disappointment. Do something different with your evening I will say. Save your money for dinner with a friend you haven’t seen in months because you are too frigging busy. Go take a walk with your dog or your child or your significant other. Go to bed early, I will say. Don’t come to the theatre when it is less than it can be. I’m an usher snob, and that’s all there is to it.

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Just in Time starring Jonathn Groff as Bobby Darin, on Broadway at the Circle in the Square. Courtesy justintimebroadway.com
Broadway
Tulis McCall

Just in Time

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.

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May 9, 2025
Norm Lewis in Ceremonies in Dark Old Men. Photo by Maria Baranova
Off Broadway
Tulis McCall

Ceremonies in Dark Old Men

The time is the early 1950s.  The place is Harlem, specifically 126th Street between Lenox and Seventh.  We are in the barbershop of one Russell Parker (Norm Lewis), who, when we meet him, has not been doing much barbering for the past few years.  Since his dancing legs gave out, he is a man without a purpose or a desire to find one. He occupies his time sitting in his throne of a barber chair, reading the paper or playing checkers with his best friend William Jenkins (James Foster, Jr.), who has beaten Parker every single time they play.

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May 9, 2025
Pirates! the Penzance Musical. At the Todd Haimes Theatre. Courtesy roundabouttheatre.org
Broadway
Tulis McCall

Pirates! The Penzance Musical

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.

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May 9, 2025
Steven Sondheim's Old Friends. Screengrab courtesy manhattantheatreclub.com
Broadway
Tulis McCall

Sondheim’s Old Friends

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.

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May 9, 2025
All the Beauty in the World. Courtesy darelyroththeatre.com
Off Broadway
Tulis McCall

All The Beauty In The World

All The Beauty In The World” is a more of a TED Talk.  And it is a lovely one.  It is lovely because it is a reflection of Patrick Bringley who is kind, intelligent and insightful.

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April 11, 2025
The Starving Class, written by Sam Shepard, directed by Scott Elliott, presented by The New Group at Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center.
Off Broadway
Tulis McCall

Curse of the Starving Class

Full disclosure – I am not very very very familiar with Sam Shepard’s work. Or I have forgotten what little I knew. I do remember seeing “True West” several times after it was filmed. I did see “A Lie of the Mind” back in the 1980s.

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March 11, 2025
My First Ex-Husband by Joy Behar at the MMAC Theater. Courtesy myfirstexhusband.com
Off Broadway
Tulis McCall

My First Ex-Husband at the MMAC Theater

I remember the stories in her one-person show Me, My Mouth & I over 10 years ago—especially that one-liner of appreciation from Steve Allen. Good writing lasts. Behar opens this Readers Theatre event by telling us that she interviewed women who were divorced, separated, or widowed and compiled their stories into a show. Works for me. Many shows have been created using this method—The Vagina Monologues for one.

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February 22, 2025
The Antiquities. At the Judy Theater. Courtesy playwrightshorizons.org
Theater
Tulis McCall

Antiquities at Playwrights Horizons

The play takes us through several centuries of human development. At each of these stops along the way, the humans consider themselves more or less on top of it. Even in the face of death, there is no fear that we are all going to hell in a handbasket. Harrison sprinkles hopelessness like the scent of poppies in The Wizard of Oz.  We are the observers and the observed.   I am reminded of the Hans Christian Anderson movie musical when Danny Kaye sang “… here’s a tale of a simple fool: just glance at a page or two.”

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February 16, 2025
STILL with Mark Moses and Melissa Gilbert in a scene from STILL at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture’s Loreto Theater (18 Bleecker Street, NYC). . Courtesy @thestillplay on Instagram
Off Broadway
Tulis McCall

STILL at The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture’s Loreto Theater

Mark (Mark Moses) is a successful and, more importantly, DIVORCED lawyer living in Colorado. The kids are grown, and he is looking for a new chapter that may be sitting right in front of him. Helen (Melissa Gilbert) is a successful author with no children and no romantic relationship anywhere. The flame is rekindled, and the game is afoot. We see this coming from the opening moments. There is nothing new or intriguing here. There is quite a bit of cutesy that feels appliquéd. Neither of these characters is cutesy.

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February 10, 2025
Gary Gulman performs Grandiloquent at the Lucille Lortel Theater. Courtesy garygulman.com
Off Broadway
Tulis McCall

Gary Gulman Grandiloquent

This show is centered, one could almost say located, in Gulman’s home town of Peabody (pronounced PEA-buddy for you uninformed folks) Massachusetts.  Gulman was the third son, way younger than the first two, and spent time as a small child currying the favors of adults because he had no family interested enough in him to do more than offer critiques of his material.  It was a small town with his First Grade teacher living next door.  She had the extra key to Gulman’s house, let him call her by her first name away from school, and was the one who delivered the news that he was going to repeat the first grade at the insistence of his father, who had moved out some years before, but still held sway over that family.

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January 28, 2025
Audra McDonald as Rose in Gypsy at the Majestic Theatre. Photo by Julieta Cervantes
Broadway
Tulis McCall

Gypsy at the Majestic Theatre

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. 

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January 14, 2025
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