911 stories by "Michael Riedel"
Because I'm a black-belt in martial arts " I break boards the way "Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark" breaks actors " one of my favorite songs is "Kung Fu Fighting"...
On Oct. 19, 2010, a group of Broadway ticketing agents gathered at the Foxwoods Theatre for a sneak peek at some of the flying stunts in the upcoming Broadway musical...
Name your favorite diva, and it's a good bet she's gone after the plum role of the season: Helen Sinclair, the boozing leading lady of Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway."...
It’s been a tough week to be a Broadway leading man Norbert Leo Butz, the star of "Big Fish," left the show midway through Wednesday's matinee. I like to think...
“Big Fish,” little splash.
I don't want to sink the hook in any deeper, but "Big Fish," the $12 million musical that opened Sunday, looks destined to become an early casualty of …
Suddenly, after all these years of trying to kill it, I'm interested in the resilient "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" again.
Why?
Because Alice Cooper is in negotiations to play the Green Go…
If the most powerful position in the English-speaking theater world is chairman of the board of the Shubert Organization (currently held by Philip J. Smith), then I'd say the top job at the …
"The Two-Character Play" has been troubled from the start. The director, Gene David Kirk, was let go during technical rehearsals after reportedly clashing with the stage manager. His picture…
The name is Pinter. Harold Pinter.
Though he's been dead five years, the master of the unsettling remains a Broadway box office powerhouse, as you can see from the $6 million advance sale fo…
Judas speaks!
In my hot little hands is the manuscript of "The Song of Spider-Man," Glen Berger's forthcoming tell-all (from Simon & Schuster, Nov. 5) about "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," …
There was a fun rumor going around that the opening-night party of "Soul Doctor," a new musical about a singing rabbi, was so Orthodox, the men were separated from the women by a sheet.
I ch…
My item last week about Broadway's failure to dim its lights in honor of the press agent Shirley Herz touched a nerve.
I received dozens of e-mails from people in theater who have noticed " …
A very powerful theater person summed up Broadway's latest offerings this way: "I saw 'Let It Be,' and last week I sat through 'First Date' and 'Soul Doctor.' The highlight of my summer has …
Oskar Eustis, the head of the Public Theater, is on the move!
His not-for-profit complex down on Lafayette Street " as well as the Delacorte in Central Park " just isn't big enough to contai…
One of my favorite shows is "Titanic," that ambitious, almost operatic musical by composer Maury Yeston and book writer Peter Stone.
I was an early champion of this 1997 show despite rocky p…
Hello, Kristin!
Kristin Chenoweth has said she'd love to play Dolly Levi in "Hello, Dolly!" in about 10 years.
But her wish may come true a lot sooner.
I hear she's in discussions to star in…
It's tough being a movie star these days.
Unless you're in one of those franchises " "Spider-Man 12," for instance " work in Hollywood is spotty.
And if this summer is any indication, things…
The most enjoyable evening I've spent in the theater recently was at the Encores! production of "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road," which wrapped up a brief run at City …
Here's a fruit fight for you: Liberace versus Liberace!
My report the other week about Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub's upcoming stage version of the hit HBO movie "Behind the Candelabra…
I have to report some sad news today.
Miller Wright, a veteran theater and nightclub publicist and a real gentleman, died last week. The circumstances were grisly, sparking rumors about suic…
The Burt Bacharach/Hal David song collection is one of the few baby-boomer-era catalogs that have yet to be exploited onstage.
There have been a couple of attempts, both misfires. Back in 19…
It's only summer, but we can already crown this season's box- office champ.
Cue the gun barrel and the surf-rock guitar riff: 007's the man with the golden box office.
Tickets for the upcomi…
'Peter and the Starcatcher,"
Rick Elice's charming and inventive spin on the Peter Pan story, is still doing a brisk business at off-Broadway's New World Stages.
It moved there after a suc…
I recently ran into Bill Russell, who writes musicals, and he told me he's knee-deep in revising "Side Show," the cult Broadway musical he created with composer Henry Krieger in 1997.
Talk a…
I recently ran into Bill Russell, who writes musicals, and he told me he's knee-deep in revising "Side Show," the cult Broadway musical he created with composer Henry Krieger in 1997.
Talk a…
