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

Another award show down. The 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were presented last night. This award presentation is usually bit more streamlined than the others, consistently clocking in at just two hours. (The reason: No host and no montages – except for an appropriate in memoriam.) With one exception, there were no surprises and only one minor disappointment. But, as always, dear readers, let’s begin with the most important part: the fashion! Two weeks ago at the globes we saw a lot of green. This week we saw a lot of reds and/or oranges. And these ladies were on fire! Julianna Margulies, in YSL, looked elegant and beautiful. Tina Fey departed from her usual basic (and typically safe) black and instead opted for slim-fitting bright red dress. Way to go, Tina – red’s a good color on you! 15 year old phenom Hailee Steinfeld wore a wonderfully age appropriate sleeveless colorblock dress by Prada. The column dress and its stacked colors made the tall teen rise above her pee...

American Idiot At this performance of American Idiot , the cast will be joined not just by Billie Joe, but also Mike Dirnt ! The Green Day bassist joined the cast for January 22's performance, playing guitar and singing during the show's curtain call number, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." I wonder when Tre Cool will make an appearance... Glee Scoop What Mr. Schuester did during his summer vacation (and winter hiatus): Went into the recording studio to record a solo album. This week, Broadway.com reported that Matthew Morrison will be joined on his debut record by music legend Sir Elton John for a medley of "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" and "Rocket Man." While there is no exact date, the record is expected to "drop" this February. Glee 's own Lea Michele has been cast in her feature film debut . (It was also announced that she'll perform at the Super Bowl on February 6.) The petite powerhouse will play in the e...

The nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards are in! Herein, selected categories and commentary. To view the full list of nominees, visit oscars.com .   Best Picture Black Swan The Fighter Inception The Kids Are All Right The King’s Speech 127 Hours The Social Network Toy Story 3 True Grit Winter’s Bone ( The Town is one movie many critics listed as favorites and my guess is that Winter’s Bone got in at The Town ’s expense. I didn’t love either movie. Still, The Social Network has the big “mo” although The Fighter could make a run for it. Fun side note: This is the first year (in memory) I’ve seen all the Best Picture nominees—before the nominations came out! And with two exceptions, I really enjoyed all of them. This was a pretty decent year for buzzy movies. Nice work, Hollywood .) Leading Actor Javier Bardem, Biutiful Jeff Bridges, True Grit Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network Coli...

It’s not every day that you see a period play featuring just three characters that is at any given moment funny, touching and incredibly powerful. When you do find such a play, attention must be paid: Go see The Whipping Man at Manhattan Theatre Club! In this (morality tale?) historically inspired play, written by Matthew Lopez, we meet Simon (Andre Braugher), John (Andre Holland) and Caleb (Jay Wilkison) in Richmond, Virginia, circa April 1865. The Civil War has just ended and Captain Caleb DeLeon, a Jewish-American soldier who fought for the Confederacy, has dragged his wounded body back to his family’s home, now in terrible shape, showing the wear and tear of war. He comes home to Simon, the now-emancipated slave who has been with the DeLeon’s since before Caleb was born. John, another now-emancipated slave who has been with the family for years and who is Caleb’s contemporary, also comes back to the house, though he brings with him odds and ends he’s scrounged up from other ...

American Idiot Melissa Etheridge will play St Jimmy in February , filling in during the gap week when Billie Joe is away. My shock and perplexedness at this has little to do with Etheridge's gender and a lot to do with her status. This reeks of stunt casting - totally out of left field stunt casting - that I thought and hoped American Idiot was above. (Sure, Billie Joe is stunt casting, but it makes sense and feels natural, since he created, with Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool, the source material and was so intimately involved in this production's creation.) It also is yet another clue (in my opinion) that American Idiot will, I shudder to "say" it, close at the end of February when Billie Joe finishes his 50-show stand. Before Billie Joe rejoined the cast, the show's box office return was respectable but near the bottom of the rankings. They are seeing huge boosts for the weeks Billie Joe is scheduled to appear and dismal sales for the weeks when he's not. Clearl...

The winter season of City Ballet has begun! And it’s off to a great start. On Wednesday night, I headed over to the State Theatre to see two wonderful Jerome Robbins ballets: Dances at a Gathering and, one of my two favorites, NY Export: Opus Jazz . What a fantastic night of ballet! I’ve written at length about both pieces already ( Dances ; Opus Jazz ) so here I’ll try to be brief and share some of the new thoughts that popped into my head while watching last night’s performance. Once again, Dances at a Gathering struck me as people dancing a memory. There’s a lovely wistfulness to the movements, a palpable longing in the steps. The highlight at this particular performance was definitely watching two virtuosic dancers, Jared Angle and Benjamin Millepied, go toe to toe in the “anything you can do, I can do better” movement. (That’s what I’ve named it, anyway!) The air, the buoyancy – it’s just terrific fun. Maria Kowroski was also fun and full of whimsy during a piece in wh...

The 2011 Golden Globes are wrapped! Last night the stars walked the red carpet before heading inside for the award ceremony. It was a fun broadcast, with snarky Ricky Gervais serving as the master of ceremony. I particularly liked this line from his opening monologue: Talking about snubs, he quipped, “ I Love You Phillip Morris . Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, two heterosexual actors pretending to be gay. So the complete opposite of some famous Scientologist, then. [a beat] My lawyers helped me on the wording of that joke.” Zing! It was that kind of night. Very funny, in my opinion. But, as always, before we get too far into the actual award part of the night, let’s talk fashion. There was a lot of color on the red carpet. Some black, but lots of bright, sometimes shocking colors. There were several ladies wearing dark blue, like Amy Adams and Tina Fey, as well as several peach or nude colored frocks, like Anne Hathaway and Emma Stone. (Note to Emma Stone: I loved you with the red hai...