Copperfield! The New Musical (Act Two Theatricals)

By Harry Forbes

I must confess I approached this  latest version of Charles Dickens’s beloved David Copperfield with only modest expectations. But Jeffrey Scharf’s Copperfield! The New Musical, directed and choreographed by Gabriel Barre, proved a most agreeable surprise: a genuinely fine adaptation that distills the sprawling novel into its essentials while remaining remarkably faithful to its source. Unlike, say, last season’s The Count of Monte Cristo at the York Theatre, this is a musicalization that understands the importance of honoring the original material even while reshaping it for the stage.

Scharf, who supplies the book, music, and lyrics, has found a particularly effective thematic thread in David’s lifelong search for a place he can truly call home. The familiar Dickensian procession of hardship, cruelty, friendship, betrayal, and eventual fulfillment is thus given a satisfying narrative coherence, culminating in a most touching conclusion.

The score is eclectic and tuneful, with some particularly jaunty rhythms in the scenes involving Peggotty’s seafaring family. There are inevitable echoes of other musicals drawn from classic literature, but Scharf has a distinctive voice of his own, and the musical palette (superior orchestrations by Sonny Paladino) is consistently appealing. His achievement in condensing Dickens’s hefty narrative while providing such an enjoyable succession of songs deserves considerable credit.

A particularly inspired feature of this production is its company of actor-musicians, who double impressively as instrumentalists, bringing to mind the approach associated with director John Doyle. Here, however, the technique is handled with such naturalness that it never feels like a gimmick. During the narrative passages, the principal players generally put aside their instruments, taking them up again when they’re on the sidelines..

Bobby Conte is excellent as the adult David, with Henry Witcher playing the younger David at the performance I attended. Happily, the two Davids share the stage throughout both acts. Young David is integrated into the action as his older self’s ever-present alter ego and vice versa in the first act. 

The entire company is impressively cast, with no weak links. Kara Mikula is a standout as the formidable Aunt Betsey Trotwood, finding just the right balance of eccentricity and underlying warmth. The familiar Dickens gallery is satisfyingly represented, across the board. 

The entire cast, except for the Davids, play two or more roles. Cathryn Wake, for instance, first appears as David’s loving mother, Clara, in the early scenes and the sweetly vapid Dora in the later ones. The tyrannical Murdstone, David’s abusive stepfather, shows up as unctuous Uriah Heep, both in the person of Will Reynolds.

The rest of the remarkable cast includes Amelia Cormack (Peggotty and Mrs. Micawber), Jed Feder (Ham), the show's musical director Nancy O’Connor (Em’ly), Aaron Michael Ray (Mr. Dick and Tungay), Alexander Sovronsky (Mr. Peggotty, Mr. Creakle, Mr. Quinion, and Mr. Wickfield), Andy Taylor (Mr. Micawber), and Tatiana Wechsler (Agnes Wickfield and Miss Jane Murdstone).

Owen Squire Smith is a standout as the charismatic but ultimately unreliable Steerforth, and he makes a particular impression in Barre’s lively choreography. Barre directs with canny dramatic sense, keeping the episodic story moving while giving the scenes that lend themselves to dance an engaging physicality. The result is a production that feels brisk and theatrical despite the considerable amount of narrative ground it must cover.

The production’s visual elements are equally well judged. Edward Pierce’s multilevel set provides sufficient variety to accommodate the novel’s many locales without cumbersome scene changes, while Jen Caprio’s costumes are richly conceived, helping distinguish the large gallery of characters. Jeff Croiter’s lighting and Shannon Slaton’s sound design are first-rate.

Scharf’s adaptation captures the essential spirit of Dickens, balancing the story’s darker episodes with its generous helping of humor, eccentricity, and hard-won humanity. The audience’s warm reception was entirely understandable. “Copperfield!” is an engaging, affectionately realized tribute to a literary classic, and a welcome reminder that a well-told story, accompanied by appealing music and brought to life by a talented ensemble, can still work theatrical magic.

(The Duke on 42nd Street; 229 W. 42nd Street; CopperfieldTheMusical.com; through Dec. 6) 

Photo by Jeremy Daniel: Amelia Cormack, Jed Feder, Bobby Conte and (top) Alexander Sovronsky

Anon (MCC Theater)

By Harry Forbes

Anne Washburn, whose “Mr. Burns, a post-electric play” imagined the afterlife of civilization, turns in Anon, to a menace already very much among us: the dark underside of social media, where the craving for online attention can blur the line between fantasy and reality, with increasingly disturbing consequences.

