Broadway Reviews

'The Collaboration' review — Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope resurrect Warhol and Basquiat

If one thing stands out about The Collaboration, it’s that it offers the most fun on Broadway even when the play isn’t happening. A live DJ spins '80s hits before the show, with colorful dots of light, like paint splatters, spinning across the wall. At intermission, a reel plays of lead actors Jeremy Pope and Paul Bettany, in character as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, painting, roller-skating, and generally having a ball. And then the actual play starts up, about the titular artistic...

'Between Riverside and Crazy' review — superb cast of characters searches for stability

This critic all but keeled over when a character in Between Riverside and Crazy on Broadway said to another, "You're paying $1,500 a month for a palatial mansion on Riverside Drive worth ten times that." Oof. Said "mansion," as suggested by Walt Spangler's enticing set, is a rent-controlled apartment with two stories, at least six rooms, and cushy, if ill-maintained, furnishings. Meanwhile, I know people who shell out comparable rent for places that could fit double on the Hayes Theater stage....

'Some Like It Hot' review — Broadway adaptation of the hit film turns up the comedy and the fun

“What are you thirsty for?” teases Sweet Sue, a brassy Prohibition-era bandleader, in the opening moment in Some Like It Hot. Well, since she asked, I’d like a new Broadway musical comedy that’s a bracing, fizzy cocktail garnished with a winning cast. Happily, this lavish show based on the Oscar-winning 1959 Billy Wilder classic rom-com mostly delivers that. Screen-to-stage adaptations are always tricky endeavors, and this one scores points for not just tracing the source but turning up some...

'Ohio State Murders' review — Audra McDonald chills and thrills in Adrienne Kennedy drama

The most important thing to highlight about Ohio State Murders on Broadway is that it is here. At long last, it is here, with a trio of Black theatre icons (and icons, period) attached. Two are Audra McDonald, the six-time Tony-winning star of the production, and James Earl Jones, for whom the theatre housing Ohio State Murders has just been renamed. And finally, there's Adrienne Kennedy, who wrote such masterworks as Funnyhouse of a Negro in her decades-long Off-Broadway career that pushed the...

'Ain't No Mo' review — talented ensemble takes flight in this sharp Broadway comedy

Ain't No Mo', a badass sketch comedy about the Black experience in America and a mythical airline flight in response to it, is a theatrical excursion you don’t want to miss. This play is fanged, ferocious, and funny as all get out. Written by and featuring Jordan E. Cooper, who at age 27 is the youngest Black American playwright in Broadway history, the show ran at The Public Theater in 2019. Like George C. Wolfe’s play The Colored Museum as well as TV’s In Living Color, the show knows the power...

'A Beautiful Noise' review — Neil Diamond musical celebrates the solitary man and his career

The Neil Diamond catalog arrives on Broadway with guitars strumming, tresses flowing, and sequins blazing in A Beautiful Noise, a jukebox biomusical celebrating the renowned 81-year-old singer/songwriter. Despite being a lukewarm look at the Brooklyn-born superstar, the show headlined by Will Swenson will nonetheless appeal to Diamond’s ardent fans. And he’s amassed lots of them. With 39 albums to Diamond’s credit (an impressive statistic mentioned more than once) and a career spanning six-plus...

'KPOP' review — the South Korean music phenomenon bursts onto Broadway with dazzle

KPOP definitely pops off the stage. No one could accuse this show celebrating Korean pop music of skimping when it comes to fervent flash and electrifying oomph. The production makes amazing use of Circle in the Square’s thrust stage and boasts enough dazzle and energy to power up two Broadway shows. On the other hand, KPOP, written by Jason Kim and directed by Teddy Bergman, has scarcely enough compelling substance to sustain its own first act. The plot retraces numerous behind-the-scenes tales...

'A Christmas Carol' review — Jefferson Mays's inventive solo adaptation is a holiday blessing

The splendid production of A Christmas Carol starring Jefferson Mays in a solo tour de force gets off with a bang. Suffice it to say that a rousing theatrical effect does its job. It grabs you by the lapels — actually, the eardrums — and commands your complete attention. This show and the actor playing some 50 roles deserve it. Drawn from Charles Dickens’s 1843 classic about transformation, redemption, and the Christmas spirit (in every sense), the adaptation by Mays, Susan Lyons, and director...

'& Juliet' review — the Bard meets 21st-century bops in energetic pop musical

Anne Hathaway – the wife of William Shakespeare, not the Oscar-winning actress – has a message for her famous husband. In a nutshell: Your star-crossed-lovers tragedy stinks. That’s the start of & Juliet, a slim but cheeky and eager-to-entertain jukebox musical bursting with chart-toppers made famous by Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys, and other pop stars. “What if Juliet didn’t kill herself?” muses Anne (Betsy Wolfe, goofy, gutsy, and serving gale-force...

'Funny Girl' review — Lea Michele is the greatest star in her triumphant Broadway return

Lea Michele in Funny Girl on Broadway is the theatre event of the season. It’s live theatre at its finest. It’s the perfect marriage of actress and role. The very nature of attending this show is theatrical. For the uninitiated, Lea Michele is a seasoned Broadway performer, who made her debut in Les Misérables at age 8 and rose to fame in her early 20s in the cult hit Spring Awakening before going on to more mainstream television roles, namely the ambitious and talented Rachel Berry on Ryan...