The production of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” that opened Thursday night at Westchester Broadway Theatre is the real McCoy, a fact that will delight devotees of Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller and his music—the Harlem-style swing that bridged Ragtime and mid-century jazz idioms. It will also tickle anybody with a scintilla of rhythm. Those lacking that innate quality should sit back and let the syncopated melodies and mischievous wordplay get their toes and fingers tapping.
Read More1965’s “Man of La Mancha,” the “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” of musicals, can be read as a bridge between the countercultural tumult of the 1960s and the naval-gazing tendencies that characterized the “Me” generation of the 1970s. It’s also easy to see why its pliant message about the power of the imagination to uplift and transform resonates with artists—or anyone willing to fight for the right to self-expression and, crucially, prepared to risk rejection, ruination and despair in pursuit of their personal vision.
Read MoreIn this sense, “Constellations” constitutes a dazzling counterargument on both the theoretical and practical level to the idea that all meaning lies dormant in, for example, a script or sealed up inside the words on a page; and that no matter who utters them, or how, or in what context and physical space, they will mean the same thing. For this and many other reasons, it follows that only a talented and experienced actor can pull off Payne’s play. No doubt with invaluable assistance from director Mark Shanahan, and fostered by an excellent company that rarely misfires, Sandberg and Williams are terrific. They never miss a beat.
Read More“Another Op'nin', Another Show” at the always reliable Westchester Broadway Theatre. Though not Cole Porter’s peerless “Kiss Me, Kate” which WBT staged several seasons ago, the musical just launched in fine fashion is his shipboard lark “Anything Goes,” a show laden with hit songs and swells engaging in lyrical romance and silly hijinks.
Speaking of openings, this production starts rather inauspiciously with a desultory overture during which three couples dance to a few bars of the title song before the first scene begins. Director and choreographer Richard Stafford sticks to this pattern of having short, quasi-balletic interludes during scene changes—a boon for chorus members, even if it contributes to a choppy passage.
Read MoreWhile doubtlessly conversant with the medium, those born after 1990 probably don’t appreciate the full extent of television’s influence on American culture. Prior to the advent of the personal computer, the Internet and cell phones, TV was how people got most of their information and entertainment.
Read MoreBecause James Fenton’s set design for “Switzerland” is so stunning, it takes several minutes to notice the antique weapons arrayed inside the beautiful, sleekly modernist study he’s fashioned. This collection of swords, daggers and pistols brings to mind crime thrillers like “Sleuth” and “Deathtrap,” which is apt since the room and the armaments in question belong to writer Patricia Highsmith, best known for novels and short stories that meld murder, eroticism and moral psychology. No doubt this small arsenal will figure prominently in the plot of “Switzerland.” That is to say, there will be blood, along with much speculation about what spilling it may mean.
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