Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

The Hippies have left the building. On Sunday, June 27, the Tony-winning revival of Hair: The American Tribal Love Rock Musical played its final performance at the Al Hirschfeld theatre. Even though I had seen it many times before, I had seen it once with the new cast and was under whelmed. So as I sat looking at the moon on the scrim covering the stage for a 13th and final time on Sunday, I was surprised at how overwhelmed I was and how much I cried – throughout the whole show. I guess it wasn’t until I was there – with all the other Hippies – that it sunk in that the show was closing. That it wouldn’t be there anymore. It also sunk in that I connected deeply to the material, not just the original revival cast (which included Gavin Creel, Kacie Sheik and Bryce Ryness), as I thought after seeing the replacement cast for the first time. I always felt safe in the Hirschfeld; I didn’t feel judged; and I always connected to the themes in Hair : Standing up for what you believe in and...

Saturday night marked my final ballet of the season and included a new Peter Martins ballet, with scenic design by architect Santiago Calatrava. As you know, this season has been the Architecture of Dance season and that was never more on display than in Martins’s new ballet, “Mirage.” But, we begin with “La Source,” the first piece on the program. Set to Leo Delibes music, this Balanchine ballet was pleasant and fairly whimsical. There was nothing extraordinary about it; it was mostly classical French ballet moves, though it was a treat, as it always is, to watch Sterling Hyltin dance. The most remarkable thing about “La Source” was that the music for the first pas de deux sounded like a cross between a dirge and “Sunrise, Sunset.” A little unsettling. Next up was “Mirage.” Not only is the ballet new, but the accompanying score is, as well. City Ballet’s Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins signed on as a third commissioner for a violin concerto composer Esa-Pekka Salonen was already...

How De-Lovely! It's official: Sutton Foster will star as Reno Sweeney in Roundabout’s revival of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes . Performances will begin in February 2011 and the production will be directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall. While there doesn’t seem to be a particular impetus for reviving Anything Goes , I think Foster as Sweeney is great casting, and I love the music from this show so I’ll be sure to get my Hiptix as soon as single tickets go on sale in the fall. (In an interview with Playbill.com , Roundabout artistic director Todd Haimes said it’s important to revive a musical like Anything Goes now, since it “goes to the heart and soul of …a truly American art form,” musical theatre. Anything Goes definitely is a traditional book musical; we’ll see how this revival shapes up in the wake of Roundabout’s clunky revival of another traditional book musical, Bye, Bye Birdie .) A Great Way to Get Loud The handsome, charming and very talented Gavin Creel just rele...

I’ve long talked about and studied the theatre of politics and the politics of theatre; I never thought I’d have my point made for me – so eloquently and entertainingly – by wrestling. The new Pulitzer Prize-nominated play (that just closed at Second Stage Theatre) The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is, on the surface, about wrestling, but like the non-sport, the play has much more going on beneath the spandex. Before Chad’s elaborate entrance, our host, Macedonio Guerra (played by a ball of charm and energy named Desmin Borges) tells us about his role in the wrestling world: He’s a little guy doing the heavy lifting; it’s his job to make the people who suck at wrestling (i.e., Chad Deity,) look like they don’t suck. And thus the political connections begin. Wrestling, of the WWF/WWE variety, is full of imagery – smoke and mirrors, really – designed to help tell whatever story Vince McMahon wants to tell. And in …Chad Deity , Macedonio brings us behind the scenes to show us how the...

Red Will Not Extend Contrary to what I preached as gospel during the Tony awards, Red will not extend. The Tony winning new play is currently enjoying a limited run at Broadway’s Golden theatre, after playing a stint at London’s Donmar Warehouse. After it won the most awards of any show this year, including wins for director Michael Grandage, actor Eddie Redmayne and the top honor, I thought, for sure, it would extend. But producers announced shortly after the Tonys that the play would not extend and instead end on time on June 27. If you’re in the area and can snag tickets, get thee to the Golden for Red - now! Next Fall and Fela! will continue Usually after the Tony awards, shows that were struggling at the box office and that did not win top honors tend to close in short order. However, on Monday, producers of both Next Fall and Fela! , which were up for but did not win Best New Play and Musical, respectively, announced that they were committed to keeping the shows open... at...

Hockadoo! The 2010 Tony Awards were presented on Sunday night, dear readers! What an exciting night. Memphis and Red won big, with Red garnering the most awards of any show - the Best New Play walked away with six statuettes. (Skip down to the list of nominees and winners below to find out who won what. For the record, I got 21 of 26 predictions correct. I really should turn pro.) I started watching the coverage via Tonyawards.com, where they were showing NY1’s red carpet coverage. They had some random groupings on the red carpet, but Donna Karger did speak with Gleeks Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff, who all looked great. Next, Tonyawards.com streamed the Creative Arts Awards; these are the awards, mostly for design categories, that are - in my opinion - incredibly important to the success of a show, but because they lack notable names, CBS doesn’t broadcast them. It was during this hour that American Idiot won its two awards - the two I thought it would and s...