Profile for rkinla&ny

Count me in the "not horrible, but far from great" camp for this lackluster "Sweeney Todd" revival. Josh Groban is miscast and proves the considerable limits of his acting abilities, Annaleigh Ashford starts out great but by the end seems to be mugging too much, and Jordan Fisher is not up to the demands of singing "Johanna," one of Sondheim's most beautiful tunes. The choreography does not fit the show, and at times made the staging look like a Disney musical, and a bad one at that. I also c...

I saw Public Works' "As You Like It" Labor Day evening and found the show to be a magical and hugely entertaining adaptation of the play, transforming the play's major story beats into a musical comedy that sports a tuneful and witty score by the wonderful Shaina Taub. After the show, I was very surprised to learn from the program that the show's cast has only 5 equity actors, as I would have guessed some of the non-pros were equity performers. The positive spirit of the huge cast and show wa...

I was there last evening as well, and despite what the stage staff announced, I can say with 100% certainty that it was a cell phone making noise, as it was the phone of the person right behind me. He insisted it was not him, even though the noise was clearly coming from his pocket. The usher finally had to insist to see his phone, and ended up turning it off himself. The offending phone owner remained rather indignant, insisting that what happened could not happen. Given the above, my sympat...