B'way Update: Chess Revival; Ragtime Casting

Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele and 
Nicholas Christopher will star in Chess.

Tony winner Aaron Tveit (Moulin Rogue), Emmy nominee Lea Michele (Funny Girl) and Nicholas Christopher (Sweeney Todd) will star in the first Broadway revival of Chess at a Shubert Theater TBA this fall. This musical about an international romance against the backdrop of a world chess championship match will feature a new book by Emmy winner Danny Strong (Dopesick) and music and lyrics by ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice. Tony winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening) directs.

Chess began life as a concept album released in 1984. The show opened in London's West End in 1986 and ran for three years.  The original Broadway production was much changed from the British edition and opened on Broadway in 1988 with a new book by Richard Nelson. It only ran for 68 performances. The show has been presented in varying forms in revivals and concert versions in Australia and Sweden. The score which features such hits as "One Night in Bangkok," "I Know Him So Well," "Pity the Child," and "You and I," is regarded as the show's strongest point with the book cited as a stumbling block.

In addition news, Lincoln Center Theater has announced additional casting for its revival of Ragtime. Joining the previously announced Tony® nominee Joshua Henry (deBessonet’s Into the Woods, Carousel), Olivier® and Grammy® nominee Caissie Levy (Hair, Frozen), and Tony Award-winner Brandon Uranowitz (Leopoldstadt, LCT’s Falsettos) are Colin Donnell (Anything Goes, NBC’s “Chicago Med”), Nichelle Lewis (The Wiz), Ben Levi Ross (Dear Evan Hansen, Gatsby at A.R.T.), Tony Award-winner Shaina Taub (Suffs, Public Works’ Twelfth Night at the Delacorte), John Clay III (New York, New York), and Rodd Cyrus (Encores! The Light in the Piazza). 

Off-B'way Review: Goddess; Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole

Austin Scott and Amber Iman in Goddess.
Credit: Joan Marcus

There are several thrilling elements in Goddess, the new musical at the Public Theater, and in Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole, the new play with music at the New York Theater Workshop. But both shows fail to coalesce into a satisfying whole. Goddess features the exciting voice of Amber Iman, a vibrant score by Michael Thurber, and dazzling choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie, but the book by Saheem Ali (who also directs) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames (credited with “additional book material”) is cliched and underdeveloped. 

The plot revolves around the divine singer Nadira (a stunning Iman) who is in reality Marimba, goddess of music. Like the Rita Hayworth character in the Hollywood movie musical, Down to Earth, Marimba has descended from the heavens and experiences internal conflict when she falls in love with a mortal (a virile Austin Scott as Omari, the son of politician in modern-day Mombasa, the capital of Kenya). 

Austin Scott and Amber Iman in Goddess.
Credit: Joan Marcus

In order to fulfill her destiny as mankind’s muse, Marimba must defy her mother, the evil goddess of war (represented by a giant puppet beautifully designed by Julian Crouch). Similarly, Omari, who longs to expression himself as sax player, is forced to confront his conservative parents and veer from their plans for him to continue the family’s political dynasty. The authors fail to deliver on either of these fronts, denying us the battle for either character which will resolve their conflicts. Instead, their romance is cut short when Marimba returns skyward and all struggles are quickly wrapped up in a tidy finale. 

Nick Rashad Burroughs and cast in Goddess.
Credit: Joan Marcus

The ending and the tired plot are something of a let down, but there are plenty of musical pluses along the way. Iman is a divine vision with a soaring voice to match. Austin Scott makes an attractive equal as her leading man, skillfully depicting Omari’s inner conflict and he plays a mean sax. Nick Rashad Burroughs and Arica Jackson provide generous comic relief as saucy emcee and barmaid at Moto Moto, the nightclub where Nadira plies her trade. Destinee Rae as Omari’s ambitious fiancee, J Paul Nicholas as his oppressive father, and Ayana George Jackson as his loving mother do their best to bring life to their stereotyped roles. Reggie D. White is an intriguing, mystifying presence as a sagacious seer. Melissa Clark, Teshomech Olenja, and Awa Secka comprise the vibrantly sexy GrioTrio, an African Greek Chorus narrating the tale.

