All stories by Gordon Cox on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Broadway Reopening Hits High Gear With 'Hamilton,' 'The Lion King,' 'Wicked' and More by Gordon Cox

"I don't want to take live theater for granted ever again, do you?" That was Lin-Manuel Miranda, in a brief curtain speech welcoming back the first Broadway audience at "Hamilton" since the …

SOURCE: Variety at 10:22PM[SHARE]

How Broadway's New Diversity Director Aims to Change the Industry by Gordon Cox

Broadway is back " and it's looking to make some changes to how it used to operate. Listen to this week's "Stagecraft" podcast below: With producers, creators, advocates and executives…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:07PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 13, 2021

'Back to the Future' Review: West End Musical Is Lots of Fun Despite Flaws by Gordon Cox

In recent decades, numerous musical have arrived in London with outsized production values swamping the material, leading critics to wish for time machines so that they can fast-forward to t…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:05PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 1, 2021

'Operation Mincemeat' Review: Hilarious Small-Scale Musical Could Become a Big Hit by Gordon Cox

Is the quite splendid "Operation Mincemeat" ridiculously clever or cleverly ridiculous? Both. Making a song-n-dance show out of a real-life, stiff-upper-lip, British World War II intelligenc…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:42PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Inside Disney Theatrical's Global Restart by Gordon Cox

From "Aladdin" in Mexico City to "Frozen" in London to "The Lion King" in Tokyo " not to mention "Lion King" and "Aladdin" on Broadway " Disney Theatrical Productions is in the midst of open…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:44PM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 26, 2021

What happens if someone tests positive for COVID on Broadway? by Gordon Cox

No one wants to talk about it, but it could happen: Someone involved in a Broadway production tests positive for COVID-19. In the run-up to reopening, there's been significant coverage of th…

SOURCE: Broadway News Subscription at 09:23AM[SHARE]
Sunday, August 22, 2021

'Pass Over' Review: Antoinette Nwandu's Play Reignites Broadway by Gordon Cox

In Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu's surreal and morbidly funny existential drama "Pass Over," two characters who might be fugitives from a Samuel Beckett play find themselves in a world where be…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:05PM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 19, 2021

'Cinderella' Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Fairy Tale Redux Opens at Last by Gordon Cox

Where do you go after you've seen "Wicked"? That worldwide smash has built a vast young audience hungry for stories propelled by power ballads of female empowerment, and it's clearly that cr…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:48PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 18, 2021

'Bagdad Cafe' Review: A London Stage Adaptation With Theatricality but No Drama by Gordon Cox

"Life is a cabaret, old chum." Oh wait, wrong show. Or is it? Taking on Percy and Eleonore Adlon's 1987 movie "Bagdad Cafe," Emma Rice's music-filled, uber-quirky production boasts everythin…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:20PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Broadway's COVID Expert Talks Returning to Theaters Safely by Gordon Cox

It's the question on all of Broadway's mind right now: With the delta variant spreading just as shows are getting back up and running, how do we all " cast, crew and audiences " return to th…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:46PM[SHARE]
Monday, August 9, 2021

'Merry Wives' Review: Shakespeare's Farce Updated to South Harlem in a Lively, Powerful Remix by Gordon Cox

For one of New York City's first major theater events in 16 months, eager audiences cannot do better than reveling in the natural splendors of Central Park's Delacorte Theater for the gleefu…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Playing It Safe: Broadway Reopens With Rigorous COVID Protocols by Gordon Cox

In a Manhattan studio late last month, rehearsal was in progress. Two actors ran through a playful chase sequence. A fight choreographer, seated at the head of the room with the director, th…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:45PM[SHARE]

Theater Creatives Reveal What Industry Needs in Sundance Institute Survey (EXCLUSIVE) by Gordon Cox

As Broadway gets back to business and live performances resume around the country, the Sundance Institute has released a new study that diagnoses the state of the theater industry and imagin…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:00PM[SHARE]
Thursday, July 22, 2021

'Hamlet' Review: Ian McKellen's Greatness Shines Intermittently in a Rudderless Production by Gordon Cox

Skeptics puzzling over the logic of watching 82-year-old Ian McKellen playing student prince Hamlet need only look as far as the play's second scene in which Hamlet rebukes his mother. "I ha…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:18PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 20, 2021

How 'Pass Over' Is Making 'Precedent-Level Changes' on Broadway by Gordon Cox

When the Broadway production of Antoinette Nwandu's play "Pass Over" opens on Broadway, it'll incorporate significant changes " both on stage and behind the scenes. Listen to this week's …

SOURCE: Variety at 01:44PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 6, 2021

How 'What to Send Up When It Goes Down' Blurs the Line Between Ritual and Theater by Gordon Cox

Aleshea Harris' "What to Send Up When It Goes Down" isn't a traditional play, but audiences shouldn't come away with the mistaken impression that the show " a play, a ritual, a pageant and a…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:43PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 2, 2021

