The Outer Critics Circle announced their selections for the 2021-22 season, with Six taking home the award for Outstanding New Broadway Musical (plus two other awards), Kimberly Akimbo that for Off-Broadway (plus three others), and Company for revival (plus two others). A Strange Loop, MJ: The Musical and Paradise Square each also received a single award.
The last set of nominees for this year's season are in, with Six and the Broadway-bound Kimberly Akimbo topping the list of nominees for the 66th annual Drama Desk Awards. Notably, many of this year's large Broadway musicals were missing from the nominations for the biggest awards, with a lot of love for this year's Off- and Off-Off-Broadway productions.
The critically-acclaimed production of A Strange Loop topped the list of nominated musicals with 11 total nominations, with Paradise Square and MJ: The Musical right on its tail, garnering a total of 10 nominations each. Diana, Funny Girl and Mrs. Doubtfire, which all suffered mightily in the eyes of the critics this year, each managed to squeak out a single nomination each. This year's other nominated musicals include: Company, Caroline, or Change, Flying Over Sunset, Girl From the North Country, Mr. Saturday Night, The Music Man, and Six.
The latest round of nominees are in -- the Theatre World Awards just announced this year's recipients for Outstanding Debut Performance.
The stage musical adaptation of the film Mr. Saturday Night that just opened at the Nederlander Theater is exactly what you'd expect. Billy Crystal turns in the kind of stellar live performance only he can in a so-so show with a pleasant score. Light on drama and heavy on punchlines, fans of Crystal will go home happy and the production is likely to run as long as he headlines.
Critics are heaping boundless praise on the newly opened Broadway version of A Strange Loop. The bold and highly original production, which wow'd audiences Off-Broadway in 2019 and took home the Pulitzer last year, has lost none of what made it extraordinary on its journey to the Great White Way. In fact, the change to cast professional-newcomer Jaquel Spivey as Usher has critics applauding even more loudly than before. Entertaining, brash, heartfelt and uncomfortable, A Strange Loop is truly a one-of-a-kind experience and at the top of most best-of lists for this season.
The 71st Outer Critics Circle Award nominees were announced this morning. The Off-Broadway musicals Harmony and Kimberly Akimbo, each earned eight nominations and Broadway musicals MJ the Musical and Paradise Square seven apiece.
The Drama League Awards just announced their nominees for 2022, which includes new categories of Direction of a Play and Musical for the first time.
It's hard to compete with Streisand. And though all of the critics give Beanie Feldstein accolades for her effort, they universally find that her child-like, strained and physical comedy-reliant performance doesn't live up to the original, nor does it make up for the mostly lackluster score (with the exceptions of a couple notable songs) and terrible, episodic script (that Harvey Fierstein's doctoring did not help at all). Director Michael Mayer simply did not tap the right people or figure out the right approach to make this show work. And ultimately, is this musical worth reviving at all without a Streisand at the helm?
Yikes. Critics did not care for The Little Prince at all. The Parisian transfer that just opened at the Broadway Theatre was panned for pretty much every element; the worst offenders: boring narration by Chris Mouron, a pre-recorded atmospheric score, outright ugly costumes, lackluster projections and uninspired acrobatics and dance. Not engaging enough for children or enough of a wow for adults, performances reportedly had folks leaving in droves at intermission. If you can hang on, the second half is better than the first (with the best bit coming during curtain call); but the consensus is the two-hour runtime of this production is roughly two hours too long...
Broadway Musical Blog 