NYDCC, OCC and Other Events

With Betsy Aidem of Liberation 
(Best Ensemble) at the NYDCC.

May is theater award time as the 2024-25 Broadway and Off-Broadway seasons end and various critics and professional groups hand out prizes for the best on offer. The New York Drama Critics Circle presented their awards on May 15 at 54 Below. Adam Feldman of Time Out New York, president of the Circle, presided. Cherry Jones presented Cole Escola with his Special Citation for Oh, Mary! and compared him his performance of a deranged Mary Todd Lincoln to the work of Katharine Cornell and Julie Harris. Mona Pirnot, author of I'm Assuming You Know David Greenspan, presented Greenspan with a Lifetime Achievement Award and listed his inspirations during rehearsals as Cyd Charisse, Mae West, Miss Piggy, and watching Judy Garland sing "Smile" on The Ed Sullivan Show on You Tube.

Feldman told the story of the original plaque from the Circle's early years being found and a new version of it was made. The plaque, depicting a scene from The Contrast, the first American comedy staged by a professional troupe, was awarded to Branden Jacobs-Jenkins for Purpose. The playwright deliverd his remarks by video since he had a conflicting speaking engagement at Hofstra University.

Cole Escola at the NYDCC
Awards at 54 Below.

I chatted with Betsy Aidem who was part of the award-winning ensemble for Liberation. I was an usher at the Lucille Lortel Theater when Betsy was in the original cast of Steel Magnolias. She reminisced about Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor and Lucille Ball coming to the show. I told her about the time Bob Fosse complained about his seat. 

Andre De Shields presented the special citation to Cats: The Jellicle Ball. He explained the creative process of directors Bill Rauch and Zhailon Levingston: "It was a vivisection. They took the body of the cat and without anesthesia, cut the bitch from head to toe, resuscitated the organs and let the real deal live." 

De Shields also provided one of the highlights of the Outer Critics Circle Awards where we won for Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical (May 22 at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the Lincoln Center Public Library.) Pianist Michael Lavine played him on with his number from The Wiz, "So You Wanna See The Wizard." When he got to the podium, De Shields asked if it was in his key and then he launched into a full rendition of the song.

Andre De Shields at the OCC Awards
Brian Stokes Mitchell presented.

Presenter Victoria Clark told of her first NYC acting job in a non-Equity production called Waterfront Madonna. Playwright Kimberly Bellflower upon accepting her award for Outstanding Broadway Play for John Proctor Is The Villain said that when she was in a high school in a rural Georgia town like the one in her play, the nearest bookstore was 30 minutes away. The nearest Barnes and Noble was 45 minutes away and they sold Original Cast CDs. She and her friend would drive home listening to Victoria Clark's voice.

Also this past week, I attended a script-in-hand reading of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden at the Players Club with Charles Busch in the Dame Edith Evans role and Jennifer Van Dyck in the Deborah Kerr role. What fun.

Book Review: Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began

(Bought at the Strand for $8.50) I had read Art Spiegelman's Maus I a long time ago. A recent American Masters TV doc. on Spiegelman inspired me to pick up Maus II. In both books, Jews are mice, Nazis are cats, Poles are pigs, Americans are dogs, gypsies are moths, Scandinavians are reindeer. An unflinching portrait of Spiegelman's Holocaust survivor father and the author's fraught relationship with him. The father is shown as a resourceful survivor in the concentration camps, but this experience makes him stingy, neurotic and impossible to live with. He's prejudiced against blacks and drives his second wife away, after Spiegelman's mother has committed suicide. The author is unsparing on himself as well, portraying himself as wearing a mouse mask while facing the press over his first Maus book and shrinking into a child while confessing his fears and insecurities to his therapist--also a Holocaust survivor. One of the most important works in dealing with the Holocaust. It brings an impossibly horrific event into comprehensible terms. Though the characters are anthropomorphic animals, they are probably the most realistic portraits of those dealing with the Holocaust.

