MICHAEL KUCHWARA

AP Drama Critic
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'Ragtime' revival puts renewed emphasis on people

The initial swirling syncopation of sound is impossible to resist.

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Redgrave recreates the grandmother she barely knew

Family ties are powerful, and when the folks are as famous and as accomplished as the Redgrave clan, these bindings must be industrial strength indeed.

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Broadway finds its 'Spider-Man' in Reeve Carney

Broadway has found its Spider-Man — rock singer Reeve Carney.

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Broadway faces a busy, if uneasy fall season

The abrupt closing Sunday of Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" after only nine performances has cast a brief, uneasy shadow over Broadway's fall season, ironically one of the busiest in years.

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Abigail Breslin set to play Helen Keller on B'way

From spunky "Little Miss Sunshine" to an even more heroic young girl.

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Relationships strive to survive in 'Ordinary Days'

Single folks in New York are often the stuff of American musical theater.

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A bruising 'Oleanna' tackles political correctness

Get ready to be infuriated again. Or, at the very least, intrigued.

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Carrie Fisher journeys through showbiz celebrity

Confession may be good for the soul, but does it make for good theater?

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Jackman, Craig get melodramatic on Broadway

Superheroes can do just about anything on screen, courtesy of the special effects department.

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Video captures Jackman chiding cell phone offender

Hugh Jackman knows how to stop the show. He did it recently when a cell phone call interrupted a preview performance of "A Steady Rain," the Broadway play that stars Jackman and Daniel Craig. The moment captured on an amateur video shown by the TMZ.com Web site appears to have been recorded by someone in the audience.

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Lengthy, high-concept 'Othello' falters off-B'way

Funny thing about director Peter Sellars' lengthy version of "Othello," now on view at New York University's Skirball Center.

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Bea Arthur remembered with love and laughter

They remembered with love — and a lot of laughter — the star of television's "Maude" and "The Golden Girls," a woman who also appeared in such hit musicals as "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Mame."

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Geraint Wyn Davies sparks 'Dream' and 'Caesar'

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has been the home to such starry actors as Christopher Plummer, Brian Bedford and, more recently, Colm Feore — each a superb performer able to negotiate major classical roles with astonishing dexterity.

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Financial difficulties snare B'way 'Spider-Man'

Has "Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark" been caught in a web of financial difficulties?

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'Burn the Floor' brings ballroom dancing to B'way

There's nothing like a little help from a popular television talent contest to put some oomph into a Broadway show's potential box office appeal.

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A mild 'Vanities' celebrates female friendship

There doesn't seem to be any compelling reason to turn "Vanities," Jack Heifner's sturdy little comedy of female friendship, into a musical.

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`Tin Pan Alley Rag' doesn't hit the right notes

The sweet syncopations of Scott Joplin and the marvelous melodies of Irving Berlin can't bring to life "The Tin Pan Alley Rag," a soggy, inert examination of what made these musical masters tick.

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Past and present swirls through 'Les Ephemeres'

Imagine rooting through a shoe box of faded photographs of folks you know or thought you knew. Memories tumble out in an almost dreamlike haze — sad, funny and more than a little wistful.

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Stratford musicals become a mini-Sondheim festival

A funny thing happened on the way to the two musicals on view at the 2009 Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

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A Ben Jonson rarity sparks Stratford Festival

They may call it the Stratford Shakespeare Festival but it is one of the Bard's contemporaries — Ben Jonson — who gets the most unexpected and satisfying showcase during the first half of the renown repertory theater's 2009 season.

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Editors scramble to get covers on Michael Jackson

After Michael Jackson's death last week, editors scrambled to turn the King of Pop into the king of magazine covers.

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