Tag Archives: jewish

The Lehman Trilogy, National Theatre

Posted on July 13, 2018 by mkmswain

Through one family and one company, Italian playwright Stefano Massini tackles big topics: the development of Western capitalism, the immigrant experience, the American Dream. But this isn’t just any family – it’s the Lehman Brothers, the collapse of whose banking … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged adam godley, america, american dream, bank, ben miles, ben power, book tickets, broadwayworld, es devlin, finance, immigrant, jewish, lehman brothers, london, market crash, national theatre, new york, play, review, sam mendes, simon russell beale, stock exchange, the lehman trilogy, theatre, visit london, wall street | Leave a comment

Funny Girl, Savoy Theatre

Posted on April 21, 2016 by mkmswain

Vaudeville is having quite the West End moment, with Funny Girl inheriting the Savoy from Gypsy and Mrs Henderson Presents over at the Noël Coward. Gypsy is the pick of the bunch dramatically, delivering theatre history with real psychological heft, but Sheridan … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged america, barbra streisand, brooklyn, comedian, comedy, dance, dancing, darius campbell, drama, fanny brice, follies, funny girl, gypsy, Harvey Fierstein, jewish, jule styne, london, musical, play, savoy theatre, sheridan smith, sing, singing, song, theatre, variety, vaudeville, west end, ziegfeld | Leave a comment

Moderate Soprano is a moderate success

Posted on November 10, 2015 by mkmswain

Following Farinelli and the King, here’s another gently aimless drama about opera and – more circuitously – the inestimable value of art. David Hare takes us back to 1934 and the birth of Glyndebourne, with Rae Smith’s design illustrating its … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged David Hare, drama, germany, glyndebourne, ham and high, hampstead theatre, jeremy herrin, jewish, london, music, musician, nazi, opera, play, review, roger allam, second world war, the moderate soprano, theatre, war | Leave a comment

Clumsy look at Jewish Broadway history is toe-tapping nostalgia

Posted on September 5, 2015 by mkmswain

Lacking the shrewd lampooning instincts of Spamalot, from which it takes its name, revue You Won’t Succeed On Broadway If You Don’t Have Any Jews is a muddle: too solemn for satire, too grandiloquent for cabaret, and too fractured for musical … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged be our guest, broadway, cabaret, composer, dance, dancing, disney, dorothy, drama, gershwin, glee, gypsy, ham and high, irving berlin, jew, jewish, les miserables, lloyd webber, london, mama rose, monty python, musical, newspaper, over the rainbow, revue, sing, smash, sondheim, song, spamalot, st james theatre, the lady is a tramp, the wizard of oz, theatre, west end, You Won't Succeed On Broadway If You Don't Have Any Jews | Leave a comment

You Won’t Succeed On Broadway If You Don’t Have Any Jews, St James Theatre

Posted on August 28, 2015 by mkmswain

Well, here’s an oddity. You Won’t Succeed… is too fragmented for musical theatre, too bombastic for cabaret, and about as profound as a first-draft Wikipedia page. Channelling the self-referential levity of the Monty Python show from which it takes its … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged beauty and the beast, big spender, cabaret, chicago, composer, disney, dorothy, drama, dreamgirls, fame, fiddler on the roof, gershwin, godspell, guys and dolls, gypsy, hairspray, irving berlin, jew, jewish, les misereables, london, music, musical, my fair lady, Oklahoma, over the rainbow, rent, review, revue, singing, smash, sondheim, song, spamalot, st james theatre, the arts desk, theartsdesk, theatre, wizard of oz, yentel, You Won't Succeed On Broadway If You Don't Have Any Jews | Leave a comment

Bad Jews, Arts Theatre

Posted on March 26, 2015 by mkmswain

Joshua Harmon’s provocative 2012 piece is the Rocky of comedies. His evenly matched sparring partners, a pair of viscerally antagonistic cousins confined in close quarters after a familial loss, bruise, bludgeon and literally draw blood. The bonds of kinship have … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged america, american, arts theatre, bad jews, cousin, culture, death, drama, faith, family, funeral, heritage, holocaust, identity, inheritance, jew, jewish, joshua harmon, judaism, kin, london, new york, play, race, racial, religion, review, rocky, summertime, the arts desk, theartsdesk, theatre, tradition, west end | Leave a comment

Buyer & Cellar, Menier Chocolate Factory

Posted on March 20, 2015 by mkmswain

This is, stresses our guide, a work of pure (read: non-libellous) fiction, except that its “preposterous” premise is rooted in even more preposterous truth. In 2010, diva extraordinaire Barbra Streisand produced wildly narcissistic coffee-table book My Passion for Design chronicling … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Journalism, Theatre | Tagged actor, actress, america, american, aspirational, barbra, barbra streisand, book, brooklyn, celebrity, comedy, dickens, drama, famous, fantasy, film, funny girl, gay, homosexual, i'm the greatest star, icon, jewish, la, london, los angeles, malibu, mall, marie antoinette, michael urie, movie, my passion for design, new york, norma desmond, play, rain on my parade, reality, review, rich, shop, sing, singer, song, star, store, the mirror has two faces, theatre, willy wonka | Leave a comment

Theatre company defends culture in dark times

Posted on June 27, 2014 by mkmswain

Reviewers like to believe we have power of influence, but those in Stalinist Russia had power of life and death: a bad write-up spelled doom for the subject. Yet their opinions could not contradict those of the ‘great leader’, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged anti-seminitism, david schneider, ham and high, hampstead, jew, jewish, jw3, kafka, king lear, london, making stalin laugh, moscow, Moscow State Yiddish Theatre, play, purges, review, russia, shakespeare, shostakovich, stalin, theatre, ussr, yiddish | Leave a comment

Perchance to dream

Posted on July 10, 2013 by mkmswain

A hot, sluggish summer’s day is the perfect preparation for this sweltering trip to the Catskills, a mountainous retreat north of New York City where, in Richard Greenberg’s rendering, hazy contentment masks desperately stifled desires. The livin’ is easy, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Journalism, Theatre, TV | Tagged american dream, bath, catskills, chekhov, diana quick, dirty dancing, dr darcy, drama, f scott fitzgerald, german, henry james, jewish, new york, play, pride and prejudice, review, richard greenberg, st james theatre, tennessee williams, the american plan, the great gatsby, ustinov studio, war, WASP, west end | Leave a comment

Tag Archives: jewish

The Lehman Trilogy, National Theatre

Funny Girl, Savoy Theatre

Moderate Soprano is a moderate success

Clumsy look at Jewish Broadway history is toe-tapping nostalgia

You Won’t Succeed On Broadway If You Don’t Have Any Jews, St James Theatre

Bad Jews, Arts Theatre

Buyer & Cellar, Menier Chocolate Factory

Theatre company defends culture in dark times

Perchance to dream

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