'New York, New York': A Clash of Old and New in Broadway Review
"New York, New York," the latest musical offering from legendary songwriting partners John Kander and Fred Ebb, gets stuck between old-age pageantry and new-age sentiment. The musical, based on the 1977 Scorsese film of the same name, adds some fresh tunes, a new cast of characters, and an original book by David Thompson and Sharon Washington. While director-choreographer Susan Stroman’s staging holds tight to the old-school aesthetic framework of the film, Thompson and Washington’s script hastily stuffs in contemporary ideals about female empowerment and race — both of which lag.
