Critic unbound

For political pundits, campaign gurus, and Trump haters of all stripes, it’s a nagging conundrum. Why, even as the felony charges against him keep mounting, do Donald Trump’s poll numbers keep going up?  There is no shortage of explanations: Trump’s uncanny skill at controlling the narrative, so that each new charge is simply further evidence … Continue reading The Writers Strike Is Over. Will It Hurt Trump? →

I was gratified to see all the kind tributes to Bob Barker, the venerable TV game show host who died last weekend at age 99.  But none of them, I felt, really got at the heart of Barker’s contribution to American television. He was one of a handful of performers from the early days of the … Continue reading Why Bob Barker Really Mattered →

Here Lies Love, David Byrne’s musical about the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, has finally come in from the cold. The show made a smashing debut in a limited run at the Public Theater in 2013; returned there a year later for an all-too-brief reprise production; but has since been largely missing in action, at … Continue reading ‘Here Lies Love’: Better Than ‘Hamilton’? →

A thought experiment: Would the country be better off if Donald Trump had won a second term as President in 2020?  Don’t wince; I haven't gone over to the dark side. But the idea has nagged at me over the past few months, as I’ve watched with alarm the increasingly likely prospect that Trump will … Continue reading Would We Be Better Off If Trump Had Won in 2020? →

The Tony Awards will air on CBS this Sunday, thanks to an agreement with the striking Writers Guild, which will let the show go on without picketing — and without any writers. I’m not sure that will be much of a handicap for a show that depends less on scripted banter than on splashy production … Continue reading The Tony Awards: My Uninformed Predictions →

There has been quite an outcry on the left over last week's CNN town hall with Donald Trump. With a friendly Republican audience applauding and laughing at his most outrageous comments, and a game but overmatched moderator, Caitlin Collins, trying to call out his lies in real time, the former President scored a pretty convincing … Continue reading The Trump Town Hall: Thanks, CNN →

One thing I’ve learned from writing about theater for the past several years: Broadway audiences will laugh at anything.  I can’t count the number of comedies that have left me straight-faced while the audience around me is erupting in merriment. Even in more serious plays, a stray wisecrack that would scarcely arouse a titter from … Continue reading Why ‘Fat Ham’ Fails →

I sometimes wonder if theater critics actually listen to the music in Broadway musicals. Sure, they often quote lyrics, and maybe talk about how well or poorly the songs are integrated with the story. But the music itself — always hard to describe in words — is too often ignored. That’s the only explanation I … Continue reading Bad Cinderella: Good Andrew Lloyd Webber →

I had a rare experience at the theater last week. On two successive nights I saw musicals that really worked, mainly because they managed to weld songs and story in an organic way that musicals always strive for but rarely achieve. Yet they could hardly be more different.  The Harder They Come, which has just opened … Continue reading Words and Music: Two Shows That Do It Right →

I was saddened to hear, two weeks ago, of the death of Richard Belzer — the comedian, actor and longtime emcee of the  New York comedy club Catch a Rising Star — and then, just a day later, the passing of the club’s owner and impresario (and Belzer’s close friend) Rick Newman.  I got to know … Continue reading The Heroes of New York’s Comedy Club Scene →