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No Singing in the Navy

April 7, 2026

"School Pictures," Milo Cramer’s last New York show, a solo musical, was wildly inventive, hilarious funny, and extremely insightful about the New York education system, based on his own experiences as a tutor. Unfortunately, his new musical show again premiering at Playwrights Horizons seems to be out of his comfort zone though he has been a fan of musicals for years. "No Singing in the Navy" is a three-character revue which purports to be a tribute to Golden Age musicals, but its format is a series of very slight skits, à la 'Saturday Night Live," all with the same three sailors. It does use the premise from "On the Town": three sailors on leave for 24 hours before shipping out to the war, also used in a series of original Hollywood musicals, usually about sailors who become involved in putting on a show in either New York or on the coast. This show claims to have parodies of songs from "The Music Man," 'Peter Pan" and "The Sound of Music" but most theatergoers will not recognize them. A charming idea, but "No Singing in the Navy" is too thin and simplistic to make us think of those golden age musicals that still get revived on stage and reaired in their film versions. [more]

Uncle Vanya, scenes from country life

April 7, 2026

The narrative architecture of "Vanya"—its languors, its longings—is assumed, even beside the point. In its essence, this distilled adaptation unfolds less as a conventional staging than as a kind of theatrical mixtape, an assemblage both deliberate and mischievous, in which the familiar architecture of this oft-performed play is artfully dismantled and recomposed. Scenes arrive out of their expected sequence, as though guided by emotional rather than narrative logic, while character motivations are subjected to a searching reconsideration—some gently refracted, others boldly reconfigured—yielding a work that feels at once recognizably rooted and thrillingly unmoored. What Dmitry Krymov has fashioned instead is a kind of theatrical palimpsest, a dream-logic fantasia in which the gravitational center is unmistakably Yelena, that luminous and unwitting axis of desire (much to the dismay of Vanya). One might, without doing violence to the enterprise, retitle Krymov’s audacious, dreamlike reimagining of Chekhov’s inexhaustible classic evening: "All Roads Lead to Yelena." [more]

The Last Audition

April 7, 2026

There is, in "The Last Audition," something almost defiantly modest—a chamber piece of sorrow that refuses the grandiloquence of tragedy even as it circles one. The play, a solo vehicle of hushed ambitions, written by and starring Paul Shearman, sensitively directed by David St John, unfolds like a fading echo in an empty theater, its emotional register pitched not to catharsis but to the quieter, more unsettling key of recognition. It is, at heart, a drama about diminishment—of memory, of stature, of self—and yet it proceeds with a delicacy that feels, in its way, like a form of grace. [more]

THE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH OF FILM AND TV PRODUCTION FACILITIES IN THE NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY AREA

April 2, 2026

The unprecedented, ongoing expansion of television and film production facilities in the New York-New Jersey area should be a boon for New York's whole entertainment community. New York-based actors, directors, writers, and designers will have more incentives to stay in New York rather than move to L.A. The size and scale of the new sudios being developed will make New York/New Jersey far more competive with L.A. than ever before. [more]

Gotta Dance!

April 1, 2026

It must be mentioned that this excellent cast has an incredible charge put before it, to recreate some of the most legendary dances from Broadway and Hollywood, all of which were performed by some very famous actors and dancers. It is no small feat to channel these original works and make them their own, a task they take on with relish and at which they completely succeed. The cast seems to dance without effort and to sing without being winded. By the time the company performs its last number, “One” from "A Chorus Line," the audience is completely enamored with every performer, and as they each tip their hat the cheers of love are unmistakable. The entire production makes for an excellent primer on the history of dance in both stage and film. It is fantastically executed and is not to be missed. [more]

Jesa

March 31, 2026

The dominant form of American theater since Edward Albee’s "Who’s Afraid of Virigina Woolf?" has been the dysfunctional family drama of which there have been countless such plays. The newest one, Jeena Yi’s debut play "Jesa" presented by Ma Yi Theater Company in residence at The Public Theater, adds a new wrinkle. This time the family is Korean American and the cast is all women, four sisters to be exact who meet to perform their parents’ jesa. Jesa is a Korean ceremony honoring the dead on the anniversary of their passing that includes food, ritual and requesting their blessings. It is this ceremony that brings together the four estranged for the first time in a long time, the first time they are honoring their mother who died a year ago. [more]

Monte Cristo

March 30, 2026

Adam Jacobs in a scene from the York Theatre’s world premiere production of the musical “Monte [more]

