Tag Archives: Neil Simon

Upcoming Brighton Beach Memoirs Is Different Neil Simon

With the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s upcoming Brighton Beach Memoirs, director J. Barry Lewis says people need to “come forward with a new perspective on what a Neil Simon play is, not just what you think.”

Posted in Features | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Neil Simon’s Gingerbread Lady: Harrowing Descent Into Alcoholism — With Laughs

Neil Simon’s dark comedy The Gingerbread Lady gets a fine production at Primal Forces featuring a bravura performance from Patti Gardner.

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Growing Old Ain’t All Sunshine For The Boys At Stage Door

Seniors and caretaking Boomers recognize the real pain informing the facile catchphrase “Growing old is not for sissies” – a quality sharing the stage with copious laughs in Broward Stage Door’s production of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys.

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Andrea McArdle At The Wick: Still The Working Actress Four Decades After Playing Annie

When 13-year-old Andrea McArdle exploded across the country, the moniker Broadway Baby recognized the talent powering her performance as Annie singing the iconic “Tomorrow.” Now, about to headline They’re Playing Our Song at the Wick Theatre, her voice and demeanor reflect four decades working steadily to consistent acclaim but never getting caught up in a cyclone of similar proportions.

Posted in Features | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Pursuit Of Dreams At Stage Door’s Broadway Bound

Broward Stage Door’s Broadway Bound may not land perfectly all the time, but these theater pros deliver a no-excuses-needed effort that works often and effectively and ultimately satisfies.

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stage Door Keeps Its Promises In Revival Of 1960’s Hit Musical

Broward Stage Door’s earnest intriguing revival of Promises, Promises embraces its up-to-the-moment pop score for 1968, a witty and insightful script, frenetic choreography that caught the zeitgeist of the time, and some deceptively subtle performances to become a wildly-popular hit just as the social fabric of the country was in transition.

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mad Cat’s Deconstructed Spin On Simon’s Star Spangled Girl Is Off-Beat Mash-Up, Natch

Mad Cat Theatre’s daffy deconstruction of a 1966 Neil Simon The Star Spangled Girl elicited plenty of laughs, but the schizophrenic clashing of styles didn’t land as strongly as anyone hoped

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Margot Moreland & Oscar Cheda Are Playing Your Song In Boca

Margot Moreland and Oscar Cheda’s presence in Boca Raton Theatre Guild’s production of They’re Playing Our Song is, indeed, more than enough reason to see this tuneful but far from iconic 1978 musical by Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer-Sager.

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beachy Keen: Fine Performances Highlight Brighton Beach Memoirs At Plaza Theatre

It’s hard to do Neil Simon well. The Plaza Theatre in Manalapan does not fall into that trap. They do Neil Simon very, very well. Earlier this year the Plaza produced a fine Chapter Two, and now they’ve raised the Simon bar with their current show, Brighton Beach Memoirs.

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Broward Stage Door’s Brighton Beach Memoirs Stumbles A Bit, But Is Genuinely Touching

Acknowledge that Broward Stage Door’s revival of Neil Simon’s thirty-year-old warhorse Brighton Beach Memories is uneven and stumbles. Then acknowledge, at least this critic will, that Stage Door’s edition frequently reaches into that moldy storehouse of decades-old memories of family relationships — and makes the throat close up, the eyes mist and starts a sudden epidemic of sniffling around the auditorium.

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment