Shucked: A Corny Gem

If you had told me a few months ago that I would spend two hours and change laughing hysterically at a cheesy, corny new musical reportedly inspired by the classic TV show Hee-Haw, I would have looked at you with one eyebrow arched well above my head. But Shucked, the new musical with a book by Robert Horn and score by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, manages to be ridiculously silly and fun at the same time. The show never takes itself very seriously and just focuses on easy laughs — and some days, easy laughs are exactly what’s needed. The story,

New York, New York: Come On, Come Through

Sometimes, all the elements for an excellent musical come together and the sparks simply don’t fly. Such is the case with New York, New York, a new musical based on a 1977 romantic movie. With songs by John Kander and the late Fred Ebb as well as new songs Kander wrote with Lin-Manuel Miranda, a book by David Thompson and Sharon Washington and direction and choreography by Susan Stroman, the show has all the makings of a hit, but the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts. The story, inspired by the classic film that gave New York

Prima Facie: Turning the Tables

Madeleine Albright once said that there is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women. That quote could be at the heart of Prima Facie, a new one-woman play by Suzie Miller about a woman forced to confront her legal defense of rapists—and the legal system’s treatment of survivors—once she is sexually assaulted herself. The 90-minute play follows Tessa, a criminal defense barrister in London who uses peoples’ prejudices and misconceptions to ensnare them on the witness stand and who firmly believes that whoever builds the best case will win. Justice is incidental: “If a few guilty

Dancin’: Celebrating an Art Form

Bob Fosse developed the musical Dancin' as both a tribute to and a departure from his signature choreographic style. The show, which premiered on Broadway in 1978, was conceived as a celebration of dance itself, showcasing a wide variety of dance styles and techniques in a series of distinct sequences, each with its own style. Fosse used this structure to experiment with different choreographic techniques and to explore the boundaries of what was possible within the realm of dance. It worked. The initial production ran for 1,774 performances and launched a national tour that included different scenes and dances, demonstrating the

Plays for the Plague Year: Art and Catharsis

Photo by Joan Marcus

There is something powerfully cathartic about art created out of trauma, especially when that art reminds us that we aren’t alone in our pain. In Plays for the Plague Year, which opened last night at The Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub, Suzan-Lori Parks reminds her audience that pain shared is halved, but joy shared is doubled. Parks created the piece from March 2020 to April 2021 while the country was in lockdown. Much as she did with 365 Days/365 Plays, Parks wrote one short play (and some songs) for each day, documenting the fear, anger and helplessness that dominated the national discourse

Bad Cinderella — Campy, But Not Classic

Yet again, Andrew Lloyd Webber has created a musical with a titular protagonist rejected by mainstream society for not meeting popular beauty standards—but unlike The Phantom of the Opera, Bad Cinderella eschews gothic melodrama in favor of silliness, aiming for laughs that it rarely earns. The setting of this adaptation is Belleville, a town where beauty is prioritized above all else. Only two people in the town do not live up to the community’s surface standards: Cinderella and Prince Sebastian, the new heir to the throne since the disappearance of his older brother Prince Charming. The two, of course, are best

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