911 stories by "Michael Riedel"
Last week I wrote about three shows that are trying to slip onto Broadway stages before the Tony cutoff date in April: "The Honeymooners," "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical" and "Hadestown."…
Reed Birney was beginning to smolder. Every time the actor came on stage as O'Brien, the chief torturer in "1984" at the Hudson Theatre, a group of theatergoers giggled. "The laughter was in…
Call it Broadway Monopoly " the game producers, landlords and other insiders love to play when theaters suddenly open up. With so many shows circling the Great White Way, two or three could …
Happy Halloween! Is there any better place to go ghostbusting than the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo. (from $189)? Believers in the paranormal say there are more spirits hanging about th…
Two showbiz legends " Mel Brooks and Andrew Lloyd Webber " are turning their painful flops into crowd-pleasing hits. Brooks just returned from London clutching raves for his snappy new "Youn…
Back in August, I reported that Amy Schumer, the star of Steve Martin's new play "Meteor Shower," was shaping up to be Broadway's biggest box-office draw this fall. After she sold $1 million…
The biggest star in Lincoln Center's upcoming revival of "My Fair Lady" isn't playing Eliza Doolittle or Henry Higgins: She's playing Mrs. Higgins, Henry's elegant mother. Diana Rigg will re…
"The Cher Show" is rehearsing here in New York at the New 42nd Street Studios, but somebody key to the entire enterprise is missing: Cher. She can't be here because she's in London and Croat…
Tickets for "Mean Girls" went on sale last week at the August Wilson Theatre, and Tina Fey was there to hand out cheese fries. The p.r. stunt was, well, cheesy " but effective. Inspired by o…
Harvey Weinstein was at Gwyneth Paltrow's townhouse last year when she unveiled "Head Over Heels," the musical she's producing about the 1980s girl band the Go-Gos. Weinstein, sources say, w…
The Playbill for "Springsteen on Broadway" reads "Written and Directed by Bruce Springsteen" " which means the Boss could be eligible for Tony Awards for both Best Book and Best Direction of…
The buzz around the revival of Harvey Fierstein's "Torch Song" at Second Stage Theater is so good, there's talk of a move to Broadway in the spring. But don't tell Fierstein. "Stop!" he says…
WANTED: An actress who can scream like Fay Wray eight times a week. The creators of the "King Kong" musical are town this week looking for Ann Darrow, the beauty that'll kill their beast at …
July 3, 2015, was a heartbreaking day for many people who work in the theater. That afternoon, they received an e-mail from Rick Elice, the Tony-nominated co-writer of "Jersey Boys," letting…
Marian Seldes was beloved: an elegant, talented, wonderfully eccentric actress and teacher whose students included Christopher Reeve, Patti LuPone and Kevin Spacey. She died in 2014, at 86. …
In June 1979, the Bee Gees were on top of the world. Months before, their "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, featuring songs written and/or performed by the Australian trio, had won a Grammy…
Fallout from the crash and burn of "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812" continues to rain down on Broadway. A group of disgruntled investors in the $14 million production " which …
DENVER " Disney is opening its Broadway-bound "Frozen" Thursday night to a sea of Elsas. Easily one-third of the audience for the last month of previews has arrived in long blue gowns and bl…
Prospective backers for the upcoming revivals of "Angels in America" and "M. Butterfly" are getting sticker shock when they see the price tags. These are big, bold and potentially thrilling …
President Frank Underwood called me the other day to tell me about a play that I haven't been paying much attention to: "The Parisian Woman." It's a terrible title, but when FU calls, you li…
The big shows for the new theater season are set. We'll be singing "Let It Go" from "Frozen," toasting the wit of Tina Fey in "Mean Girls," enjoying the charms of "The Band's Visit," and hop…
Put aside the politics, the polemics and the president. Michael Moore, nestled into a booth at a bar in the theater district, wants to talk about something else: his lifelong love affair wit…
Not only is it alive, it's a hit. Mel Brooks spent the past year in the laboratory repairing his 2007 flop "Young Frankenstein" and, by all accounts, succeeded: The show is slaying them in N…
Pull up a chair, Stephen Sondheim fans: I've got eyewitness reports from the National Theatre of London's first preview of "Follies." Directed by Dominic Cooke, this lavish production, set i…
Pull up a chair, Stephen Sondheim fans: I've got eyewitness reports from the National Theatre of London's first preview of "Follies." Directed by Dominic Cooke, this lavish production, set i…
