Stage

Sting Stung on Broadway: Rock star Sting finally faced the New York critics Sunday night, making his much-ballyhooed Broadway debut in a new production of the classic musical theater piece, “3 Penny Opera.” Many reviewers seconded what Washington critics had pronounced during the show’s shakedown run there: a heavy-handed production of the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill work with few surprises or insights. The play “may have Sting, but it has no sting,” wrote Howard Kissel in Monday’s Daily News. Frank Rich of the New York Times found that “Sting is a stiff onstage.” The Associated Press’ Michael Kuchwara said that while Sting “looks the part . . . (and) his acting has a rudimentary charm . . . (he) is the weakest performer in the musical.” However, Clive Barnes in the New York Post praised the show as “Quite effortlessly--the best musical in town. Sting has a natural presence and makes a debonair bandit-villain.”