Kristin Chenoweth
Some of Broadway’s brightest stars will be on hand for The Drama League’s 28th Annual Musical celebration of Broadway. One of the theater season’s most anticipated events will honor Tony and Emmy Award winning actress Kristin Chenoweth on February 6, 2012 at 7 pm in the Grand Ballroom of The Pierre Hotel. The evening designed by celebrity event planner Preston Bailey supports the educational initiatives of The Drama League Directors Project.

    A Long and Winding ‘Road to Mecca’
    By Isa Goldberg/Chief Theater Critic
Quoting Albert Camus, the English teacher (Carla Gugino) exclaims, “Rebellion starts with just one man or woman standing up and saying: No. Enough!” In “The Road to Mecca,” playwright Athol Fugard explores that “rebellion” in terms of one septuagenarian’s survival.

Tony DeSare, Jamie deRoy, Karen Akers, Kevin Meaney, Heather Mac RaeJamie de Roy & friends held court at the Friars Club on Wednesday evening January 18, 2012. The Friars presentation of Jamie and her talented friends began with dinner in the main floor dining room and was followed by a fun filled show of laughs and music on the second floor, where Jamie and her talented friends kept the surprises coming. Everyone had a moment to shine in the spotlight and showcase their gifts.

Nick Starr, Mark Cajigao, Drew Hirshfield, Rachel Cornish, Estelle Bajou, Malinda Sorci: Photo: Barry GordinThe world premiere engagement of a new play by Nick Starr, One Thousand Blinks, opened January 17, 2012 at 59E59 Theaters. The drama directed by Malinda Sorci is billed as a Sci-Fi thriller, but comes off as a thought provoking enigma instead. Starr is a prolific writer, who was an Artist in Residence at The Center Theatre Group in Los Angles, and his new play raises provocative issues about survival and control.
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“MAKIN’ WHOOPEE: Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn and the Jazz Age.”
               By Linda Amiel Burns
The Lyrics & Lyricist Series at The 92nd St Y’s Kaufman Hall opened its new season on January 7-9 with “Makin’ Whoopee: Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn and the Jazz Age,” a tuneful, toe-tapping concert featuring great singers and songs.  The series artistic director, Deborah Grace Winer, introduced music historian Robert Kimball who served as narrator and producer.  The show opened with the terrific Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, a renowned 11-piece band who specializes in playing original arrangements from the 20’s & 30’s, playing an overture of the great material that was to come.  The cast couldn’t have been more perfect with Christine Andreas, Jason Graae, Laura Osnes and Howard McGillin, and they made every song a showstopper.

Photo: Barry Gordin
The Negro Ensemble Company presented The Picture Box, a new play by Cate Ryan, Off Broadway at Theater Row. The play, a warm and loving story about the relationship between a caretaker ( a young black man) and the little girl, who lives in the home he watches over, opened last night at the Beckett Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street.

Hamptonites HENRY BUEHL, JOE COHEN, RAY MERRITT and JANET LEHR Support Palm Beach Photographic Center in MAJOR exhibition-thru March.
           Janet Lehr: ArtMkt Recap
Boys Boxing: Albumen Print 1883This week in Palm Beach. The Hamptons' celebrate a host of their finest - Henry Buhl, Joe Cohen, Ray Merritt and Janet Lehr, lenders to FULL OF GRACE, a photography exhibition opening Thursday, January 26th at The Palm Beach Photographic Center, 515 Clematis St. WPB. Pre-opening event kick-off at the Center is a panel discussion Wednesday Jan 25th beginning at 10:30 am, by the photography curators of the Getty Museum, the Norton Museum and Vered Gallery's Janet Lehr. All are welcome - Come early, seating is limited.

     By Patrick Christiano
Canadian hip-hop theater artist Baba Brinkman has returned to the SoHo Playhouse with The Canterbury Tales Remixed,  following a successful run at the theater this past fall of his The Rap Guide to Evolution. In his current hip-hop show Binkman, who has toured his work worldwide including the Edinburgh Fringe, directs an assorted mix of three of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales interwoven with some pieces of the epic poems, Gilgamesh and Beowulf.  The resourceful evening is a shrewd blending of hip hop and poetry for a clever effect.  Unfortunately the huge video background competes with his performance almost dominating the proceedings.  

                            By Isa Goldberg / Chief Theater Critic
There are lots of reminders in “Follies.” Some of them are wonderful.
Sally and Ben and Buddy and Phyllis are a throwback to the swinging couples of the early 70s, which is when the show premiered. When we meet them in this revival of the Stephen Sondheim/James Goldman classic, the middle-aged ex- chorus girls and their husbands are reunited to celebrate their lives as Ziegfeld Follies-like dancers in the theater, now on the eve of destruction. Evoking the Golden Age of Broadway, “Follies” vamps on that lavish theatricality.

Jackie Hoffman’s “A Chanukah Charol” or I’m the greatest kvetch!
Photo: Barry Gordin                 By Sandi Durell

Patrick Stewart thought he had the holiday season covered with “A Christmas Carol.”  Nah, it was only part of the story. It takes a self-loathing Jew to complete the episode; specifically Jackie Hoffman. Who else could take a good hard look at herself, display her flaws and unashamedly trash herself in front of an audience - -  she’s one-of-a-kind. Charles Dickens would turn over if he got a glimpse of this 50 laugh-a-minute show, as Hoffman brings her own brand of Ghosts of Chanukah Past, Present and Future into focus.