As I prepared to step aboard the good ship Titanique (currently docked at New York's Daryl Roth Theatre), I had a sinking feeling—not due to a fear of icebergs—but because I thought I'd already seen enough Off-Broadway comedy musicals to last for a lifetime. Turns out this one is different. It's a loving parody of... Continue Reading →
Topeka, Kansas-raised Obie Award-winning actor Antwayn Hopper is currently starring on Broadway as Thought 6 in Michael R. Jackson's exhilaratingly meta musical, A Strange Loop. Hopper has been part of the ensemble cast for six years during the show's development ahead of its Tony-winning Broadway run, including appearing in the 2019 Playwrights Horizons Theater production,... Continue Reading →
Ursula is here to spill the tea on what really went on under the sea. Splash-landing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this down and dirty Disney parody is full of show-stopping songs, magical puppets and delightfully filthy humour. Elliotte Williams-N’Dure as Ursula. Photo credit: Underbelly. Following in the footsteps of Cruella and Elphaba, everyone’s favourite... Continue Reading →
A Strange Loop became the most Tony Award-nominated production of the season today, receiving 11 nominations including Best Musical. On Friday night the show's Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, composer and lyricist, Michael R. Jackson, gave a powerful and moving performance of Memory Song from the musical on stage at the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards. Ahead... Continue Reading →
Before the lights go down at the Lyceum Theatre, a recorded announcement by A Strange Loop's Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, composer and lyricist—Michael R. Jackson—politely reminds us to keep our masks on and to switch off or silence our mobile devices. Theatre etiquette which he says, as a former usher, he finds particularly irksome when ignored.... Continue Reading →
The tale of a middle-aged white gay New Yorker having romantic issues might not be the story the world is desperately crying out for at the moment, but Steve—now playing at the newly renamed Seven Dials Playhouse in London—is brisk, bright, and funny. There’s a sense of new beginnings about this production bringing Mark Gerrard’s... Continue Reading →
Lin-Manuel Miranda's hugely creative film adaptation of tick, tick...BOOM! has been, it now seems safe to say, a huge success. Fittingly for the story of Jonathan Larson, a man who referred to himself as 'the future of musical theatre', it is an inventive movie musical that shows what the genre can be and has the... Continue Reading →
After over a year of binging Netflix in my tiny East Village apartment it felt a little Alanis Morissette ironic that my first trip to a Broadway theatre since last March wasn't to see a live theatre production, but for the New York premiere of a Netflix film, Lin-Manuel Miranda's tick, tick…BOOM! As it turned... Continue Reading →
In case you hadn't already heard, Broadway is back, baby, and on Monday it was abuzz, not with the opening of a new show, but with a celebration of the legacy of one of musical theatre's most beloved artists, taken far too soon, Pulitzer Prize and Tony winning Rent creator Jonathan Larson. The event at... Continue Reading →
Jeffrey Schwarz, the Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker behind Vito, I Am Divine, and Tab Hunter Confidential, returns to Outfest this month for the world premiere of his latest feature, Boulevard! A Hollywood Story. The fascinating film unearths the little-known attempt by actress Gloria Swanson to stage an original Broadway musical based on the movie she is... Continue Reading →
