New York Post theater critic and arts writer Frank Scheck has been covering film, theater and music for more than 25 years. Currently the New York arts correspondent for the Hollywood Reporter, he was previously the editor of STAGES Magazine and the chief theater critic for the Christian Science Monitor. His writing has appeared in such publications as the New York Daily News, In New York, Playbill, and various newspapers around the country. He has provided on-air commentary for the BBC, MSNBC and the Fox Business Channel, and has served as the Vice-President of the Drama Desk and is a longtime member of the New York Drama Critics Circle. He received a B.A. from Columbia University and a Master's Degree from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications.
Attention, straying fans of Betty Buckley: The singer wants you back. To that end, her Feinstein's engagement last year was made up entirely of audience requests. This time around, she's singing show tunes she's...
February 04, 2010 12:00 AM
'Shooting the breeze" takes on a literal meaning in Sam Shepard's "Ages of the Moon," about two pals spending a long night together while awaiting a lunar eclipse. Unlike his last effort, "Kicking a Dead Horse,"...
January 28, 2010 12:00 AM
The most chilling moment in "The Man in Room 306" occurs before the show begins -- as the audience walks through a re-creation of the balcony of Memphis' Lorraine Motel, in which Martin Luther King Jr. spent the last...
January 21, 2010 12:00 AM"Ladies and gentlemen," intones an off stage voice, "the show you are about to see is an inaccurate distortion of 'King Lear.' " We're then given five minutes to read the short synopsis of the original before the...
January 15, 2010 12:00 AM'The Myopia" is sup posed to be a clear- eyed look at theater, but only the truly pretentious will see it that way. So dense is David Greenspan's theatrical collage -- which touches on the political machinations of...
January 14, 2010 12:00 AM
'Princes of Waco" is set in Texas, but it's a far cry from Horton Foote territory. Robert Askins' play takes place in the present, but with all its physical and emotional brutality, it might just as easily be in the...
January 12, 2010 12:00 AMThis is how much of a diva Elaine Stritch is: In "Singing Sondheim . . . One Song at a Time" at the Café Carlyle, she sings "Rose's Turn" from "Gypsy," the 11 o'clock number of all time. Only she delivers it 15 minutes...
January 08, 2010 12:00 AMHe's probably best known for that anguished cry, "Lucy, you have some 'splainin' to do!" But Desi Arnaz was more than Lucille Ball's hapless foil: He was also a terrific big-band leader who wrote the hit "Babalu" and...
January 07, 2010 12:00 AM
Attention, "Forbidden Broadway" fans going through withdrawal: Relief has arrived, and her name is Christine Pedi. And while that revue hasn't returned (at least, not yet), another politically charged one has:...
January 04, 2010 12:00 AM
A compelling story doesn't al ways make compelling the ater. Case in point: "A British Subject," the true-life account of a crusading journalist's efforts to save a man from execution in a Pakistani prison....
December 29, 2009 12:00 AM
'LA la la la la la la la," sing the characters in the opening moments of "Ernest In Love," and your heart sinks: Is this doggerel what we're going to hear instead of Oscar Wilde's endlessly witty dialogue?...
December 28, 2009 12:00 AM
Anyone who's ever tried in vain to describe the plot of a long-ago-read book or play (and that's pretty much everyone) will relate to the Nature Theater of Oklahoma's "Romeo and Juliet." Featuring actual impromptu...
December 24, 2009 12:00 AM
You wouldn't expect the legendary creator of such subver sive films as "Pink Flamingos" and "Female Trouble" to be a fan of Christmas, but John Waters defies expectations. "I really do love Christmas, without irony...
December 21, 2009 12:00 AM
As anyone who's seen George Bernard Shaw's plays knows, they're filled with talk, talk and more talk. The amount of fun depends on how well this torrent of dialogue is handled. Happily, in the Pearl Theatre's...
December 17, 2009 12:00 AMThe Flea Theater com missioned six promising off-Broadway playwrights to write about the most pressing issue of our times. The result is "The Great Recession." And considering the talent involved -- Adam Rapp ("Red...
December 16, 2009 12:00 AM
Dylan Thomas was obsessed with death -- it was, after all, the subject of many of his most renowned works. So it's only fitting he return from the great beyond in the form of Welsh actor Geraint Wyn Davies, who...
December 15, 2009 12:00 AMThe opening moments of Roger Guenveur Smith's new solo show have all the subtlety of a baseball bat to the face: A dizzying video montage depicts the violence and turmoil of the '60s, culminating with the actor crying...
December 15, 2009 12:00 AM
In what I hope may kick off a new trend, each theatergoer is handed some cash before taking a seat for Mike Daisey’s new solo show. Ranging in denomination from $1 to $100, these bills come with a catch — as does “The...
December 08, 2009 12:40 AM
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has exerted a siren pull on artists through out the ages, so it's no surprise that Rinde Eckert, an avant-garde theater director/playwright/performer, would have a go at it. His new...
December 08, 2009 12:00 AMTelevisions loss is our gain. Since his Emmy-winning turn on "Frasier," David Hyde Pierce has brought his priceless comic presence to the theater ("Monty Python's Spamalot," "Curtains"), winning a Tony along the way....
December 04, 2009 12:00 AM
The rumors of Zero Mostel's death have apparently been greatly exaggerated. At least, that's what you'll conclude after seeing "Zero Hour," the new one-person show about the bigger-than-life legend, who left us in...
December 02, 2009 12:00 AM
It's all too easy to walk past panhan dlers or street musicians without giving them a second thought -- but after seeing "Post No Bills," you're likely to reconsider. Mando Alvarado's play with music is far from...
December 01, 2009 12:00 AM
When writing an autobiographical one-person show, it helps to have colorful background material. Yisrael Campbell has it in spades. Born Christopher Campbell in Philadelphia to Irish and Italian parents and raised...
November 30, 2009 12:00 AM
Robin Williams has endured a string of trials lately: divorce, a stint in rehab for alcohol addiction -- even open-heart surgery. But neither time nor tribulations have dimmed the 58-year-old comedian's manic comic...
November 25, 2009 12:00 AM
It's sluggishly paced, overflowing with sub plots and nearly three hours long. So why is "The Starry Messenger" so moving? Maybe it's because there's so much empathy for its characters that all of them, even the unseen...
November 24, 2009 12:00 AMBritish playwright Matt Wilkinson seems fixated on the metaphorical aspects of the sun. His last work here was titled "Sun Is Shining." In "Red Sea Fish," the first entry in this season's "Brits Off Broadway" series...
November 10, 2009 12:00 AMTHOUGH she performs seated, script in hand, so transfixing an actress is Lynn Redgrave that we barely notice. Even so, "Nightingale," the one-woman show that opened this week at Manhattan Theatre Club -- the fourth...
November 09, 2009 12:00 AM
'This is normal?" asks the title character of Rich ard Foreman's new play "Idiot Savant," before immediately answering himself, "Oh, this is so normal." Well, no. "Normal" is the last word one associates with...
November 05, 2009 12:00 AM
Even Alfred Kinsey might have been shocked by "Made in Heaven." This new comedy about conjoined twins linked by a part of the male anatomy adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "brotherly love." The results are...
November 03, 2009 12:00 AM
There aren't many sing ers around who can handle Bob Dylan and Cole Porter with equal authority -- which makes Paula West's annual fall sojourn at the Oak Room a must-see. West, who somehow languishes in relative...
November 03, 2009 12:00 AM
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