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W.M. Akers

By W.M. Akers 3/13/12 3:40pm

theater

Matthew Broderick and Kelli O'Hara. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

The ’20s for the 21st Century

Broadway fortunes have been forged from Abba’s Greatest Hits. Hearts and bank accounts have been broken trying to do the same with the music of Bob Dylan and John Lennon. Last year, Kathleen Marshall found success directing a revival of Anything Goes, packed to the gills with Cole Porter classics. Next month, she will attempt a repeat with Nice Work If You Can Get It, an original musical built from the Gershwin songbook, which opens April 24. But despite superficial commonalities with Mamma Mia! and its descendants, Ms. Marshall has one thing to make clear.

“This is not a jukebox musical,” she said last week. Read More

By W.M. Akers 2/07/12 4:51pm

theater

"She Kills Monsters." (Photo by Joan Marcus)

Crowd-Source the Dragon: Qui Nguyen and His Vampire Cowboys Are Back

The dragon is called the Tiamat, and in last fall’s production of Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters, this firebreather closed the show. As the terrified heroine cowered in a spotlight, smoke filled the Flea Theater’s narrow stage. When the lights rose, there was the monster: a colossal five-headed puppet whose handlers were neatly concealed behind the fog. As a practical effect, the Tiamat was convincing enough to make one swear off CGI forever. As theatrical spectacle, it was a highlight of 2011. Read More

By W.M. Akers 1/10/12 5:57pm

theater

TEAM in "Mission Drift." (Rachel Chavkin)

After Three Years at Sea, the TEAM Drifts Home

Apparently, actors need no longer wait until dawn for the reviews to come in. Twenty minutes after the opening of Mission Drift, a new musical developed by New York theater collective the TEAM, at August’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Guardian theater critic Lyn Gardner tweeted her verdict, calling the show “a gorgeous, gaudy parable of capitalism in the desert.” The company exhaled, basking in the last stages of a tortuous journey that stretched back to 2008. Read More

By W.M. Akers 12/06/11 5:47pm

theater

Rendering of Signature Center entrance on West 42nd Street by Daniel Black. (Signature Center)

The Signature Finds Its Center: After a Ground Zero Location Fell Through, Signature Theatre Landed on 42nd Street

Jim Houghton’s secret lair is in the back of a parking garage on 42nd Street, just east of 10th Avenue. There, in a warmly lit room behind an anonymous steel door, the Signature Theatre Company’s founder exhibits his models. His artful miniatures depict a thriving theater center, featuring four stages, a café, a bookstore and, most important, hundreds of tiny metal theatergoers. In Mr. Houghton’s models, there is not an empty seat in the house. Read More

By W.M. Akers 11/21/11 5:59pm

theater

"Priscilla Queen of the Desert."

Priscilla, Queen of the Altar: a Musical Found a New Way to Market Itself That Includes On-Stage Weddings

When the curtain fell on the June 24 performance of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, at the Palace Theater, the cast took the stage to make a special announcement: New York State had just legalized same-sex marriage. After two and a half hours of karaoke favorites like “I Will Survive” and “Material Girl,” audience members were already in a lively mood. But upon learning that marriage equality had come to New York, they went ballistic. Read More

By W.M. Akers 8/02/11 6:52pm

theater

Rent.

Rent Musical Returns to New York

Guitars  swelled during an early preview of the new revival of Rent, and the delighted crowd squealed. Across the orchestra section, fans accustomed to using the play’s soundtrack as karaoke fodder fought the urge to sing along. Many failed. The excitement was understandable. After three torturous Rent-free years, the city is once again graced by Read More