B'way Update: All-Star Art Revival

Bobby Cannavale, James Corden, and
Neil Patrick Harris will star in a
revival of Yasmina Reza's Art.

Yasmina Reza's Art will return to Broadway with an all-star cast comprised of Emmy and Tony winners Neil Patrick Harris (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and James Corden (One Man, Two Guvnors) and Emmy and Drama Desk winner Bobby Cannavale (The Motherf**ker with the Hat). Previews begin Aug. 28 at the Music Box Theater for an opening Sept. 16 and a limited engagement of 17 weeks through Dec. 21. Tony nominee Scott Ellis (Pirates! The Penzance Musical, Take Me Out) directs.

Art premiered in Paris in 1994, then London in 1996 with Christopher Hampton's translation and finally Broadway in 1998 with Alan Alda, Victor Garber, and Alfred Molina. It won the Tony Award for Best Play and ran for 600 performances. The plot centers on a trio of friends whose relationship is disrupted over an abstract painting. During the course of the Broadway run, the roles were played by Brian Cox, Henry Goodman, David Haig, Buck Henry, Judd Hirsch, John DeLancie, Joe Morton, Wayne Knight, George Segal, and George Wendt.

Off-B'way Update: Tom Hanks Will Star at the Shed

Tom Hanks will star in
This World of Tomorrow, which he co-wrote,
at the Shed this fall.

Tom Hanks joins fellow Oscar winner George Clooney by starring in a NY production of a play he co-wrote. Hanks will headline This World of Tomorrow, which he co-authored with James Glossman, based on a book of Hanks' short stories. Previews begin Oct. 30 at the Griffin Theater at The Shed for a limited run through Dec. 21. The play will be directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (Othello, Our Town). Hanks will play a scientist from the future who time travels back to the 1939 World's Fair in search of love.

“To explore the themes of love and yearning, and the struggles of today as we carry with us the eternal memories of the past, in such a place as The Shed, strikes me as a one-of-a-kind experience not unlike the World’s Fair of 1939,” Hanks said. 

“I’m excited to collaborate with the remarkable Tom Hanks on his and James Glossman’s new play at The Shed this fall. It will be a joy to experience Tom leading the cast on stage in this time-traveling adventure of the limitless power of love and the distance one is willing to go for it. This story explores a fascinating tale of the echoes of past generations, the often-surprising collisions between them, and what is carried forward with an authentic humor I can’t wait to bring to life in the Griffin Theater,” Leon said.

Hurder, Csolak, BV Cast Win Chita Rivera Awards

Robyn Hurder (center) of Smash
won Outstanding Dancer in a Broadway Show
along with Kevin Csolak of Gypsy.
Credit: Matthew Murphy
Dancer in a

Robyn Hurder (Ivy of Smash), Kevin Csolak (Tulsa from Gypsy) and the ensemble of Buena Vista Social Club were among the winners of the Chita Rivera Awards, presented May 19 at NYU Skirball in a ceremony hosted by Laura Bell Bundy, Kerry Butler, and Marissa Jaret Winokur. The awards, named for the beloved Broadway dance icon, honor excellence in dance and choreography in New York stage and film and TV. 

Presenters included Tituss Burgess, Donna Murphy, Savion Glover, Nathan Lee Graham, Shoshana Bean, Nicole Fosse, Noah Fosse, Liz Cho, Khori Petinaud, Lorna Luft, Stephanie Pope, Stephen Schwartz, and Vy Higginsen. The evening also featured performances from Broadway's BOOP! The Musical and the revival of Gypsy as well as The Verdon Fosse Legacy and The Sing Harlem Choir. 

