The final three Broadway shows of 2024 opened last week — a play, a musical and…something else, for a total of 33 shows running on Broadway as we head into Chrismukkah (both Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah fall on December 25th this year.). Of course, this is now a week dominated by holiday shows, none more numerous than A Christmas Carol. Last year at this time, I asked Charles Dickens himself why “A Christmas Carol” has been adapted for the stage more often, and on more stages, than any other novella in history.
“I believe it is because the themes of redemption and generosity resonate deeply with audiences of all ages and backgrounds..creating an immersive experience that captures and inspires,” Dickens told me, in a plummy British voice, although his body was a 3D cartoon, and his words created by Artificial Intelligence.
This was a VR adaptation of theatrical of Dickens’ 1843 story. But the actual Charles Dickens has much to say during his lifetime about the power of theater:
“Every writer, though he may not adopt dramatic form, writes, in effect, for the stage. “
“It being a remarkable fact in theatrical history, but one long since established beyond dispute, that it is a hopeless endeavor to attract people to a theater unless they can be first brought to believe that they will never get in.”
Broadway Schedule Christmas and Hanukkah Week 2024
Last Minute Holiday Gifts for Theater Lovers 2024
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
The marquee says it all: “AudraGypsy.” With less brass and more heart, Audra McDonald’s distinctive portrayal of Madam Rose, the mother of all stage mothers, is the reason to see this sixth Broadway production of the 1959 musical inspired by the memoir of Gypsy Rose Lee, the (s)mothered childhood vaudevillian turned famous adult stripper. Some people have called “Gypsy” the greatest musical ever written. “But some people ain’t me” — to quote a Stephen Sondheim lyric from one of Jule Styne’s many tuneful melodies in the show,
Eureka Day
Eureka Day” begins as a stock satire of the painstakingly earnest progressives at a small private elementary school in Berkeley, California, leading to one of the most hilarious scenes of the year, before it settles into a serious, thought-provoking exploration of an alarmingly relevant issue: vaccines. Indeed, despite the stellar cast and director Anne D. Shapiro’s solid direction, the issue has become so newsworthy that Jonathan Spector’s play lands differently now – less comfortably – than when it was first produced in Berkeley in 2018 (the time and place where the play is still set.) What then might have seemed admirably balanced now seems dangerously so.
All In: Comedy About Love
“All In: Comedy about Love” is not based on Simon Rich’s humorous stories; it is a selection of those stories, read aloud from hand-held binders by a rotating cast of four celebrities sitting on chairs. The story-reading is interspersed with songs from the album “69 Love Songs” composed by Stephin Merritt, which are performed by Abigail and Shaun Bengson and their band.
This set-up hasn’t sat well with posters to various chat rooms, who have complained about the high ticket prices and the misleading marketing, which implied it was a play rather than a reading. (One long Reddit thread debated whether it’s a “scam.”) Reviews from invited critics are also largely mixed to negative
More Top 10
Favorite New York Stage Performances of 2024
The New Yorker’s Helen Shaw’s Best Theater of 2024
(updated Top 10 Lists of Top 10 NYC Theater in 2024)
Top 10 Reads in 2024: Life and Trust. Wicked. Best and Worst of Broadway.
The Week in New York Theater News
Dead Outlaw is coming to Broadway. The musical about the bizarre true story of outlaw-turned-corpse-turned-celebrity Elmer McCurdy, will open at the Longacre on the last day of the season, April 27th. Details in my Broadway Spring 2025 Preview Guide
Theater Blog Roundup: Can Wicked show the way?