The Unknown

March 30, 2026

Hayes proves wholly persuasive, gliding among a gallery of supporting figures (Hayes delineates 11 distinct characters with astonishing lucidity, his transitions so fluid they seem almost instinctive, even as the narrative around them grows increasingly clouded and labyrinthine.) with a lightness that never calls attention to its own virtuosity. As Elliott, he is coolly, almost disquietingly composed, revealing only the briefest fissures beneath a meticulously maintained façade—a man who seems able to exist only in the telling of stories, never quite as himself. [more]

Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)

March 30, 2026

The world premiere of Anna Ziegler’s new play, "Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)" now at The Public Theater, is one of four ambitious attempts to update Sophocles’ tragedy playing in New York this spring. However, Ziegler overburdens her version with three separate stories which vie for our attention: a contemporary woman who read the play in high school and has admired its heroine ever since, Sophocles’ version of the Greek myth, and the one that takes up the most time in this play, a modern Antigone who has a different beef with the state. What Ziegler is really after is a Post-Roe v. Wade story about a woman who goes against the new abortion laws of her country. Unfortunately, Sophocles’ original plot as a sequel to "Oedipus Rex" and "Oedipus at Colonus" doesn’t really work with this contemporary social context. Tyne Rafaeli’s direction suggests that at any moment one of the scenes will catch fire but, unfortunately, they never do. [more]

Antigone in Analysis

March 30, 2026

Yet the production proves curiously reluctant to pursue the implications of its own provocations. The philosophers, rather than evolving into distinct and dynamically opposed sensibilities, settle into the dramatic equivalent of bullet points. Kierkegaard cleaves to divine absolutism; Hegel dismisses women with a glib reductionism; Lacan invokes madness as a universal solvent; Irigaray insists upon feminine multiplicity; Butler reiterates the performativity of gender. These positions are announced, then reiterated, but seldom interrogated or transformed. What might have been a dialectic becomes a recitation. [more]

Bughouse

March 29, 2026

John Kelly in a scene from Martha Clarke and Beth Henley’s “Bughouse” at the Vineyard Theatre [more]

The Paparazzi

March 28, 2026

Ryan Howell’s Art Deco unit set with the outline of the Chrysler Building gives the story a midtown feel but does not make clear when all this is happening. The costumes by Cathy Small are credible casual wear but are rather too bland to define the characters except for high-powered Betty. John Burkland’s lighting creates various moods for the unchanging set. With no references to the internet or social media, "The Paparazzi" seems like it is taking place several decades ago but the program insists that this is all happening now in 2026. [more]

Giant

March 27, 2026

It doesn’t matter that this debate never took place because, aside from an overly contrived moment regarding Jessie’s copy of Dahl's review, it’s plausible enough to believe in, and it makes for a memorably dramatic, politically hot stage confrontation. In the second act, things cool down dramatically as Dahl, perhaps showing self-doubt, begins to question even the serving girl and the old retainer on what to do; perhaps we’re meant to feel a sliver of sympathy for him. [more]

Ivanov

March 26, 2026

New American Ensemble may be young, but this production announces a company of rare precision and ambition. Every element—the mulch underfoot, the bar at your shoulder, the dead tree overhead—feels deliberate, considered, necessary. In a theatrical landscape often defined by haste, such care is not merely admirable. This true theatre company in every sense of the word is most welcome and we look forward to productions in their future. [more]

Blood/Love

March 25, 2026

"Blood/Love," the Vampire Pop Opera, may just have the most energy of any musical in town. Dynamic, obsessive and seductive this rock opera is the kind they don’t seem to write any more. This is also a sound and light show that creates its own dazzling environment and does not let you look away from the stage for a moment. Even the lobby and the theater have been redecorated to look like a nightclub in black and red, along with suitable mixed drinks at the bar. Written and composed by two-time Grammy nominee Dru DeCaro and Carey Renee Sharpe who also plays the leading role of Valerie Bloodlove, this has a powerhouse score that submerges you in its sound and catches you in its web. [more]

Touch

March 24, 2026

In "Touch," a work of disarming modesty and unnerving emotional precision, a life that has been carefully tamped down begins, almost imperceptibly, to leak. The play, written by Kenny Finkle, sensitively directed by Jonathan Silverstein, and performed with aching lucidity by Anthony Rapp, takes as its subject a man whose disappointments have calcified into habit, and whose sense of self—once animated by artistic ambition—has settled into something quieter, if no less fraught. There is, at first glance, something almost perversely austere about Touch:  Rapp, seated for 90 uninterrupted minutes, inhabiting the brittle interiority of a middle-aged gay man whose emotional register oscillates between panic, irritation, and quiet devastation. And yet the experience proves not merely engaging, but quietly transfixing. Its modesty is its method, its intimacy, its force. [more]

