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Off-Broadway

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]

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]

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]

Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon

January 17, 2026

Legendary composer Burt Bacharach died in 2023 and it has taken until now for there to be a fitting stage tribute to his 1,000 song output (mainly written with lyricist Hal David) which includes six Grammy Awards and three Academy Awards. Entitled Going Bacharach: The Songs of an Icon, the musical revue has been conceived by producer Jack Lewin along with Will Friedwald (who has been called “the poet laureate of vintage pop music,”) musical supervisor Tedd Firth and musical director Adrian Galante, who is also responsible for the arrangements and orchestrations as well as playing piano and clarinet in the show. While Bacharach was best known for his mellow sound as sung by Dionne Warwick who recorded most of the songs in the show, the volume of this Going Bacharach is very loud, though this may be the fault of sound designer Matt Berman. Those of us who grew up with these songs won’t recognize the arrangements while younger people may be pleased to experience them for the first time. [more]

Falling Out

January 16, 2026

Review by Jack Quinn, publisher Amelia Grace Beckham and Gavin Cole in a scene from Josée [more]

Try/Step/Trip

January 15, 2026

The choreography by Toran X. Moore is exquisitely attuned to both context and cast. Moore’s steps and motifs create a full canvas of movement that breathes with the beat and bends to the demands of the narrative. "Try/Step/Trip" announces itself through a distinct physical vocabulary, one that is not merely stylistic but historical and communal: step, the percussive dance form forged and refined within historically Black colleges and universities. Here, the body becomes both instrument and archive—feet striking, hands clapping, chests resonating in rhythms that carry lineage as much as sound. The choice of step is not ornamental; it is foundational, lending the work a muscular, collective language that insists on presence, discipline, and shared breath, and that roots the piece in a tradition where movement functions simultaneously as music, memory, and social bond. Rooted firmly in Black dance, the choreography adapts itself to the tonal shifts of each song and scene, turning the evening into a literal and figurative adventure. At 90 minutes, the piece demands stamina and precision from its performers, and the ensemble meets that challenge with discipline and collective resolve. [more]

Dream Feed

January 15, 2026

What "Dream Feed" does is evoke feelings, and images, and hopefully dreams. Most effective are the times when what I assume are actual dreams are recited, in one case through a voice changer, which is both funny and emotional. The music is mostly singing, but Justin Hicks plays the autoharp, an instrument you don't get to see too often in the theater (or at all). He's excellent and it makes me want to get one myself. There's also drums, but these are fairly quiet and don't take over the piece. It's mostly about the vocals, which are terrific. The audience goes bananas for it, clapping along to songs they've never heard before and leaping to their feet at the end. [more]

The Opening

January 14, 2026

While ABBA’s "Chess" is receiving its first revival on Broadway, a delightful new musical about chess has come to Off Broadway’s Players Theatre. "The Opening," billed as “The Second Most Famous Musical About Chess,” is a fun entertainment which keeps you guessing throughout about the world and denizens of chess tournaments. Inspired by a true chess scandal in 2022 in which a tournament player was wrongly accused of cheating, this musical spoof has a clever book by Brooke Di Spirito, melodic music by Mateo Chavez Lewis, and witty lyrics co-written by Di Spirito and Chavez Lewis. An expert cast directed by Nick Flatto keeps the show merrily rolling along. Who knew chess could cause such shenanigans? [more]

Picnic at Hanging Rock

December 28, 2025

However, where the Peter Weir film used magical lighting and the atmosphere of the actual filming at Hanging Rock to recreate a mystical, supernatural feeling, the musical instead adds songs and dialogue. Unfortunately, Bell’s lyrics are either too prosaic or too poetic without creating a magical world, while Gold’s folk-pop score often sounds the same throughout. The busy set by Daniel Zimmerman which attempts to shoehorn the school and its stairway to the second floor, the hanging rock and its environs, and the five-piece orchestra all on the same stage seems rather cluttered along with the forest of trees and foliage in the background. The many-colored costumes by Ásta Bennie Hostetter for the girl students’ dresses vie with the background for our attention and there are often too many hues on stage simultaneously. While Barbara Samuels’ lighting is often exactly right, her plot using red for the picnic seems to make many of the girls look like they have picked up terrible sunburns in a very short time. [more]

Gotta Dance!