The complete list of winners for the 2025 Chita Rivera Awards follows:

Book Review: Monica

(Bought for $16 at the Strand) Daniel Clowes' latest graphic novel is a weird collection of interrelated stories following the life of the title character as she searches for the mother that abandoned her when she was a child. Each of the stories is in the style of a different comic genre--sci-fi, romance, war, detective, etc. The stories take us from Monica as a little girl to alienated teen to successful businesswoman to late-middle-aged lady selling candles at a crafts fair. Events in the history of America parallel Monica's story as she looks for meaning and connection while everyone in her life seems to leave her. She attempts to find meaning in a supernatural connection with her dead grandfather, and then in business, then in a bizarre cult, finally finding a sort of peace in solitude. But it gets shattered in the end. Some of the critics of Clowes' previous work Patience attacked him for focusing on a douchebag male hero screwing up the poor heroine's life. Perhaps here he's trying to make up for it by spotlighting a female protagonist. The ending is rather abrupt and bleak without resolving Monica's quest. I liked Patience more, but I do find Clowes' work fascinating.

Off-B'way Review: Bowl EP

Essence Lotus and Oghenero Gbaje in
Bowl EP.
Credit: Carol Rosegg

When you walk into the Vineyard Theater for Nazareth Hassan’s Bowl EP, a co-production between Vineyard and the National Black Theatre in association with The New Gorup, you’ll certainly be impressed with the elaborate set by Adam Rigg and Anton Volovsek. The entire playing space was been converted into a empty swimming pool with the audience behind mesh fences on all four sides. According to the digital program we are “on the edge of an urban wasteland in the middle of the galaxy.” The hollow bowl of the pool serves as a meeting place for two African-American wannabe rappers, the bisexual Quentavius da Quitter (Oghenero Gbaje), and the transgender female Kelly K. Klarkson (Essence Lotus). They are trying out their skateboarding and rhyming skills. Hassan’s jagged, fragmented script begins promisingly with short, sharp vignettes of Quentavius and Kelly alternating between brainstroming names for their rap group, skating, and flirting with each other through food. Quentavius suggestively offers Kelly a banana, an apple, and a sandwich. The scenes are punctuated with brief titles, or tracks as in a music album, in different type faces projected on the floor of the empty pool (Zavier Augustus Lee Taylor created the eye-popping video and projection design.)

Essence Lotus and Oghenero Gbaje in
Bowl EP.
Credit: Carol Rosegg

The two grow gradually closer and slowly reveal their damaged past as they try out various meaning-laden catchphrases for their rap duo’s name (Dad’s Vomit, Dead Mothers, Michael Jackson’s Accusers). It’s almost as if they talking in code, hiding their true feelings. The dialogue is funny and tender, Hassan’s direction is well paced and subtly undercovers subtext as does the acting by Gbaje and Lotus. Gabje’s shift in tone from jovial wisecracking to sober recollection when the topic of sexual abuse is introduced is shattering. Plus the two are pretty nifty skateboarders. 

But about half-way through the play’s 85 minutes, the proceedings take a bizarre turn and what started off as a moving love story of two alienated outsiders reaching out to each other through their love of rap and skateboarding turns into a confusing jumble. A third character pops out of an opening in the pool and

Essence Lotus and Oghenero Gbaje in
Bowl EP.
Credit: Carol Rosegg

takes over. She is dressed like a cosplay version of a Japanese anime character (DeShon Elem created the flashy costumes) and identifies herself as Lemon Pepper Wings. Presumably she represents Quentavius’ inner demons and dominates the action until the end of the play. She forces Quent and Kelly to live out their dreams by performing a rap concert. (Free Fool is credited with the intense infectious music.) Then Lemon Pepper performs an act of symbolic violence on the two (literally ripping their guts out) and explains their tragic fates in a powerhouse monologue. Felicia Curry delivers a stunning performance as this force of nature. She manages to convey the essence of longing, passion and self-hatred and still portray a credible character rather than a symbol. 

Unfortunately, for the latter half of the play, Hassan tells us about the two rappers’ unhappy story instead of showing us. Lemon Pepper Wings’ long speech which is half abstract concepts and half storytelling, goes on too long and interest in Quentavus and Kelly is lost. The set and the skateboarding are fun, but they are not enough to maintain a fully-fleshed work.

