Garrett Eisler has been writing the theatre blog Playgoer since May, 2005. He has reviewed plays for the Village Voice and Time Out New York, as well as published essays in the New York Theatre Review, Studies in Musical Theatre, and the Journal of American Drama and Theatre and the forthcoming Best Plays of 2006-2007. He has been a director, literary manager for a prominent regional theatre, and is completing a PhD in theatre history at the Graduate Center of the City University of new York.

Blog Entries by Garrett Eisler

The War on Saturnalia

Posted December 19, 2007 | 01:32 PM (EST)


There's a war being waged against our sacred winter holiday, people. Centuries ago, our forebearers at this time of year began exchanging gifts, decorating trees, and welcoming the winter solstice with the return of light and end of darkness. All in the name of our beloved God. Yes, you know...

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Clock Ticking as Broadway Strike Looms

Posted September 21, 2007 | 04:08 PM (EST)


According to Crain's NY Business, a lockout and shutdown of Broadway shows is not getting any less likely for next week, as the September 30 deadline fast approaches.

Both sides are making preparations to weather it out. Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has "accumulated...

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Jonathan Franzen Rips B'way Spring Awakening

Posted September 4, 2007 | 05:52 PM (EST)


Any doubts I ever had about Spring Awakening's chances on Broadway can now be officially laid to rest: it just recouped. But it was no sure thing. In previews it reportedly lost $700,000 of its initial $6 mil investment. What saved it? Apparently, says NY Post's Michael Riedel,...
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Grease's Selective Quoting

Posted August 27, 2007 | 10:23 PM (EST)


2007-08-28-greasead.jpgNY Daily News' Joe Dziemianowicz and other critics feel violated by the Broadway Grease team for performing some new-low alchemy on their scathing reviews for the reality tv spawn. Apparently -- in a print ad that has now been pulled -- the mere words...

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Bergman on Stage

Posted August 2, 2007 | 10:40 AM (EST)


Charles McNulty -- chief theatre critic for the LA Times -- takes on the mission of adding some much needed theatrical sensibility to the Ingmar Bergman eulogies. It's a perfect summation of Bergman's oeuvre as a stage director and interpreter of theatrical classics -- something many of his film...

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