Equity Foundation Awards

Nicholas Barasch, Ramin Karimloo, and
Jinkx Monsoon in Pirates! The Penzance Musical.
Credit: Joan Marcus

The winners of the Equity Foundation Awards have been announced. The Clarence Derwent Awards for rising talent in supporting roles go to Julia Lester of All-Nighter and Nicholas Barasch of Pirates! The Penzance Musical. The Richard Seff Awards for stage veterans in supporting roles go to Jessica Hecht of Eureka Day and Francis Jue of Yellow Face. The Joseph A. Callaway Awards for classical roles go to Steve Epp (Henry IV) and Kimber Elayne Sprawl for Othello. 

The winners will be presented with their accolades at an upcoming Equity regional meeting. 

Les Miz Cast Plans to Boycott Trump at Kennedy Center

The cast of Les Miz.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

10 of the cast members of the touring production of Les Miserables are planning to boycott a June 11 benefit performance at the Kennedy Center because Trump will be there. Trumpy and the right-wing blogosphere are blowing their top. Richard Grenell, interim director of the Center, is furious and calling for a return of the McCarthy-era blacklist of artists suspected of disloyalty to the current regime. 

"Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed," Grenell fumed in a statement. "In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire — and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience....The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoys a performance together" 

If they haven't already, the actors in question should issue of a statement of their own explaining their reasons. What Grenell is missing is that these actors are not intolerant of those with differing views. They are protesting Trump's anti-art and anti-diversity policies. The Center has cancelled all LGBTQ programming the week of Gay Pride in DC. Trump is cutting NEA grants for theaters across the country. He's threatening to defund Public TV and National Public Radio. All of those points should be put out and plainly stated. I'm guessing they would be happy to do the show if Trump weren't there and would not ask every audience member who they voted for. At least, I assume that's why they are boycotting. That's why they should put out their own statement. They should also point out that Les Miz is about the struggle of the poor for social justice and the overthrowing a corrupt government. Ironic, huh?

It might have been more effective for everybody to call in sick just before the performance and issue a statement afterwards. 

NYDCC Awards Purpose, Maybe Happy Ending, Scott, Liberation Cast

Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss in
Maybe Happy Ending,
Best Musical winner from the NYDCC.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and 
Evan Zimmerman

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose and Will Aronson and Hue Park's Maybe Happy Ending were voted Best Play and Best Musical of the 2024-25 season by The New York Drama Critics Circle on May 5. Purpose had won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Theater Critics Association's Steinberg Award earlier the same day. The 89th meeting of the Circle took place at the offices of Time Out New York and lasted three and a half hours. The group introduced two new categories this year with Best Individual Performance going to Andrew Scott for Vanya and Best Ensemble to the cast of Liberation. Special citations were awarded to Cole Escola, performer and playwright for Oh, Mary!, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, and to David Greenspan for Lifetime Achievement. (There are rumors this production of Cats will transfer to Broadway next season, but nothing has been confirmed.) The awards will be presented on May 15 in a private ceremony at 54 Below. The Best Play prize includes a $2,500 check from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

The New York Drama Critics’ Circle comprises 23 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, wire services and websites based in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, which has been awarded every year since 1936 to the best new play of the season is the nation's second-oldest playwriting award, after the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Adam Feldman of Time Out New York serves as President, Zach Stewart of Theatermania is Vice-President, and Helen Shaw of The New Yorker is treasurer.

In addition to Feldman, Stewart and Shaw, the members of the New York Drama Critics' Circle are David Barbour, David Cote, Joe Dziemianowicz, Greg Evans, Rhoda Feng, David Finkle, Elysa Gardner, Robert Hofler, Sara Holdren, Charles Isherwood, Chris Jones, Soraya Nadia McDonald, Jackson McHenry, Johnny Oleksinski, Brittani Samuel, Frank Scheck, David Sheward, Tim Teeman, Elisabeth Vincentelli and Matt Windman. Emeritus members include Melissa Rose Bernardo, Brian Scott Lipton, Michael Sommers, Steven Suskin and Linda Winer. Four members (Cote, Evans, Holdren, and McDonald) voted by proxy and one member (Windman) attended via Zoom. All other voting members were present.

Purpose Wins Pulitzer

LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Jon Michael Hill,
Glenn Davis and Alana Arenas 
in Purpose.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' drama about a prominent African-American family, has won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The runners-up were Oh, Mary! by Cole Escola and The Ally by Itamar Moses. The Pulitzer jury for drama consisted of playwright David Henry Hwang, chairman, Tanya Barfield, Rebecca Gilman, Helen Shaw, and Jose Luis Valenzuela. 

