Book Review: Chilly Scenes of Winter

(Bought at the Little Red Book Shack in Hudson, NY for 50 cents): I've read many of Ann Beattie's story collections and novels, but never this one, her first big hit which put her on the literary map back in 1976. It was later filmed as Head Over Heels (the studio didn't like her original title). There isn't much of a plot. Unhappy twentysomething Charles pines for married Laura while tending to his mentally-ill mother Clara, and coping with hostile feelings to wards his stepfather Pete. His sister Susan is still in college and engage to a med student Charles doesn't like and his best friend Sam has just lost his job and moves in. The novel follows Charles through a cold winter as stumbles his way through life, trying to find love and meaning in a boring government job. 

I couldn't help liking Charles, even though he's a whiny complainer. Beattie gives him so many human flaws and foibles, it's hard not to sympathize with him. The book was proclaimed as a 1970s answer to Catcher in the Rye. Charles is not as disaffected and rebellious as Holden Caulfield, but he is a realistic example of the youth of the decade after the 1960s seeking their identity in a society that provides few role models. He is damaged because his father died when he was young and his mother has lost her grip on sanity. He becomes a needy desperate loner with few friends (except for Sam) and longs for the unattainable Laura. I enjoyed this work by Beattie more than her others. The quirkiness doesn't feel as forced as in many of her short stories.  

Off-B'way Review: La Cage Aux Folles

Billy Porter and Wayne Brady in
La Cage Aux Folles.
Credit: Jan Marcus

The mission of Encores! is to give obscure or forgotten musicals with some worthy elements—either a witty score, a fun book, or an opportunity for a contemporary performer to stretch themselves—another look. La Cage Aux Folles doesn’t really fit any of these criteria. The original 1983 production ran for over five years and there have been two revivals (2004 and 2010). The show has not slipped beneath notice and holds a place in the cultural memory for its trailblazing depiction of a loving gay couple humorously challenging bigotry. Jerry Herman’s spritely score contains many tunes which remain on the short-list for Favorite Broadway songs. Harvey Fierstein’s book retains its sitcom-y punch, with only a few dated spots.

However, Robert O’Hara’s new concert staging does give us chance to “see things from a different angle” as the lyrics to “I Am What I Am,” the show’s hit anthem of gay rights, suggests. With an all-black cast and an infusion of transgender imagery, O’Hara brings La Cage up to the present moment. David Zinn’s set and Clint Ramos and Michelle Ridley’s costumes evoke black, gay icons from Sylvester to Eartha Kitt’s Catwoman.

When the original production opened, stars George Hearn and Gene Barry made it abundantly clear in interviews they were both big, strapping straight guys only playing at being queer. (I even recall one feature article on the show in a national magazine telling of a straight chorus boy in drag harshly rejecting the flirtatious advances of a male stagehand.) I don’t recall any kissing between the two leads and I believe they only went as far as handing hands. Here, Wayne Brady and Billy Porter—the former has identified as “pansexual” and the latter as gay—are entirely believable as a married couple of many years. They aren’t afraid to display intimacy. At one point, Porter’s extravagant Albin recoils from a public display of affection from his husband Georges (Brady). This is the only moment that rings false. 

Porter is blazingly flamboyant and touching, unashamedly proclaiming his identity. His rendition of “I Am What I Am” at the first act finale brings down the house. He’s entirely at home as the top-billed drag entertainer and loving maternal figure in his family. Brady is equally professional and commanding as the—you should excuse the expression—straight man to Porter’s flashier role. He provides a solid anchor for Porter to take off from. 

As Jean-Michele, the son who requests Albin get tucked away in a closet to please his persecutive conservation in-laws, Alaman Diadhiou gets an impressive dance solo. Tonya Pinkins is a delight in the beefed-up role of Jacqueline, the world-weary restauranteur as is James Jackson Jr. as the sassy servant Jacob. Peter Francis James overplays the stuffy right-wing leader, emerging as a straw bogey man.

The staging can be rough at times. The lack of prep time shows. At one point, Porter flubbed a line and ad-libbed, “Only ten days, bitches,” referring to the abbreviated Encores! rehearsal period. The design elements are uneven, particularly Adam Honore’s harsh lighting which sometimes causes glare and audience members have to shield their eyes. Some Encores products have been so polished they could open on Broadway with little transition, but this one would require additional work. However, the choreography by Edgar Godineaux and Dormeshia is brilliantly executed and is a highlight. 

Despite the rough patches, this La Cage is a fun frolic and a bracing reminder of how far we’ve come in 40 years. Gay couples are now regularly in TV commercials and game shows (like Brady’s Let’s Make a Deal.) Musicals like this one were there first, making it a fitting way to end Gay Pride month.

June 18—28. Encores! at City Center, 131 W. 55th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 30 mins. including intermission. nycityenter.org.