The Silent Serenade

March 24, 2026

Mannes Opera’s production of "The Silent Serenade" now seems retro with its lilting score, a combination of Johann Strauss II and Jerome Kern who was working in Hollywood during Korngold’s tenure. This may be why the frivolous plot seems like that of a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie. (Ironically, Korngold’s romantic operas sound Puccini-esque and his orchestral film scores found influenced by Wagner.) While the libretto for the operetta is set in 1820s Naples, its anachronisms like a fashion house with models, tabloid newspapers looking for gossip, and references to Hollywood actresses make the updating to the 1950s (suggested by Teresa Wadden’s beautiful costumes, literally a fashion show in itself) much more believable. Although Korngold was used to huge orchestras both for his operas ("Die Tote Stadt," "Violanta," etc.) and at Warner Brothers, he scored his operetta for ten instruments and Mannes music director Cris Frisco gave it an excellent reading. He may have been hoping that its small scale might make it more attractive to theater impresarios. [more]

The Wild Party (New York City Center Encores!)

March 23, 2026

In the hands of Michael John LaChiusa (music, lyrics and book) and George C. Wolfe (book), the feral, syncopated verse of Joseph Moncure March’s Prohibition-era poem is not so much adapted as reforged—heated, hammered, and hurled forward as a kind of theatrical locomotive. Their "Wild Party" arrives like a runaway train of jazz, gin, and envy, its momentum at once intoxicating and annihilating. It careens down the rails with a velocity that promises, even as it seduces, an inevitable and exquisitely catastrophic derailment. [more]

Every Brilliant Thing

March 22, 2026

In persistently hopeful defiance of its heavy subject matter, the show strives for lightness. That's largely achieved thanks to Radcliffe's affability, which also swiftly inoculates the audience against his celebrity and lessens the chance for the type of slack-jawed fawning that might grind the proceedings to a halt. But Radcliffe isn't permitted to completely shed his fame, because, in lieu of a fully fledged character, "Every Brilliant Thing" desperately needs it as the engaging force to both form and conduct the "choir." That means, to some unknowable extent, Radcliffe must remain Radcliffe. [more]

Burnout Paradise

March 22, 2026

"Burnout Paradise" is the most unique show in New York right now and enormous fun. A sort of athletic performance piece, it is also an interactive circus competition. Four members from the Australian theater collective Pony Cam perform on treadmills in four sets of 12-minute sessions each while performing set tasks and have to beat their own previous record while completing all the tasks. Genial hostess Ava Campbell explains the rules, keeps time, sells merchandise and serves Gatorade to lucky theatergoers. If the performers do not beat their previous record, audience members can request their money back. However, the show is so much fun that you will have had your money’s worth by the end no matter what the final score. In any case, the performers do collectively run about 17 miles before the evening is over. [more]

Chasing Grace

March 20, 2026

"Chasing Grace" is an original musical by writer/composer Elizabeth Addison ("In Between…," "This Is Treatment") that excellently combines compelling drama and biting satire. The narrative follows Grace, a Black woman who checks herself into a recovery program for alcoholism. In the second act, however, the show flips and suddenly becomes a satire about the theater industry and its shallow view of Black existence, especially Black pain. Addison’s script is razor-sharp – emotionally compelling and hilarious in equal measure. [more]

Entangled: 12 Scenes in a Circle K off the I-40 in New Mexico

March 20, 2026

In "Entangled:12 Scenes in a Circle K off the I-40 in New Mexico," the beguiling and philosophically mischievous collaboration between Mona Mansour and Emily Zemba, the American desert becomes less a landscape than a condition of thought—a place where the ordinary laws governing time, consequence, and human attachment appear to have loosened their grip. Set in the fluorescent limbo of a Circle K somewhere in the New Mexico expanse—30 miles from the nearest outpost of civilization, and perilously close to both an atomic testing site and a nuclear laboratory—the play hums with a low-grade metaphysical dread that it wears, with admirable restraint, as comedy. [more]

Trash

March 19, 2026

James Caverly and Andew Morrill’s Trash is a provocative play about two late 20s deaf roommates who have nothing in common except sharing an apartment. However, what is most intriguing about Trash is that it told in multiple ways. As the main characters are both deaf, they use American Sign Language to communicate. As a concession to hearing audiences, some of the dialogue is projected on three walls facing the audience. Still more unusual, there is a jukebox on stage (played by Chris Ogren) which, when fed with dollar bills, translates the ASL into spoken speech. When the lead characters really want us to know what is being said they use this method. However, this is only used partially. Much of the play is told only in ASL but Caverly and Morrill are so adept (and so dramatic) at it that we often feel like we know exactly what they are saying. They also use white boards which they hold up for all to see for simple statements or questions to the audience which sometimes require answers. [more]

