Mr. Saturday Night I’m a staunch Billy Crystal fan, and judging from the audience’s reaction at the Nederlander Theatre the other night, I’m not alone. I love Crystal’s quick wit, easy laugh and perpetual grin, even as he delivers a barb. Yet, sadly, …Read more
Michele Ragusa, Harry Hadden-Paton, and Kanisha Marie Feliciano in Lincoln Center Theater’s Flying Over Sunset . Credit: Joan Marcus. For Harry Hadden-Paton, the chance to do a new musical (and one written by James Lapine, no less) was a dream come t …Read more
Alia Jones-Harvey never wanted to be a Broadway producer. In fact, she didn’t even know it was on the table. After realizing she wasn’t cut out to be a mechanical engineer, she went to business school and managed hedge funds. Luckily for us, it was a …Read more
Tony Award winner Ted Sperling has lent his musical talents to Broadway productions like The Light in the Piazza, Ragtime, and the most recent revivals of My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, and The King and I. He’s also the Artistic Director o …Read more
“Live at The Lortel” brings you live YouTube interviews with artists and performers. The 2021 lineup kicked off with Whitney White and Peter Mark Kendall on January 4, followed by Anna Deveare Smith on January 11. If you missed those two, you can sti …Read more
Micki Grant is always first in line: the first Black to write commercial jingles, to have a non-silent role in a commercial, to get a contract role on daytime television. The first woman to write the lyrics, score, and libretto for a Broadway musical …Read more
Even seemingly well-adjusted families can be messy. In the new play “Grand Horizons,” by Bess Wohl (“Small Mouths,” “Make Believe,”) a retired librarian, Nancy (the wonderful Jane Alexander) and her husband Bill (James Cromwell) have recently moved t …Read more
Ironically, Tennessee Williams, a gay playwright, wrote some of the most iconic roles for women in theater. He created parts such as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, Maggie in A Cat on A Hot Tin Roof and Amanda in Glass Menagerie. These are serio …Read more
Classic plays have universal themes and meaningful dialogue. Often the challenge for modern directors is how to mount the plays creatively and who to cast in iconic roles. William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” and Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” both deal …Read more
Before there were the gory massacres and rapes of GOT, there was “Titus Andronicus,” one of Shakespeare’s first tragedies. A revenge play, it was one of his most violent works ,and in it, all the central characters were killed, some in very unusual a …Read more
