Archives for April 25, 2013

If you’re in or near the Kansas City area on Friday afternoon, I’ll be giving a lecture at William Jewell College, my alma mater, at one p.m. The title is “From Critic to Creator: How a Drama Critic Changed Hats.” I’ll be speaking in Gano Memorial Chapel, on whose stage I gave my last public performances as an actor nearly four decades ago.
William Jewell College is located in Liberty, Missouri, just north of Kansas City. For more information about the lecture, which is open to the public, go here.

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:

• Annie (musical, G, reviewed here)

• Matilda (musical, G, all performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• The Nance (play with music, PG-13, reviewed here)

• Once (musical, G/PG-13, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• The Trip to Bountiful (drama, G, closes July 7, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

• Women of Will (Shakespearean lecture-recital, G/PG-13, closes June 2, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• Talley’s Folly (drama, PG-13, closes May 12, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:

• The Madrid (drama, PG-13, closes May 5, reviewed here)

CLOSING THIS WEEKEND OFF BROADWAY:

• All in the Timing (comedy, PG-13, closes Sunday, reviewed here)

• Donnybrook! (musical, G/PG-13, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, closes Sunday, reviewed here)

• The Revisionist (drama, PG-13, closes Saturday, reviewed here)

“The theater is the only branch of art much cared for by people of wealth; like canasta, it does away with the bother of talk after dinner.”
Mary McCarthy, “Up the Ladder from Charm to Vogue” (1950)