May 18—June 15. Vineyard Theater and National Black Theater in association with The New Group at Vineyard Theater, 108 E. 15th St., NYC. Running time: 85 mins. with no intermission. vineyardtheater.org

CNN To Broadcast Good Night and Good Luck

Glenn Fleshler and George Clooney in
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

CNN will broadcast live the penultimate performance of Good Night and Good Luck, George Clooney and Grant Heslov's play based on their screenplay, from the Winter Garden Theater on June 7 at 7pm (the night before the Tony Awards.) The press release states this is first time a play will be broadcast live from a Broadway theater. I seem to recall PBS airing a transmission of The Man Who Came to Dinner from the American Airlines Theater (now the Todd Haimes), but maybe that was a recording. There also have been telecasts of She Loves Me on PBS, South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza and Contact on Live from Lincoln Center (I think these were recordings also, but I'm not sure). In 1982, NBC presented a series of live broadcasts of plays but not from Broadway. These included Tom Selleck in Mister Roberts and Pearl Bailey in Member of the Wedding. In recent years there have been live productions of musicals such as Grease, The Wiz, Peter Pan, The Sound of Music and Hairspray, but those were in TV studios, sometimes with live audiences. There was also a live broadcast of Show Girl starring Carol Channing on Canadian pay TV in 1961.

The telecast will include a pre-show coverage outside the theater and a post-show special discussing the perilous state of world journalism. 

Nicole Scherzinger, Happy Ending, Oh Mary! Win Drama League Awards

The Drama League Awards were presented on Fri. May 16 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in a ceremony hosted by NY-1 News theater reporter Frank DiLella.

Nicole Scherzinger of Sunset Blvd.
won the Distinguished 
Performance Drama League Award for 2025.

Nicole Scherzinger won the Distinguished Performance Award for her work in Sunset Boulevard; the well-respected honor can only be won once during the career of an actor. Maybe Happy Ending took home the Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical, and Oh, Mary! won for Outstanding Production of a Play. (Maybe Happy Ending has won the Outer Critics and the New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and is the  favorite the Best Musical Tony.) For the first time in 25 years, in any category, Eureka Day and Vanya tied for the honor of Outstanding Revival of a Play, and Outstanding Revival of a Musical was awarded to Sunset Boulevard. In the directing categories, Sam Pinkleton took home the Outstanding Direction of a Play award for Oh, Mary! and Michael Arden took home Outstanding Direction of a Musical for Maybe Happy Ending. 

The competitive awards were presented by previous Distinguished Performance Award Winners Annaleigh Ashford, Norbert Leo Butz, Danny Burstein, Audra McDonald, and Sutton Foster. Previous honoree for the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing, Schele Williams, presented the  Outstanding Direction of a Play & Musical Awards.

Tony Award winner and star of this season’s Old Friends, Bernadette Peters, presented both the Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater to her co-star, Tony and Olivier Award winner Lea Salonga, and The Gratitude Award to acclaimed theater, television and film producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, represented on Broadway this season with Smash; Tony Award winner Sam Gold (Romeo + Juliet) presented the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing to Tony and Drama League nominee Whitney White (The Last Five Years, Liberation); and Michael Cruz Kayne (Sorry For Your Loss) presented the Contribution to the Theater Award to Kate Navin and Audible Theater.
 

Book Review: Norwegian Wood

(Bought at Barnes and Noble with a gift card): I think I have to be in the right mood to read a Haruki Murakami novel. This one was different from the others I've read. There are no mystical elements such as talking monkeys or fish falling from the sky or giant frogs saving Tokyo. It's basically a love story of a young student in the 1960s caught between two women, one has mental health issues and the other is quirky, free-spirited and independent. He loves both of them and can't decide which to settle on. This was the novel that established Murakami as a top author in Japan. I prefer his more esoteric works like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles or Kafka on the Shore. They give you more to think about and to try and figure out. This was a perfectly charming book but it didn't strike me as compelling. I liked the portrait of Reiko, the older woman who is the roommate and fellow mental patient with Naoko, the girl with psychological problems. 

