355 stories by "Barbara Hoffman"
You've probably seen the movie. Now Andrew Lloyd Webber's hoping you'll see the show " "School of Rock: The Musical," coming to Broadway in the fall. The "Phantom of the...
Never mind men in tights: Far rarer is the sight of men in toe shoes " and rarer still is the man who pirouettes en pointe with aplomb. The all-male...
Apparently, you can have too much of a good thing " which explains why Lauren Bacall's gowns, Beethoven's death mask, a paddy wagon and a 68-million-year-old triceratops skull are all...
Brooke Shields says she hadn't planned to write a book about her mother " just an obituary. In 2012, after Teri Shields died at 79 of dementia-related illness, she wrote...
He’s one of the most famous violinists in the world " but when Joshua Bell fiddled incognito in a Washington Metro station, he barely cleared $30. Would he have made...
Richard Chamberlain is a tad tired of people telling him how marvelous he looks. "It's almost getting troublesome," says the former Dr. Kildare. "The first thing people say is, 'God,...
When the cast of "Lips Together, Teeth Apart" bursts into "America the Beautiful," they might well be singing about their leading lady, America Ferrera. As Sally, a woman who's inherited...
The stars haven't aligned the way Shirley MacLaine would have liked for "Elsa & Fred," the late-life love story starring herself and Christopher Plummer. "I love that it's being released…
Take a peek at the freaks " the newfangled geeks! "Side Show" is back on Broadway, but it looks very different from the show that opened there back in 1997....
Abe Calimag remembers his first "Rock of Ages." It was July 1, 2009, and he bought a ticket because actress Amy Spanger was in it, and he loved her in...
To the pantheon of the world's Most Unlikely Leading Men, a category arguably inaugurated by Dustin Hoffman, let us add Michael Cera. After a precocious start in "Arrested Development" as...
The life of a child actor is often nasty, brutish and short (Google Macaulay Culkin). But playing Jane Banks in "Mary Poppins" was all high-flying kites, carousel horses " and...
In the '80s, her name was a punch line: Pia Zadora! Especially when her 1982 incest flick, "Butterfly" " produced by her older, billionaire husband, Meshulam Riklis " wasn't even...
This was the season Broadway let the dogs out " the pint-size Pomeranian of "Bullets Over Broadway," Billie Holiday's Chihuahua in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill," the doomed...
The first time Donna Marie Asbury stepped onstage in "Chicago" crying, "He ran into my knife " 10 times!" her daughter was in diapers. That was 16 years ago. Daughter...
Dying is easy, comedy is hard " and musical comedy is murder. At the least, judging from "A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder," it's a killer workout: Since starting...
In "Just Jim Dale," opening Tuesday at Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre, the 78-year-old Tony winner and former comedian, pop singer (he wrote the lyrics to the '60s hit "Georgy Girl")...
He charmed us in "Bridesmaids" and alarmed us " and Jessa, briefly his wife " in "Girls." Now Chris O'Dowd is bringing theatergoers to tears as Lennie, the sweet, slow-witted...
Clothes make the man. But it takes far more " half a dozen wigs, boatloads of beads and a size 40C bra " to transform Neil Patrick Harris into a...
Not everyone respects the key rule of theatergoing: Don't screw with the performers! This was driven home last week when a misguided Neil Patrick Harris fan nearly hijacked Broadway's "Hedwi…
The setting: Germany, between world wars " a time of sexual ambiguity, slippery loyalties and swastikas. Nothing to sing about, surely, but when "Cabaret" burst onto Broadway Nov. 20, 1966,.…
Theater has gone to the dogs " and they're proving themselves the highlights of the season. In fact, no other member of off-Broadway's newly revived "The Threepenny Opera" received warmer...
'Rocky" has a boxing ring. "Aladdin," a flying carpet. And Broadway's new staging of "Les Misérables" has its own special effect: the leading man's chest. When Jean Valjean rips open...
But Trixie isn't just any dog " she's Ziemba's co-star in "Bullets Over Broadway," which just kicked off previews at the St. James Theatre. It's Woody Allen's first Broadway musical, and it …
Sylvester Stallone had what seemed a pretty bad idea, at least to Tom Meehan: How 'bout we make a musical out of 'Rocky'? "My first thought was, 'Oh no,' "...