December 19, 2025

"Gotta Dance!" is a hugely entertaining revue of dance in the American musical recreating icon moments from 17 Broadway shows including four that started life as MGM movies starring Gene Kelly and later ended up as stage shows. Appearing under the auspices of The York Theatre, this is the work of the reconstituted American Dance Machine which existed from 1976 – 1987, and has been reestablished in 2012 by Nikki Feirt Atkins as American Dance Machine for the 21st Century along with co-founder choreographer Randy Skinner. American Dance Machine’s mission is to be a living archive of Broadway dance recreated by its original choreographers and/or dancers. All of the performers in "Gotta Dance!" are given a chance to show what they do best whether it is tap dancing, ballet, modern dance or swing. [more]

The Baker’s Wife

December 17, 2025

Greenberg’s greatest achievement is his refusal to inflate or apologize for the material. He treats "The Baker’s Wife" as what it is: a musical of sensibility rather than momentum, concerned with romance, regret, and the cost of impulsive desire. There is a deliciously vaudevillian, music-hall bustle to “Bread,” the ensemble number that marks the village’s first ecstatic encounter with Aimable’s handiwork. The song clatters and skips with comic precision, its rhythms suggesting both hunger and sudden abundance, and Stephanie Klemons’ dances here leans into that sense of organized chaos, shaping the townspeople’s delight into a playful choreography of anticipation, consumption, and communal relief. Paul’s dynamic rendition of “Proud Lady,” with its Brel-inflected toughness, certainly gets its desired effect. In revealing the show’s emotional coherence, Greenberg demonstrates that The Baker’s Wife was never broken beyond repair—only misunderstood. Here, at last, it feels whole. [more]

The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions

December 12, 2025

In the cavernous expanse of the Park Avenue Armory, where spectacle often arrives inflated to mythic proportions, "The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions" materializes as a frequently mad, occasionally mystical, and resolutely LGBTQIA+ fantasia. Adapted from Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta’s 1977 queer fable-book—part manifesto, part utopian parable—this incarnation, shaped by composer Philip Venables and director Ted Huffman (who first unveiled it to British audiences in 2023), announces itself with a great deal of theatrical flourish. For all its conjurations and incantatory ambition, it is ultimately a work whose whimsy gleefully shines on the backs of this diamond’s many facets. [more]

Sweet Smell of Success

November 30, 2025

The film version starring Burt Lancaster as sleazy yet powerful gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (similar to the notorious Walter Winchell) and Tony Curtis as hungry press agent protégé Sidney Falco was not a success as the ugly underbelly of tabloid journalism was not what filmgoers wanted from some of their favorite box office stars in 1957. Some of the same problems apparently recurred when nice guy John Lithgow took on the role in the stage musical in 2002. The reedited version by Guare and Carnelia (which is closer to what they originally intended) remains faithful to the original plot but gives a more humanizing backstory and a more palatable ending. They have also restored the original opening (“Rumor”) and a duet for Hunsecker’s sister Susan and her boyfriend Dallas (“That’s How I Say Goodbye”), cut on the road. [more]

The Seat of Our Pants

November 26, 2025

Michael Lepore as the Telegram Boy, Micaela Diamond as Sabina, Ruthie Ann Miles as Mrs. Antrobus, [more]

44 – The Musical

November 19, 2025

"Saturday Night Live" has made political satire look easy and has a lot to answer for. "44 – The Musical" written, composed and directed by Eli Bauman, who worked on the Obama campaign in Las Vegas in 2008, has created this slight parody of the 44th president’s first term. While the show is slickly produced, the writing is lazy using vulgar language – the f-word is sprinkled generously throughout the dialogue and repeated in its songs whose names are not spelled out in the program – and the satire only takes on the most clichéd items. As none of the talented cast looks or sounds like the real people they are playing, we need to keep reminding ourselves who they are. [more]