The dramedy heats up with a seemingly innocuous provocation: a gay pride flag is unfurled across the street from Jeanie (Crystal Finn), a Texas suburbanite whose single-minded devotion to posting on TikTok initially seems merely an eccentric, if irritating, habit. But as the action unfolds, her online activity takes on a distinctly darker cast, with consequences that reach beyond her own household and into the lives of her new neighbors.

Jeanie’s teenage daughter, Delia (Izabel Mar), is understandably mortified by her mother’s propensity to post personal information about her, potentially causing embarrassment at school. Jeanie’s husband, Michael (Andrew Garman), has also tried to reason with her, but to little avail. As “Anon” progresses, it explores how easily the pursuit of online attention can distort judgment and feed increasingly extreme attitudes. Jeanie becomes a rabid conspiracy theorist embracing all the Qanon rhetoric.

Meanwhile, the other household at the center of the action comprises Adam (Jeff Biehl), an easygoing presence, and his partner, Will (Jeremy Shamos), whose seemingly more conservative outlook grows increasingly militant and paranoid as he becomes caught up in the TikTok mentality himself when they learn Jeanie’s been posting about them.

The performances are uniformly excellent. Finn is a particular gem as Jeanie, initially comic in her zeal, but with a darker undertow that steadily becomes more pronounced. Biehl brings an appealing natural ease to Adam, while Garman makes a sympathetic, long-suffering Michael. Mar is affecting as Delia. And Shamos compellingly traces Will’s transformation from apparent restraint to something far more aggressive.

A growing atmosphere of foreboding is reinforced by Delia’s school assignment: to compose a monologue for a Shakespearean character who has no such speech. Her choice of Goneril, one of the treacherous daughters in King Lear, adds resonance to the play’s stormy climax.

Director Anne Kauffman keeps the narrative gripping throughout, making effective use of an otherwise largely gray set that serves as the respective homes of the two families. Projected text messages are a frequent feature, and there’s articularly inventive fantasy video sequence that opens the second act, laying bare the increasingly rabid tenor of Jeanie’s online postings.

Washburn’s cautionary tale is all the more unsettling for suggesting that the consequences of online extremism are anything but confined to the virtual world.

Anon is never less than absorbing, and increasingly suspenseful as it progresses.

(MCC Theater’s Newman Mills Theater (511 W 52nd Street, New York, NY 10019; mcctheater.org; through Nov. 1)

Photo by Monique Carboni: (l.-r.) Andrew Garman, Izabel Mar, and Crystal Finn

School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play

By Harry Forbes

I didn’t catch Jocelyn Bioh’s marvelous play School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play when it premiered at MCC in 2017, but Manhattan Theatre Club’s new production is a gem. Directed with confident flair by Whitney White, who previously collaborated with Bioh on MTC’s acclaimed Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, this Broadway premiere delivers a deliciously funny, ultimately touching portrait of adolescent cruelty, the tyranny of beauty standards, and the painful business of discovering who you are.

Set in 1986 at Aburi (pronounced Ehh-Bree) Girls Boarding School in central Ghana, the play revolves around Paulina, the self-appointed queen bee of the school, whose ambitions extend well beyond the classroom. When a recruiter arrives seeking candidates for the Miss Ghana pageant, Paulina assumes she, among all the girls, will be chosen. But the arrival of Ericka, a transfer student from America, upends these assumptions and turns the competition into something considerably more personal.

The cast is a beautifully integrated ensemble, with Denée Benton particularly striking as Paulina. Those accustomed to seeing Benton as the appealingly earnest budding journalist on HBO’s The Gilded Age will encounter quite another creature here: a ruthless schemer who amply earns the title of mean girl. Jasmine Amy Rogers, gearing up for her starring role in Lincoln Center Theater’s The Sound of Music, makes a worthy foil as Ericka.

Erin Morton is an audience favorite as Nana, the plus-size schoolgirl who bears the brunt of Paulina’s relentless bullying. Her resilience and vulnerability give the comedy some of its most affecting moments. Heather Alicia Simms lends compassionate authority to Headmistress Francis, while Patina Miller, as recruiter Eloise Amponsah, the former Miss Ghana of 1966, gets a recurring laugh from her character’s proud insistence on that long-ago triumph. It’s a running gag that never wears out its welcome. Lucia Aremu, Nia Otchere-Sarfo, and Jordan Rice round out the talented company.

