A Behanding in Spokane Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
Irish playwright Martin McDonagh's latest black comedy is about a man (Christopher Walken) looking for his missing hand, a pair of con artists on the make (Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan), and a curious hotel clerk (Sam Rockwell).

Broadway Review
This is McDonagh's first attempt at writing a play about Americans, set in America. Although it still has the scribe's signature touches (unsavory characters, comical violence, and clever dialogue), A Behanding in Spokane is McDonagh Lite. It doesn't have the weight of some of his previous plays, which have dealt ingeniously with subjects like terrorism and torture; nor is it quite as funny as those more substantial works. Mackie and Kazan's characters seem underwritten and overacted, but the moments that Walken and Rockwell are together on stage are pure gold.

Memphis Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
Inspired by the true story of a 1950s rock 'n' roll deejay, Memphis tells the story of the man who brought black music to white listeners in the segregated South.

Broadway Review
Broadway regular Chad Kimball finally gets the breakout role he deserves as Huey Calhoun, a guy who is going nowhere until his love of "race music" - combined with his brash style and quick wit - makes him the most popular radio personality in town. Both his big ego and his dogged refusal to acknowledge the barriers of a racist society threaten his relationship with a talented black singer (Montego Glover). Though David Bryan's score is not as strong as the real rock 'n' roll and blues music of that era, it is enjoyable and includes some standout songs; Joe DiPietro's script, with the exception of a few predictable and cheesy moments, is generally smart, funny, and well-constructed; Christopher Ashley's direction is superb. Overall this is a wonderful new Broadway musical with a good look, a hot band, an engaging story, and a fantastic cast of performers to bring it to life.

Time Stands Still Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
Sarah, a photographer, and her partner of several years, James, a journalist, have traveled the world documenting the tragedies of war. But following an injurious accident, the couple must face the challenge of settling down to a more conventional life back in the U.S.

Broadway Review
Donald Margulies's new play Time Stands Still is a well-written and well-acted drama (the stellar cast is headed by Laura Linney and Brian d'Arcy James) that examines a couple as they try to adjust to the unadventurous life and to each other in this ordinary context. Most of the questions that Margulies poses - In a world full of pain, is it okay for us to find happiness for ourselves? Is it morally acceptable for a photojournalist to only document tragedy and not intervene to help the injured? - have been asked in similar dramas, so the subject doesn't exactly feel novel, but Time Stands Still does provide a very engaging and emotional evening in the theater.

Present Laughter Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
In this classic Noel Coward comedy, Victor Garber stars as a self-absorbed actor whose life is turned chaotic by the arrival of a number of troublesome characters (including a crazy playwright, a cheating producer, and his own ex-wife) to his London apartment.

Broadway Review
This Roundabout Theatre Company production is a solidly enjoyable revival of Noel Coward's witty 1939 send-up of showbiz folks. Garber is good (if not quite perfect) in the lead role originally played by Coward himself, and Brooks Ashmanskas is the audience favorite, playing a mincing playwright who is as mad as a hatter.

Race Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
A law firm takes on a racially charged case in this hard-edged new Broadway play written and directed by David Mamet. James Spader and David Alan Grier play law partners, with Kerry Washington as their young associate and Richard Thomas as the famous client charged with the rape of a black woman.

Broadway Review
Race is an engaging play with a very good cast, and Mamet has some interesting observations about the subject matter. But the drama ultimately does little more than serve as an overview of the current state of racial relations (as per the cynical Mamet), without really offering much of anything new on the topic.

A Little Night Music Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
Romances and revelations arise when friends, family, enemies, and lovers all get together for a weekend in the country in this witty musical, based on Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night.

Broadway Review
This Trevor Nunn-directed revival of the Stephen Sondheim / Hugh Wheeler Broadway musical (which features Sondheim's best known song, "Send in the Clowns") is a bit too slow and colorless, which is an unwelcome reminder that A Little Night Music has always been lacking in warmth. Frustration, elation, jealousy, hurt, and longing are all displayed prominently in this tryst-filled comedy of romantic entanglement, but love barely figures into it. However, the production does include fine performances by its most prominent stars, Catherine Zeta-Jones as a glamorous but aging actress, and Angela Lansbury as her disapproving mother.

