New Article: Mandy Patinkin

For Back Stage, I have on the stands and on line a long profile of Mandy Patinkin, who is playing Prospero in CSC's Brian Kulick-directed revival of The Tempest.

Here's the tease:

In The Tempest, one of the last plays William Shakespeare fully authored, the character of Prospero is a conundrum. For 12 years he's been marooned on an island with his young daughter, Miranda. Struggling to survive, he blackmails the spirit Ariel into being his servant and compels the mortal Caliban to be his slave. For reasons equally simple and complex, Prospero is hero and antihero, protagonist and antagonist. Perhaps it's those contradictions that make him the perfect role for Mandy Patinkin to play.

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New Article: Critics Emerge From the Shadows -- As Playwrights!

I wrote a Web Exclusive story for Back Stage on how the Abingdon Theatre Company is starting its season with two plays by critics -- first The English Channel by Robert Brustein and then Beachwood Channel by L.A. Weekly theatre editor Steven Leigh Morris.

Here's the tease:

By definition, the critic-artist dynamic is adversarial: Writers may toil for years, followed by directors and often dramaturges fine-tuning things, followed by actors leaping into the fray as the play at last takes shape. Then, after so much effort to calibrate each element just so, who crashes the party but that caviling coven of critics, none tied to the production process, all ready to brandish pens and render their verdicts for the public, be it caustic or complimentary. Who can blame artists for their frustrations and fury?

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New Review: The Naked Dead Elephant in the Middle of the Room

For Back Stage, as part of the New York International Fringe Festival.

Here's the tease:

Playwright-director Larson Rose may never forgive the creators of [title of show] for first getting the idea of a play acted on stage as it's being written. But he needn't worry: With The Naked Dead Elephant in the Middle of the Room, he shows that naked men on stage always win your heart.

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New Review: Hair

For Back Stage. Of course, you really have to read the whole thing to find out what I thought. I'm just saying.

Anyway, here's the tease:

The Public Theater's revival of Hair is so spirited in its heart and mind that experiencing it is like sitting atop a promontory — a mesmerizing high. It's sung so buoyantly, with such sincere embrace, that there are moments when the infectious, durable rock score by composer Galt MacDermot and co-lyricists (and book writers) Gerome Ragni and James Rado floats you on air — a delectable high.

And make no mistake: Hair showcases one physically beautiful cast. Just looking at them — Jonathan Groff's sweet-smiling Claude, Will Swenson's buff Berger, Caren Lyn Manuel's sultry Sheila, Bryce Ryness' sensuous Woof, and Patina Renea Miller's earthy Dionne, among others — is enough to power-launch you on an Apollo mission to a paradisiacal astral plane.

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New Review: Cry-Baby

This review went up Thursday night at Back Stage.

Here's a tease:

If only Cry-Baby, the new musical derived from John Waters' 1990 film, was a mess like Good Vibrations or Lestat. If only, conversely, it was smart enough to make discussing the screen-to-stage transition meaningful. The high-energy, good-looking cast may work their hearts out to entertain, and Rob Ashford's choreography may be as impressively athletic as anything Michael Kidd once did, but when the blubber meets the road, Cry-Baby is aggressively mediocre.

And, by the way, blubber does not refer to fat. If you've never heard of blubbering, here's a definition for you.

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New Review: Our Town (the opera)

This review went up Thursday night at Back Stage.

Here's a tease:

For their three-act opera of Thornton Wilder's immortal Our Town, librettist J.D. McClatchy and composer Ned Rorem have put the original play through a colander, straining out minor characters and leaving Grover's Corners hauntingly underpopulated. The authors clearly know better than to tamper with Wilder's modus operandi -- the omnipotent, saturnine Stage Manager (grim-faced, fine-voiced Alex Mansoori) who guides us through the tale -- but swaths of text and even some overall mood have been sacrificed to slim the piece to size.

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New Review: Jerry Springer: The Opera

My review of Jerry Springer: The Opera is now posted at Back Stage.

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New Review: The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America

From the pages (and blog) of Back Stage:

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Presenting...Allison Janney!

My cover story interview with Allison Janney is now available for free at Backstage.com. Here is a link to the story.


Photo by Kevin Sprague

And yes, she was fabulous, by the way. She made you feel like you've known her a hundred years and yet like you were just getting to know her at the same time. Fiercely smart, terribly funny, and nice as could be. Wish they were all winners like her.

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Patti LuPone in Gypsy Was...

...can't tell you yet, but I was at the opening tonight and am sitting here writing my review for Monday's Back Stage. Stay tuned.

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Camryn Manheim Cover Story Out

For those of you who would like to read it, here's a link to my Back Stage cover story on Camryn Manheim.

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Who Said All Republicans are Destroying the United States of America?

Well, I did. But the problem is, a truly excellent book by Gary L. Cole, Artless: The Odyssey of a Republican Cultural Creative, is worming its way into changing my mind a little bit. Absolutely excellent, excellent writing and, for once, a memoir that illuminates rather than self-illuminates, if you know what I mean.

I'll be writing a review of the book shortly for Back Stage.

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