Michael Grant News

What did our critic think of TOOTSIE at Robinson Center?

The newly renovated State Theatre New Jersey presents the hilarious Tony Award-winning musical, Tootsie, for four performances on Friday, November 4 at 8pm; Saturday, November 5 at 2pm and 8pm; and Sunday, November 6 at 2pm. Tickets range from $40-$98. 

What did our critic think of TOOTSIE at Rochester Broadway Theatre League? The Rochester Broadway Theatre League begins its 2022-2023 M&T Bank Broadway season with something fun and splashy, a perfect date night musical based on one of the 1980s' most beloved pop culture gems. 'Tootsie', the Robert Horn and David Yazbek musical adaption of the 1982 Dustin Hoffman film of the same name, is a light and springy show about showbiz, which also attempts to grapple with the difficulties of being a woman in a man's world. Rochester is the first stop on Tootsie's national tour.

Multi-platinum, GRAMMY winners Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith are joining forces once again to co-bill their popular Christmas tour this upcoming holiday season, where they will be joined by special guest Michael Tait of the Newsboys. Presented by Balsam Hill, this iconic pair is set to kick off their combined holiday show on Nov. 26, in Memphis and travel to nine markets including a stop in St. Louis at the Fabulous Fox Theatre on Friday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will go on sale Friday, July 29 at 10:00 a.m. CT.

What did our critic think of Tootsie in Costa Mesa? Despite a still problematic central premise, the non-equity national tour of the stage adaptation of TOOTSIE---now playing at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through June 12, 2022---is, for the most part, a funny but flawed musical sprinkled with lots of funny lines, rapid-fire humor, and amusing shenanigans.

Broadway Sacramento is closing out their 2022 Broadway on Tour season with the first national tour of Tootsie.  Based on the 1982 film of the same name, Tootsie features music and lyrics by David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and a Tony Award-winning book by Robert Horn.  Rolling Stone called it “musical comedy heaven” and they’re not wrong.   Easily the funniest show of the season, Tootsie is full of one-liners, sarcastic wit, and self-deprecating humor. 

On Saturday, April 30, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey held its largest fundraising event of the year at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit. Art & Soul, VACNJ's first in-person gala since 2019, raised a record-breaking $296,000 to support the Art Center's powerful arts programming.

Tootsie made its Northern California premiere at San Jose's Center for the Performing Arts and will be there now through April 24. With a Tony-winning book by Robert Horn, and with music and lyrics by the clever David Yazbek (The Band's Visit, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) Tootsie garnered eleven Tony nominations, two wins and much acclaim, as well as pointed critique centered on transmisogyny. There are other problems as well.

Read our critic's review. TOOTSIE  the musical brings an old-fashioned musical to life based on the movie of the same name from 1982.  The show offers up a talented cast, physical comedy, and some updates to the story, but can’t fully disguise a problematic premise under comedy, costumes, and choreography.  TOOTSIE is playing at the San Diego Civic Theatre through Sunday, April 17th,

Get ready to get LIT with music director Gregory Nabours and a HIGH-flying lineup of SMOKING hot talent on Wednesday 4.20.22 at Feinstein's at Vitello's!

Tootsie is a new musical based on the 1982 film starring Dustin Hoffman. The story follows Michael Dorsey ('Is he an actor? Yes, of course, he is. Is he successful? Yes, of course, he's not') and the opening number immediately makes his rotten reputation evident and known.

Broadway is back at Des Moines Performing Arts. While this last fall we were treated got a glimpse into having the Willis Broadway Series this last fall with an engagement of 'The Bands Visit,' the series returned on February 8 with a hilarious production of 'Tootsie.' Like the title of the act 1 finale, you could say the opening of 'Tootsie' makes the return of the Willis Broadway Series 'Unstoppable,' with 6 shows and a concert scheduled between now and the end of August.

A New Musical About Making a New Musical #TootsieATL #BroadwayAtlanta #atthefox

The musical Tootsie, now playing at the National Theater in Washington, DC, has exceptionally good intentions and flashes of show-biz brio but it tries to do too many disparate things at once. Of course, the cultural zeitgeist of the brilliant film is pervasive in the “mind’s eye” but that should ideally be of little concern with a musical that veers into making differing choices appropriate for the stage.

In the oft-repeated words of the character Sandy, sung in a hilarious patter-fest at strategic points in the musical of Tootsie, playing this week only at the Hippodrome, 'I know what's going to happen.' What's going to happen is that you will attend the show and have an uproarious good time.

For the Record’s perennial holiday hit LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE returns to The Wallis for its third year with previews beginning November 27th.  Cast with incredible vocalists, songs from the Love Actually soundtrack are performed along with some original compositions onstage in front of the screened 2003 film. Got the chance to chat up one of For The Record’s mainstay performers Michael Thomas Grant, also known to TV audiences as Leif on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.

My advice for TOOTSIE THE MUSICAL is to distance yourself from the original film, and accept they are taking a dated concept and transposing it awkwardly onto today.  You are going for the exquisite comedy performances that surpass the fact that TOOTSIE has not very much to say about gender that seems substantial.

But when all is said and done, after the big speeches are made and the morals have been imparted, TOOTSIE's 1982 DNA proves inextricable. Its parting lesson is fundamentally that women should be women and men should be men. The show's progressivism is limited to a fairly surface-level, lighthearted second-wave feminism that never rises above a 'very special episode' of any '80s sitcom. (Indeed, Michael's apartment set looks strikingly sitcomish, and all the dialogue there fits the bill.)

Get a first look at the non-equity national tour of Tootsie in all new photos and videos! The cast includes Drew Becker as Michael Dorsey, Ashley Alexandra as Julie Nichols, Payton Reilly as Sandy Lester, Lukas James Miller as Max Von Horn, Jared David Michael Grant as Jeff Slater, Kathy Halenda as Rita Marshall, Steve Brustien as Stan Fields, and Adam du Plessis as Ron Carlisle.

Based on Sydney Pollack's 1982 Academy Award-winning film of the same name, Tootsie follows Michael Dorsey, a skilled actor with a talent for not keeping a job. Desperate and out-of-work, Michael makes a last-ditch effort at making his dreams come true...by disguising himself as actress Dorothy Michaels. In a meteoric rise to Broadway stardom, Dorothy soon has audiences falling at her feet while Michael (disguised as Dorothy) is falling for his co-star, Julie Nichols. It isn't long before Michael realizes that maintaining his greatest acting success is going to be much harder than he expected.