Critic unbound

A sheepish confession: I often have a tough time understanding heavy British accents onstage.  The polished, generically English “BBC accent” — no problem. But rapid-fire dialogue in the working-class regional accents of Yorkshire, the Midlands, Scotland — I am surely not the only American theatergoer with decent hearing who has trouble deciphering it from my mid-orchestra … Continue reading The ‘Hills of California’ Challenge →

The controversy over Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery last week has had more staying power than I could have imagined. But amid the ruckus over the former President’s attempt to use the graves of fallen soldiers as the backdrop for a campaign video, one ugly aspect of the incident has been lost in … Continue reading The Real Victim of Trump’s Cemetery Visit →

Watching the Democratic National Convention this week was both an inspiring and frustrating experience. On the one hand, impressively, the party really got its messaging act together, the key themes driven home by speaker after speaker: Democrats are the party of “freedom” (instead of democracy); of the future, not the past; of patriotism; and, yes, … Continue reading Four Days of Democrats →

Bob Newhart, who died this week at 94, had a long enough career that nearly every generation could conjure up fond memories of him. He was the star of two long-running TV sitcoms, one in the '70s and another in the '80s; a ubiquitous presence on TV talk and variety shows for decades; a revered … Continue reading Bob Newhart, Before the Sitcoms →

Las Vegas has been on a roll lately. The gambling-and-entertainment capital is suddenly the hottest sports town in America: home to the former Oakland Raiders in football, soon the Oakland A’s in baseball, site of this year's Super Bowl, as well as the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a much hyped Formula 1 race along the … Continue reading Is Vegas Still a Great Entertainment Town? →

Donald Trump’s conviction in the New York “hush money” trial has prompted a big debate among Democrats. Should the Biden campaign lean into the conviction, hammering in the point that, for the first time, Americans may be about to elect a convicted felon as President? Or should they soft-pedal Trump’s legal woes (as they did … Continue reading The Campaign Ad That Could Defeat Trump →

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 →