The New York Pops: “United in Sound: America at 250”

March 17, 2026

There was something inherently ambitious—perhaps even unwieldy—about The New York Pops’ season finale, “United in Sound: America at 250.” Spanning two and a half centuries of American music in a single evening, the program, curated and conducted by Steven Reineke, attempted nothing less than a musical biography of the nation. That ambition was both the concert’s greatest strength and, at times, its limiting constraint. [more]

Bigfoot! A New Musical

March 17, 2026

The latest show about intolerance and social outcasts is the delightful "Bigfoot! A New Musical," now at New York City Center Stage I. Similar in plot to "Bat Boy: The Musical" but with a happy ending, if the book written by Amber Ruffin and Kevin Sciretta has much in common with sketchy comedy, it is most certainly because its writers come from that genre. The game cast is led by charming and cuddy Grey Henson as the hirsute seven foot title character with the rest of the hard-working cast playing many roles in the course of 90 minutes. [more]

Spare Parts

March 14, 2026

What begins as a satirical clash between corporate swagger and academic idealism gradually deepens into a more unsettling inquiry. The play’s true subject, it turns out, is not merely the arrogance of billionaires but the universal temptation to trespass upon the limits of the body. Humanity, after all, has always been drawn toward transgression—whether through cosmetic surgery, pharmaceutical enhancement, or the relentless drive to improve the species one experiment at a time. [more]

Zack

March 14, 2026

While not the classic that "Hobson’s Choice" has become, Harold Brighouse’s follow-up play "Zack" proves to be a charming Edwardian comedy drama in the Mint Theater Company’s production which may be the first full New York production since 1916. Ironically, Zack has a great many things in common with "Hobson’s Choice" probably best known from the awarding-winning 1954 Sir David Lean film with Charles Laughton, John Mills, Brenda da Banzie and Prunella Scales. Britt Berke’s production glosses over the play’s deficiencies by keeping this middle-class comedy of manners going at quite a clip. While "Zack" shares many elements with "Hobson’s Choice," the two plays are very different, variations on a theme: a strong woman who saves the hero from his weaknesses, siblings who are against seeing the strength of an unambitious person, a parent who is both dominating and dogmatic, and a happy ending for the leading characters. However, both are based on the theme of the “worm turning.” [more]

Dear John

March 13, 2026

Elliott’s staging is often quite clever, making use of the space in interesting ways. The use of actual letters Lin received adds a degree of authenticity to an already very personal piece, but having audience members come on stage to pick up the letters themselves is a strong choice of direction. It keeps the letters feeling fresh every time – and also provides an opportunity for Lin to change costumes. The projections onscreen (handled by designer Ein Kim) and roving spotlights (lighting designer Yang Yu) evokes images of a game show, making each letter-picking section feel like a miniature intermission – something that breaks up the play quite nicely. [more]

Our House

March 10, 2026

Billed as a “comedy in two acts” on its title page, it is not funny nor does it deal with comic material, though the direction tries to emphasize its bitchier moments. Its plot involves homophobia, gay bashing and racism which goes a long way to explain why The Other Side of Silence (TOSOS), the oldest and longest producing LGBTQ+ theater company, would be interested in staging it. However, half of the actors emote shamefully and the other three give too restrained performances to make much impression, both of which damage the credibility of the play. [more]

Body Count

March 10, 2026

If the show’s point of view occasionally feels one-sided, that imbalance ultimately serves its chief purpose: entertainment. 'Body Count' may not function as a comprehensive treatise on contemporary sexual politics, but it is undeniably electric as a performance vehicle. Knowles’ Pollie is charismatic to the point of hypnosis—funny, sharp, wounded, and persuasive enough to feel utterly real. Her barbs may sometimes be a shade too neat, a shade too gleefully cruel, but they land with a sting that lingers. Long after the laughter subsides, one finds oneself turning the lines over again, wondering what uncomfortable truths might be hidden inside the joke. [more]

Chinese Republicans

March 8, 2026

Unlike "Glengarry Glen Ross" which also begins at luncheon meetings in a Chinese restaurant but then took us to the office in its second act, "Chinese Republicans" is mostly set at the monthly luncheons with one flashback to Ellen’s first interview with Phyllis years before and a dream sequence. Each scene reveals new pieces of information but the play seems too schematic finding no other way to reveal what we need to know. The title needs to be taken on faith as very little is made of their all being Republicans (probably to fit in at the office.) Nevertheless, the language of the play is raw, the insults cutting and the humor biting. The play covers many women’s issues found in other fields: sexual harassment, corporate culture, prejudice and racism against Asians, generation gap, social justice, and the treatment of women in the business world. "Chinese Republicans" is a tight expose of how women particularly Asian American women are treated in the work place in the 21st century. [more]

