Thursday, November 30, 2023
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,
Author: Jena Tesse Fox
Jena Tesse Fox has been writing about theater for more than a decade. Her reviews and articles have appeared on Playbill.com, TimeOut.com and BroadwayWorld.com. She also hosts the Spotlight podcast on BroadwayRadio.com.
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
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
One-on-One with Ali Ewoldt
Performer Ali Ewoldt has spent the past month as one of the featured performers at Irish Repertory Theatre’s production of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Charlotte Moore’s musical adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ prose memoir running through New Year’s Eve. The production marks Ewoldt’s first performance with Irish Rep since she appeared as Rose in a late 2020 virtual production of Meet Me in St. Louis, filmed remotely with each performer getting direction over Zoom. Two years later, Ewoldt has reunited with several of the cast members of the musical to reinterpret Dylan Thomas’ story in a new way, with director Moore
Todd Buonopane: All Washed Up at Feinstein’s/54 Below
When the theaters shut down and performers could not perform in public anymore, actor and singer Todd Buonopane took to his bathtub and turned his shower curtain into a theater curtain, performing scenes and singing songs into a camera and sharing the videos on social media. Now that cabaret venues have reopened, performers are returning to the stage. After an out-of-town tryout, Buonopane recently brought his act to the Feinstein’s/54 Below stage, singing songs traditionally performed by women and celebrating some of the greatest ladies of the theater. Having a live (and decidedly enthusiastic) audience to play off of gave Buonopane’s interpretations
A Christmas Carol – A virtual take on a classic
One-man performances of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol go back to the Victorian era, when Dickens himself gave readings of his instant hit. A new recorded production, starring Jefferson Mays, breathes new life into the tradition, and offers a genuinely moving—and truly theatrical—story about redemption and kindness. This recording was created to benefit partner theaters around the country that were affected by the pandemic. Directed by Michael Arden, adapted by Arden, Mays, and Susan Lyons and conceived by Arden and Dane Laffrey, the filmed version is based on the 2018 production that made its premiere at Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse. The script
Technology Brings Theater to the Home
The constrictions the theater community has faced in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic are unlike anything we have had to face in our lifetime. And while there is no way of knowing when traditional theaters will reopen, technology has offered fans a wealth of options to remain sated: Professionally recorded productions are being released online and live performances are being broadcast from actors’ homes, keeping the artform alive in a different way. Preserved for Posterity The National Theatre has been releasing previously recorded productions on YouTube each week for limited “runs” of several days, encouraging viewers to donate to the