Sara Horden, theater critic for New York Magazine, was a runner-up for the Pulitzer for Criticism. James by Percival Everett, a reinterpretation of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, won for Fiction. Several of Donald Trump's favorite publications including the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal also won (sarcastic).

B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: Just in Time; Floyd Collins; All the World's a Stage

Jonathan Groff in Just in Time.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

The 2024-25 Broadway season closes out with a pair of wildly divergent musicals featuring stunning star turns by two of the musical theater’s brightest stars. Jonathan Groff is a true triple threat, singing, dancing, and acting his ass off as the tragically short-lived legendary crooner Bobby Darin in Just in Time while Jeremy Jordan goes to the opposite extreme, delivering an inspiring vocal and dramatic performance as a Kentucky cave explorer trapped in one position underground in Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of Floyd Collins. While Groff and Jordan are flawless, their shows vary in intent and execution. Just in Time is pure entertainment while Floyd Collins is muddled in its messaging.

Christine Cornish, Jonathan Groff,
and Julia Grondin in Just in Time.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

The creatives behind Just in Time could have built the show following a familiar blueprint. Bobby Darin was a magnetic pop superstar who briefly challenged Sinatra and Presley as king of all media. He was a teen-idol recording and movie star in his 20s, but his weak heart lead to an early death at 37. Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver’s book is somewhat melodramatic, but focuses on celebrating Darin’s phenomenal talent, largely with humor. Their clever format stages Darin’s meteoric rise and tragic fall as a floor show (Ted Chapin is credited with the original concept). Set designer Derek McLane has exquisitely refitted the Circle in the Square as a glamorous 1950s nightclub complete with cabaret-style tables. Director Alex Timbers and choreographer Shannon Lewis have staged the proceedings with speed and ingenuity. Scenes of Darin’s chaotic show-biz and personal life are interspersed with spectacular numbers he made famous such as the title tune from Bells Are Ringing, “Mack the Knife,” “Splish Splash” and “Dream Lover,” beautifully orchestrated by Andrew Resnick and Michael Thurber. 

In order for this gimmick to work, you need a supremely gifted star and Groff is it. He grabs the audience from his first breathtaking entrance, emerging from beneath McLane’s gorgeous bandstand on an elevator. He is introduced not as Darin, but in his own person. Then he jokes about the setting (“I love playing the basement of Wicked”), explains the premise, and then seamlessly launches into the first exuberant number, establishing this will be a fun evening, not a dark dirge. Groff is amazing, soulfully and energetically putting across song after song, executing Lewis’ razzle-dazzle dance steps and delivering a fully-realized portrait of the charming, brash, arrogant, yet lovable Darin.

Theater World Award Winners Announced

Louis McCartney, seen here at
the Outer Critics Circle's
75th Anniversary party,
is among this year's
Theater World Award winners.

The winners of the 79th annual Theater World Awards for outstanding performers making their Broadway or Off-Broadway debut have been announced. The awards will be presented on June 2 at the Hard Rock Cafe Times Square in a ceremony hosted by theater critic Peter Filichia. Here is a list of the winners:

Alana Arenas, Purpose
Kit Connor, Romeo & Juliet
Patsy Ferran, A Streetcar Named Desire
Tom Francis, Sunset Boulevard
Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat
Paul Mescal, A Streetcar Named Desire
Louis McCartney, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Marjan Neshat, English
Jasmine Amy Rogers, Boop!
Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard
Helen J. Shen, Maybe Happy Ending
Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray

In addition, Tony winner Leslie Uggams will receive the 12th annual John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater, Shailene Woodley (Cult of Love) will receive the 16th annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater, and George Clooney will receive a special TWA for his Broadway debut as performer and playwright for Good Night, and Good Luck.

The Theatre World Award honorees are chosen by the Theatre World Awards Committee which is comprised of Linda Armstrong (Amsterdam News), David Cote (The Observer), Joe Dziemianowicz (New York Theatre Guide), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), David Finkle (New York Stage Review), Elysa Gardner (The New York Sun), Harry Haun (Observer.com), Cary Wong (The Interested Bystander), and Frank Scheck (New York Stage Review/ The Hollywood Reporter).

Class Is Head of the Class at Lortels

The cast of Our Class

Our Class, Tadeusz Slobodzianek's epic play about a 1941 massacre of Jews in a Polish village as seen through the eyes of 10 classmates, was the big winner at the Lortel Awards, winning four. The play which was produced at BAM last season and revived at CSC this season, won for Outstanding Revival, Ensemble, Director, and Scenic Design. The 40th annual awards for excellence in Off-Broadway theater named for the legendary producer Lucille Lortel were presented on May 4 at NYU Skirball. Presenters included Kandi Burruss, Lea DeLaria, Jay Ellis, Stephanie Nur, J. Harrison Ghee, Ilana Glazer, Maya Hawke, and Alaska Thunderfuck.