The Mall The Mall The Mall

March 7, 2026

"The Mall The Mall The Mall" is a magical realist comedy about three teenagers traversing a suburban mall in search of stolen fandom merchandise. Along the way, they encounter a coterie of increasingly strange antagonists and have some surprisingly sincere moments of self-discovery. The script, from writer Philip Kenner ("BOYSTUFF," "Stand & Repent"), is quite sharp. The directing from James Wyrwicz ("Is This a Theater Of Love?," "I Love You Jesus Christ!") is wickedly funny, with blocking that brings out the humor of the script while letting the emotional beats still land as they should. Kurt Cruz’ sound design adds quite a lot of comedy as well. [more]

The Reservoir

March 7, 2026

Alcoholism and Alzheimer’s wouldn’t seem to have much in common. However, Jake Brasch cleverly links the two in his comedy drama "The Reservoir," the story of a recovering drunk on leave from college who goes home to discover his grandparents are sinking into old age, which he never noticed before. Rising star Noah Galvin who replaced Ben Platt in "Dear Evan Hansen" and then co-wrote and starred in the film "Theater Camp" has the role of a lifetime as Josh who never leaves the stage throughout the play and who experiences the year after he dropped out of NYU. Surrounded by some of the most well-known and experienced theater pros around (Heidi Armbruster, Peter Maloney, Mary Beth Peil, Matthew Saldívar and Chip Zien) he holds the stage even as his character relapses and regresses at the worse possible moment. [more]

Marcel on the Train

March 1, 2026

Slater’s performance is a revelation of synthesis. Known for his buoyant athleticism in Broadway’s "SpongeBob SquarePants" and his chilling portrayal of the Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald in Classic Stage’s brilliant "Assassins," he here channels that dexterity into something at once lighter yet more harrowing. His Marceau moves with balletic precision: fingers unfurl like petals; wrists trace invisible architecture; the torso leans into unseen walls. Butterflies tremble from his cupped hands, a flower blossoms and droops along the line of his arm. Guided by movement consultant Lorenzo Pisoni, Slater achieves an embodiment so exacting it appears to suspend the laws of bone and gravity. [more]

Hold on to Your Butts

February 28, 2026

Actors Kerry Ipema and Natalie Rich, joined by the live Foley artist Kelly Robinson, proceed to conjure Spielberg’s dinosaur epic. They marshal an arsenal of materials so defiantly homespun it borders on subversive: cardboard cutouts standing in for apex predators, skeletal wooden frames sketching out jeeps and laboratories, pocket flashlights pressed into service as cinematic chiaroscuro, and a scattering of objects manipulated with priestly concentration, shot for shot—all deployed with an almost ascetic economy of means that make the absence of machinery feel not like deprivation but like principle. [more]

Mother Russia

February 26, 2026

In Lauren Yee’s exuberant and stealthily devastating new comedy, "Mother Russia," history arrives not with a bang but with an order of fast food. Two young men, perched at the lip of a new world order, cradle their first-ever Filet-O-Fish sandwich from McDonald's as though it were a sacred relic. They tear into it with the devotional hunger of converts, pausing only to roll their eyes heavenward and lick tartar sauce from their fingers with an abandon that feels both comic and liturgical. Capitalism, Yee suggests, is best introduced as a condiment. [more]

The Waterfall

February 24, 2026

Not only does Phanésia Pharel’s "The Waterfall" have a great deal to say, it is also very revealing of immigrant views on the American Dream. A tour de force for two actresses, Taylor Reynolds’ production takes hold of you and never lets up for a moment. This captivating play says much about mother-daughter relationships as well as Haitian-American values. See it for Patrice Johnson Chevannes and Natalie Paul’s thrilling performances which fill the stage. [more]

The Monsters

February 22, 2026

Written and directed by Ngozi Anyanwu, author of "The Last of the Love Letters" (Atlantic Theater Company) and "Good Grief" (Vineyard Theatre), 'The Monsters" is a tour de force for two actors who have the chops for this very physical outing both emotionally and literally and luckily Aigner Mizzelle and Okieriete Onaodowan have what it takes. Aided by the choreography of Rickey Tripp, the fight direction of Gerry Rodriguez, and the work of MMA consultant Sijara Eubanks, the realistic fights mainly pantomimed with only one participant (except for Lil’s training sessions which include Big) make us believe we are seeing two people fighting. [more]