White’s sharp direction mines Bioh’s play for all its considerable humor without losing sight of the pain beneath the barbs. What begins as a wickedly entertaining comedy of schoolgirl rivalries gradually opens into something more profoundt, touching on questions of identity, self-worth, and colorism. 

The production is handsomely realized. Teresa L. Williams’s atmospheric scenic design establishes the school’s distinctive world, while Qween Jean’s costumes are a particular delight, perfectly capturing the characters’ personalities and aspirations. Stacey Derosier’s lighting and Cody Spencer’s sound contribute to an accomplished technical ensemble.

At 75 minutes, without intermission, School Girls is a compact, expertly calibrated entertainment, one that leaves a more resonant impression than its initial premise might suggest. MTC’s production does full justice to a play that is as perceptiveand profound as it is funny.

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street; manhattantheatreclub.com; through November 15)

Photo by Matthew Murphy: (l.-r.) Denée Benton and Jasmine Amy Rogers

Birthright (MCC Theater)

By Harry Forbes

Six young adults who met on a Birthright heritage trip to Israel in 2006 reunite at the Annandale, Virginia, home of one of them, Chaya, and then again in 2014 and, finally, in 2024 in Jonathan Spector’s provocative, moving, and often funny play Birthright. Over the years, their individual outlooks on life change, as do their perspectives on Israel and its relationship to the Palestinian situation.

As the play’s publicity material puts it, its themes are “the combustible dynamics of modern friendship and chosen family: the longing to understand each other, the fear of saying the wrong thing, and the pain of realizing that love does not always guarantee agreement.”

As with Spector’s last play, the Tony Award-winning Eureka Day, which centered on the fractious interactions among members of a school board, Birthright leavens its serious issues with plenty of humor and humanity. And, as with that play, the production benefits from a wonderful ensemble cast that handles the frequently overlapping, naturalistic dialogue with aplomb. The play was commissioned and developed by Miami New Drama and received its world premiere there in April 2025.

The cast includes Zoë Winters as the aforementioned Chaya, who hopes to preserve the Jewish camaraderie forged during their trip; Molly Bernard as the passionate activist Izzy; Molly Ranson as the romantically inclined Alona, who, of the group, most wants to move to Israel; and Liz Larsen as Chaya’s mother, Deborah, who supplies some comic relief before later bringing a touch of pathos.

The male contingent comprises Hale Appleman as Lev, the most spiritual member of the group; Nate Mann as the relatively placid aspiring musician Emerson; and Eli Gelb as Noah, a somewhat detached observer whose writing will eventually bring him success on the web.

Spector’s characters are beautifully drawn and are not merely mouthpieces for their particular points of view, especially when it comes to Israel. The lion’s share of those conflicts occurs between Izzy, who sympathizes with Palestinian concerns, and Chaya, who strenuously argues for the justification of Israel’s actions. But even in their disagreements, the issues of friendship and identity remain paramount.

Over the course of the three acts, points of view shift, with several characters undergoing major transformations. The cast is superb at bringing these characters to life over the lengthy three-hour-and-20-minute running time. In terms of both length and characterization, I was reminded of Stereophonic, especially since one of that play’s leads, Eli Gelb, has a major, though quite different, role here.

If you have any qualms about the play’s length, rest assured that the action never drags. And with two intermissions, it hardly feels like an endurance test.

Director Teddy Bergman orchestrates the shifting dynamics with great skill and draws the best from his cast. Scott Pask’s scenic design, illuminated by Natasha Katz, creates a believable environment in the Annandale home and its adjoining terrace, complete with hot tub.

David Bengali’s witty projection design showcases Spector’s frequent use of social-media messages, which were such an amusing and telling element of Eureka Day.

(MCC Theater, 511 W 52nd Street; mcctheater.org; through August 23)

Photo by Emilio Madrid: Zoe Winters, Eli Gelb, Molly Ranson, Nate Mann, Hale-Appleman

The Whoopi Monologues (Lincoln Center Theater)

By Harry Forbes

More than 40 years after Whoopi Goldberg first unveiled her remarkable gallery of characters, The Whoopi Monologues proves that both the writing and its compassionate insights remain as fresh, funny, and affecting as ever.

