Critic unbound

As the Broadway season barrels to a frantic close (12 new shows have opened in the past nine days, leading up to last night’s deadline for Tony eligibility), I should give a shout-out to the best in a meager crop of new straight plays: Mary Jane, Amy Herzog’s delicate and affecting one-act drama about a single … Continue reading Season Ender: How to Make a Broadway Musical →

Broadway is serving up a feast of new musicals this spring (nine, by my count, set to open in the last eight weeks of the season, which ends officially on April 25). And, as usual, many of them are based on pre-sold properties — well-known movies, bestselling books, or both. These shows typically have an … Continue reading Book, Movie, Musical: Can Broadway Measure Up? →

Flipping the TV dial a couple of weekends ago, I happened on a live feed of Donald Trump’s rally speech in Greensboro, North Carolina, one of several campaign appearances he made in the run-up to Super Tuesday. Trump’s rallies have become so predictable, and so filled with lies and self-serving bluster, that the cable-news networks … Continue reading A Trump Rally, Annotated →

We interrupt this blog for a bit of self-promotion. On Sunday night (Feb. 25) CNN will air the first episode of Vegas: The Story of Sin City, a four-part documentary series inspired by my book Elvis in Vegas: How the King Reinvented the Vegas Show. As an author watching his work get translated (and expanded) … Continue reading Weekend in Vegas →

I just returned from a few whirlwind days of theatergoing in London, and by a fortunate quirk of scheduling, was able to see four of the most popular and critically acclaimed British musicals of the past few years. None of them, so far as I know, have plans to come to Broadway — or, I … Continue reading London Calling: Will Broadway Answer? →

I thought I was inured to the sight of Donald Trump and his apologists steamrolling through TV interviews with misinformation and misdirection. But there was something transcendently awful about Elise Stefanik’s appearance on Meet the Press a couple of weeks ago.  Start with the eerily immobile grin affixed to her face as the New York congresswoman was … Continue reading How Not To Interview a Trump Shill →

The death of Norman Lear has prompted the usual glowing tributes, all of them deserved, for one of TV’s great pioneers. All in the Family and its many spinoffs revolutionized television comedy — brought it social relevance; tackled controversial issues, from racism to abortion; gave voice to minority communities that were at the time largely invisible on … Continue reading Norman Lear’s Real Revolution →

Republicans are nearly coming to blows in the hallways and hearing rooms of Congress. Violent threats against judges, legislators, and election workers keep mounting. Donald Trump’s rhetoric grows more vicious and inflammatory by the day. Meanwhile, the polls show that Trump, despite his increasingly unhinged behavior and four criminal indictments, has a better than even … Continue reading What Marianne Williamson Got Right →

It looks, alas, like this relationship is for real. Taylor Swift was in the sky boxes again on Sunday, for the fourth time in the past five weeks, to cheer on her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.  Every time the cameras cut away to the pop star — even before her choreographed touchdown … Continue reading Taylor Swift, Can You Please Go Home? →

Judging by the chorus of rave reviews, it appears that Broadway has a new hit comedy. “A buffet of delights"; "riotously funny"; "a sparkling ensemble comedy” — those are just a few of the encomiums hurled at Jocelyn Bioh’s new play, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding.  I promised myself recently that I would try to stop being … Continue reading At Jaja’s: The Emperor’s New Braids →