Here There Are Blueberries, another play dealing with the Holocaust, was named Outstanding Play and Three Houses won for Outstanding Musical. Kara Young and Michael Rickshawn of Table 17 were named Outstanding Lead and Featured Performers in a Play. Sarin Monae West of Medea: Re-Versed and Paris Nix of The Big Gay Jamboree won for Outstanding Lead and Featured Performers in a Musical.

A list of winners followed:

Tonys Spread the Wealth

Sarah Paulson and Wendall Pierce
announced the Tony noms on
CBS Mornings.

The Tony Awards spread the wealth with Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending sharing the top spot among nominees with ten each. All three are nominated for Best Musical, along with Dead Outlaw and Operation: Mincemeat. The first six nominations were announced by Sarah Paulson and Wendall Pierce on CBS Mornings and then the raced down to the Sofitel Hotel to read the rest of the nominees on the Tony Awards' YouTube channel. The Tonys will be presented on June 8 at Radio City Music Hall on CBS in a ceremony hosted by Cynthia Erivo. CBS and Pluto TV will present The Tony Awards: Act One, a pre-show of live, exclusive content leading into the 78th Annual Tony Awards. John Proctor Is the Villain and The Hills of California garnered the most Tony nominations among plays with seven each.

Othello with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, Redwood, Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, and The Last 5 Years were totally overlooked. Smash, one of my favorites, only received two nominations. Boop! which was the top favorite of the Drama Desk with 11 nominations, only got 3 from the Tonys. I was also surprised that Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin were not nominated for the spectacular direction of Stranger Things: The First Shadow. 

Audra McDonald made Tony history with her 11th nomination, this time for Gypsy. This make her the most nominated actress in Tony history. Asian-American performers also made Tony history with five nominations, the most ever. They are Darren Criss (Maybe Happy Ending); Daniel Dae Kim and Francis Jue (Yellow Face); Conrad Ricamora (Oh, Mary!) and Nicole Scherzinger (Sunset Blvd.). BTW, Yellow Face will be broadcast on PBS' Great Performances on May 18. Great Performance is receiving a Tony Honor this year.

There were 6 nominees among Best Actors,
but only 5 for the Best Actresses.

In an interesting twist, there were six nominees for Leading Actor in a Play and Musical and only five in the equivalent Leading Actress categories. Normally the categories are limited to five, but when there is a tie in the Nominating Committee ballots, a sixth nominee is added. Helen. J Shen of Maybe Happy Ending failed to make the final cut in the Leading Actress category. This was one of the major omissions commented on over social media and the Tony Award's YouTube channel.

Legitimate theatrical productions opening in any of the 41 eligible Broadway theatres during the current season may be considered for Tony nominations. The 2024/2025 eligibility season began April 26, 2024 and ended April 27, 2025. The Tony Awards will be voted in 26 competitive categories by 840 designated Tony voters within the theatre community.

The 2024-2025 Tony Award Nominating Committee consists of: Bob Balaban, Danielle Barlow, Rick Boynton, Brian Harlan Brooks, Dr. Jamie Cacciola-Price, Kevin Cahoon, Adam Chanler-Berat, Tony winner Victoria Clark, Jordan E. Cooper, Dan Foster, Donald P. Gagnon, Ph.D., Deeksha Gaur, Linda Goodrich, Miranda Haymon, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright James Ijames (Fat Ham), Tony winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop), Christine Toy Johnson, Rosalie Joseph, Rod Kaats, Michael Korie, Kathy Landau, Andrea Lauer, Zhailon Levingston, Jose Llana, Peter Marks, Jess McLeod, Lisa McNulty, Ira Mont, Jacqueline Diane Moscou, Helen Park, Jessica Paz, Georgina Pazcoguin, Ralph B. Peña, Karen Perry, Nancy Piccione, Jill Rafson, Bill Rauch, T. Oliver Reid, Liam Robinson, Carole Rothman, Susan Sampliner, Dick Scanlan, Florie Seery, Rachel Sheinkin, Devario Simmons, Walt Spangler, Mark Stanley, Susan Soon He Stanton, Sam Strasfeld, Jason Tam, Reginald Van Lee, Alexandria Wailes, Ben Wexler, and David C. Woolard.

A complete list of the nominees follows:

Drama Desk Goes BOOP!

