By Patrick Christiano
The York Theater Company’s new musical, YANK! set during World War II weaves a compelling romantic tale about two gay servicemen long before the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy.  Openly gay brothers, Joseph Zellnik (music) and David Zellnik (book & lyrics), have created a musical in the old fashioned style of the period, which echoes shades of pop music from the era, while crafting a timely tale that delves into questions of prejudice, courage and survival.

Review By Jason Clark ***Stephen Dillane is a thin, wiry Brit who-if you passed him on the street-might seem vaguely familiar to you but you would never feel inherently threatened by. Somehow, though, he is also one of those actors (like Ian McKellen) who always seem to loom large once you put them on a stage. Playing one of the grandest of Shakespeare's main men, Dillane goes a different route than most who take on this titan. Instead of bellowing to the hills, he draws you in every so slightly but never sacrifices the power of the role.

Review By Jason Clark *1/2Douglas Carter Beane, of late, seems to be literally writing off the top of his head, not attuned to his characters. In his tedious new comedy Mr. & Mrs Fitch, two married gossip columnists, constantly spew floral witticisms thought up by the clever playwright, which are usually pretty funny, but the barrage of sharp banter feels throw in leaving the audience confused. The effect is like being held prisoner by a relentless stand-up comic in an ascot. Early on in Beane's self-immolating Mr. & Mrs. Fitch, Mrs. Fitch (Jennifer Ehle) herself recalls asking Anna Deavere Smith and Moises Kaufman how they come up with ideas for their shows.

Catherine Zeta-Jones
With her name above the title at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones makes  for great box office in the entertaining revival of Stephen Sondheim’s  A Little Night Music.  The screen beauty plays Desiree, the fading actress at the center of the elegant classic.  If her glamorous presence is not exactly a perfect fit, she generates enough star power in the Trevor Nunn production to pack the houses in spite of the evening’s shortcomings.

Give and Go:
Learning from Losing to the Harlem Globetrotters
By Isa Goldberg
As dramatic genre, the one-person show has been rising like a phoenix. The sheer number of them - many of them quite powerful – is at a zenith.

Race, sex and rock ‘n roll are a powerful combination in the new Broadway musical Memphis written by David Bryan, and Joe DiPietro. The sizzling new musical is a sheer delight and somewhat of a surprise with no star headliners, but don’t tell these passionate performers. The cast is an absolute knock out!

Hair, opened on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Tuesday March 31, 2009, what follows is a review of the original central park production.

Bartlett Sher’s elegant staging of The Lincoln Center revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” is an enchanted evening of splendid music and shimmering picture perfect post card images. As the five minute overture swells, the stage slides back to reveal a full 30 piece orchestra playing Robert Russell Bennett’s lush original orchestrations of the beloved songs transporting us to another place and time for a sweeping romantic tale set on a tropical island in the middle of the South Pacific.

James GandolfiniMarcia Gay HardenTelevision heavyweight James Gandolfini, who plays Tony Soprano on the HBO series “The Sopranos,” heads a dazzling cast in Yasmina Reza’s lasted dissection of contemporary social hypocrisy, God of Carnage. The 90 minute biting satire directed with the bold stylized force of a blunt instrument by the gifted Matthew Warchus is a welcome audience pleaser. Reza, the Tony Award winning playwright of Art, took on similar territory over a decade ago in Art, but here she steps up the ante with a lethal dose of hostility that lies just beneath the surface in her portrait of two married couples.

Josefina Scaglione: Photo: Rob RIch
In 1961 the movie “West Side Story” made a “rumble”. Winning 10 Academy Awards, the groundbreaking film redefined the movie musical for all time, delivering the bleak tragedy of racial strife and social upheaval that blighted America’s cities.