BY NAVEEN KUMAR Who better to help boost a stumbling economy than a brazen troupe of fabulous drag queens in high-heels? They’re just the divas for the job in Kinky Boots, the uplifting and heartfelt new musical with book written... Continue reading

BY NAVEEN KUMAR The late Nora Ephron’s new play Lucky Guy, which opened on Broadway last night at the Broadhurst Theatre, resembles not so much conventional drama as kinetic, straight-talking journalism. Starring Tom Hanks as renowned tabloid reporter and columnist... Continue reading

BY NAVEEN KUMAR Edie Falco has more than a knack for playing unusual mothers. From her iconic portrayal of mob matriarch Carmela Soprano, to her title role as a high-functioning addict in Showtime’s Nurse Jackie—she has an exceptional way of... Continue reading

BY NAVEEN KUMAR Just months after the fifteenth anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death, the Tectonic Theatre Project presents both plays of The Laramie Project Cycle at Brooklyn Academy of Music, performing in repertory at the Harvey Theater through February 24th.... Continue reading

BY NAVEEN KUMAR Realism bites—and so does reality, for that matter. Before Ethan and Winona, there was Bertolt Brecht, the anti-naturalist whose 1923 play Baal, about the self-propelled downward spiral of a poet-cum-anti-hero, serves as inspiration for Jonathan Marc Sherman’s... Continue reading

BY NAVEEN KUMAR Though Broadway diva Patti LuPone plays no small part in this critically embraced solo show that bears her name, Patti Issues, written and performed by Ben Rimalower, has broader-than-show-queen appeal. Delivered as a single monologue by Rimalower... Continue reading

BY NAVEEN KUMAR With the exception of a winning performance by stage champ Elizabeth Marvel, the most invigorating aspect of Roundabout Theatre Company's staid revival of William Inge's Picnic are film hunk Sebastian Stan's high-definition abs. They feature so prominently... Continue reading

BY NAVEEN KUMAR Broadway leading lady Stephanie J. Block currently stars as the title character in Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Rupert Holmes’ acclaimed 1985 musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, directed by Scott Ellis. The company, which includes Broadway... Continue reading

BY NAVEEN KUMAR An exhilarating and affecting rock musical that opened Off-Broadway last night at New World Stages, bare serves up an insightful depiction of emotional truths inherent to the sprawling, messy, and often wrenching experience of adolescence. Formerly billed... Continue reading

(photos by Joan Marcus) BY NAVEEN KUMAR The true nature of art, the steadfastness of love, the inevitability of death—this is the stuff of great opera, and the same lofty stuff that Terrence McNally’s play The Golden Age, which made... Continue reading