Hate Radio

February 22, 2026

The premise—a radio broadcast—might seem theatrically inert, yet Rau ingeniously implicates the audience by issuing each spectator a set of headphones. We are not merely watching propaganda; we are tuning in. If we need to gauge our own humanity while we watch the hideous display, all we need to do is look straight ahead - on the other side of where the actors play sits the other half of the St. Ann’s Warehouse audience. The isolation produced by the earphones intensifies the intimacy of the rhetoric. One hears the laughter, the rhythm, the coded exhortations as if they were meant for one’s own ear. The imaginative leap—who would listen to this? who would believe it?—collapses. The seduction of format, the familiarity of tone, do much of the ideological work. [more]

The Dinosaurs

February 21, 2026

Like Beth Wohl’s Liberation, Jacob Perkins’ "The Dinosaurs" follows a group of women who meet weekly to discuss a problem that interests them, in this case alcoholic addiction. Covering many years, the play gives six women with different stories a chance to talk candidly about their lives and travails. Beautifully written, the play, however, feels thin and repetitious and doesn’t seem to get anywhere. Directed by Les Waters, the six actresses led by Off Broadway stalwarts Kathleen Chalfant and Elizabeth Marvel create very different portraits, though at a brief 70 minutes we don’t learn that much about each one. [more]

MANO A MANO

February 20, 2026

To enter the performance space of Paul Pinto’s "MANO A MANO" is to find oneself seated not before a proscenium, but around a giant Arthurian round table, a scenic choice that immediately dismantles the distance between the observer and the observed. One is not merely an audience member; one is a guest at a grim, historical banquet where the main course is the fractured psyche of the British Isles. Pinto, a playwright-composer-performer of singular, manic energy, has crafted a libretto that functions as a rhythmic autopsy of masculinity, tracing a lineage of "headless alpha males" from the Trojan War to the contemporary boxing ring. [more]

The Tragedy of Coriolanus (Theatre for a New Audience)

February 19, 2026

Tata’s staging is also problematic making  almost every scene look like every other. The mob scenes have been reduced to five actors (other than the lead characters) which does not suggest any threat whatever. Afsoon Pajoufar’s unit set is an attempt to create a Roman building and then put scaffolding around it to suggest modern renovations. However, using it for almost every scene which is just under three hours becomes monotonous and uninspired. The acting doesn’t help much with each actor seemingly having chosen one single character trait so that all are one-note in this blank-verse drama. Only Roslyn Ruff as Volumnia, the title character’s mother, shows any variety or range. (Volumnia has always been the best role in the play.) [more]

The New York Pops: ‘If I Ain’t Got You: The Best of R&B”

February 17, 2026

For Jackson, this concert marked her Carnegie Hall debut, and it was a thrilling one. Known to Broadway audiences for her luminous Daisy Buchanan in "The Great Gatsby" and for a career that moves fluidly between musical theater, concert work, film soundtracks, and voiceover, she sang with a sense of arrival rather than introduction—her sound clear, warm, and emotionally legible even at its softest. Wilson returned to The New York Pops after first appearing with the orchestra at its 41st Birthday Gala in 2024, and he sang with the confidence of someone who already understands how to live inside this ensemble. A Grammy-nominated artist with roots in Broadway ("The Wiz"), R&B, and contemporary recording, he brought an easy authority to the stage—rhythmic, grounded, and unforced. [more]

The Other Place

February 16, 2026

Going along with leaving much unsaid, Zeldin in his direction has kept things rather slow and leisurely so that the play’s 80 minutes seems much longer. Also much of the backstory is missing: what does Chris do for a living as we are told he is very rich? As his friend Terry is described as his contractor, does that make him a builder or has Terry only been hired to do the renovation on the house? The house incidentally has been made unrecognizable with walls removed to let in the light - though the view outside is still in darkness until the trees are torn down, including the tree from which Adam hanged himself. How has Annie been living since leaving the hospital? She has refused to take Chris’ money so that is not an explanation. And is his offer of money an expiation for some unnamed guilt? [more]

Remembering Scotty Bennett

February 16, 2026

He never turned down a review request except when he had already accepted the assignment from another publication or if he was a close friend of someone associated with the production. We attended the theater together twice as colleagues ("Ode to the Wasp Woman" at the Actors Temple Theatre on Nov. 6, 2023 and "The United States vs. Ulysses" at the Irish Arts Center on May 1, 2025). At dinner both times, Scotty proved he was not only knowledgeable about the theater and other fields, he had seen and remembered everything. He also was a great raconteur with many stories from his varied life and career to tell. [more]

