Melissa Manchester, a singer-songwriter whose music was the soundtrack to an entire generation, is as strong as ever at Café Carlyle, hitting her songs home and performing classics with a twist, like a spicy Latin arrangement of “Let’s Face the Music …Read more

The new Broadway cast recording of “Violet,” starring Sutton Foster as the title character, is like a present you’ll want to unwrap slowly and carefully. On the surface, the show sounds gruesome, and a bit silly (a girl seeks a spiritual healing on a …Read more

Oscar Hammerstein II has been criticized for his dopey, wide-eyed idealism, from “Oklahoma” to “The Sound of Music.” Love it or hate it, “Allegro” (1947) has moralism—along with camp and charm—coming out the wazoo. The Astoria Performing Arts Center …Read more

“Bridges of Madison County,” Jason Robert Brown’s latest work, is up for a Tony award for best original score, and rightfully so: with Brown’s rich melodies and a star performance by Kelli O’Hara as Francesca, an Italian-Iowan housewife who longs for …Read more

d cake, and children were being raised by grandparents or foster care, wouldn’t there be complaints? Wouldn’t people get up and do something, Mr. Jack?” Gardley’s script takes hard-to-stomach ideas — like the strong resemblance the prison system bea …Read more

When I got my tickets for “Beauty and the Beast”, the person at the box office blanched and asked if I was over eighteen. This just underscores the point: this production is for mature audiences only. Leave your kids at home. Written and performed by …Read more

Dance, music, and operatic singing meld together beautifully in “Tchaikovsky: None But the Lonely Heart” — the strange story of Tchaikovsky and Madame von Meck. Written by Eve Wolf, who also plays piano in the show, the play is an epistolary history …Read more

While Michael Cerveris, Judy Kuhn, and Alexandra Socha are great actors, Jeanine Tesori’s score is the real star of “Fun Home”, the off-Broadway musical based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir that premiered at The Public in September. The story, ab …Read more

“Organic Shrapnel,” a new play by Charles Cissel, is about the loss we carry with us after a devastating event. It explores the lives of three sons as they cycle through death, war, and one girlfriend (yes, one). One brother joins a war to escape the …Read more