In the Next Room Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
Set during the Victorian era, this new play by Sarah Ruhl is about a doctor who is treating his hysteria patients with an electrical instrument that releases pent-up energy in the womb. Today it's known as a vibrator, but at that time the medical profession had not yet discovered its "recreational" uses. While the doctor's patients enjoy the benefits of this treatment, his wife sits in the next room, craving his attention.

Broadway Review
Of course In the Next Room derives much humor from the basic premise, which is based very much on genuine medical history and captured hilariously onstage. But what playwright Ruhl is clearly interested in most is human relationships, and this play isn't so much about the merits of physical stimulation as it is about the importance of emotional connection. It is a funny, touching, and intelligent play that captures an era when scientific curiosity and societal repression began to come up against each other.

Finian's Rainbow Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
An Irish man and his daughter are hounded by an irate leprechaun when they take his crock of gold and bring it to the mythical state of Missitucky in this revival of the 1940s musical.

Broadway Review
Finian's Rainbow is a very unusual musical, with its mix of magic, wit, and socio-political commentary, much of which is still relevant today. It also happens to have one of the most memorable musical scores in Broadway history, featuring Burton Lane/E.Y. Harburg songs such as "Old Devil Moon," "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?", "If This Isn't Love," "Something Sort of Grandish," "Look To the Rainbow," "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love," "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich," "That Great Come-and-Get-It Day," and "Necessity". The songs are beautifully sung by a top-rate cast (including the radiant Kate Baldwin, handsome Cheyenne Jackson, and hilarious Christopher Fitzgerald) in this charming production.

Burn The Floor Show Review

Show Summary
Burn the Floor takes its audience on a thrilling journey through time and around the globe with Latin and ballroom dance (with a modern twist), as championship dancers Foxtrot, Cha-Cha, Lindy Hop, Rumba, Jive, Waltz, and Tango their way across the Broadway stage.

Our Recommendation
This blazing hot dance show (which has already toured the world to great acclaim before finally arriving on Broadway) is an homage to the best of international dance, demonstrating nearly every style of dance imaginable. Fans of television shows such as Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance? will appreciate the opportunity to see this passionate art form in a live setting.

Ragtime Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
The lives of a New Rochelle family, a ragtime pianist and his girlfriend, and a Latvian immigrant and his daughter all collide in this adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's novel about the beginning of 20th century America.

Broadway Review
Although it is not quite as visually impressive as the handsome original Broadway production, this revival of the epic American musical sounds every bit as beautiful, with a full orchestra and an excellent cast realizing Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens' gorgeous score full of soaring ballads and syncopated rhythms.

Oleanna Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
A college professor (Bill Pullman) faces off with one of his female students (Julia Stiles) in this revival of the 1992 David Mamet play.

Broadway Review
Although this is not considered to be one of Mamet's best plays, and both the director and actors have made a few less-than-effective choices in this production, Oleanna still succeeds at being a fantastic conversation starter (in fact, each 80-minute performance is followed by a lively audience talkback with special panelists). Serving as a virtual Rorschach test for viewers, the play provokes questions about sexual politics, higher education, political correctness, feminism, male aggression, and class differences that will have you arguing with your theater companions for the rest of the night.

Hamlet

Show Summary
A Danish prince wants to avenge his father's murder in William Shakespeare's most famous tragedy.

Our Recommendation
Following sold-out runs in both London and Elsinore (where the play takes place), this production of Hamlet finally arrives on Broadway. It's a great opportunity for fans of major screen star (and frequent stage actor) Jude Law to see him tackle every actor's dream role.

A Steady Rain

Show Summary
Hugh Jackman (X-Men and Wolverine on screen, The Boy From Oz on Broadway) and Daniel Craig (the James Bond series) star as Chicago cops in this two-man drama by Keith Huff.

Our Recommendation
Who would want to pass up the chance to see these two major movie stars (who already proved their stage chops before they gained fame on the silver screen) go head to head in a tough-guy play?

Bye Bye Birdie

Show Summary
This musical theater classic follows what happens when popular Elvis-style rock 'n' roll singer Conrad Birdie is drafted into the army.

Our Recommendation
This is a great choice for a family looking for some good clean fun and who don't want to see yet another Disney show. The production stars John Stamos (TV's Full House) and Gina Gershon, and the score features classic songs like "Put On A Happy Face," "Kids," and "A Lot of Livin' To Do".