AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Washington Post

'West Side Story' at the National Theatre
This 'West Side Story' Is Fluent In the Language of the Heart

Baltimore Sun

Revved-up 'West Side Story' gets a trial run in Washington
The Broadway-bound revival of West Side Story that opened last night in Washington has dirt on its shins and blood under its fingernails.

Variety

Review: West Side Story
...a sincere and energetic production that still dazzles with Jerome Robbins' riveting choreography and the landmark Bernstein-Sondheim score. It could be the perfect tonic for Broadway's economic blues.

Potomac Stages

Review: West Side Story

AmericanTheaterWeb

Review - Becky Shaw - A Dark Modern Comedy of Manners

New York Times

First-Date Dyspepsia and Marriage Queasiness
Gina Gionfriddo’s corker of a new play, “Becky Shaw,” is as engrossing as it is ferociously funny.

New York Daily News

'Becky Shaw' is 'slick, stylish,' but a bit too clever
A social study of haves and have-nots and the blurry line between the two, "Becky Shaw" is slick and stylish and flecked with pungent moments, but it buckles under too much clever dialogue.

amNY New York City Theater

Theater Review of Becky Shaw
It takes a while to see where exactly playwright Gina Gionfriddo is going in her slow-paced, verbose, yet intriguing black comedy “Becky Shaw,” which just opened at Off-Broadway’s Second Stage after a successful run at Kentucky’s Humana Festival.

New York Post

Sharp wit part of setup
Anyone planning to play matchmaker should first see "Becky Shaw." Gina Gionfriddo's scath ing, class-conscious comedy is a...

Bergen Record

Praised comedy opens off-Broadway "Becky Shaw"

Associated Press

Gionfriddo's 'Becky Shaw' Is a Sharp Social Comedy
''Becky Shaw,'' which opened Thursday at off-Broadway's Second Stage, is a sharp social comedy of articulate anger laced with large helpings of angst and ambition. The perfect nourishment for theatergoers starved for a dramatic conflagration or two.

Bloomberg.com

Tantalizing `Becky Shaw' Delivers Freakish Folks, Pithy Humor: John Simon
The plot of Gina Gionfriddo’s “Becky Shaw” is inconsequential and the characters are mundane, but the talk is a blue streak verging on purple. Presented by New York’s Second Stage, it is a comedy that subsists on its sweaty dialogue alone.

Financial Times

Becky Shaw, Second Stage, New York
Too often this play descends into soap-opera situations, writes Brendan Lemon

Variety

Review: Becky Shaw
...any charge of superficiality hardly counts as criticism, when character surfaces are so artfully defined by the savvy cast of Peter DuBois' slick production for Second Stage.

Back Stage

Becky Shaw reviewed by David Sheward
It seems as though all the hot action in Becky Shaw takes place offstage. A daughter has a nasty confrontation with her mother's new lover in a hotel lobby. Newlyweds have their first serious fight.

TheaterMania

Review: Bekcy Shaw
Gina Gionfriddo's cynical play about modern romance is as bogus as a Ponzi scheme.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: Becky Shaw
Economic problem drama, vibrant comic soap opera, or both? Who knows and who cares? For the majority of Becky Shaw, Gina Gionfriddo's deliciously unclassifiable new play at Second Stage, it hardly matters whether you're immersed in a hard-boiled domestic page-turner or an acid-toned satire of values and finances gone impossibly awry. All that's relevant is the insinuating energy of the title character, the helpless people in her orbit who are being wrenched apart by her gravitational pull, and the delirious plot twists and barbed-wire dialogue that unite them all in an addictive theatrical frenzy. . . .

CurtainUp

Review: Becky Shaw

A hearty laugh is never far away in Gina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw, a dark modern comedy of manners that opened last night at Second Stage Theatre.