Billy Porter and cast
in La Cage Aux Folles
Credit: Joan Marcus

B'way Update: Three Days of Rain

Francois Arnaud in Heated Rivalry
Credit: HBO

The trend for revivals continues as the latest entry in the 2026-27 Broadway season is announced. Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain, previously seen Off and on Broadway, will begin performance in February 2027 at a Shubert theater to be announced with a cast mainly known for their film and TV credits. The cast of three who will play two roles each is comprised on Francois Arnaud (Heated Rivalry), David Corenswet (Superman), and Emmy nominee Yvonne Strahovski (Serena Joy from The Handmaid's Tale). Tony winner Anna D. Shapiro will direct.  

Anna D. Shapiro said, “THREE DAYS OF RAIN is truly one of the most beautiful plays I’ve ever done or experienced. Steeped in the brilliantly funny and enchantingly complex world of Richard Greenberg, the story follows two generations of New York intelligentsia as they navigate the burden of family, the seduction of art and the necessity of love over time and eternity.”

David Corenswet as Superman
Credit: Warner Brothers

Three Days of Rain premiered in NYC Off-Broadway in a 1997 Manhattan Theater Club production with Patricia Clarkson, John Slattery and Bradley Whitford. The play was a Pulitzer finalist and won an Obie Award. A 2006 Broadway revival was headlined by movie stars Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper.

This brings the number of Broadway play revivals for 2026-7 to ten with only four new plays scheduled (five if you count Billy Crystal's autobiographical solo show). 

Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy
on The Handmaid's Tale.
Credit: Hulu

B'way Update: Warriors Musical

Eisa Davis and Lin-Manuel Miranda

Warriors, a musical based on the 1979 Paramount Pictures release The Warriors and the 1965 novel by Sol Yorick, will open on Broadway in Spring of 2027. Previews begin in March with an opening in April at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. Book, music and lyrics are by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In the Heights) and Eisa Davis (Bulrusher). Jeffrey Koons directs and Andy Blankenbuehler of Hamilton co-directs and choreographs. The plot follows a NYC gang as they travel from Coney Island to the Bronx and back in an effort to prove their innocence of a murder. The musical originated as a concept album realesed in 2024 and featuring Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, Nas, Billy Porter, Coleman Domingo, and many others.

“With Warriors, we take a fateful journey through New York City full of heart and grit as our characters fight to survive,” said co-writers Miranda and Davis in a joint statement. “Musicalizing such a vibrant world for the concept album has been a thrill, and now we're coming out to play on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne. We can't wait.”

A scene from The Warriors film (1979)

B'way/Off-B'way Update: LCT Season; Mean Girls Cast

Jasmine Amy Rogers will star in two Broadway
shows this season; Bradley Whitford and Tom
Blyth will headline A Few Good Men.

The Sound of Music, Rodgers and Hammerstein's beloved classic of the Von Trapp Family Singers and that famous climb over a mountain to escape the Nazis, is returning to Broadway as part of Lincoln Center Theater's 2026-27 Broadway and Off-Broadway season which will also include revivals of A Few Good Men and August Wilson's Seven Guitars and a new play from Kimberly Belflower, author of John Proctor Is the Villain. 

Tony nominee and Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle winner Jasmine Amy Rogers (Boop!, Spelling Bee) will headline The Sound of Music revival, scheduled to begin performances at the Vivian Beaumont on March 23, 2027, with an opening set for April 15. Tony nominee and Drama Desk winner and LCT artistic director Lear de Bessonet (Ragtime, Into the Woods) will direct. The Sound of Music opened in 1959, ran 1, 443 performances and won five Tonys including Best Musical. The 1965 movie version starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer won five Oscars and became one of the top grossing films of its day. A 1998 revival ran 533 performances.

BTW, before wandering through the hills and singing about how they are alive, Rogers will star in Manhattan Theater Club's production of School Girls or the African Mean Girls Play, opening Sept. 28 at the Samuel Friedman. Her co-stars are Tony nominee Denee Benton (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, The Gilded Age), Tony winner Patina Miller (Pippin), Drama Desk nominee Erin Morton (Heathers), Nia Otchere-Sarfo, Jordan Rice, Obie winner Heather Alicia Simms (Purlie Victorious), and Lucia Aremu (Cold War Choir Practice).

Back to Lincoln Center: Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men starring Emmy winner Bradley Whitford (The West Wing, The Handmaid's Tale, Transparent) and Tom Blyth (The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), begins previews at the Beaumont Oct. 8, opening Oct. 19. Tony winner Michael Arden (The Lost Boys, Maybe Happy Ending, Once on This Island) directs.

At the Off-Broadway Mitzi Newhouse, Ruben Santiago-Hudson will direct a revival of August Wilson's Seven Guitars, set in 1940s Pittsburgh. Santiago Hudson won a Tony for Featured Actor in a Play for the 1996 original Broadway production. Previews Nov. 5, opens Nov. 23.

Kimberly Bellflower follows up her Broadway debut of John Proctor Is the Villain with Born in the Dirt, reuniting her with director Danya Taymor. The story concerns a young woman in a small Souther town working at a "hospital" that produces dolls for collectors. Previews April 14, 2027, opens May 6. 

Also at the Newhouse will be Playing Burton by Mark Jenkins, directed by Bartlett Sher, a one-man play about the legendary film and stage star Richard Burton, played by Matthew Rhys. Dates to be announced.

