Ashley Brown

Elf the Musical

November 21, 2024

While incorporating the film's most memorable lines and story beats into their book, Bob Martin and the late Thomas Meehan also excised what they could to make room for composer Matthew Sklar and lyricist Chad Beguelin's brassy score, though it's not enough to prevent "Elf the Musical" from being about an hour longer than its cinematic version. Still, fret not accompanying adults, Sklar and Beguelin humorously reward persisting through the added length, with the laugh-inducing cleverness reaching its creative heights in the numbers that respectively kick off Acts I and II: "Happy All The Time," performed by a ridiculously high-spirited elven chorus line, and "Nobody Cares About Santa," a hilarious cry for appreciation from a despairing group of professional St. Nicks. Choreographer Liam Steel delightfully enhances the silliness, especially for the former number in which he cuts his impressively adaptable dancers down to an appropriate size. [more]

The New York Pops’ 35th Birthday Gala, “Part of His World: The Songs of Alan Menken”

May 2, 2018

Angela Lansbury’s electrifying surprise appearance was the grandest of the many highlights of the New York Pops’ sensational 35th Birthday Gala, "Part of His World: The Songs of Alan Menken." The 92-year-old Ms. Lansbury performed a ravishing rendition of “Beauty and the Beast” in all its tender glory. [more]

The Golden Apple

May 13, 2017

Handsome musical theater leading man Ryan Silverman is a commanding Ulysses with his operatic singing. Jeff Blumenkrantz is marvelously humorous and pitiful as Menelaus, Helen’s jilted husband. N’Kenge is fierce and bewitching as Mother Hare, a soothsayer-like figure. Ashley Brown is wonderfully comic as the mayor’s wife. Though silent as Paris, the youthful Barton Cowperthwaite’s superior ballet skills make a great impression. [more]

Mary Poppins

September 28, 2006

The musical has inspired many to learn how to sing. The magic comes from Bob Crowley's breathtaking sets and costumes aided by David Benken's technical direction: Mary Poppins flies in and out on her umbrella, people pop out of chimneys, toys become human, birds fly around the theater, and statues break their poses and move. The opening scrim is a blue pen and ink illustration which suggests the world of the P.L. Travers' stories on the printed page. The Banks' house at 17 Cherry Tree Lane, London, is a giant Victorian doll house come to life. Crowley uses brilliant colors in both his costumes and the fantasy sequences to replace the animation that made the Walt Disney film so attractive. [more]