Book Review: Patience

(Borrowed from NYPL on 40th St., 3rd floor graphic novel section): Amazing read. Daniel Clowes' dazzling sci-fi thriller reads like a movie. I have loved all of his work including Wilson, Ghost World, Ice Haven, and Caricature. An economically oppressed couple is expecting a baby. Suddenly the husband comes home to find his wife killed in an apparent botched break-in. He spends the rest of his life trying to bring her back as we travel into a bizarre future. The panels spring right off the page, sometimes blurring over the edges to suggest the weird psychedelic trip the husband takes through time and his own consciousness. The portraits of working-class despair and random cruelty are heartbreaking. The title is ironic as Patience tries to piece together the jumbled mess her obsessed hubbie creates in his misguided efforts to save her.

B'way/Off-B'way Update: MTC and Public Theater Seasons

David Lindsay-Abaire
Credit: Tricia Baron

Manhattan Theater Club and The Public Theater have announced all or part of their 2025-26 New York theater season schedules.  MTC will present two plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors while the Public will deliver a plethora of world premieres. MTC will premiere The Balusters by David Lindsay-Abaire (Dinner with Friends, Rabbit Hole, Good People) at Broadway's Samuel J. Friedman Theater in the spring of 2026. 

"Manhattan Theatre Club has been my artistic home since I was a baby-playwright, so of course I’m thrilled to be back with The Balusters, my newest play about well-intentioned people behaving really badly,” commented David Lindsay-Abaire. “The only thing more exciting than having a new show on Broadway? Having it helmed by the brilliant director Kenny Leon. After twenty-five years of plays with MTC, I’ve never looked forward to sharing a story with an audience more than I am with The Balusters." The play focuses on a small residential community which is thrown into turmoil when a newcomer suggests installing a stop sign at the corner of the neighborhood's prettiest block.

Off-B'way Reviews: The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse; All Nighter

Patrick Nathan Falk, Milly Shapiro, and
Luke Islam in The Last Bimbo of the
Apocalypse.
Credit: Monique Carboni

The impact of our celebrity-obsessed digital culture is explored in the intimate and funny new musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse from The New Group at the Signature Theater Center. The book by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley sharply satirizes the  click-crazy ecosphere which values appearance and flash over substance. The energetic rock score by Breslin (music and lyrics) and Foley (additional music and lyrics) captures the empty ache experienced by many Gen Z-ers seeking meaning through their devices. The show could have been as shallow as the situation it purports to parody, but the authors have captured the sweet innocence of an alienated youth, isolated by COVID and unable to recover in-person social skills. “I’ll take a picture on my phone/And post it so I’m not alone,” is one of the more haunting lyrics. “I don’t wanna do anything/And I want to be rewarded for it” is another which captures the desperate state of disconnection dominating our world.

Milly Shapiro and Keri Rene Fuller in
The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse.
Credit: Monique Carboni

The plot centers on an infamous picture of media sensations Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton which ran in the New York Post in 2006 with the caption “The Three Bimbos of the Apocalypse.” Breslin and Foley imagine there was a fourth “Bimbo” in the pic in the form of a barely visible wrist. An Internet sleuth calling herself “Brainworm” (a heartbreaking Milly Shapiro) is determined to find the identity of the missing girl. By searching for this elusive possible pop-culture icon, she hopes to find her own identity and possibly venture into real life. (She has not left her room in four years.) She is joined by a pair of gay male YouTubers identified as Bookworm and Earworm, one of whom is closeted (funny and flamboyant Patrick Nathan Falk and Luke Islam). 

Their search leads to Coco (dynamic Keri Rene Fuller), the wrist in the photo and a wannabe singer who vanished after her one attempt at topping the charts failed. Along the way, the trio encounters Coco’s religious-fanatic mother (fiery Sara Gettelfinger) and an unidentified friend (quirky Natalie Walker) who holds the key to the mystery. 

Director Rory Pelsue cleverly stages this journey through cyberspace as if the characters were all in physical proximity though they are mostly communicating through their screens. Amit Chandrashaker’s spectral lighting, some of which is through cell-phone illumination, aides in the illusion. Cole McCarty designed the kicky costumes spanning the last two decades of hipster fashion. Pelsue also balances the comic, satiric elements with compassion for the disillusioned Internet addicts. The cast, especially Shapiro, portrays them as broken loners rather than as eccentric goofballs obsessed with trivia. These are more than comic Bimbos, they’re human beings.