BOOP! received the most DD noms.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and
Evan Zimmerman

BOOP! The Musical, the tuner based on the beloved cartoon character of the 1930s and '40s, has enchanted the members of the Drama Desk Awards Nominating Committee, receiving the most nods of any production this season with 11. Just in Time and Maybe Happy Ending, followed with 9 each. Stranger Things: The First Shadow and The Picture of Dorian Gray got the most nominations among plays with 5 each. The announcement of four of the categories was made by Tony and Drama Desk nominee Norm Lewis, NY-1 On Stage reporter Frank DiLella, and anchor Rocco Vertucci on NY-1's 12:30-1PM block. Nominees for Outstanding Play, Musical, Revival of a Play and Revival of a Musical were read. The awards, which honor on, Off and Off-Off-Broadway, will be presented on June 1 at NYU Skirball in a ceremony hosted by Debra Messing and Titus Burgess. 

Star-heavy vehicles such as Good Night and Good Luck (George Clooney), Othello (Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal), and Glengarry Glen Ross (Kieran Culkin, Bob Odernkirk, Bill Burr) were ignored and received no DD love. Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends was snubbed in the Outstanding Revue category and only received a nomination for Sound Design of a Musical.

Why isn't Sarah Snook of
The Picture of Dorian Gray in the
DD Solo Performance category?
Credit: Marc Brenner

The Olivier Award-winning Operation Mincemeat was missing from the Outstanding Musical list, but was nominated for Outstanding Book and Lyrics. In another bizarre set of nominations, Sarah Snook of The Picture of Dorian Gray was nominated for the gender-free Leading Performance in a Play category, but not for Solo Performance. Unlike the Tonys, the DDs have a separate category for one-person shows which Dorian Gray undoubtedly is because Snook plays all the roles. True, she is accompanied by an onstage crew of camerapeople and they have some coordinated movement, but they do not act. Snook is a lock for a Tony Best Actress and she probably would have won a DD for Solo Performance. Her DD placement doesn't make sense.

The Drama Desk also has a separate category for Video and Projection Design, but video and projection artists for BOOP!, Maybe Happy Ending and Floyd Collins have been nominated along with set or lighting designers as the Tonys do. Why have a separate category then? In addition, visual effects and illusion designers for Stranger Things are nominated along with the set designer.

I was disappointed Smash only received one nomination, for Brooks Ashmanskas's featured performance, but that's a matter of individual taste. 

The Drama Desks have always been the awards with the broadest scope in New York theater, often nominating lesser-known short-run plays alongside big Broadway productions. This year such off-beat shows as Music City, Blood of the Lamb, The Ask, Redeemed, Fatherland, and Garside's Career are on the DD list.

Buena Vista Social Club, Dead Outlaw, English, Job, and Oh, Mary! were nominated for their Off-Broadway runs and were considered ineligible this year. Dead Outlaw won the DD Outstanding Musical Award in 2024. 

Productions deemed not eligible either because they were considered in their entirety in prior seasons or because they did not invite awards consideration included A Child’s Christmas in Wales, All In: Comedy About Love, Bringer of Doom, Dead Outlaw, English, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, Invasive Species, Oh, Mary!, On Beckett, and The Dead, 1904. Due to rescheduling factors, Grief Camp and Rheology will be considered in the 2025-2026 season.

The awards will be voted on by members of the Drama Desk, about 100 theatre critics, editors, and reporters. The nominations are determined by the Nominating Committee which consists of Martha Wade Steketee, UrbanExcavations.com, chair; Linda Armstrong (Amsterdam News), Daniel Dinero (TheaterIsEasy), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), Kenji Fujishima (freelance: Theatermania), Raven Snook (TDF Stages) and Charles Wright (ex officio). Wright and David Barbour are co-presidents of the Drama Desk. 

A complete list of nominees follows:

Buena Vista Leads Chita Rivera Noms

Buena Vista Social Club
leads nominations for the Chita Rivera Awards.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Buena Vista Social Club leads the Chita Rivera Awards nominations for outstanding dancing and choreography on stage and in film with citations for choreography, ensemble, and five of its dancers. The nominations were announced on April 29 and the awards will be presented on May 19 at NYU Skirball. 

The Awarding Committee consists of Sylviane Gold, chair, Gary Chryst, Robert LaFosse, Donna McKechnie, Wendy Perron, Stephanie Pope, and Lee Roy Reams.

Broadway Nominating Committee: Melinda Atwood, Caitlin Carter, Gary Chryst, Don Correia, Sandy Duncan, Peter Filichia, Dr. Louis Galli, Sylviane Gold, Jonathan Herzog, Robert La Fosse, Joe Lanteri, Donna McKechnie, Michael Milton, Mary Beth O’Connor, Wendy Perron, Stephanie Pope, Lee Roy Reams, Desmond Richardson, Andy Sandberg, and Randy Skinner

Film Nominating Committee: Chair: Jonathan C. Herzog, Steven Caras, Wilhelmina Frankfurt, Mary Beth O’Connor, and Andy Sandberg.

A complete list of the nominees follows:

B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: Stranger Things: The First Shadow; Real Women Have Curves; Becoming Eve

Louis McCartney in
Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

If you’ve been waiting for the must-see production of the Broadway season to justify plunking down your hard-earned bucks, wait no more. Stranger Things: The First Shadow, now at the Marquis after an Olivier-winning run in London, is the most spectacular, fun show on the Main Stem in many years and will scare the crap out of you. A working knowledge of the cult-status Netflix series upon which it is based is not necessary. The plot takes place before the streaming TV show begins and Kate Trefry’s intricate script stands on its own. (The original story is credited to Trefry, a writer and co-executive producer for the series; the Duffer Brothers who created the show and directed many of its episodes; and Jack Thorne, author of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, another London and Broadway smash based on a successful fantasy/sci-fi franchise.) 

Stephen Daldry and his co-director Justin Martin have staged the complex, absorbing story like a film with smoothly flowing scenes imparting vital information and thrills. But the real stars are the other-worldly special effects and illusions created by Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher, which rival anything you’ll see on Broadway including a horrifying invasion from another dimension. My theatergoing companion called this specific effect the new and better chandelier from Phantom of the Opera or the helicopter from Miss Saigon. I’m not going to list the more nerve-rattling and spine-shaking moments so as not to spoil your fun, but suffice it to say, look out for crashing battleships, monsters with no faces, and be prepared to scream if you’re afraid of spiders.

Louis McCartney in
Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and 
Evan Zimmerman

Loyal viewers of the show will recognize the basic narrative template. (Full disclosure: in preparation for reviewing Stranger Things, I attempted to binge the series in a few weeks, but I only got through the first two seasons and half of the third.) The seemingly humdrum little town of Hawkins, Indiana is beset with weird occurrences. In the series, it started with the disappearance of a young boy. In the play, pets turn up dead. Gradually, we discover that a dark, ominous parallel universe is bleeding into the bucolic hamlet and a newly arrived, introverted teen holds the key to the mystery. The series commences in Reagan’s 1980s America and, in each season, whatever calamity rises up is defeated by a gang of plucky, outsider adolescents with a few token grown-ups helping out. The play skips back a generation to 1959 and the familiar adults are now the adventurous teens. Both timelines are dominated by the menacing Dr. Brenner who heads a shadowy Deep State lab which is mixed up in every cuckoo conspiracy besetting Hawkins.

Norm Lewis to Announce DD Noms; Debra Messing, Titus Burgess to Host

Norm Lewis

Tony and Drama Desk nominee Norm Lewis (Porgy and Bess), currently starring in an Off-Broadway revival of Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, will announce the nominees for the 2024-25 Drama Desk Awards on NY-1 News on Wed. April 30 at 12:50PM with NY-1 anchor Rocco Vertuccio. The Tony nominations will be announced the next day on May 1. The DD awards will be presented on June 1 at NYU Skirball in a ceremony hosted by Debra Messing (Will and Grace, Shit. Meet. Fan.) and Titus Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Oh, Mary!).

Unlike the Tonys, the Drama Desks consider on, Off and Off-Off-Broadway productions in each of its multiple categories. (The Outer Critics Awards also combine on and Off, but not in all categories. They have separate categories for Best Play, Musical and performers.) Note: The nominees for the Chita Rivera Awards will be announced on April 29.

The awards will be voted on by members of the Drama Desk, about 100 theatre critics, editors, and reporters. The nominations are determined by the Nominating Committee which consists of Martha Wade Steketee, UrbanExcavations.com, chair; Linda Armstrong (Amsterdam News), Daniel Dinero (TheaterIsEasy), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), Kenji Fujishima (freelance: Theatermania), Raven Snook (TDF Stages) and Charles Wright (ex officio). Wright and David Barbour are co-presidents of the Drama Desk. 

Debra Messing and Titus Burgess
will host the Drama Desk Awards.

The 69th Annual Drama Desk Awards are Executive Produced by Staci Levine and Jessica R. Jenen. For the first time, 100% of net proceeds from the Drama Desk Awards benefits the Entertainment Community Fund. Charles Wright and David Barbour are the co-Presidents of the Drama Desk.

As has been the case, all performance categories will be gender-free. The updated gender-free categories are: Outstanding Leading Performance in a Play, Outstanding Leading Performance in a Musical, Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, and Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical. 

Each of these categories will have twice as many nominees as the former gendered categories and voters will cast two votes for each category. These categories will also have two winners each. If there is a tie, there may be more than two winners in a category. These rules were changed with the 2023 Awards. Additional details will be announced shortly.

