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OFF SCRIPT'S 2016 THEATRE HIGHLIGHTS

OFF SCRIPT'S 2016 THEATRE HIGHLIGHTS

Annual “Top Ten’ lists seem arbitrary to me and, when it comes to theater, I couldn’t render a fully informed comprehensive order anyway because I don’t see everything but wherever I travel I see something. Still, here are my theater experiences in 2016, hither and yon, that impressed me for one reason or another the most. Some will find it strange that I would consider Stephan Wolfert’s one man autobiographical play CRY HAVOC in the same context as The Almeida’s RICHARD I

JACKIE

JACKIE

Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s JACKIE redefines biopic, creating a way of looking at history that I’d never experienced in feature films. Noel Oppenheim, former NBC news producer turned screenwriter, applies the perfect hybrid of public affairs experience and dramatic screenplay ingenuity to create a painful, grieving portrait of the widow of President Kennedy in the days following Dallas. Director Larrain cuts between interviews by a reporter of the First Lady in seclusion

BETWEEN THERE AND THERE IS WHERE?

BETWEEN THERE AND THERE IS WHERE?

Multi-Tony Award winner and versatile director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall makes IN TRANSIT, billed as “Broadway’s first a cappela musical” move about as viably as possible. And that’s not easy because the score’s format is a gimmick, the characters are cardboard and the story is really no more than a collection of sung skits with a very thin thematic veneer. IN TRANSIT’s premise: a group of late twentysomethings (dare we say millenials?) making their way in The Big A

WHERE’S THE BEEF?

WHERE’S THE BEEF?

In “Poetics”, Aristotle called spectacle the least artistic element of tragedy. NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 turns Aristotle’s notion on its head at the Imperial Theatre. This visually dazzling, frenetic, swirling, non-stop circus of an electropop opera is so overpowering in its staging, costumes, design, it undermines plot and characters. The first clue the story cannot stand on its own is before the show even starts when cast members cajole theatergoers to read

(BITTER)SWEET CHARITY

(BITTER)SWEET CHARITY

The New Group, uncharacteristically presenting a musical revival this season, rips a page out of the Menier Chocolate Factory playbook by taking a blast from the past, stripping it down and searching for deeper subtext. In SWEET CHARITY, first produced on Broadway in 1966 and directed and choreographed by the legendary Bob Fosse, it’s found mixed success. There’s plenty of room for more dark in the musical comedy about Charity Hope Valentine, who works at the seedy Fandango C

WE ARE NOT ALONE

WE ARE NOT ALONE

Once in a while a new musical comes along with an original story, a book that exactly integrates song, and characters who achieve emotional intimacy with both the tale being told and the audience. When it also delivers a drop-dead, breakout lead performance one experiences what one hopes musical theater would always be. Such is the case with DEAR EVAN HANSEN, and an astonishing Ben Platt in title role, which comes to Broadway via Arena Stage in Washington DC, then from off-Br

JERSEY BOYS REDUX, SORT OF

JERSEY BOYS REDUX, SORT OF

Sometimes even the most stellar combination of exceptional creative talent doesn’t add up to exceptional theatre. That’s the case with the musical version of A BRONX TALE, which features a book by Academy Award nominee Chazz Palminteri, music by Tony and four-time Oscar and 11-time Grammy winner Alan Menken, and lyrics by Grammy winner and Oscar and Tony nominee Glenn Slater, co-directed by two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks, with choreo

IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO

IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO

The Broadway presentation of the Donmar Warehouse’s revival of LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES gets a little slack in its Atlantic crossing. La Marquise de Merteuil remains as wicked in New York as London in the hands of the splendid Janet McTeer but Liev Schreiber’s Valmont isn’t quite evil enough compared to Dominic West’s in the West End (or the original Valmont, devil incarnate, the incomparable Alan Rickman) to get the full force of Christopher Hampton’s award winning drama. Sc

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