355 stories by "Barbara Hoffman"
Fyvush Finkel sees dead theaters — and not just theaters, but an entire ghostly Great White Way: the Yiddish Rialto, which stretched for blocks along Second Avenue on the Lower East Si…
As props go, nothing beats a fabulous pair of abs. And Laura Benanti -- who flits through Broadway's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" in various states of distressed undress -- ha…
For a man who's made a ca reer of playing freaks and geeks, Austin Pendleton is quite the babe magnet. At 70 -- looking like an older, sleep-deprived Charlie Brown -- the actor/playwright/d…
Talk about moving out of your comfort zone. For his stage debut, David Duchovny chose Neil LaBute's “The Break of Noon” — which features the former FBI Special Agent Fox Mu…
For a man who's made a ca reer of playing freaks and geeks, Austin Pendleton is quite the babe magnet. At 70 -- looking like an older, sleep-deprived Charlie Brown -- the actor/playwright/d…
Rebecca Northan -- single, bright and attractive -- has had more than three dozen blind dates, none of which led anywhere. Maybe it's the rubber clown nose. Mostly, though, it's because "Bl…
"Pee-wee's Playhouse" has come and gone, but Playwrights Horizons is just setting up shop. What a concept: in-theater childcare! Beginning with the Feb. 27 matinee of a play called, aptly en…
Jeremy Sisto thought he knew what crazy was. After all, he'd played suicidal, sister-obsessed Billy Chenowith of "Six Feet Under" to a bipolar fare-thee-well.But even after three years of r…
In “A Life in the Theatre,” David Mamet's comic valentine to the stage, Patrick Stewart and T.R. Knight play actors yoked together in a barrage of bad plays, malfunctioning props…
Blood will out. Which is why " after her Emmy-nominated turn in the soap "Another World" and launching a real-estate firm " Rhonda Ross is singing again. Backed by an...
How big are Christian Borle's arms? Well, they have their own Twitter account " @ChrisBorlesArms " which the star of Broadway's "Something Rotten!" swears he has nothing to do with....
His bags were packed, his flat rented, a New York apartment awaited. But the night before his big move, Tam Mutu got a phone call: "Rebecca," the financially troubled musical...
Three hours of lust, ambition and betrayal can make anyone hungry. Enter the Proper English Feast, where " between parts 1 and 2 of Hilary Mantel's tale of Henry VIII...
Don’t ask Matthew Morrison about the "Glee" wrap party: He wasn't there. As soon as the cast filmed the last of their six-season run, the erstwhile Will Schuester was winging...
She’s been compared to the "Mona Lisa" " though no one thought Mona slept with the man who painted her. Yet the subject of Gustav Klimt's dazzling "Portrait of Adele...
Billy Rose nicknamed her "Jailbait" " but Paulette Harwood was too young to know what the great showman meant. After all, she was just 16 when she started dancing at...
Lady Gaga knows what's great. Which is why, when she sang that "Sound of Music" medley at the Oscars, she gave it her best Julie Andrews spin. "Wasn't she terrific?"...
Ten years ago, Megan Fairchild splurged on a box set of four Gene Kelly musicals. Little did the New York City Ballet dancer suspect that she and her brother, Robert,...
We won't have Larry Bloom to bitch about any more. "Orange Is the New Black" returns in June " or maybe July; the Netflix press rep hates to confirm anything!...
When you fall in love, make out and break up with someone " even if you're just pretending " it's nice to know who you're dealing with. Which is why,...
A century before Mrs. Robinson and "The Graduate," Turgenev gave us Natalya, the conniving cougar of his 1855 comedy, "A Month in the Country." Helen Mirren made her Broadway debut...
"Was I ever tempted to be a con man or a card shark? Yes," says Ricky Jay, who overcame temptation to become one of the greatest sleight-of-hand artists of all...
They came in every size, height, and hair color and texture " straight, curly and frizzy " each one a candidate for "Beautiful," the Carole King musical. Tony winner Jessie...
In a case of epic miscasting, an elfin, 24-year-old Martin Short played a brooding, macho convict in the gay prison drama "Fortune and Men's Eyes" in 1974. Afterward, as he...