Romy & Michele: The Musical

November 18, 2025

Schiff’s book so slavishly follows her screenplay without adding new material that there is nothing much to wait for. The lyrics by Sanford and Jay alternate between not scanning and extremely simple rhymes. None of the songs tell us anything we don’t already know. With one or two exceptions, Hanggi has directed her cast to be as much like the movie as possible, leading to pale imitations of more robust characterizations. Jason Sherwood’s unit set is augmented by Caite Hevner’s projection design, neither of which creates much atmosphere.  Tina McCartney’s costumes seem to be clones of those used in the movie. Much of the look of the period is created by Tommy Kurzman’s hair, wig and make-up design. [more]

Reunions

November 11, 2025

"Reunions" is a charming new Edwardian musical made up of two classic one- act plays: James M. Barrie’s 1910 “The Twelve-Pound Look” and the Quintero Brothers’ 1901 “A Sunny Morning.” Using an ensemble of six main actors who rotate roles, these two one-act musicals have the same theme: former lovers meet years later by an accident that changes their lives. However, the Barrie play deals with a middle-aged couple in a London mansion while the Quintero play brings together two septuagenarians in a Madrid park. Beautifully directed by Gabriel Barre, this is an elegant evening worthy of its Edwardian ancestry. [more]

Bat Boy: The Musical

November 6, 2025

Beneath the camp and chaos, 'Bat Boy" remains what it always was: a parable with a pulse. O’Keefe’s rock-opera score jabs with wit but bleeds sincerity; his lyrics cut deep with irony and compassion. The story still howls against hypocrisy—the intolerance of difference, the fear of the Other, the absurd theatre of morality that masquerades as virtue. "Bat Boy" feels less like a musical and more like a communal exorcism of repression, guilt, and joy. In the capable, chaotic hands of this remarkable company, it doesn’t just sing—it soars, claws, and howls. To want to belong has rarely felt this thrilling. What emerges, through all the shrieks and laughter, is something profoundly moving: a hymn to belonging, a love letter to strangeness, a primal scream for empathy. [more]

Don’t Vape! The Grease Parody

November 4, 2025

Billy Recce and Danny Salles' lyrics are the secret engine of "Don't Vape!"—clever, campy, and unexpectedly pointed. They skewers performative purity, influencer culture, and the desperate nostalgia of Gen Z’s retro revival, all while composing hooks catchy enough to survive outside satire. Under Jack Plotnick’s razor-sharp direction, "Don't Vape!" turns vintage pink into neon green, and proves that a good parody doesn’t mock its source—it reinvents it. [more]

Nothing Like Broadway!

October 12, 2025

"Nothing Like Broadway!" combines modern sensibilities with some old-fashioned influences into a unique and charming show. The narrative follows Milo, played by Tyler Tanner ("The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical" national tour, "Shakespeare in Love"), who works the lights at a theater but dreams of singing on stage. That classic narrative of the unconfident protagonist looking to prove himself ends up crashing into a Cold-War-style spy thriller when Bixby, a debonair British spy played by Marek Zurowski ("West Side Story," "The Phantom of the Opera" world tour), has to hide out at the theater. Things spiral into delightful absurdity from there, culminating in a 20-minute continuous 11 o’clock number, which manages to be a total blast throughout. The show takes several big swings of this nature. Though not all of them pan out as well as that one, Rosie Corr’s ("Harmony," "Waitress") stellar choreography, David Rackoff’s ("I Am Bad," "The Chase Lounge") clever lyrics/book/music, and the pair’s co-directing decisions make "Nothing Like Broadway!" an infectiously fun show. [more]

Mexodus

October 2, 2025

Actors and musicians Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson have written a dynamic, exciting new two-character hip-hop musical in "Mexodus," a telling of the little known story of the Underground Railroad that went South to Mexico. It may also be the first New York musical to use live-looping for its soundtrack, with both musicians playing multiple instruments as well. "Mexodus" not only tells the tale of a Texas slave who escapes to Mexico but also the stories of both of its performers. The current relevance of the show to our immigration situation cannot be underestimated. [more]

