It says a lot about Harvey Fierstein's distinctiveness that it's almost impossible to even say the name 'Harvey' without thinking of that endearingly gravelly voice. Whether you know him as Homer Simpson's assistant Karl, Robin Williams's brother in Mrs. Doubtfire, or Hairspray's Edna Turnblad, the Brooklyn-born actor's uninhibited, self-assured persona is thoroughly his own. Now the four-time Tony winner is back on Broadway with A Catered Affair, the musical adaptation of the 1956 film......

The 2008 Tony Award nominees were just announced, and looking over the list we’ve got to admit that it was a pretty good year for Broadway, at least in terms of quality. The phenomenal rock musical Passing Strange picked up seven nominations, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Lead Actor (Stew, pictured). Also competing in the Best Musical category are the tepidly received Cry-Baby, the harmless Xanadu, and the underdog Latino musical In......

Photo courtesy Carol Rosegg. Elmer Rice's 1923 play The Adding Machine is an expressionist parable about a miserable bean counter named Mr. Zero who, after twenty five years at the same desk, is replaced by the titular technological marvel. For Rice, the roar of the twenties was the sound of capitalism crushing workers' souls; his play would go onto inspire Tennessee Williams and presage Death of a Salesman. Now a musical adaptation of Rice's play,......

If more NYU kids were like John Waters, the university’s downtown super-saturation would at least be a bit more colorful. In a recent interview with Details, Waters took a nostalgia trip back to his NYU days, when he, uh, did a lot of tripping: Back then you weren’t very interested in school. Who lasted at NYU longer, you or Woody Allen? I bet Woody went longer, because I think I was there from September to......

If you haven’t yet seen the phenomenal new Broadway show Passing Strange, you’re really missing out. There are plenty reasons why you don’t dare pass on this electrifying, decidedly un-Broadway triumph, but it’s Stew, the single-named writer, co-composer and onstage narrator of Passing Strange, who’s best equipped to sell you on it: “You wanna know the most terrifying combination of words in the English language to me? Rock Musical. Because the music featured in such......

Photo: Carol Rosegg I hate going to Broadway shows: fighting through the mobs in Times Square, being herded into the theater like livestock, cramming into a tiny seat while feedback from hearing aids and hacking coughs reverberate on all sides. Admittedly, I’m a world-class grouch when it comes to these things, so it’s no faint praise that I’d eagerly subject myself to it again for Passing Strange, the multidisciplinary rock musical that just blazed onto......

Photo: Joan Marcus It’s fitting that the elegant revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Sunday in the Park with George – currently at Studio 54 following an acclaimed London run – brings the latest advances in animation and digital projection to the stage. After all, the show takes as inspiration Georges Seurat and his 19th century masterpiece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which was itself informed by cutting-edge......

RENT, the surprise smash hit musical that premiered in 1996 and went on to become the seventh-longest-running Broadway show in history, will close June 1st, producers have announced. Over the years the show cultivated a fanatical army of young repeat viewers (“Rentheads”) whose ardor has translated into profits of $280 million on Broadway, four Tony awards and a Pulitzer. Productions have been mounted on six continents, while an ill-conceived movie version of the show, filmed......

Thanksgiving officially marks the start of the holiday movie season, and this weekend, one film seems poised to make a run for the box office crown. Enchanted, the Disney film that mixes animation and live-action to spoof its classic fairy tales, received some pretty stellar reviews. It's 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and most reviews are calling this the star-making performance of Amy Adams, who was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for Junebug......