Gionfriddo's title character doesn't appear until late in the first act. Until she does, we met a marvelously eccentric group of characters, including the steely and passive aggressive Susan (Kelly Bishop), who's recently widowed, fighting MS and dating her much younger house painter. Susan's ability to so rapidly move on with her life appalls her psychology graduate student daughter Suzanna (made somehow neurotically enchanting by Emily Bergl), who after four months still grieves her father's death and battles almost clinical depression over it. When things get really bad for Suzanna, she turns to Max (David Wilson Barnes), who was raised essentially as her adopted brother and who now acts as the family's financial consultant.

Max's ability to clinically focus on everything but emotions has made him a success as a businessman, but it means he's ill-prepared to deal with Suzanna's needs. He believes that if she simply finds something to do, she'll be able to pull herself together. She takes his advice and goes on a ski vacation where she meets Andrew (Thomas Sadoski in a warmly kooky turn), Max's antithesis, a touchy-feely writer, whom Suzanna almost instantly marries. It's through Andrew that the soft-spoken and desperately needy Becky (a perfectly calibrated turn from Annie Parisse) enters the scene. She's working as a temp at Andrew's day job, and misguidedly, Andrew and Suzanna decide that she would make a perfect blind date for Max. As if the mismatch of the two were not enough of a recipe for disaster, their first evening together is interrupted by a robbery, which sends Becky and, in turn, all of those around her, reeling.

Gionfriddo's comedy crackles with deliciously funny epigrams – many of which spring from Susan, a sort of 21st century Lady Bracknell who's having to deal with the fact that her husband has left her in dire financial straits. Bishop delivers each choice line with precision and dry aplomb. Max gets an equal number of choice zingers and, like Bishop, Barnes' delivery is pitch-perfect.

These two characters' almost icy view of the world and relationships contrasts beautifully, and often hilariously, with they way in which the other characters approach life. Interestingly though, even as audiences laugh, they feel for these characters and also find themselves swept up in the mystery of why Becky behaves the way she does. Are her actions – which begin with just incessant calls to Max following their disastrous date – motivated out of neediness or is she some sort of psychopath? Perhaps most important, the way the others treat Becky (and there are surprises to be found here and elsewhere) and one another make theatergoers consider the nature of empathy, kindness and love.

Director Peter DuBois' staging of unfolds with a grand fluidity thanks to the sliding panels and units from scenic designer Derek McLane which, lit with care by David Weiner, take theatergoers from New York to Providence and ultimately to Susan's opulent home in Virginia. DuBois' work, with its exceptional attention to detail, does not, however, completely mitigate some of Gionfriddo's over-plotting and writing in the second act, but it's of little matter. After a brief lull, the production rights itself marvelously, and theatergoers leave satisfied with a lot to discuss: not only what Becky's true nature may or may not be, but also which of Gionfriddo's one-liners was funniest.

---- Andy Propst

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Becky Shaw plays at Second Stage Theatre (307 West 43rd Street). Performances are Tuesday at 7pm; Wednesday at 2 and 8pm; Thurs. & Fri. at 8pm; Saturday at 2 and 8pm; and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $70.00 and can be purchased by calling 212-246-4422 or by visiting www.2st.com.

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How's this for innovative? Portland Center Stage is just about to open Apollo and for this multimedia experience, they are inviting critics to cover the opening night in realtime online. Here's some of what the invite says:

"Normally, Portland Center Stage has a strict no cell phone in the theater policy.

But we thought that the deconstructed, multi-media rich experience of our World Premiere production of Apollo would be the perfect opportunity for our first experiment in blog- and twitter-friendly performance. With that in mind...."

The invitation goes on to explain that the peformance will be "our first ever twitter and blog friendly performance of Apollo. We'll have the balcony reserved for authorized twitterers and bloggers..." The digiterati sitting in the balcony will be able to document their experience of the production live and in the moment.

The theater's really thinking ahead..."We'll have extra power outlets for you to plug into and access to our in house wireless."

Now for anyone who'd like to follow what's happening on opening night of Apollo at Portland Center Stage, you should drop by www.search.twitter.com by searching #apollo.

