On a sweltering afternoon this past weekend in Harlem, Marcus Garvey Park was pulsing with activity as families scurried across the dry grass, couples lounged on benches, and the shouts of children permeated the breezy air from the public pool. It was on this neighborhood stage, just blocks from the historic Apollo theatre, that PopUP […]
Christian or not, religious or not, chances are that you have probably heard the hymn Amazing Grace. A song of redemption, of rediscovery, of renewal, Amazing Grace is a poignant and powerful anthem, yet very few people know anything about the man who penned the hymn, John Newton, nor how he came to write such […]
What is your morning jam? You know what I mean. Your go to song when you are heading to work, the song you blast while getting ready for the day, or the song you set as your alarm because it is impossible to hate (or, worse, sleep through). Periods of my life are inextricably linked […]
After a few days of recovery (and work), it is time to share some thoughts on the spectacle that was the 2015 Tony Awards. For the first time in years, I saw nearly all of the nominated shows (and numerous shows that failed to make the American Theatre Wing’s list of nominees), so I stepped […]
Love, lust, power, and control – sounds like the central themes of a new season of the reality show Real Housewives; however those concepts actually unite in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Wolf Hall, presented in two parts, at the Winter Garden. PBS recently aired a six part miniseries based upon the popular novel […]
The new musical An American in Paris is less a musical than a ballet with a few Gershwin numbers sprinkled about a dance-laden plot. “New” is also a bit of a misnomer – An American in Paris is based upon the 1951 musical film of the same name with Gene Kelly. Like most Gene Kelly […]
The Bard is back on Broadway – just don’t go looking for any of his plays. No, Shakespeare is actually playing leading man in the new musical Something Rotten! playing at the beautiful St. James Theatre. Something Rotten! is a meta-musical that is just a little too cute for its own good and, ultimately, it […]
There is one thing that struck me immediately about the new musical Fun Home: the audience, which was unique. The lesbian couple to my left had never been to a Broadway show before (a point that they stressed repeatedly while we chatted before curtain), and the older gentleman to my right was a seasoned theatre […]