This time, however, there's no Whoopi. Instead, a cast of five talented actresses each performs one of the five character monologues that Goldberg originally played herself. The fifth monologue, drawn from the 2004 Broadway revival, replaces an earlier piece about a disabled caregiver in an assisted living facility who finds love.

While we miss the pleasure of watching Goldberg's virtuosic transformations from one character to the next, we gain the comparable satisfaction of seeing five vibrantly gifted actresses bring their own distinctive interpretations to these women. The production also allows us to appreciate anew the sturdy literary craftsmanship of Goldberg's writing.

In order of appearance, Kara Young is Fontaine, a junkie thief who, improbably, also holds a Ph.D. A trip to Amsterdam culminates in a profound epiphany at the Anne Frank House. Dominique Fishback is delightful as a young Black girl who longs to resemble the blonde, blue-eyed people she sees on television. Kerry Washington—who also serves as one of the production's producers—plays an archetypal Valley Girl whose cheerful vapidity ultimately leads her poignantly astray. Danielle Pinnock is a hoot as a Jamaican woman who catches the eye of a randy old man she nicknames the "Old Raisin" because of his wrinkles, then accompanies him back to the United States to become his housekeeper—and more. Finally, Kecia Lewis portrays a woman who endures a lifetime of uncomfortable feminine hygiene products before eventually confronting menopause.

Each of these characters is splendidly brought to life. Based on the 1985 HBO recording of Goldberg's original performance, this production appears to remain textually faithful to every word of the script, including the seemingly spontaneous moments of audience interaction.

Studio Bent's scenic design—essentially five dressing rooms from which the actresses make their entrances and exits throughout the evening, while also participating in the brief interstitial moments between monologues—keeps the stage visually engaging, aided by Cha See's evocative lighting. Costume designer Qween Jean (of Cats: The Jellicle Ball) has created outfits that perfectly capture the essence of each character.

Whitney White's direction is consistently pitch-perfect, fashioning a fresh yet deeply reverential approach to material that, as this production demonstrates, has lost none of its power.

(Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzi E. Newhouse, 150 West 65th Street; through August 30)

Photo by Angela Marie Orellana: Kecia Lewis (foreground) and cast.

The Forgotten Victor Herbert (Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live!)

By Harry Forbes

VHRP Artistic Director Alyce Mott has capped an extraordinary run of operettas and musicals by the great Irish-American composer Victor Herbert (1859-1924) with a superb concert of some of Herbert’s best purely orchestral works. 

The event bookended her equally impressive 2014 concert reading of Herbert’s unjustly neglected 1911 grand opera “Natoma.” This one featured a very fine orchestra of 47 players conducted by Steven Byess, for years a mainstay at Ohio Light Opera where he conducted numerous Herbert works. 

On this occasion, he conducted with his customary sensitivity, and under his practiced baton, the orchestra responded with nuance and precision. Nearly all of the works can be heard on myriad CD recordings, but hearing them live, particularly in the warmly resonant acoustics of the St-Jean Baptiste church, the aural experience was especially sublime. 

Several of the works -- hugely popular concert pieces in their day -- incorporated traditional tunes gloriously orchestrated by Herbert, rather in the manner of the Golden Age Hollywood composers. I felt tears welling up at the first gorgeous strains of the “Swanee River” refrain of Stephen Foster’s “Old Folks at Home” in the concert’s opener, the 1901 American Fantasia. The 1892 Irish Rhapsody draws on familiar Gallic melodies, and the evening’s concluding Auditorium Festival March from 1901 included the poignant strains of “Auld Lang Syne.”

There was a backstory to the inclusion of that particular tune, as related by Mott who introduced each piece, microphone in hand, from the front pew. Her setup of each piece demonstrated her deep knowledge and affection for the material, especially as she enjoined us to imagine ourselves present at the first performance of these works, and conjure what our reaction would have been.

Of the purely Herbert works such as the 1901 Panamericana, the Act III Prelude to Natoma was a spectacular standout, and a warm reminder of that earlier performance of the full opera. So, too, the 1924 Suite of Serenades -- written for Paul Whiteman’s jazz orchestra and preceding the premiere of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on the same bill -- demonstrated Herbert’s stylistic and ethnic versatility with its richly varied Spanish, Chinese, Cuban and Oriental movements. The once enormously popular “Serenade” from his 1883 Suite for Cello and Orchestra featured outstanding solo work by Daniel Scoggins. 

