Earlier this December, I took the number 1 subway up to 125th Street to catch a daytime performance by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Apollo Theater http://www.apollotheater.org/ for schoolchildren. The program, “What is American Music? NYC: The Great Migration and Ellis Island,” focused on twentieth-century migration to the United states, through the music [...]

If you’ve been hibernating in a cave, here’s some good news: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is celebrating its 50th anniversary. (Don’t ask about the bad news. Just go back in the cave, fast.) You can only tip your hat to the juggernaut they’ve become, what with street namings, Barbie dolls, guesting on Dancing with [...]

I have a suggestion for the producers of Shrek the Musical: Give Sutton Foster four—or six—more songs and rename the show Fiona the Musical. It’s clear who the real star is here, so why not give her more room to roam? Not to detract from Brian d’Arcy James, who as Shrek does the best he [...]

Opera companies hit hard by economic times include the Baltimore Opera, which has just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and New York City Opera, which has been publicly struggling as well. Things are much better at the Metropolitan Opera, but the board of directors there—faced with declining ticket sales in its upper price categories, [...]

It’s been pretty warm so far this fall, thankfully. But Inbal Pinto Dance Company’s  Shaker, at the Joyce, might put you in the mood for a cold snap with a winter wonderland of a set, based on the concept of a snowglobe. A thick layer of fake snow blankets the stage, and a horizontal baffle [...]

Attention spans are definitely getting shorter. The whole internet thing, Google, texting, Twitter – how much shorter can the essence of a thought get than 140 characters or an emoticon? And now brevity has ferociously seized the performing arts with 60×60 Dance. This free event, at the World Financial Center’s Arts>World on November 14 at [...]

The revival of Arthur Miller’s 1947 play All My Sons, currently on Broadway, has been dividing critics. Some praised director Simon McBurney‘s approach, which eschews the strict naturalism so beloved on the Great White Way in favor of a certain stylization, while others disliked the production for pretty much the same reason (though they tended [...]

In the wake of bragging about how New York’s native ballet scene has been greatly enriched by the regular presence of Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses and Alexei Ratmansky signing with ABT, I’m now going to sing the praises of visiting company San Francisco Ballet. This troupe, which makes too few trips to New York, is at [...]

Jane Comfort’s An American Rendition, which recently closed at the end of September, is the latest work in an oeuvre that continually reaches beyond what most other New York choreographers are producing. Comfort has never shied from topical subject matter, complex collaborations, or pushing her performers past what is normally demanded of them. This new [...]

Fall for Dance is a wildly successful annual festival at New York City Center featuring $10 tickets and an amazing range of dance companies, 28 total. Now in its fifth year, the festival – produced by Ellen Dennis – spanned ten nights, with six different programs. All three programs I saw offered intriguing variety and [...]