An 89-year-old Broadway producer complaining about Broadway ticket prices was the most popular post yet again on my NewYorkTheater.me blog in 2023, although the post is from May, 2022. It just keeps on getting rediscovered.
One of this year’s ten best-read posts below dates back a decade (about plays that go back a century.) The most recent went up last month. Many of the posts that got the most traffic were recent theater reviews; I find it interesting that, of the three Sondheims this year, only my review of the new Off-Broadway one, “Here We Are,” was in the top ten. (My review of “Sweeney Todd” was number 16; my review of the Broadway production of “Merrily We Roll Along” wasn’t even in the top 50; I guess people had made up their minds by the time it transferred from Off-Broadway.)
.Each title is linked to the full piece; I also excerpt the first paragraph, and give the date of publication.
Broadway Producer Emanuel Azenberg: “We’ve chased away an audience.”
When I was a kid in the Bronx, I went to the theater for $1.10,” says Emanuel Azenberg. Granted that was a while ago; he’s 88. But he is also a Broadway producer and general manager with nine Tony Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement, and six decades of experience with some hundred plays and musicals right up to the present. And his analysis, which he explained in a TEDx Broadway talk this week, is that Broadway has lost its way, and not just because of ticket prices – but definitely because of them…(May 22, 2022)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ ABCs of American Values: “The Constitution over the cult …Freedom over fascism… Maturity over Mar-a-Lago…”
Near the end of his inspiring 15-minute address to the 118th Congress before the formal handing-over of the gavel to the newly elected Speaker of the House early Saturday morning, Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) spelled out the values of Democrats, in alphabetical order… (January 7, 2023)
The 50 Best Plays of The Past 100 Years
The Number one play of the past 100 years is Arthur Miller’s 1949 play “Death of A Salesman,” according to Entertainment Weekly’s issue of July 5/12, 2013. Number 50 is Conor McPherson’s 1997 play “The Weir.” In-between are 48 other plays (the scripts, really, not any specific productions) that EW’s critics have chosen…(June 27, 2013)
Watch Bring Them Home: A Broadway Prayer for The Oct 7 Hostages
In the video below, dozens of Broadway performers have recorded the song from “Les Miserables” with a slightly altered title on behalf of the more than two hundred people who were kidnapped in Israel on October 7th. The names and ages of the victims run along the bottom of the video, which concludes with a collage of the victims’ faces. Among the performers’ faces I recognized in the video: Annaleigh Ashford, Julie Benko, Sierra Boggess, Carolee Carmello, Victoria Clark, Micaela Diamond, Tovah Feldshuh, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jeremy Jordan, Derek Klena, Linda Lavin, Raymond J. Lee, Caissie Levy, Jose Llana, Terrence Mann, Debra Messing, Jessie Mueller, Alex Newell, Kelli O’Hara, Benjamin Pajak, Billy Porter, Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley….(November 10, 2023)
Some Like It Hot Broadway Review
“Some Like It Hot” is glitzy, excessive, frenetic and funny, with hyperactive choreography, a game, talented cast, and a jazzy score with multiple 11 o’clock numbers. Much of this reminded me of the current Broadway revival of “The Music Man,” in that it amps up the entertainment in hopes of blasting us into submission. Whether you leave feeling entertained or overwhelmed probably depends on how eager you are for a fun time….(December 11, 2022)
Broadway 2023-2024 Season Preview Guide
Below is my preview guide of Broadway openings in the 2023-2024 season. The shows are listed chronologically by opening date* (not by first preview), with the title linked to the show’s official website.
It only includes shows that as of now have an official opening date and a theater. More is to come; much will be changed. This guide is updated.
Here We Are Review. Sondheim the Surrealist
“O, isn’t this wonderful?!” Marianne Brink (Rachel Bay Jones) exclaims upon seeing her old friends at her door. It is the first line in Stephen Sondheim’s first new musical in two decades, produced two years after his death. Long-gestating, long-awaited, “Here We Are” can itself be considered wonderful just for existing, like an unexpected visit from an old friend….(October 22, 2023)
Blackface on Stage: The Complicated History of Minstrel Shows
The strange doings in Virginia have brought blackface back in the news. Reaction to the unearthing of a photograph on the 1984 medical school yearbook page of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam attests to the peculiar place of the practice in American culture and the special outrage it provokes: Far more commentators condemned the character in blackface in the photograph than even mentioned the figure next to him in the white robe and hood of the Ku Klux Klan….It is probably not a coincidence that almost all these newly confessed incidents involved the impersonation of entertainers. Consciously or not, they were plugging into an old tradition of blackface as one of the main features of what was for many decades the most popular form of stage entertainment in America: the minstrel show…. (February 7, 2019)
Camelot Broadway Review
There are bright shining moments aplenty in the latest Broadway revival of “Camelot,” the 1960 Lerner and Loewe musical about the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. These are mostly found in the tuneful score, which is played by a sumptuous 30-piece orchestra (with three trumpets — enough for a fanfare!) and sung by a talented cast led by three appealing young stars, who are the main draw after the score: Andrew Burnap (Tony winner for The Inheritance) as King Arthur; Phillipa Soo (who made a splash in Hamilton and has proven herself one of New York theater’s go-to leading ladies in the decade since) as Guenevere, Arthur’s at first reluctant Queen; and Jordan Donica (who sang the swoon-worthy “On The Street Where You Live” in the last revival of “My Fair Lady”) as Lancelot du Lac, a knight who reveres Arthur but falls in love with Guenevere, singing the swoon-worthy “If Ever I Should Leave You” to her.
But, as entertaining as the musical numbers are, it’s hard not to be disappointed by this production. That’s largely because it’s too easy to expect too much from it…(April 16, 2023)
Life of Pi Broadway Review
Whether or not his fantastical tale of sharing a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger for 227 days on the open seas will “make you believe in God,” as the 17-year-old shipwreck survivor named Pi Patel promises, the stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s best-selling novel “Life of Pi” will give you faith in the power of puppetry and in the magic of stagecraft….(March 30, 2023)
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