The Best of Times - A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens, a man who was obviously paid by the word, may have inspired the development of Cliff Notes, but he knew how to spin a plot. A Tale of Two Cities, a Broadway musical that will open this Thursday night, captures the heart of the story and the audience with an exceptionally strong performance by James Barbour as Sydney Carton, drunken lawyer turned romantic hero. Barbour's terrific voice is no surprise, but that's only the beginning. He makes the character's unlikely moral u-turn credible and handles a handful of critical comedic lines with perfect timing and tone - self-loathingly straight, with a dash of boozy irony.