911 stories by "Michael Riedel"
Broadway loves an overnight sensation " a newcomer heralded by critics and adored by audiences. The fresh face this season belongs to . . . Danny DeVito. OK, so he's not exactl…
Broadway loves brand-name titles, from movies ("Groundhog Day") to books ("Wicked") to television shows (a "Wonder Years" musical is in the works). So why not . . . board games…
Broadway has always been a boys' club. Sure, there are some powerful female producers " Daryl Roth ("Kinky Boots"), Lynne Meadow (the head of the Manhattan Theatre Club) and Fran Weissler ("…
When it comes to visionaries, give war a chance. Several major artists and innovators of the 20th century served as volunteer ambulance drivers during World War I, shaping their experiences …
When Mark Medoff attended a reading on Monday of his Tony Award-winning play "Children of a Lesser God," he was apprehensive: He hadn't seen the play in a few years and was worried it might …
Most people in the theater world run to the spotlight. Not Terrence McNally. Modest, shy and industrious, he's let his work speak for itself. Fortunately, his plays " "Lips Together, Teeth A…
After the high ratings and great reviews for "Behind the Candelabra," HBO's 2013 ghoulish but absorbing bio about Liberace, producer Jerry Weintraub wanted to turn it into a Broadway musical…
If Norma Desmond is ready for her Broadway close-up, surely Robert Evans is, too. Hollywood's suntanned, sunglasses-wearing legend is putting the finishing touches on the stage adaptation of…
Angelica Page developed her one-woman show about her mother, Oscar-winning actress Geraldine Page, at the Actors Studio in New York. It was a fitting place to work, since her mother was a me…
Tina Fey and "Saturday Night Live" executive producer Lorne Michaels are revving up for what they're calling a "developmental lab" of their "Mean Girls" musical. The script, which Fey adapte…
Paul Rudnick is one of the funniest writers around. Reading his collected plays the other day, I burst out laughing at lines from "I Hate Hamlet," starring the vainglorious ghost of John Bar…
There’s something for everybody on Broadway this spring: comedies ("The Play That Goes Wrong"), dramas ("Sweat"), star vehicles ("War Paint") and revivals ("Hello, Dolly!"). One thing'…
The two performances Broadway's raving about " Glenn Close in "Sunset Boulevard" and Jake Gyllenhaal in "Sunday in the Park With George" " are ineligible for Tony Awards. For Close, it's the…
My column last week about the nonmusical plays struggling at the box office prompted all sorts of e-mails and calls from producers imploring me to give them a chance. Nobody likes to come ou…
Bletchley Park is one of the most famous World War II sites in England. Tourists flock to the estate, where Alan Turing cracked the Nazis' Enigma machine, enabling the Allies to read secret …
There are plenty of nonmusical plays coming to Broadway this spring, but producers are fretting that few of them are selling. Three of those plays " "Sweat," "Indecent" and "Significant Othe…
If you want to see 1,000 women burst into tears, hand them a piece of paper that says, "We regret to inform you that Josh Groban is unable to appear in today's performance of 'The Great Come…
I have no idea why, but in this era of Make America Great Again, sales of George Orwell's "1984" have skyrocketed. The book, first published in 1949, is topping best-seller lists at Amazon, …
Things are getting tense up there in Toronto, where disgraced impresario Garth Drabinsky is plotting his comeback with the new musical "Sousatzka." Drabinsky's temper was legendary during hi…
You didn't hear this from me, but this week Cher was at the very first read-through of a new musical based on her life. I'm going to give you a few details, but I'm begging you: Don't tell a…
London theatergoers are pretty staid: applauding songs politely, sipping their white wine at the "interval" (translation: intermission) and never, ever giving a standing ovation. But the rev…
“The Scottsboro Boys" was one of my favorite musicals of the past 10 years, so I'm happy to report that the people who created it are at work on a new show. Director Susan Stroman, com…
And the box office champ of the fall is " Nathan Lane in "The Front Page." The revival recouped its $4.8 million production cost at the end of December, and is on track to make a tidy pro…
As we swing into 2017, let's look at the people, shows and events certain to make news on Broadway in the months ahead. Hello, $$$! Bette Midler is shaping up as the No. 1 box-office draw th…
The Broadway League was scrambling Tuesday for its members to authorize dimming the lights in honor of Debbie Reynolds and, perhaps, Carrie Fisher. Reynolds is probably a sure bet, since she…
