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Blog Entries by David Finkle from 03/2011

First Nighter: Kurt Elling Fools Around With Time at Birdland

| Posted 03.09.2011 | New York
Read More: The Gate (CD), John McLean, Birdland, Ulysses Owens Jr., Laurence Hobgood, Harish Raghavan, Wassily Kandinski, Campari, Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy, Earth Wind & Fire, Ralph Rainger, Jon Hendricks, Leo Robin, NY Around Town, New York News

Whenever I hear Kurt Elling, I'm reminded of firsts, the shock of the suddenly and compellingly new. His approach to a song is all that -- previously unexplored, unfamiliar.

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First Nighter: Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark Turns Off the Past

| Posted 03.15.2011 | Entertainment
Read More: The Lion King, Eiko Ishioka, Via Galactica, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Glen Berger, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Edge, Bono, Kelly, Las Vegas, Avenue Q, George Tsypin, Twyla Tharp, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Foxwoods Theatre, Edward Albee, Julie Taymor, The Times They Are a-Changin', NY Around Town, Entertainment News

Spider-Man exemplifies a larger story -- the transformation of the Great White Way from a collection of buildings dedicated to advancing the art of theater to nothing less than a Broadway theme park.

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First Nighter: City Center Encores! Series Where's Charley? All-Singing, All-Dancing, All-Lovable

| Posted 03.18.2011 | Arts
Read More: Charley's Aunt, John Doyle, Rob Berman, City Center Encores Series, Where's Charley, Arts News

At a time when spectacle is the trend in musicals on Broadway, the appeal of something merely charming may not be strong. There was a time, however, when charm counted, and there was no "merely" about it.

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First Nighter: South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone Cheerfully Commit The Book of Mormon to Broadway

| Posted 03.24.2011 | Entertainment
Read More: The Lion King, Star Wars, Lewis Cleale, Uganda, The King and I, Big Love, The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Jerome Robbins, Josh Gad, Nikki M. James, Michael James Scott, Star Trek, Eugene O'Neill Theatre, Casey Nicholaw, Avenue Q, Hbo, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Comedy Central, Scott Pask, Andrew Rannells, Julie Taymor, Ann Roth, Robert Lopez, South Park, Entertainment News

The production is hardly a surprise attack by the nose-thumbing partners. It could be said they're going after Christianity as a whole with the appearance of a slang-spouting Jesus in a lustrous blond wig.

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First Nighter: Robin Williams Broadway-Bows in Rajiv Joseph's Toothless Play

| Posted 03.31.2011 | Entertainment
Read More: Androcles and the Lion, Derek McLane, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Arian Moayed, Moises Kaufman, Falstaff, Brad Fleischer, Rajiv Joseph, George Bernard Shaw, Glenn Davis, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Pulitzer Prize, Animals Out of Paper, Robin Williams, Hrach Titizian, Richard Rodgers Theatre, Sheila Vand, Entertainment News

Robin Williams has made his Broadway debut at last. This is a very good thing. The very bad thing is that he arrives in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, a decidedly third-rate work

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