Book Review: D.V.

(Bought with a gift card at Barnes and Noble) A delightful romp through the worlds of fashion and celebrity as Diana Vreeland, editor at Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and director of the costume collection at the Metropolitan Museum, reviews her storied life. This slim memoir reads like a monologue since she often addresses the reader as if we were right there in her apartment with her. You can just see her gesturing and pointing to objects. I suspect that editors George Plimpton and Christopher Hemphill sat down with her and told her to just start talking. Then they edited what she said into chapters. It reminded me of the solo play Full Gallop from 1996 in which Mary Louise Wilson played Vreeland and spoke to the audience as if we were guests. Vreeland knew everyone from Buffalo Bill to Jack Nicholson and offers enchanting anecdotes on Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (she's a bit too nice to the Nazi-sympathizing Duke), Clark Gable, Gypsy Rose Lee, the Kennedys, her boss at Harper's William Randolph Hearst, etc. She claims to have been in the same hotel when the Night of the Long Knives took place, got out of Paris just before the Nazis invaded, punched Swifty Lazar in the nose, and saw Charles Lindbergh flying over head as she picnicked. Whether these are true or not, it makes for a good story and a good read. Also advice on what to wear, how to do your nails, hair, shoes, food, etc. Like a chat with a divinely mad aunt. 

Death Is Alive with OCC Noms

Cole Escola and Conrad Ricamora
at the Museum of Broadway
announcing the OCC nominations.
The bag is by Louis Vitton.

Death Becomes Her, the Broadway musical based on the 1992 film comedy about a pair of death-defying duelling divas, topped the list for the Outer Critic Circle Awards with 12 nominations. The nominees were announced by Cole Escola and Conrad Ricamora of Oh, Mary! on April 25 at the Museum of Broadway. Both performers received nominations for Oh, Mary! last season during its Off-Broadway run and Escola won two. Maybe Happy Ending came in second with 9 nominations and Stranger Things: The First Shadow received the most nominations for a play with 7. 

There were also some surprising snubs. The star-heavy revival of Othello with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, Smash, The Last Five Years, and Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends were skunked with no nominations. The winners, voted on by the OCC, a group of critics, reporters, and editors writing for national media, will be announced on May 12 and the awards will be presented in a ceremony at the Lincoln Center NY Public Library for the Performing Arts on May 22. 

The Outer Critics Awards honor both on and Off-Broadway productions, some in separate categories and some together. Two seasons ago, the OCC eliminated gender considerations in its performing categories.

This year's ceremony marks the 75th anniversary of the organization's founding, when the first-ever awards were presented to T.S. Elliot's The Cocktail Party (Play), Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul, and performers Sheila Guyse (Lost in the Stars) and Daniel Reed (Come Back, Little Sheba). The Outer Critics Circle will commemorate the milestone this spring, with a special 75th Anniversary Cocktail Reception to honor this year’s nominees, past winners, and its members. The reception will be held this Monday, April 28, at West Bank Café.

Jennifer Simard and Christoper Seiber
received OCC noms for Death Becomes Her,
the OCC's most nominated show.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman and Matthew Murphy

Led by its current President David Gordon, the OCC Board of Directors and Nominating Committee also includes Vice President Richard Ridge, Recording Secretary Joseph Cervelli, Corresponding Secretary Patrick Hoffman, Treasurer David Roberts, Cynthia Allen, Harry Haun, Dan Rubins, Janice Simpson and Doug Strassler. Simon Saltzman is President Emeritus & Board Member (Non-nominating) and Stanley L. Cohen serves as Financial Consultant & Board Member (Non-nominating). Lauren Yarger serves as the Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony executive producer.

2025 OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD NOMINATIONS

 
Outstanding New Broadway Play
Cult of Love
The Hills of California
John Proctor Is the Villain
Purpose
Stranger Things: The First Shadow
 
Outstanding New Broadway Musical
Boop! The Musical
Death Becomes Her
Maybe Happy Ending
Operation Mincemeat
Real Women Have Curves
 

B'way Review: Pirates! The Penzance Musical

Nicholas Barasch, Ramin Karimloo, and
Jinkx Monsoon in Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Credit: Joan Marcus

The beloved, whimsical operettas of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, composed between 1871 and 1896, have had their share of updating and transpositions. There has been a Hot Mikado and a Swing Mikado in 1939 and a Hollywood Pinafore in 1945. So it should come as no surprise that there would eventually be a reworking of one of G&S’s most popular pieces, The Pirates of Penzance, particularly after Wilford Leach’s smash hit revival played Central Park in 1980 and then transferred to Broadway in ’81. For Roundabout Theater Company, Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) has changed the setting from the British coast to New Orleans, cut a few numbers, added others from the G&S canon, rewritten some of Gilbert’s book and lyrics, jazzed up Sullivan’s score, and we now have Pirates! The Penzance Musical. Never mind that the title doesn’t make any sense because all references to Penzance, a seaside town in Cornwall, have been excised. This is a delightful reworking which is not an improvement on the original, but just as much fun.