Also just excerpted was the “Vision of Columbus” section of his 1892 Columbus Suite. 

The 1884 Royal Sec, a sparkling item which would not be out of place at one of those Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s concerts, received a fizzy performance at the opening of the second half of the concert, and I might add, Byess and his forces sounded a not-far match for that distinguished Austrian ensemble. 

The evening was capped with an exotic encore: a Persian Dance from an extended Persian scene in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1921.

(Eglise St-Jean Baptiste, 184 E 76 Street; May 1)

Photos by Charles Chessler

Top - Steven Byess & Orchestra

Below - Steven Byess

Cats: The Jellicle Ball (Broadhurst Theatre)

By Harry Forbes

Watching the current reworking of Cats, I couldn't help recalling my experience at the original Broadway production shortly after it opened. I sat behind an English woman who grew visibly agitated as the evening progressed. During intermission, she sobbed to her companions, "They've ruined it, they've ruined it."

I suspected she had been one of the post-Elaine Paige Grizabellas from the original London production. Whether her distress stemmed from the textual and musical alterations — of which there were several — or simply from a perceived dilution of the show's essential Englishness, I never learned. But I couldn't help wondering, with no small amusement, what she'd make of this hugely revamped revival, now on Broadway following an acclaimed run last year at the Perelman Performing Arts Center.

The show has been thoroughly — and quite brilliantly — reset in the 1980s ballroom culture, where LGBTQ+ performers strutted elaborate costumes on the runway, competing for coveted trophies. Since Cats — based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats — is essentially a series of vaudeville turns held together by the slenderest of storylines, it adapts surprisingly well to the new treatment.

That said, the concept took some warming to on my part, and I suspect it won't be everyone's cup of tea — though my audience was wildly enthusiastic from the first number. I left the theater feeling I had witnessed something genuinely special.

To the production's credit, the score is played more or less intact, in the correct song order, with lyrics unchanged despite their numerous references to things both feline and quintessentially English. As far as I can tell, only two numbers have been cut entirely: the "Pekes and Pollicles" episode in the first act and "Growltiger's Last Stand" in the second. Otherwise, The Jellicle Ball hews scrupulously to Eliot and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The songs don't always fit the literal situations precisely, but they consistently deliver emotional truth.

Lloyd Webber's richly varied score — one of his very best — sounds as good as ever. For all the jokes Cats inspired in its day, it's worth remembering what a boldly audacious concept it was, and what a hot ticket too. The original Trevor Nunn staging, with its iconic Gillian Lynne choreography, made its record-breaking way around the world, and I treasure it still. But this version is entirely its own thing.

Directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, the production pays poignant homage to the ballroom scene in a moving slide-show montage at the top of Act Two. The reimagined choreography, the clever work of Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, crackles with invention. Kai Harada's sound design is, as is too often the case these days, overly amplified — but things settle appropriately for the score's quieter, more reflective moments.

The cast is impressive across the board. André De Shields is a far cry from the richly sonorous bass-baritones of London originator Brian Blessed and Broadway's Ken Page, but he makes Old Deuteronomy entirely his own. "Tempress" Chasity Moore makes Grizabella a genuinely touching outcast and delivers a moving "Memory." Junior LaBeija brings real poignancy to Gus, the aging theater cat. Sydney James Harcourt commands the stage as Rum Tum Tugger, and Robert "Silk" Mason dazzles as Magical Mister Mistoffelees.

The large ensemble alsoincludes Ken Ard (DJ Griddlebone), Kya Azeen (Etcetera), Bryson Battle (Jellylorum), Jonathan Burke (Mungojerrie), Baby Byrne (Victoria), Dava Huesca (Rumpleteazer), Dudney Joseph Jr. (Munkustrap), Leiomy (Demeter), Primo Thee Ballerino (Tumblebrutus), Xavier Reyes (Jennyanydots), Nora Schell (Bustopher Jones), Bebe Nicole Simpson (Demeter), Emma Sofia (Skimbleshanks), Garnet Williams (Bombalurina), and Teddy Wilson Jr. (Sillibub).

Rachel Hauck's evocative set beautifully conjures the ballroom atmosphere, and Qween Jean has a field day with an array of extravagantly dazzling costumes.

(Broadhurst Theatre, 235 West 44th Street; catsthejellicleball.com)

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade: Nora Schell as ‘Bustopher Jones’