Category Archives: Off Broadway

Understudy: Not a Job for the Weak of Heart

Theater lore abounds with tales of understudies who have gone on to a degree of stardom, some as a direct result of having filled in for an indisposed performer. Shirley Maclaine, who subbed for Carol Haney in “The Pajama Game” … Continue reading

Blog, Broadway, NY Theater, Off Broadway, Professional, Regional

“Kimberly Akimbo” + Music: Perfect Together

How do you improve on perfection? Well, you can’t – by definition. But you can approach it from a different direction, which is what David Lindsay-Abaire has done in adapting his marvelous 2002 play “Kimberly Akimbo” into a 2021 musical. … Continue reading

Blog, NY Theater, Off Broadway

You’ll Seem to Find the Happiness You Seek/ When You’re Out Together Seeing “Cheek to Cheek”

Eleven outstanding performers (six singer-dancers and five musicians) are at the top of their game, but the biggest stars of “Cheek to Cheek: Irving Berlin in Hollywood” are the title composer, of course, and the director/choreographer, Randy Skinner. The York … Continue reading

Blog, NY Theater, Off Broadway

“Morning’s at Seven” revived: The Play and Its Players Have Aged Well

At the intermission of “Morning’s at Seven,” directed by Dan Wackerman in revival at the Theatre of St. Clement’s, I mentioned to my companion that Paul Osborn’s 1940 comedy, which I had recently read, did not seem as good on … Continue reading

Blog, NY Theater, Off Broadway

Brave Title, Generic Show: “The Book of Moron”

When’s the last time you heard a Dumb Blond joke? Me neither, until Robert Dubac pulled one early in “The Book of Moron,” his solo comedic commentary in a limited engagement through October 3 at SoHo Playhouse, hard by the … Continue reading

NY Theater, Off Broadway

Long Live the King! (Lear, that is…and Cordelia too)

In calendar year 2014 I saw four different productions of Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” In all of them, and six or eight others over the years, Lear and his daughter Cordelia [spoiler alert] died at the end.  As devastating as are … Continue reading

Blog, NY Theater, Off Broadway