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

Broadway Bites: Casting and New Shows Announced Lots of news this week about shows that are coming to Broadway in the 2013-2014 season. Casting : Additional casting has been announced for the upcoming repertory productions of Twelfth Night  and Richard III . Joining the all-male cast led by the incomparable Mark Rylance  are several members of the Shakespeare's Globe company. Visit Playbill for the full cast list. New show : After Midnight , a re-conception of  Cotton Club Parade and filled with the music  Duke Ellington , will play the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Previews begin October 18 and opening night is set for November 3.  Playbill  has details. Casting : Lead casting has been announced for the previously announced Broadway run of Jason Robert Brown 's stage adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County . The busy  Kelli O'Hara  and Steven Pasquale  will star in the production that begins previews in January 2014. The ta...

The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin is good. I liked it. But there is nothing overwhelmingly amazing about it, except for the accurate if clumsy title. The new play by Steven Levenson is having its world premiere run at Roundabout, where Levenson’s The Language of Trees was a hit in its Underground series. For an emerging playwright, there is a lot to praise and much potential. I don’t have anything disparaging to say but I also don’t feel moved to be effusive in my praise. Tom Durnin focuses on a relevant if oft-overlooked topic. Financial crimes are almost old hat by now (maybe particularly for jaded New York audiences) but what about the indirect victims? Levenson centers his play on those people. At rise, the titular Tom Durnin (David Morse) pays an unexpected and unwelcome visit his son, James (Christopher Denham), after being released from a “country club” prison, having served time for a white collar crime. Throughout the play, we watch Tom manipulate ever...

The Wolf of Wall Street : First Trailer Fresh off his stint as playboy Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby , Leonardo DiCaprio is starring as another playboy in The Wolf of Wall Street . This collaboration between DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese ( Hugo ) is based on the eponymous memoir by Wall Street-er Jordan Belfort, and chronicles his excessive and probably illegal lifestyle as he made it big on Wall Street. Boardwalk Empire creator Terrence Winter wrote the adapted screenplay. (You may have heard DiCaprio say during interviews for Django Unchained that he was filming The Wolf of Wall Street . Indeed, it was in production in New York last fall.) The film is slated for release November 15, just days before DiCaprio's birthday. With this pedigree (DiCaprio and Scorsese are joined by the resurgent Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, The Artist 's Jean Dujardin, and Once 's Cristin Miloti, among others), look for this to be a contender come movie award seaso...

(Scroll down for some awesome Muppet news!) Tony Awards Extras The 67th annual Tony Awards are behind us and so the 2013-2014 Broadway season has commenced. In case you missed it, here's my Tony Awards Wrap Up , complete with the full list of winners and lots of photos. And herein is some post-Tonys news: On the heels of its win for Best New Play, Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike has extended its run . The already-extended play will now run at the Golden Theatre through August 25. Though original cast member Sigourney Weaver must exit the show to prepare for a film role, Tony-winning actress Julie White will take over the role of Masha. Weaver plays her final performance July 28; White joins the cast July 30. Playbill has details. Tony nominee Carrie Coon ( Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ) has been cast in the new HBO pilot for The Leftovers , the series adaptation of the Tom Perrotta novel. Coon joins the previously announced Jus...

Holy Thespis, Venice is sick! This new musical, currently at the Public Theater, is a rock and roll hip-hopera that uses modern music (love the great grooves and dope beats) to tell a classic tale (and throws in some classic theatre tropes for good measure along the way). Venice tells the dystopian tale of a war-torn country (a fictional Venice), torn apart after a devastating terrorist attack. Fast forward to 20 years later when two friends, Willow, the daughter of the late president (he was killed in the attack), and Venice, a commoner, reunite after being separated in the aftermath of the attack. (Naturally, the elite, Willow and her ilk, were taken to a nearly hermetically-sealed safe zone; the others, like Venice, were left to fend for themselves in the ruins.) They plan to marry in order to reunite their beloved country and bring peace to their people. But someone has other plans. As Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis explains in his program notes, writers...

The 67th annual Tony Awards are in the books and it was a fun-filled broadcast with some emotional and unexpected wins. Hosting for the fourth time, Neil Patrick Harris did a terrific job selling Broadway. From his opening number written by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, to his Les Miserables  Tom Hooper close up joke (zing!), to the entertaining if unnecessary medley featuring Broadway vets with canceled TV shows (the medley was written by Michael John LaChiusa and featured Laura Benanti ( Go On ), Andrew Rannells ( The New Normal ) and Megan Hilty ( Smash )) to the surprise closing number, featuring five-time Tony winner Audra McDonald and written by Miranda (who, according to his tweet, was playing the piano!), it was a great night for Broadway. And now, without any further ado, the full list of winners for the 2013 Tony Awards! (Winners are notated in boldface type and with an asterisk.) Best Play The Assembled Parties , Richard Greenberg Lucky Guy , Nora Ephro...