THE HANGOVER REPORT – HARRY CONNICK, JR.: A CELEBRATION OF COLE PORTER is an awkward tribute, but the music-making is sensational

This week at the Nederlander Theatre, Harry Connick, Jr.: A Celebration of Cole Porter opened on Broadway for a limited holiday season run. To say that the show is merely a concert would be … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Heady alternative holiday fare in Brooklyn: A VERY MEOW MEOW HOLIDAY SHOW & NUTCRACKER ROUGE

This past week in Brooklyn, I got in the holiday spirit by catching two alternative – and very adult – holiday shows. First up in Bushwick was Company XIV’s holiday show … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Tony Kushner’s revised A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY, if still imperfect, radiates urgency

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with the Public Theater’s Off-Broadway revival of Tony Kushner’s 1985 A Bright Room Called Day, a work that’s notable for being the revered … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – THE ILLUSIONISTS return to Broadway, in the same generic form but slightly tweaked for the holidays

For about half a decade now, The Illusionists has been making an annual pilgrimage to Broadway during the holiday season. How apropos, therefore, that for the past two years – this time … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Stephen Adly Guirgis’s vital HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN is unruly and overpopulated, as it should be

Last night, Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven opened Off-Broadway at the Linda Gross Theater via a co-production between Atlantic Theater Company and LAByrinth Theater Company (the playwright … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival continues with two stimulating international productions: 32 RUE VANDENBRANDEN & BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES

In recent weeks, BAM’s Next Wave Festival continued robustly with two stimulating, stirringly-staged international productions at the Harvey Theater. First we have Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier’s 32 rue Vandenbranden (RECOMMENDED), … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The stage adaptation of Alanis Morissette’s JAGGED LITTLE PILL is smart and ferocious

Thus far, it’s been an uncommonly good season for Broadway jukebox musicals. Moulin Rouge reached ecstatic heights I didn’t think possible, while Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is making a bona fide … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Will Eno depicts the totality of life in THE UNDERLYING CHRIS, the playwright’s most conventional work to date

Currently running Off-Broadway at the Tony Kiser Theater is Second Stage Theater’s production of The Underlying Chris by Will Eno. In many ways, Mr. Eno is American playwriting’s contemporary response to … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – TFANA’s meticulous staging of María Irene Fornés’s FEFU AND HER FRIENDS does the audacious, scantly-seen modern classic proud

This past weekend at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, I had the exciting opportunity to finally catch a live performance of the seminal, scantly-seen Fefu and Her Friends by Cuba American playwright María … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Three flawed but fascinating Off-Broadway musicals this fall and early winter: CYRANO, EINSTEIN’S DREAMS, and BROADBEND, ARKANSAS

This fall and early winter, I encountered a trio of fascinating if flawed Off-Broadway musicals, the product of three consistently intriguing theater companies – The New Group, Prospect Theater Company, and Transport … Continue Reading →