The cast of All Nighter.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman

In another Off-Broadway show about young people coping with a difficult world, Natalie Margolin’s All-Nighter insightfully dissects a quintet of female college seniors as they pull their final nocturnal study session and embark on becoming adults. Each is riddled with anxiety and insecurities as they down copious amounts of Adderall, energy drinks, white wine, and humus to maintain the stamina to complete their last assignments. A ghost is blamed for unusual happenings in their shared house as the night drags on and uncomfortable truths are revealed. 

Margolin is a promising playwright, creating believable characters and skillfully building a riveting story arc employing interesting details and building suspense through careful clues. Jaki Bradley’s well-paced direction includes hilariously fast-motion action to denote the passage of time and Isa Briones, Kathryn Gallagher, Alyah Chanelle Scott and understudy Tessa Albertson deliver complex portraits of young women in conflict with themselves and each other. As Wilma, the outspoken outsider of the group, Julia Lester crashes into the action like a hurricane. Wilma longs to be noticed, and more importantly, accepted. Lester fullfils this objective with spectacular character choices, endowing each gesture and action with subtext. Even munching on a bag of potato chips or aggressively opening a collapsible stool so she can join the study table reveals tons about Wilma and her needs. It’s a fascinating performance in an excellent ensemble.

  

The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse: May 13—June 1. The New Group at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theater/Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: 95 mins. with no intermission. thenewgroup.org.

All Nighter: March 9—May 18. Newman Mills Theater/Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, 511 W. 52nd St., NYC (this is not a production of MCC Theater). Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. allnighterplay.com.

Happy Ending and Proctor Win OCC Awards

John Proctor Is the Villain
was named Outstanding Broadway Play
by the Outer Critics Circle.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Maybe Happy Ending and John Proctor Is the Villain were named Outstanding Broadway Musical and Broadway Play by the Outer Critics Circle, the official organization of writers on New York theatre for out-of-town, national, and digital news publications, honoring the 2024-2025 Broadway and Off-Broadway season. Happy Ending won a total of four awards also including Outstanding Director of a Musical, Book and Score. The awards will be presented on May 22 at Lincoln Center's Library for for the Performing Arts. Presenters will include Natalie Venetia Belcon (Buena Vista Social Club), Victoria Clark (Kimberly Akimbo), Andrew Durand (Dead Outlaw), Steve Guttenberg (It Takes Two), and Thom Sesma (Dead Outlaw).

Liberation by Bess Wohl was named Outstanding Off-Broadway Play and Drag: The Musical Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. Laura Donnelly of The Hills of California, Francis Jue of Yellow Face, won for Outstanding Broadway Performances (Lead and Featured) for Broadway Plays. Surprisingly Jasmine Amy Rogers of BOOP! The Musical defeated favorites Audra McDonald of Gypsy and Nicole Scherzinger of Sunset Blvd. for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Broadway Musical. Jak Malone who delivers the moving "Dear Bill" in Operation Mincemeat won for Outstanding Broadway Featured Musical performance. The OCC performance categories are gender-free but separate Broadway and Off-Broadway. OB winners include Adam Driver of Hold On to Me Darling, Nick Adams in Drag: The Musical, Michael Rishawn in Table 17 and Andre De Shields of Cats: The Jellicle Ball.

The Outer Critics Circle is an esteemed association with members affiliated with more than ninety newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, and online news organizations, in America and abroad. 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.

A complete list of the winners follows:

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. 

The Judges Panel for the seasonal performance awards included: Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Theatre Guide; Adam Feldman, Time Out New York; Elysa Gardner, New York Sun, New York Stage Review; Harry Haun, The Observer; Kobi Kassal, Theatrely; and Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter, New York Stage Review.

Kathryn Gallagher, Julia Lester, and
Havana Rose Liu in All Nighter.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman

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.