Just Desserts: A Musical Bake-Off

February 15, 2026

"Just Desserts" is an entertaining satire on competitions, “a musical bake-off.” With witty songs and colorful characters this show with book and lyrics by Barbara Campbell and music by Brad Ross features a high-powered cast led by cabaret and musical theater veteran Klea Blackhurst. While the audience doesn’t get to try any desserts until after the show, the three baking competitions could make your mouth water. This small musical with six actors has been seen around the country and is now offering its wares at Off Broadway’s AMT Theater. [more]

Ai Yah Goy Vey! – Adventures of a Dim Sun in Search of His Wanton Father

February 15, 2026

Chang is an agile performer, and his quick shifts among characters recall the early solo work of urban shapeshifters who built entire neighborhoods out of voice and posture. Yet here the gallery of types is unevenly realized. Too often, figures arrive as the sketch of a stereotype rather than the surprise of a person. When Chang draws on the stylization of Chinese opera—particularly in the rendering of Jackie’s diva-like mother—the show briefly discovers a richer theatrical language, one in which Eastern and Western performance traditions spar and flirt on equal terms. Such moments hint at a more adventurous piece than the one that predominates. [more]

The First Line of Dante’s Inferno

February 14, 2026

The opening gesture of Dante Alighieri’s "Inferno"—that immortal confession of midlife disorientation in which a wanderer finds himself astray from the “straight road” and deposited in a “dark wood”—has rarely felt as theatrically apt as it does in "The First Line of Dante’s Inferno," Kirk Lynn’s sly, searching, and disarmingly funny new experiment in staged storytelling. Lynn, a polymath of the American theater—playwright, novelist, screenwriter, educator, and guiding spirit of the Austin collective Rude Mechs—treats Dante’s premise less as a theological map than as a psychological condition. His forest is not an allegorical afterlife but a contemporary wilderness in which several souls, one quite literally at midlife, appear to have misplaced the coordinates of their former selves. [more]

Hans Litten: The Jew Who Cross-Examined Hitler

February 12, 2026

Despite the admirable commitment to historical accuracy, Lackey’s script is littered with flimsy side characters, muddled messages, and awkward dialogue. The result is a thematically incoherent mess that feels unaware of its own central tragedy. Hans says in Act 1 that he wants to force Hitler onto the witness stand in order to stop the Nazis from coming to power. The play seems unwilling to address that this did not work – that no amount of clever rhetoric would have been enough to stop the tide of Fascism. It would be wildly unfair to blame Hans Litten for failing to stop the Nazis, but it is a grievous omission for a play about him to explicitly frame the story that way and then refuse to grapple with the implications of him failing to do so, both for him as a character and for the ideas he is meant to represent and martyr himself for. Indeed, the play revels in the grace of Hans’ martyrdom. [more]

High Spirits (New York City Center Encores!)

February 11, 2026

The afterlife has always enjoyed a sturdy tenancy on the musical stage, but "High Spirits"—Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray’s tuneful graft onto Noël Coward’s "Blithe Spirit"—has, until now, seemed a ghost itself: spoken of fondly by aficionados, seldom seen, and rarely summoned with conviction. That New York City Center Encores! has revived it, in its first professional New York outing since 1964, makes its long absence feel less like neglect than a curious collective lapse in memory. For this effervescent score and Coward’s indestructible farce reveal themselves, in performance, to be not merely viable but positively tonic. Under Jessica Stone’s direction, "High Spirits" is presented with a spareness that registers as notable even within the intentionally stripped-down aesthetic long associated with Encores! The concert format, here, feels less like a stylistic choice than a visible process: once again scripts remain firmly in hand, and the performers give the impression of artists still negotiating their relationship to the material in real time. At moments we are treated to some hilarious spontaneous reactions, tongue-in-cheek banter when one actor has turned too many pages in his or her binder. [more]

Manon! (Heartbeat Opera)

February 10, 2026

For Heartbeat Opera’s presentation of Massenet’s exquisite "Manon," the co-adaptors Rory Pelsue, who also directs, and Jacob Ashworth, the company’s artistic director, take a scalpel to Massenet’s expansive five-act opéra comique, paring it down to a fleet, intermissionless ninety minutes. In the process, they excise subsidiary characters and the bustling choral tableaux that French opera has traditionally treated as both ornament and social panorama. What remains is not a diminished work but a distilled one: the narrative’s spine emerges with unusual clarity, its emotional stakes thrown into sharper relief by the absence of decorative detours, oh, and it’s performed in English and retitled "Manon!" [more]