And until the opening rolls around, you can check out this new trailer for Apollo that samples some of the footage from the workshop productions:

 

For further information about the show, drop by www.pcs.org

It's interesting that two shows – both not long gone from Broadway – will enter theater fans' homes on February 3. That's the day that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release RENT: Filmed Live on Broadway on Blu-ray Disc and DVD and Hybrid Recordings will release the two disc set, Liza's at the Palace….

The Rent release captures the final Broadway performance of Jonathan Larsen's multi-award-winning show. Filmed by Radical Media utilizing the latest in high-definition video and digital audio technology, director Michael Warren creates an enhanced journey through the music, lyrics, and images of this historic piece of live entertainment, allowing viewers to experience the show like never before, not only from the best seats in New York's famed Nederlander Theatre, but from the stage and wings, where cameras capture the raw emotion of the cast's performance.

RENT: Filmed Live on Broadway features Will Chase as Roger, Adam Kantor as Mark, Michael McElroy as Collins, Tracie Thoms as Joanne, Justin Johnston as Angel, Rene Elise Goldsberry as Mimi, Eden Espinosa as Maureen and original cast members Rodney Hicks, who steps into the role of Benny, and Gwen Stewart as the "Seasons of Love" soloist.

Both the DVD and Blu-Ray Special Features Include:

* "RENT: The Final Days on Broadway" – A retrospective documentary featuring cast and crew
* "The Final Curtain Call" – Past/present cast members sing "Seasons of Love" on stage one last time
* "The Wall" – A rare look at the famous backstage wall
* "The Final Lottery" – Hundreds of fans turn out hoping to be one of the lucky few fans chosen to sit in the front 2 rows for the very last show
* National Marfan Foundation PSA

Special Features Exclusive to Blu-ray Include:

* "Home" - A Behind-the-Scenes look at the theater that was transformed into the home for Rent
* "Casting" - Bernard Telsey talks about casting the show for the past 12 years
* Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation PSA
* BD-Live functionality

For further informtion about "RENT: Filmed Live on Broadway" visit: www.sonypictures.com

The Minnelli recording, from Hybrid Records, has been produced by Phil Ramone and features the legendary singer-actress performing with a twelve-man orchestra led by conductor/drummer Michael Berkowitz and pianist/musical supervisor Billy Stritch. On the discs, as in the show on Broadway, Minnelli, accompanied by Johnny Rodgers ,Cortes Alexander, Jim Caruso and Tiger Martina, sings many of her signature songs in addition to pay tribute to her godmother, Kay Thompson.

Below is the full track list for Liza's at the Palace…

Act I - Disc 1

Teach Me Tonight / Music by Gene DePaul, Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
I Would Never Leave You /Music by Billy Stritch, Johnny Rodgers and Brian Lane Green
If You Hadn't, But You Did / Music by Jule Styne, Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
What Makes a Man a Man? / Music and Lyrics by Charles Aznavour
My Own Best Friend / Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Maybe This Time / Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb
He's Funny That Way / Music by Neil Moret, Lyrics by Richard Whiting
Palace Medley / David Zippel, John Kander/ Roger Edens/ N. Bayes, J. Norworth, N. Graw S. Brooks/ M. Yvain, A. Willemetz, J. Charles/ H. Sutton, R. Grant, J. Lennox
Cabaret / Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb

Act II - Disc 2

But the World Goes 'Round / Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Hello, Hello / Music and Lyrics by Kay Thompson
Jubilee Time / Music and Lyrics by Kay Thompson
Basin Street Blues / Music and Lyrics by Spencer Williams w/ special verse by Kay Thompson
Clap Yo' Hands / Music by George Gershwin, Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away) / Music by George Gershwin, Lyrics by Ira Gershwin/Gus Kahn
I Love a Violin / Music and Lyrics by Kay Thompson
Mammy / Music by Walter Donaldson, Lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young
Theme from New York, New York / Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb

For further information on the CDs visit: www.lizasatthepalace.com