628 stories by "Jan Simpson"
Not much seen this week"at least not that I can yet write about since I try to keep the opening night embargo that shows ask reviewers to observe. Besides, it's promising to be a beaut…
I'm going to be honest with you. I had no idea what to make of Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling, the new Adam Rapp play that the Atlantic Theater Company, its own facilities under re…
Playwrights usually write memory plays at the beginning of their careers, as Tennessee Williams did with The Glass Menagerie and Dylan Thomas with Under Milk Wood. But Lanford Wilson already…
The producers of The Submission initially attempted to stir up buzz by suggesting that one character's identity should be kept secret until people saw the play. But they didn't need to…
Sweeney Todd may be Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece but Follies is his most beloved show. There have been at least a dozen major productions since this highly conceptual musical first debuted…
They say that all politics is local. But that doesn't mean it has to be banal. And, alas, the latter turns out to be the case with Sweet and Sad, the new play by Richard Nelson t…
Cleverness can be its own curse. Elevator Repair Service became a critics' darling with Gatz, the experimental company's dramatized reading of the full text of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "T…
This time of year is always bittersweet. Labor Day has come and gone, which means that while summer doesn't end until Sept. 23, the golden days of my favorite season are fast dwindling…
Everyone has their biases. Mine is against what I've taken to calling yuppie tragedy: plays in which really great looking, really smart and usually really well-off people with really g…
My Labor Day weekend post is usually a salute to the people who work hard to make the shows we all love. Past tributes have been to struggling playwrights and blue-collar actors. …
Michael Greif is one of the reigning architects of new musicals. He helped to create Grey Gardens and Next to Normal. And, of course, he did the original production of Rent. Still, I wis…
Is there a perfect time to see a show? Professional critics go to special press nights before a show opens so that they can tell the rest of us if it's worth checking out. Those of us …
Talent counts in the theater but luck matters too. There are nearly 200 shows in this summer's
New York International Fringe Festival and the challenge for their creators is to find a …
Death was indeed on a holiday the first time I tried to see the new chamber musical Death Takes a Holiday that has been playing this summer at the Roundabout Theatre Company's Laura Pels The…
While I may be an avid theatergoer, I'm not always the most adventurous. I prefer narrative-driven pieces to experimental ones. I tend to like my theater on a traditional stage a…
Like most new smartphone and tablet users, I've been loading up on apps since I got my iPad at the beginning of the summer. And, of course, I downloaded a bunch of theater-related ones. …
I know this space has been quiet for a couple of weeks now. But
I haven't been entirely slothful. And I'm delighted to be able to break my silence with the news that a stor…
The heat over the last few weeks has slowed everything down. Including me. And so, as I did around this time last year, I'm going to shift into vacation mode for the rest o…
Theater is such an integral a part of New York that it often overflows into other parts of city life. The windows of the big Fifth Avenue department store Lord & Taylor have recently pai…
Some of the people in the audience were as attention-worthy as those onstage the night my theatergoing buddy Bill and I saw Master Class, the revival of Terrence McNally's love letter to the…
Ever since Joe Papp first set up shop in the East River Park Amphitheater to put on a production of Julius Caesar back in 1956, Shakespeare has been synonymous with summer here in New…
If you like camp, then you're probably going to love Silence! The Musical, which just opened at Theatre 80 down in the East Village. The audience the night my theatergoing buddy Bill and I s…
Regular readers may have noticed that, until now, I've barely mentioned the words Spider-Man. To be honest, what was there left to say? But I have seen Spider-Man: Turn Off The D…
Get there early if you're going to see Zarkana, the latest Cirque du Soleil production, which recently opened for a summer-long run at Radio City Music Hall. And make sure to take your camer…
The thermometer has been hitting the 80s for weeks now and the summer solstice came almost a fortnight ago but the lazy days of summer officially begin this Fourth of July weekend. Wor…
