Criticism

Sondheim, Into the Woods, Artistic Flexibility & Compromise

Last week, a Talk of the Town column in The New Yorker reported on a masterclass given by Stephen Sondheim, during which […]

If you’re an opera fan (and perhaps even if you’re not), you may be aware of a dust-up that occurred in May, […]

I heard Frederica Von Stade 40 years ago, and it was love at first sound. This was the summer following my high […]

Still in the grip of post-Tony fog, I’ll offer a few grumpy observations. Of course, there’s more to say, but we’ll leave […]

Last weekend, I bumped into my friend Toby Zinman, theater critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, on the street in New York. Both […]

So how was the play? I’ll get to that, I promise. But first, let me take a moment to celebrate the exceptional […]

Nothing gladdens my heart like seeing a new theater company grow and prosper. These are tough times for the arts, and the […]

In 1950, Frank Loesser redefined how musical theater looked at New York. Oh, other composer-lyricists – notably Cole Porter— got there first. […]

I hadn’t planned to write about Rosemary’s Baby the mini-series – wasn’t watching four hours of it enough of a time sink? – yet I […]

This Broadway season has brought revivals of several American classics – The Glass Menagerie, A Raisin in the Sun, and Of Mice […]