Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Book by Douglas McGrath Written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur Words and Music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil Directed by Marc Bruni Choreography by Josh Prince Stephen Sondheim Theatre March 19, 2017 Production website 💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical was such a warm and satisfying return to seeing shows after an unfortunate 3 month break due to something called “a job”. This was not my first time seeing Beautiful. I was there in the very early days of the show in late October 2013 with the outrageous debut of Jessie Mueller as Carole King. I so remember that first moment the light catches her out on stage at the grand piano simply singing one of many hit songs by Carole King – – my jaw dropped. How could any actress catch that oh, so unique voice of Carole King – – and how could any singer step into all of those high school memories I have with these songs and bring them all to life and let me relive the 1970’s all over again. Jessie Mueller was magical! Simply magical.
The Encounter
Conceived, Directed and Performed by Simon McBurney
Golden Theatre
December 24, 2016 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Performance Art is alive and kicking in New York City – and not is some wonderful, musty back corner of a warehouse but right here in the bright lights of Broadway! What about that!! Who would have “thunk.” Continue reading The Encounter→
A Life
Written by Adam Bock
Directed by Anne Kaurrman
Playwrights Horizons
November 26, 2016 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
There are times I want to use these blogs to become one giant spoiler. This is so true of this play! You think the play is going to stay in this very naturalistic world of “a life in the day.” and then the play and most significantly, the set, does a 180 and another 180 and quite literally another 180. I mean literally! Continue reading A Life→
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Comedic-ballet by Moliere
Music by Jean-baptiste Lully
directed by Denis Podalydes, Societaire de la Comedia Francaise
Lincoln Center Festival
July 24, 2016 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
I should never have gotten those seats so close to the stage! Although I was so happy to score tickets in the fourth row for this very popular Lincoln Center Festival, I neglected to remember that since the production would be done in French; and sense I do not speak French; and since they would provide a captioning board above the proscenium – – I should never have set this far forward. Continue reading Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme→
Small Mouth Sounds
written by Bess Wohl
directed by Rachel Chavkin
An Ars Nova Production
Pershing Square Signature Theatre
July 23, 2016 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
This was was perhaps the most profound occurrence of déjà vu that I have ever experiend in the theatre. As my blog mentioned a few weeks ago, I took a week out of my theatre watching to attend a self-actualization weekend in the woods of the Hudson River Valley. We were kept in small cabins without any “luxuries”, fed a diet of grains and vegetables, kept off of any kinds of kinds of technology and, most challenging, kept in total silence for the entire workshop. Continue reading Small Mouth Sounds→
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