Lincoln Center's LCT3 at the Clara Tow Theater will present creation stories and the important importants by Mfoniso Udofia (performances begin Sept. 15) and Pretend It's Pretend by Emma Watkins (beginning Jan. 28, 2027).

Off-B'way Review: Henry VI: A Trilogy in Two Parts

Mia Katigbak and Jon Norman Schneider
in Henry VI: A Trilogy in Two Parts.
Credit: HanJie Chow

What a difference a day makes. The first part of NAATCO (National Asian-American Theater Company) and the Public Theater’s two-evening presentation of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy is a confusing muddle with ridiculously labyrinthine plots and melodramatic acting and direction. I actually dreaded returning to the Public the following evening for the second part. But, much to my relief and delight, Part Two was a tighter, ferocious spectacle of power politics. The press materials claims this early work from the Bard inspired the bloodthirsty Game of Thrones fantasy series and the second part bears that out. Originally presented in 2018, Henry VI: A Trilogy in Two Parts condenses three of the Bard’s early history plays in a two-night sprawling epic. The action covers the seemingly endless War of the Roses wherein the Houses of York and Lancaster battle for the crown during the reign of the boyishly naive title monarch.

Teresa Avia Lim and Paul Juhn in
Henry VI: A Trilogy in Two Parts.
Credit: HanJie Chow

Director and Adapter Stephen Brown-Fried can do little to enliven the overstuffed Part One, subtitled Foreign Wars. The young king (sensitive Jon Norman Schneider) is embroiled in armed conflict to retain the French lands conquered by his father the war-like Henry V. The French have a secret weapon, the possibly divine, possibly witchy Joan of Arc (fiery Myka Cue). Meanwhile, the devious Duke of York (steely Rajesh Bose) is scheming to seize the throne, countered by Henry’s dominant wife Queen Margaret (commanding Teresa Avia Lim). There are so many slow-motion battles, reversals of fortune and elaborate stratagems, it’s nearly impossible to keep track of them all. (Mextly Couzin’s striking lighting does help clarify the action somewhat.) In one ironic scene, York’s convoluted explanation for his claim to the crown gets the biggest laugh of the evening. 

Actors are constantly moving pylons entwined with thick ropes back and forth across the drab set by the design team of dots. The absurd black and white costumes by threeAsFour featuring weird puffy fabric choices, denote no specific period and make the performers look like they are wearing sleeping bags or comforters. Hardly appropriate for combat. Mia Katigbak does have moments of dignified grace as Henry’s humane advisor, an island of sanity in a sea of madness. (There are many interesting examples of cross-gender casting with women playing male roles.)  

Kimiye Corwin, David Shih, and 
John D. Haggerty in
Henry VI: A Trilogy in Two Parts.
Credit: HanJie Chow

But Part Two, subtitled Civil Strife, benefits from mainly focusing on a single story arc: the machiavellian machinations of the crippled, satanic Duke of Gloucester, later to be crowned the infamous Richard III. Played like a diminutive dynamo demon by Julyana Soelistyo, Richard becomes the center of an epic battle to seize the monarchy at all costs. Brown-Fried’s pacing becomes quicker and clearer, the battles are not as repetitive and the acting is sharper. Schneider’s Henry grows more complex, displaying the woebegone king’s conflicting inner struggle between religious idealism and brutal reality. (In a fascinating double-casting choice, he reappears as a lowly messenger after the king has been taken captive.) Lim’s Margaret emerges as a wolf-like predator, devouring anyone who crosses her. A production of Richard III featuring Soelistyo and Lim would be a terrific cage match. There are also vibrant performances in this second part by Anna Ishida as Warwick, Orville Mendoza as the rebel Jack Cade, and David Lee Huynh as Clifford.

The three Henry VI plays are rarely performed, yet they have relevance in today’s world. Both feature a deeply divided country with leaders exploiting populist fears and passions to gain unchecked power. This production attempts to make that connection, but only succeeds half-way.

June 21—July 19. Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., NYC. Running time: Part One: two hours and 45 mins. including intermission; Part Two: two hours and 15 mins. including intermission. publictheater.org.

Book Review: Twilight of the Super Heroes

(Bought at Inquiring Minds Bookstore in Saugerties, NY for $7) Deborah Eisenberg's short story collection has some brilliant passages, but I found her overall style a little too writerly. I didn't feel like I was inside the characters, but in the mind of the writer, coldly observing them. The perspective shifted within the stories, which was confusing. The title story is praised lavishly in the book inside blurbs as an insightful rumination on 9/11. It didn't make me feel anything really. The perspective switches from a rudderless young man sharing an illegal Manhattan sublet right in front of the Twin Towers with three friends to his art-dealer uncle who procured the apartment for him. The young man is amateur artist producing a satiric comic strip featuring Passivity Man. The reaction of these two and the roommates to the Twin Towers devastation and its aftermath are the nucleus of the story. It didn't register as emotional or impactful. 

I liked Some Other, Better Otto and Revenge of the Dinosaurs more. The first depicts a depressed gay man dealing with his husband and family including a schizophrenic sister. The second a somewhat feckless young artist coping with her senile grandmother and her more practical brother. I felt closer to the characters here.