This Is Not a Drill

September 27, 2025

You may recall that on January 13, 2018, Hawaii residents including tourists received an alert that a ballistic missile had been spotted on the way to the islands. You may also recall that it was later reported as a drill only for security workers, and that the alert was over after 38 minutes. Songwriter Holly Doubet remembers that day as she was visiting the islands and has not forgotten the minutes pondering her impending death. This is the premise of The York Theatre’s new musical 'This Is a Not a Drill," conceived by Doubet with book by Joseph McDonough and Doubet, and a 15 song score by Doubet, Kathy Babylon and John Vester. A pleasant enough entertainment, there is no urgency except for the hysterical characters at the Hibiscus Resort and Hotel who take the alert seriously. We know, of course, that it was false, so the authors have made their plot out of "Love Boat," "Hotel" or "White Lotus" multiple storylines with each couple having their own crisis. Unfortunately, the characters and their problems are all clichés and stereotypes which all end happily, Hawaii being a place for solving one’s problems. It might have been more exciting dramatically if some of these plots had not had happy endings. [more]

The Porch on Windy Hill

September 19, 2025

There's a palpably tragic tension between Edgar and Mira, which the play's quartet of writers--Sherry Stregack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse, and David M. Lutken--naturally let develop, trusting the actors (and, in Lutken's case, himself) to convey it in fraught silences. But "The Porch on Windy Hill" is no joyless drama; it also includes lots of glorious, soul-stirring sound, which buffers the characters' pain through a heady musical mélange that links everyone on the stage, even when they seem worlds apart. A classical violinist, Mira's talent originated from the long-ago example of her grandfather's expert banjo and guitar pickin', while her beautiful singing voice, similar to Edgar's, is much more candid than her speaking one. No mellifluous slouch himself, Beckett joins Mira and Edgar in a series of stringed reveries that run the gamut from Haydn to bluegrass and, as music often does, take up the emotional slack when regular words don't come easily. [more]

Sober Songs

September 12, 2025

Still, for a piece that purports to tackle the complexity of addiction, "Sober Songs" often fails to excavate its deepest layers. Relapses, romantic entanglements, suicidal ideation, and earnest confessions flit across the stage, but many are handled with a frustrating brevity, giving the sense that we are skimming the surface of lives meant to be far more turbulent than the book or score allows them to be. [more]

Exorcistic: The Rock Musical

September 9, 2025

This self-aware parody depicts a show within a show, where the cast breaks the fourth wall, comes out and greets the audience, and tells us they’re about to put this thing on. With tongues so firmly planted in cheeks, they’d probably bite right through them, they regale us with reservations and caveats galore. There’s a possessed young girl, Megan (Emma Hunton), her movie-star mom, Kate (Leigh Wulff), a coupla priests (Ethan Crystal and Jesse Merlin), a glittery demonic “Rowdy” (Steven Cutts), and a woeful stage manager (Jaime Lyn Beatty). Playwright/composer/lyricist Michael Shaw Fisher exercises his acting chops in a couple of roles. You’d think enough mayhem would be in store for the cast as it embarks on this ramshackle enterprise, but all (ahem) hell breaks loose when an actor actually becomes possessed. [more]

Oil & Whiskey

September 7, 2025

"Oil & Whiskey" is a new musical that won the "Sold Out Award" at the 2025 NYC Fringe Festival. The music by Kit Nolan, principal keyboardist and musical director for award-winning violinist Lindsey Stirling, is uniformly excellent, filled with great melodies and foot-stomping country delights. It compares well to the sadly closed "Dead Outlaw." The book and lyrics by Dax Wiley are not quite on the same level but sometimes reach the highs of the music. [more]

Alan Turing & The Queen of the Night

August 15, 2025

There’s a lot going on in this new musical about Alan Turing—and perhaps too much. In attempting to encompass the breadth of Turing’s extraordinary life, the production ends up overwhelmed by its own ambition. It is too long to sustain its narrative with somewhat underdeveloped characters, and too short to provide the necessary depth to the relationships that are meant to drive its emotional core. [more]

Rolling Thunder: A Rock Journey

August 15, 2025

Do we need another jukebox musical? In the case of "Rolling Thunder: A Rock Journey," the answer is a wavering yes. Written with more insight than usual by Bryce Hallett, with musical direction by Sonny Paladino, "Rolling Thunder" manages to find a fresh way to bring that era to life, opening with a brash burst of music (“Magic Carpet Ride” by Steppenwolf) and a period newscast of Nixon explaining why the war was expanding—contrary to growing public anti-war sentiment.  The title refers to the sudden savage saturation bombing campaign against North Vietnam 60 years ago. [more]

