Thoughts Day by Day

Theater critics are unreliable.  Recently The New York Times gave a brilliantly positive review to the new musical 'An American in Paris'.  Two days later I was sitting in a theater next to an elderly couple (I know, I know.  I am elderly now too.  But they were older.) and we got into a discussion about the new season and they mentioned they saw 'An American in Paris' the weekend before.  They were not impressed.  In fact they said it was 'boring'. They admired the dancing and the sets but said they almost fell asleep. So is it worth seeing? 'Finding Neverland' opened two days ago.  This is/was a much anticipated musical with a star-power cast.  The New York Times disliked it. But I just heard ABC News theater reviewer Andy Kenyon give it a rave.  In fact he has convinced me I should grab a ticket before it disappears. The story itself is substantial but this reviewer raved about the actors, the music and all the special effects.  ...

I just saw the funniest musical in the world. No exaggeration.  "Something Rotten!" doesn't open on Broadway until next week but I know it is going to be a big hit.  First of all, the plot is preposterous, ridiculous, inane, over the top.  But that is part of the fun.  It is not based on any book, film, play or historical character (other than William Shakespeare who in this case is Shakespeare as 16th century rock star.)  So one never ever knows where the plot will turn next.  It is always a surprise.  This is Shakespeare meets Spamalot.  I'm not even going to give the plot away here because I must recommend this musical and I don't want to spoil your fun. The costumes, sets and lighting make this a very colorful musical - more colorful than one would ever expect to find in 1595 London.  The musical score is first rate.  There are several showstopping musical numbers - especially "A Musical" - a big, fat Broadway production numb...

On Saturday I saw “Hand to God” at the Booth Theatre and "The Audience" at the Schoenfeld Theatre.  Have you seen "Hand to God"?   If so, can you please explain to me what this play is about?  I was more than a bit in shock.  Not what I was expecting. That is not to say it wasn't a good play or a good experience.  I was just totally taken aback. "Hand to God" opened this week to stupendous reviews.  So I thought I must see it.  A shy teenage boy named Jason (played by talented Steven Boyer) has a hand puppet named Tyrone that speaks for Jason – the inner voice of his most repressed thoughts, but that the loud, assertive, licentious and foul-mouthed Tyrone has no second thoughts about expressing.  Okay – this is an interesting concept to begin with: deep within our civilized public personas there are devilish and sexually repressed desires lurking within us that we are ashamed to acknowledge and speak about.  Jason’s recently widowed mo...