Articles

BROADWAY JOURNAL: “The Book of Mormon” and “The Mother____ With the Hat”

Posted April 18, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> As you see elsewhere on this page, ShowbuzzDaily isn’t just about movies.  And since, as it happens, Your Faithful Correspondent is in New York for the week, we’ll have a few days of thoughts about some of the hot new shows on Broadway. For anyone who doesn’t already know, THE BOOK OF MORMON is […]

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SHOWBUZZDAILY BROADWAY JOURNAL: “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying”

Posted September 8, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> Few things bring audiences as much joy as the sight of a well-known actor or actress revealing a side of their talent that’s never been seen before.  (It’s not just general audiences, either–those roles become instant favorites for Oscar nominations and wins.)  It can be as simple as Halle Berry, Julia Roberts or Nicole […]

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SHOWBUZZDAILY BROADWAY JOURNAL: “Follies”

Posted September 8, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> FOLLIES may be the strangest of all Broadway masterpieces; after 40 years, it’s still the most avant-garde work of Stephen Sondheim’s career. It’s easy enough to make the show sound linear:  set in 1971 (which was present-day when the musical was written), it takes place at a theatre that had, for some decades, housed […]

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SHOWBUZZDAILY NY THEATRE JOURNAL: “Other Desert Cities”

Posted February 19, 2012 by Mitch Salem

> Buzz has it that Jon Robin Baitz’s play OTHER DESERT CITIES is one of the frontrunners for this year’s Best Play Tony Award, and it’s easy to see why. (Let’s leave aside the fact that so few new plays open on Broadway these days, whatever manages to stay open for more than a couple […]

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SHOWBUZZDAILY NY THEATRE JOURNAL: “Seminar”

Posted February 22, 2012 by Mitch Salem

> There’s an inescapable irony in Theresa Rebeck’s play SEMINAR when the bilious novelist (Alan Rickman) who’s reluctantly teaching a group of aspiring young writers launches an attack on one of them by predicting that his “whorishness” will make him more suited for a life in Hollywood than one in the finer precincts of the […]

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SHOWBUZZDAILY NY THEATRE JOURNAL: “Venus In Fur”

Posted February 22, 2012 by Mitch Salem

> VENUS IN FUR exists, at this point in its Broadway life, as two overlapping but not identical entities:  it’s a deft new play by David Ives, but also, and more prominently, it’s become the Star-Is-Born vehicle for its lead actress, Nina Arianda, who’s currently giving about as dazzling a performance as you’re likely to […]

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SHOWBUZZDAILY NY THEATRE JOURNAL: ‘Death of A Salesman”

Posted February 24, 2012 by Mitch Salem

> Although a great work of art is great forever, the relevance of a given piece to a current moment in time does tend to fluctuate.  It turns out that Arthur Miller’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN, written 63 years ago, is so remarkably attuned to this here and now that despite its period setting, it […]

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BROADWAY JOURNAL: “Anything Goes”

Posted April 20, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> Once there was a time when Broadway musicals didn’t have to say anything about society, politics, art, literature, or really much of anything.  They were exercises in style, excuses for glamorous people to get up on stage in fancy costumes and sing tuneful, ingenious songs while dancing up a storm.  That’s the world of […]

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