An Ideal Husband

February 10, 2026

After a several year hiatus, The Storm Theatre, one of the last classical theater companies left in New York, is back with an elegant and polished production of Oscar Wilde’s rarely seen comedy-drama "An Ideal Husband" staged by artistic director Peter Dobbins. While Wilde’s "The Importance of Being Earnest" is well known to theatergoers, "An Ideal Husband," last since on Broadway in 1985, is not but ought to be better known. This play of political corruption and moral turpitude seems more relevant than ever with the number of government scandals in our news daily. As witty as Wilde’s most famous play, An Ideal Husband also has an involving plot and colorful characters. [more]

Ulysses

February 8, 2026

The company of Elevator Repair Service’s production of “Ulysses” in partnership with 2026 [more]

Anonymous

February 5, 2026

Spit & Vigor Theatre Company has an interesting approach to stagecraft at least with its return engagement of Nick Thomas’ Anonymous, now at their new home at the Tiny Baby Black Box Theatre. The play which takes place at a weekly meeting of an addiction support group has the audience sit in a circle and then embeds the actors in the circle without acknowledging the rest of us. This gives the play an immediacy it might not have had otherwise. The audience feels like they are part of the monthly group even though we are not seen by the actors. On the other hand, Sara Fellini’s direction is so broad that the actors all seem like they are overacting considering that the audience is only feet away. The play would be much more convincing if they all took it down a few notches. Some of the actors seem to be hamming it up – unless it is simply that we are sitting next to them or across from them that their performances seem to be too big for the tiny venue. [more]

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

February 5, 2026

Not quite as old as its title suggests, "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" premiered off and then on Broadway in 2005. The Tony Award-winning musical wears that age well in a revival that director and choreographer Danny Mefford smartly doesn't exploit as an opportunity for stark reinvention. Yes, there are thoughtful updates, including a much-needed revision to one character's backstory and some pointed criticism of disturbing developments at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which launched the revival in October 2024. But, as always, the show's heart remains its six endearingly awkward middle-school spellers, each competing for a trophy that masks a much deeper and more elusive desire for connection. [more]

Blackout Songs

February 3, 2026

Joe White’s "Blackout Songs" direct from London with its original cast is a tour de force for two actors. It is also a challenge for the audience both because its single topic is addiction and as intentionally written by the author we never know what is real and what is imagined. Rising film stars American actor Owen Teague ("Unspeakable: The Murder of JonBenet Ramsey," Stephen King’s "The Stand') and Australian actress Abbey Lee ("Mad Max: Fury Road," "Black Rabbit") both making their New York stage debuts give bravura performances, though Lee’s English accent is often difficult to understand as is the British slang that they often toss off. However, director Rory McGregor’s use of a single set to present a turbulent relationship over ten years and many locales is quite remarkable. [more]

The Porch on Windy Hill: Building a Space That Holds What Isn’t Said

February 3, 2026

I spoke with set designer Andrew Robinson and writer/director Sherry Stregack Lutken about how the porch came into being—not as an object, but as a way of thinking. What follows is a focused exchange about structure, absence, restraint, and memory: how physical choices do emotional work, how collaboration sharpens intention, and how a space can hold what characters—and audiences—aren’t yet ready to carry inside. [more]

King Lear (Compagnia de’ Colombari)

February 2, 2026

By loosening the moorings that usually tether one actor to one role, director and adaptor Karin Coonrod peers, with unusual intimacy, into Lear’s psychic weather. The choice to distribute him among ten bodies does not dilute the character; it refracts him. We are invited to watch a consciousness under siege, a man stripped so thoroughly of title, certainty, and familial illusion that what remains is not a king discovering wisdom so much as a human being stumbling toward self-recognition. Lears circulate through the auditorium, each member of the company outfitted by Oana Botez in a palette of muted greige, topped by gilded paper crowns, courtesy of Tine Kindermann, that rise a good foot and a half into the air, their fragile grandeur at once comic and faintly forlorn—a visual joke that curdles into a metaphor. The multiplicity supplies a chorus of selves: monarch and parent, tyrant and child, sovereign and supplicant. At times they seem to echo one another; at others they compete for the same thought, as if Lear’s mind were a crowded room he can no longer govern. The image captures something essential about the play’s cruelty: identity, once propped up by power and praise, proves alarmingly divisible. [more]

DATA

January 31, 2026

Mathew Libby’s riveting "DATA" is drawn from tomorrow’s headlines – or is this frightening story depicting events that are already happening? As directed by Tyne Rafaeli, this techno-thriller become more and more scary as we begin to realize the dangers of AI and computer algorithms to be used for immigration and citizenship rules as the story moves to its inevitable conclusion. Silicon Valley has a lot to answer for and this play demonstrates what may be in store for us very soon. [more]
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Copyright Jack Quinn, 2001-2026