Nicholas Barasch, Ramin Karimloo, and
David Hyde Pierce in Pirates!
The Penzance Musical.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Holmes’ premise is that Gilbert and Sullivan (played by David Hyde-Pierce and Preston Truman Boyd in a prologue) are presenting the American premiere of their latest work in the Big Easy because the area has such a rich history of piracy. Plus they want to establish a Yankee copyright and avoid the numerous pirated productions (get it?) of their previous big hit HMS Pinafore. (For the record, Pirates actually debuted in NYC for the latter reason in 1879.) What follows is a spicy musical jumbo with orchestrators Joseph Joubert and Daryl Waters mixing Dixieland, the blues, jazz and r&b with G&S’s frothy original recipe (Joubert also capably serves as musical director.) Holmes’ new book sometimes condescends to the audience, explaining Gilbert’s wordplay and simplifying his lyrics here and there. 

Samantha Williams and Nicholas Barasch
in Pirates! The Penzance Musical.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Holmes does get a bit heavy-handed with the modern references. Major-General Stanley’s flighty daughters now sing of their quest for suffrage, and the pirates finally surrender, not out of loyalty to Queen Victoria as in the original, but after an appeal to unity in American diversity. The final number is a variation on “He Is an Englishman” from Pinafore. Rather than jingoistically praising the glories of England (“In spite of all temptations/To belong to other nations”), the chorus now harmonizes on a paen to the immigrant experience with “We all come from someplace else.”

However, these are minor caveats. Director Scott Ellis and choreographer Warren Carlyle have infused the proceedings with zany zest. The famous  “I Am the Model of a Modern Major-General,” delightfully and drily delivered by Hyde Pierce, is accompanied by the chorus madly waving signal flags. The first act concludes with everyone strumming washboards and ringing bells. The finale and curtain call are followed by cast members sashaying up the aisles, flinging beads as they go.

David Hyde Pierce (c.) and cast in
Pirates! The Penzance Musical.
Credit: Joan Marcus

As noted, Hyde Pierce is a deadpan delight as the marvelously muddled Major-General. In addition to the traditional tongue-twisting solo, he is given “The Nightmare Song” from Iolanthe, elaborately staged by Ellis and Carlyle. Hyde Pierce and the chorus act out each of Stanley’s bizarre dreams, make this a riotous descend into lunacy. Ramin Karimloo is swoon-worthy, virile Pirate King. Jinkx Monsoon (RuPaul’s Drag Race) is a riotous Ruth and delivers a surprisingly heartfelt and bluesy “Alone and Yet Alive,” Katisha’s lament from The Mikado. Nicholas Barasch and Samantha Williams display admirable pipes and gleefully satirize young-lovers tropes as the main amorous duo, Frederick and Mabel. Boyd doubles as the scaredy-cat Sergeant, hilariously shivering as he leads a quivering platoon of police against the pirates. 

Throw in David Rockwell’s cartoonish sets, Linda Cho’s eccentric costumes, and Donald Holder’s painterly lighting and this Pirates! is a jolly good time.

April 24—July 27. Roundabout Theater Company at the Todd Haimes Theater, 227 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 20 mins. including intermission. roundabouttheatre.org.

B'way/Off-B'way Update: 10 Things, Jeffrey Ross, Pamela Anderson, etc.

Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles in
10 Things I Hate About You.
Credit: Touchstone Pictures/Allstar

10 Things I Hate About You, the 1999 cult film update on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, will be adapted into a musical with a score by Grammy nominee Carly Rae Jepsen and Grammy nominee Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith, book by Emmy nominee Lena Durham (Girls) and Jessica Huang. Tony winner Christopher Wheeldon (MJ, An American in Paris) will direct and choreograph and Tony winner Tom Kitt will provide music supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations. No word on projects dates or Broadway plans....

Tony winner Sarah Paulson (Appropriate) and Tony nominee Wendall Pierce (Death of a Salesman, Elsbeth) will announce the nominees for the 2024-25 Tony Awards on May 1. The event will be streamed live from Sofitel on the Tonys' YouTube channel at 9AM and portions of the announcement will be read on CBS Mornings at 830AM....

Emmy-nominated comedian Jeffrey Ross is planning an eight-city summer tour of his solo show Take a Banana for the Ride, culminating in a limited Broadway run....

