Yikes. Critics didn't care for Almost Famous, the latest film-to-stage adaptation to hit the Great White Way. With pandering over-the-top jokes, a not-at-all-adapted for the stage story, and abysmal lyrics, set and staging, the only saving grace were standout Broadway premiere performances by Casey Likes and Solea Pfeiffer. Overall, critics wished this production had leaned in to truly adapting the show for the stage, rather than creating a semi-original half-jukebox musical rehash of the film.
The Roundabout Theater Company's revival of 1776 opened to lackluster reviews. Though applying exciting casting with a fully female, transgender and non-binary cast, critics felt the rest of the changes made for this revival, from new arrangements and orchestrations to staging and acting was heavy-handed, muddy, over the top and cartoony. Though select performances and songs stood out and no one begrudged the casting updates in principle, many seemed to be wishing this mounting had been a new diversely cast musical exploring the founding of our country, rather than a heavy-handed reworking of an old musical, revolutionary for its time.
The Encores! transfer of Into the Woods opened at the St. James Theater to absolute rave reviews. The simplicity of the staging allows for the hilarious and heartbreaking performances from this star-studded cast to shine and Sondheim's wonderful score to soar. The critics are in full agreement on this one; you'd be a fool to miss this mounting of Woods.
The biggest day of the awards season is here and we are over the moon excited to join you all during all of tonight's Tony Award events. And best of all we'll be doing it all LIVE!!!
The Drama League Awards were presented today, and the prize for Outstanding Production of a Musical went to A Strange Loop. Company received the awards for both Outstanding Revival and Outstanding Direction of a Musical. And Broadway and Hollywood star extraordinaire Sutton Foster was given this year's Distinguished Performance Award for her portrayal of Marion in The Music Man.
Now that all the 2021-2022 season nominations are in, we wanted to tally up the totals for each of this season's musicals.
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.
Broadway Musical Blog 