Shakespeare in the Park's Return Reflects How New York City and Its Theater Institutions Are Changing by Gordon Cox

As the New York Theater industry pulls itself out of the COVID era, every baby step feels like a milestone. But perhaps no other reopening will carry the same symbolic weight as the return o…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:45PM[SHARE]
Thursday, July 1, 2021

'Bach & Sons' Review: Miscasting Mars Nina Raine's Fascinating Play by Gordon Cox

"The whole point is to combine two complementary or contrasting thoughts in the same moment. Two feelings in the same moment." Johann Sebastian Bach, the 18th century's uncontested genius of…

SOURCE: Variety at 03:24PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 29, 2021

'Seven Deadly Sins' Review: Taking Orthodox Theater Outdoors Without Defiling the Soul by Gordon Cox

Who knew iniquity could feel so pulsating and immensely purifying? "Seven Deadly Sins," New York City theater's newest unholy outdoor experience, tests the limits of how far live theater can…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:00PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 23, 2021

'Under Milk Wood' Review: Michael Sheen Stars in a Tender but Fitful Reimagination of Dylan Thomas by Gordon Cox

"We are paying you to stay awake and care." That sounds like an admonition to the audience at the National Theatre's new production, "Under Milk Wood." But in fact it's sensible Susan Brown'…

SOURCE: Variety at 07:01PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 22, 2021

How the Revolution of 'Rent' Came to Cuba by Gordon Cox

The enduring musical "Rent," celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, didn't just revolutionize Broadway. It had an impact all over the world " and the new documentary "Revolution Rent" r…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:07PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 10, 2021

'After Life' Review: London Stage Adaptation is a Fascinating Idea That Never Comes Alive as Drama by Gordon Cox

Remembrance of things past is not just a preoccupation of Proust. From King Lear's terrifying fear of losing his mind to Pinter's interlocked threesome in "Old Times" hotly contesting what e…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:51PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 8, 2021

'In the Heights': The Cuts, the Updates, the Ropa Vieja by Gordon Cox

For the creators of the Tony-winning Broadway musical "In the Heights," the new, big-budget movie version wasn't just a chance to go big with splashy song-and-dance numbers. It was also, acc…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:50PM[SHARE]
Saturday, May 29, 2021

'Walden' Review: An Ambitious West End Debut That Grapples With Big Ideas by Gordon Cox

Producer Sonia Friedman returns to the post-pandemic West End not with a safe revival but with a succession of brief runs for three socially-distanced world premieres by young writers, and i…

SOURCE: Variety at 07:00PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 28, 2021

Broadway's Hottest Marketing Tool: Streaming Shows by Gordon Cox

Should we go to a Broadway show tonight, or should we stream it? That's a question that people could be asking about more than just "Hamilton" when Broadway gets back up and running. If all …

SOURCE: Variety at 12:45PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 25, 2021

How a New Initiative Aims to Launch Broadway's Future Black Leaders by Gordon Cox

Broadway has long known that Black professionals are underrepresented backstage and in leadership positions in the commercial theater industry " but now a new initiative from a group of Broa…

SOURCE: Variety at 03:02PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 21, 2021

'Cruise' Review: West End Reopens Exultantly With Jack Holden's High-Energy, Impressive Solo Debut by Gordon Cox

As the U.K. begins reopening in the wake, fingers crossed, of the pandemic, the idea of the reopening the West End with a new solo show written and performed by a debuting playwright is some…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:27PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 11, 2021

How Heather Christian's 'Animal Wisdom' Transformed From a Theater Tour to a Boundary-Blurring Movie by Gordon Cox

The composer-performer Heather Christian describes her new movie "Animal Wisdom" as a "theater-concert-hybrid-séance-performance." And maybe after months of lockdown, that's what we all nee…

SOURCE: Variety at 05:27PM[SHARE]
Saturday, May 8, 2021

'Waiting for Godot' Review: Starry Tramps Like Us and Their Existentialist Dilemmas Make for Daring, Delightful Streaming Theater by Gordon Cox

For this smart, lockdown-era, streaming iteration of Samuel Beckett's show about nothing " and also everything, perhaps, and electric alienation for sure " director Scott Elliott and his tra…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:24PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Why Making Digital Theater Is Like Shooting 'Star Wars' by Gordon Cox

Think producing digital play readings is as simple as getting a few actors together on Zoom? Think again. Listen to this week's "Stagecraft" podcast below: For the starry Spotlight on …

SOURCE: Variety at 02:48PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 21, 2021

'Two Sisters and a Piano' Review: Jimmy Smits and Daphne Rubin-Vega Bring Passion and Poetry to Digital Theater by Gordon Cox

For Cuban American playwright Nilo Cruz, every line is poetry, and every couplet speaks to the socio-politics of his roots. That could mean the lyrical "Anna in the Tropics," the play that w…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:15PM[SHARE]

All that Chat