Pamela Anderson and Nicholas Alexander Chavez

Pamela Anderson's career received a boost with her Golden Globe-nominated performance in The Last Showgirl. She will follow it up with a stage appearance in Tennessee Williams' bizarre 1953 fantasy play Camino Real at Williamstown Theater Festival, July 19-Aug. 3. Emmy winner Nicholas Alexander Chavez (General Hospital, Monsters) and Whitney Peak co-star....

Various sources including the New York Post and People Magazine report that an immersive version of The Phantom of the Opera, titled Masquerade, will open at the former Lee's Art Shop on W. 57th St., this summer...

B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: John Proctor Is the Villain; Grief Camp

Sadie Sink in John Proctor Is the Villain.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Two dramas on teen torment recently opened on and Off-Broadway, approaching their subjects through different lenses and both achieving dynamic theatrical results. Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain at the Booth offers a radical reinterpretation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as its starting point, but the play itself is rather conventionally structured. Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, Eliya Smith’s Grief Camp takes what could have a Lifetime TV-movie plot—teens at camp dealing with the deaths of loved ones—and gives it an unconventional twist. Her play is a disturbing, puzzling, yet ultimately satisfying portrait of adolescent angst, as is Belflower’s work.

Set in 2018 at the height of the #MeToo movement, in a one-stoplight Georgia town, John Proctor follows the treacherous and tricky path trod by a group of high-school students as they study Miller’s classic play on the Salem witch trials and find parallels to their own situation. The girls in Mr. Smith’s Honors English class are wrestling with their burgeoning sexuality and an atmosphere of male repression. When they form a feminism club, it raises hackles in the conservative town as accusations of adult misconduct surface. Ivy’s dad has allegedly committed harassment with more than one woman, Raelynn is being pressured by her boyfriend Lee to have sex, and Shelby is returning to school after a mysterious absence. Shelby emerges as the main character as the shocking reason for her “sabbatical,” as she calls it, is revealed and she challenges the standard interpretation of John Proctor as the hero of The Crucible and his accuser Abigail as the villainess.   

Amalia Yoo, Morgan Scott, Sadie Sink,
Fina Stazza, Nihar Duvvuri, and Hagan Olveras
in John Proctor Is the Villain.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Additional plot strands involve straight-A student Beth whose faith in her favorite teacher Mr. Smith is severely tested; new counselor Ms. Gallagher, barely older than the kids, attempting to make her mark; recent Atlanta transplant Nell navigating her way through treacherous waters; and Mason, trying his best to be a male ally.

Belflower captures the roiling ambivalent emotions of the students and teachers, combining raucous humor with raw pathos. Danya Taymor’s direction is fast-paced and pulsing with tension just beneath the day-to-day schoolroom surface. Sadie Sink (Stranger Things, The Whale) has a dynamic, captivating, jittery energy as Shelby. She covers her secret vulnerability with a rush of snarky observations, and gradually peels back Shelby’s tough exterior to reveal a shaky, confused kid. Amalia Yoo’s questioning Raelynn and Maggie Kuntz’s rattled Ivy are movingly insecure. Morgan Scott as Nell has several funny moments as does Fina Strazza as the overeager Beth. Hagan Oliveras and Nihar Duvvuri make the boys Lee and Mason more than adolescent stereotypes. Gabriel Ebert displays layers of deceit as the seemingly model teacher Mr. Smith and Molly Griggs shows Ms. Gallagher’s hidden strength.

Drama League Nominations

Cats: The Jellicle Ball is among the
Drama League Award nominees.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman

Theater award season continues with the nominations for the Drama League Awards, announced on April 22 at the Lincoln Center's New York Public Library for the Performing Arts by Sarah Hyland (The Great Gatsby, Modern Family) and country music star Orville Peck (Cabaret). The awards will be presented on May 18 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. 

The Drama League previously announced the 2025 Special Recognition Award Recipients: Tony and Olivier Award winner Lea Salonga will receive the Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater; Director Whitney White (and multiple 2025 Drama League Award Nominee) will be honored with the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing; Kate Navin and Audible Theater will receive the Contribution to the Theater Award; and The Gratitude Award will be presented to acclaimed producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, whose groundbreaking work across television, film, and theatre has garnered numerous accolades, including Tonys, Emmys, Golden Globes, and a Best Picture Oscar. This season they are the lead producers of the new musical Smash.

Founded in 1922, and formalized in 1935, the Drama League Award is the oldest theatrical honor in America, and is voted on by a cross-section of industry professionals, producers, artists, audiences, and critics.

Orville Peck and Sarah Hyland
announced the Drama League nominees.
Credit: Catalin Stelian

A complete list of the nominees follows: