Tag: Ben Brantley
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ShentonSTAGE DAILY FOR MONDAY APRIL 4
Welcome to today’s edition of ShentonSTAGE, which finds me back in London after a week in New York. Diary and Digest of the theatrical week This new weekly feature began last Monday, presenting a digest of the theatrical week just past, both personal and more wide-reaching, including theatrical announcements of the week and openings of […]
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Reviews: Be More Chill/ Heathers
There comes a point in every lifelong theatre lover’s career when you suddenly wake up and wonder: am I simply too old for this? Ben Brantley, former chief critic of the New York Times, hit this particular critical nail on the head when he ended his review of the 2018 off-Broadway summer run of the […]
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April 3: Follies at 50 tomorrow, and New York’s theatrical return that began yesterday
Yesterday, the resumption of theatre life began in New York; meanwhile, tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the Broadway opening night of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, his jagged and shattering tribute to the musicals as well as the marriages of yesteryear, as James Goldman’s characters confront their current predicaments as middle and old-aged people looking back […]
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February 8: Diary Items: The downside to insurance claims being honoured for the Broadway shutdown; and remembering other lives and past reviews
I’ve had more than my fair share of major surgery over the last decade or so, including three spinal surgeries in the space of 15 days just this last September. I’ve been relieved to have been covered for this by a BUPA health care policy my parents began for me when I was still a […]
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February 7: So long Farewell, Aufwiedersehn, Adeiu, Adeiu, To yieu and yieu and yieu
If, as Monty Python famously urges, we should always look on the bright side of life, then the brighter side of death are obituaries. They’re one of my absolutely favourite forms of journalism, and I read them just as avidly as I read the best critics; and its for the same reasons. They may shine […]
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The week in brief (w/e October 14)
The week’s news, reviews, quotes and tweets in theatre from both sides of the Atlantic, including an interview with Sonia Friedman, reviews of Shakespeare in three different abbreviated versions, and a YouTube star appearing on Broadway.
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The week in theatre: Billy Elliot to go, School of Rock to come & Bugsy Malone to return
Big musicals news of the week: Billy Elliot is closing at the Victoria Palace, School of Rock is coming to the London Palladium, Bugsy Malone is returning to the Lyric Hammersmith, and Gypsy will on be BBC4.
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News from New York: Pacino and Lloyd Webber Back on Broadway and David Bowie Off
I’m forever being asked, visit this site help much as my brother who is a vet is asked for fixes for people’s ailing pets, what shows I’d recommend people to see. With that in mind, I’m going to offer a weekly top ten here, as well as a diary of the big openers of the […]
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Cynthia Erivo heads to Broadway, Jonny Donahoe comes home & Ben Brantley raves about Chenoweth
A Dreamgirl making her dreams come true No sooner did I declare Cynthia Erivo yesterday to be number two in my list of current UK musical theatre actresses in my round-up for The Stage than yesterday it was also announced that she’s at to reprise the shattering performance she gave in The Color Purple at […]