ATW NewsClips - National, Industry Pubs

Associated Press

A revival of 'Damn Yankees' hits a solid double

Bloomberg.com

`Passing Strange' Will End Broadway Run Without Recouping $5 Million Cost
The acclaimed Broadway rock musical Passing Strange will close on July 20 after a six-month run, its producers announced today.

Mamma Mia! Producer Judy Craymer Pays $9 Million for Plaza Condo in N.Y.
Judy Craymer, producer of the Broadway show and movie Mamma Mia!, paid $9 million for a condominium apartment in the former Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, according to New York City public records.

Wall Street Journal

Happiness on the Hudson
The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is that rarity of rarities, an artistic enterprise that gets everything right.

Variety

'Passing Strange' set to close
Tony-nominated musical to end run on July 20

Raul Esparza gets behind 'Plow'
Actor to star opposite Piven in Mamet revival

Review: The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac
...offers some slight, occasionally funny musings that don't quite approach his promising one-act "Okay," seen at Ensemble Studio Theater earlier this year. But he's certainly a sight to behold.

Review: Damn Yankees
...despite a plot that doesn't withstand scrutiny, the entertaining baseball-themed take on the Faust legend has a string of memorable songs, some exuberant dancing and a fair share of wit, all of which are on display in this lovingly staged revival.

Review: Scenes From an Execution
Splendid, spirited actress though she is, Jan Maxwell can't overcome the fatigue factor in the Art-vs.-Authority arguments advanced by Howard Barker in his 1986 didacto-drama, ...But once the bad guys come out to play in the second act, Maxwell has more reason to tear into her meaty role as Galactia, an earthy, free-thinking Renaissance painter ...

Review: The Drowsy Chaperone
If the test of a tour is freshness vs. flatness, this one feels newly minted; as with a favorite old record, one grins from ear to ear with a desire to experience it again. Immediately.

Back Stage

Damn Yankees reviewed by David Sheward
When I was a kid, my parents used to take me to the Valley Forge Music Fair in Devon, Pa., where, every summer, stars from TV would headline in hit musicals of the past.

East 14th reviewed by Robert Windler
Don Reed, the author, director, and sole actor in this 90-minute piece subtitled with the triple pun "True Tales of a Reluctant Player," should also be claiming the role of choreographer.

Life in a Marital Institution (20 Years of Monogamy in One Terrifying Hour) reviewed by A.J. Mell
In his lean, thick-haired, bespectacled way, James Braly looks something like a cross between Gustav Mahler and a hip young English professor with a taste for understated gray blazers.
[This is Back Stage's review of the show's original production at 59E59 Theaters earlier this year.]

Perfect Harmony reviewed by Adam R. Perlman
I confess to a certain personal fondness for a cappella. I attended one of those schools where you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a collective crooning in tight harmony — and I didn't mind: Many of these groups made an awfully pretty sound.

Scenes from an Execution reviewed by David A. Rosenberg
When Howard Barker's 1985 Scenes From an Execution was seen hereabouts in 1996, its theme of an artist's conflict with the state could be read as a metaphor for the standoff battle then embroiling artists, Congress, and the NEA.

Christian Science Monitor

Fifty years of musical memories
Musicals such as 'South Pacific' marked an era.