Broadway Reviews

Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy

A Review by Barbara Mehlman and Geri Manus.Every year, Broadway offers us a surprise. A few years ago, the puppets of "Avenue Q" were the big hit. This season we've seen a green-faced monster do a soft-shoe in Young Frankenstein, mermaids and crabs glide across the stage in Little Mermaid, Greek roller-skating muses in Xanadu, and now a circus, minus, thankfully, the smelly animals. Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy has come to Broadway.Cirque Dreams is the latest production of Neil Goldberg's Cirque...

White Christmas

A Review by Barbara Mehlman and Geri Manus.In 1942, Irving Berlin signed a contract with Paramount to write songs for a film with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire called "Holiday Inn." It was expected that the big single to come out of that movie would be "Be Careful, It's My Heart," but things didn't turn out that way. The blockbuster hit from the movie was "White Christmas."Some 12 years later, Bing was back, teamed up with Danny Kaye, Rosie Clooney and Vera-Ellen to make "White Christmas," a...

Equus

A Review by Barbara Mehlman and Geri Manus.In his book, "Love's Executioner," Stanford University psychiatrist Irvin Yalom explains that "I do not like to work with patients who are in love�because love and psychotherapy are fundamentally incompatible. The good therapist fights darkness and seeks illumination, while romantic love is sustained by mystery and crumbles upon inspection. I hate to be love's executioner."Prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Martin Dysart, hates it as well when he realizes he...

'Aladdin' review

Read our four-star review of Aladdin on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre.

Grease

The conductor struck up the band, but the audience was already screaming. After all, many audience members who watched the television auditions for the third revival of "Grease," the iconic greaser classic, may have voted for the people they were about to see on the stage.For those of you who didn't tune in to the reality show, "Grease: You're the One That I Want," this is what happened. A bunch of star-struck youngsters who believed in themselves and their talent heeded the open call for a man...

Sunday in the Park with George

Review by Michael Hillyer February 24, 2017Sarna Lapine's stunning new production of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's Sunday In The Park With George, which has welcomed back the newly renovated Hudson Theatre to the ranks of Broadway houses after a half-century absence, is an excellent example of why less is often more.The same could not be said for the lavish Hudson Theatre itself, and its comfortable new seats; the opulent lobby is embellished with elaborate decorative molding and studded...

Anastasia

Anastasia is a perfectly crafted Broadway musical fairy-tale that is going to run forever. Family-friendly, romantic, glittery, great sets and costumes, show-stopping second banana (Caroline O'Connor, I'm looking at you), and songs the audience already knows and loves. Wait, what? It's billed as an original musical with book by noted playwright Terrence McNally, and music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, the duo who brought us "Ragtime", and oh yes, the animated movie musical...

Company

If a theatrical gimmick works once, will it work twice?Last year John Doyle won a Tony for best director of a musical for the revival of Stephen Sondheim�s masterpiece Sweeney Todd. Unlike previous productions of that show, it featured a unit-set, dispensed with the orchestra in favor of having the music played by members of the cast, and provided the distinct pleasure of watching Patti Lupone sashaying around with a tuba.This year, Doyle and Co. have elected to revive Sondheim�s Company...

'Wicked' review

There have been moments in the history of musical theater when, like a twister, the sheer talent and whirling spectacle of a production have flattened any negative criticism that stood to get in its way. Take October, 2003 for example. That was the month that Wicked opened in New York to generally dour reviews. But since then, more than 8.8 million people have found the heart, nerve and wisdom to pay a visit, resulting in the happy scene of a Broadway house filled with as many teens as adults,...

Waitress

Waitress is a musical that will leave you fahklempt, because of Sarah Bareilles' sublime music, but seriously unsatisfied with the decision to overstuff this story.There are a few basic and necessary ingredients in writing a story. On the one hand there is the three character rule. Two main characters, one of whom - the primary - is driving the piece (Romeo tumbles for Juliet), and a third character whose presence affects the plot. Romeo kills Mercutio and things go south. We see this all the...