Working on Broadway shift By GORDON COX

'9 to 5' musical premieres in New York

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Janney a show-stealer in '9 to 5' by LIZ SMITH

Actress shares thoughts on stage, screen

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Christina Aguilera going 'Burlesque' By MICHAEL FLEMING

Christina Aguilera will make her screen debut for Screen Gems in "Burlesque," a contemporary musical that Steven Antin will direct.

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Hugh Jackman, Seeds planting pics By MICHAEL FLEMING

Actor to star in 'Wolverine' sequel, 'Carousel'

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Broadway box office continues to slip

Total sales fall to $18.1 million

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Reviewed by David Rooney

In Everyday Rapture, Sherie Rene Scott refers to herself with typical self-effacement as "one of Broadway's biggest, brightest semi-stars." Based solely on the evidence of this bewitching not-quite-solo show, she could flesh out that job description to include storyteller, singer, dramatic actress, standup comedian, philosopher, and magician, just for starters. Smart, funny, and deftly balanced in its blend of self-exposure and theatrical artifice, this musical autobiography is an unpredictable voyage of spiritual reflection that charts the path of a Kansas Mennonite in New York with charming candor.

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

'Wicked' stays hot in Salt Lake

Road Grosses

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Ragtime<br> Review By PAUL HARRIS

Given America's recently heightened respect for racial equality, what could be more appropriate than a revival of 1998 tuner "Ragtime" in the nation's capital? The Kennedy Center has shrewdl…

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Death of a Salesman<br> Review By FRANK RIZZO

Dutton makes Willy Loman nothing less than an American Lear, though it's left not to him but to the audience to understand his tragedy. But as harrowing and haunting as the lead perf is, the…

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Anchors aweigh for 'Hairspray' By GORDON COX

Musical boards Oasis cruise ship in December

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Who musical searches for identity By DAVID BENEDICT

'Quadrophenia' to open May 9 in London

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

9 to 5: The Musical<br> Review By DAVID ROONEY

If the material showcasing the trio is an uneven cut-and-paste job that struggles to recapture the movie's giddy estrogen rush, plenty of folks will nonetheless find this a nostalgic crowd-p…

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Waiting for Godot<br> Review By DAVID ROONEY

Samuel Beckett's 1953 play has been absent from Broadway for more than 50 years, and the current climate of pervasive anxiety makes the timing ideal for a comedy of existential despair -- ev…

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Theater vet John Blankenchip dies

Designer, director taught at USC

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Accent on Youth<br> Review by David Rooney

David Hyde Pierce's effortless timing makes this antiquated comedy tick by painlessly enough.

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Celebs sign up for Just for Laughs

Whoopi, Martin Short to host comedy fest's Gala

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

John Lithgow: Stories by Heart<br> Review By MARILYN STASIO

Is there another actor breathing who's as sweetly charming as John Lithgow?

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Singing Forest<br> Review By MARILYN STASIO

Throw in a quasi-comic subplot about rival gay psychiatrists and a guest appearance by Sigmund Freud and the play's premise about a family's need to resolve its unfinished history begs to ha…

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life at the Petit Theatre at Cirey Tonight<br> Review By BOB VERINI

Gunderson and helmer David Emmes cross the line from celebration into hagiography, robbing the lady of sympathy. This cerebral, anemic pageant could use a little Force Vive itself.

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Bacall's fun with the Friars By LIZ SMITH

Tidbits on Banderas, Pet Shop Boys, Woody

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Desire Under the Elms<br> Review By DAVID ROONEY

Transferring from Chicago's Goodman Theater, where it was the centerpiece of a Eugene O'Neill festival, the staging is grimly overwrought, with an intensity that never quite translates into …

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Canada boosts Stratford, Shaw fests By GORDON COX

Government pumps funds into tourist attractions

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Broadway takes a dip By GORDON COX

Tourism winds down on Great White Way

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Reviewed by David Rooney

Director David Grindley had a hit in 2005 with his Donmar Warehouse revival of Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist, its cast headed by Simon Russell Beale, an actor who could locate the emotional undertow in even the most distancing role. There's no reason to question the endorsement of London critics, but every reason to suppose the change of venue and lead actor must have taken a dire toll on Grindley's production. With Matthew Broderick reducing the title character to a cartoon, performing in his own hermetic space that excludes everyone else onstage, the play sits inertly, its poignancy lost and its clever dialogue hollowed into empty banter.

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Ain't Misbehavin'<br> Review By BOB VERINI

Who'd have guessed the freshest act in town would be a decades-old staging of century-old material?

SOURCE: Variety at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