BroadwayCon

I spent two action-packed days at BroadwayCon last week, and you can read all (well, almost all) about it in my Times report.

Ivo van Hove: Is he all that?

It was great fun to participate in a conversation about Ivo van Hove with Ben Brantley and Jason Zinoman. Click here for the Times article. We also drew up a list of seven other innovative directors,which you can find here.

January festivals

For the Times I previewed a couple of shows from a couple of the festivals hitting NYC in January. First there's "Cowboy," a new short by Gracie Gardner at the Exponential Festival. Then there's [50/50] old school animation at Under the Radar — which I saw on Friday and highly recommend (what a way to start off the year!).

Christmas in Hell

Someone on Twitter brought up my lede for this review so now you really have to read it, right? It's right here.

To Kill a Mockingbirg

Aaron Sorkin's adaptation dilutes Scout's voice to make space for a Grisham-esque legal thriller. Click here for my Newsday review of To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway.

Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken's Christmas Show

It's that time of the year when…you know the rest. I put on my elf hat to check out the American Idol alums' holiday extravaganza on Broadway, and lived to tell the tale here.

Dinner and a show or dinner at a show?

I've been eating out a lot this past fall — at the theater. It's not that concessions have dramatically changed but that a freakishly high number of shows have been serving all manners of food as part of the story. Read more here.

The World Is Yours

Romain Gavras' second feature went straight to Netflix in the US and I reviewed it for the Times. So much fun! Click here for the link.

Chasing the New White Whale

What if the opioid epidemic was the new Moby Dick? That is the idea behind a new show at La MaMa, but alas the production falls short of its ambition. My Times review is here.

Cool ski lodges

Almost as fun as barreling down the slopes is staying in a good ski lodge: it's all part of the Alpine tradition. I picked a few good ones for Newsday and you can find them here.