Author: zoglinreviews

What’s to be done about Chess? I mean, of course, the 1980s musical about Cold War chess rivalries, with a score by the ABBA boys, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, and lyrics by Tim Rice. This show simply can't catch a break.  It opened in London in 1986 and ran for three years, but reviewers … Continue reading ‘Chess’ Redeemed: A Glorious London Revival →

  I consider Alan Ayckbourn the great playwright of my theatergoing lifetime. Through most of the 1980s and '90s, I would plan my trips to London to coincide with new plays from the prolific British dramatist: Henceforward, The Revengers' Comedies, Man of the Moment, Wildest Dreams — an amazing string of masterpieces, most of which have not even … Continue reading Admiring Ayckbourn: ‘A Brief History of Women’ →

The Tony nominations are out, and they have brought home something that hadn't really occurred to me as I raced through the busy last few weeks of Broadway openings.  It's been a pretty bad season. Yes, I saw several things I enjoyed, but as I look back, nearly all of them were revivals. The powerful … Continue reading The Tonys: Wrapping Up a Weak Season →

Let's talk about the ending to My Fair Lady. None of critics apparently want to — that is, give away the little twist that director Bartlett Sher has tacked onto the last scene of his Lincoln Center revival of Lerner and Loewe's great musical. I understand their caution, but I don't think you can properly … Continue reading That Awful Ending to ‘My Fair Lady’ →

My feelings about Carousel are complicated. On the one hand, it's hard to argue against this 1945 show as the best of all the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals. It is the one that blends song and story most felicitously, boasts some of team's most beautiful (and narratively ambitious) musical numbers, and has an emotional resonance … Continue reading What’s Wrong With ‘Carousel’? And Does It Matter? →

I saw the original off-Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero in 2001, and though I don't recall many specifics about it, I remember being disappointed — it seemed a comedown from the playwright's smashing off-Broadway debut a few years before, This Is Our Youth. The new Broadway revival, however (a Second Stage production in … Continue reading ‘Lobby Hero’: Second Time’s a Charm →

Frozen, the new Disney musical that has just opened on Broadway, is a beautiful piece of work— sleek, visually splendid and in many ways ingenious. Bringing to the stage the wildly popular animated film, about a princess who can freeze her constituency with the flick of a finger, at first glance seemed a daunting task. … Continue reading Can ‘Frozen’ Warm Up Broadway? →

The strange fate of Jerry Springer—The Opera is one of the mysteries of the recent theater past. The show, an operatic send-up of the tawdry daytime reality show, was a smash hit when it opened in London in 2003, a sellout at the National Theatre and winner of the Olivier Award for best musical of … Continue reading ‘Jerry Springer’: Has the Moment Passed? →

A few thoughts about Hangmen, the new play from Martin McDonagh, which I caught up with belatedly at the Atlantic Theater Company: It's a nice comeback for McDonagh, whose work I have loved (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Pillowman), but have been disappointed with lately (A Behanding in Spokane, the last play of his … Continue reading ‘Hangmen’: Welcome Back, Martin McDonagh →

After months of sitting through bad plays by acclaimed authors (Ayad Akhtar's Junk, Beau Willimon's The Parisian Woman), what a treat it is to discover Miles for Mary, running at Playwrights Horizons through the end of the month. Maybe it's because there is no author, at least in the usual sense. Miles for Mary is … Continue reading Best Play of the Season →