Joy: A New True Musical

July 26, 2025

Under Lorin Latarro’s direction, there is little or no character development in Davenport’s book, with all of the characters remaining the same throughout, and the only thing that propels the show are the surprising events that happen. Joy’s family remains negative and dismissive about her inventing career (while eventually helping out in the marketing) until almost the very end. Davenport fudges the last scene by not telling us how the biased Texas judge ends up ruling in Joy’s favor so that the ending leaves us hanging. When the judge demeans Joy as a one-time inventor, we know that she has one of her clever inventions in her pocket (a reflective dog flea collar) but she never takes it out in her own defense. The songs are more like window dressing than adding much to the show and Milazzo’s generic lyrics tend to be very repetitious and give away their message in their titles. The show might have been more powerful as a straight play without the musical score. [more]

Heathers the Musical

July 18, 2025

Andy Fickman’s polished production with its highly effective choreography by Gary Lloyd (additional choreography by Stephanie Klemons) is a Broadway-style production in a smaller house. If "Heathers the Musical" seemed too cynical in 2014 when it also played at New World Stages, time or events have caught up with it and it now seems a reflection of the life we live. With Broadway stars Lorna Courtney and Casey Likes leading the high-powered cast, "Heathers the Musical" should be a hit of the summer and beyond – and not just for teens and twenty-somethings who were in full evidence at the performance under review. [more]

Wesley

July 7, 2025

Austin Phillips’s puppet design deserves special mention. His owlet creation is imbued with uncanny charm—Wesley is clearly an owl, yes, but one whose subtle articulation suggests personality rather than anthropomorphism. The puppet becomes a living character, thanks in large part to the finely tuned performance of Daniel Sanchez, making an impressive Off-Broadway debut. As Wesley, Sanchez navigates a delicate balance: he gives the owl presence, agency, even affection, without sacrificing the essential strangeness of the animal. His portrayal renders the owl’s devotion to Casey moving and believable, even as we are always aware that this is a bird, not a human in disguise. As he dances with Casey during the “Winter is Coming” sequence we are painfully aware of how little time they can expect to share together. [more]

Mozart’s Don Giovanni: A Rock Opera

July 3, 2025

Ambition, that perilous double-edged sword, can elevate a work of art to soaring heights—or leave it flailing in the rafters, reaching desperately for resonance it cannot quite grasp. Such is the case with "Mozart’s Don Giovanni: A Rock Opera," Adam B. Levowitz’s audacious and heartfelt, if uneven, adaptation of Mozart’s canonical masterpiece. This leaner, louder take on "Don Giovanni," recognizing the latent synergy between operatic grandeur and rock bravado, now playing at The Cutting Room through August 26, replaces the classical orchestra with a ten-piece rock band and pares down the original three-hour-plus opera to a taut two hours and ten minutes. If only its dramatic momentum had received the same rigorous attention as its runtime. [more]

Mike & Mindy’s Wild Weekend Jam

June 28, 2025

"Mike and Mindy’s Wild Weekend Jam," the musical returning Off Broadway in a bigger version than before, has a sophisticated score and unsophisticated book. The title is a bit of a misnomer as there is nothing “wild” about it and the “jam” part leads to unfilled expectations. However, the cast makes the most of the impressive musical portions of the show from Bucky Heard and Timothy D. Lee of the Righteous Brothers, salvaging Mark Corallo and Eileen Nelson’s book which resembles those Afterschool Specials of the past. [more]

Bear Grease

June 27, 2025

Already seen at 200 venues across North America, "Bear Grease," the all Indigenous musical, arrives in New York for a three-month residency. While its subtitle declares that it is a “reimagining of the musical Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Carey told through an Indigenous lens,” it is more of a variety show with songs, dances, and video while  including iconc scenes and songs from "Grease" paying tribute to Native American culture. Written and created by LightningCloud (Crystle Lightning and Henry Cloud Andrade,) the exuberant cast made up of members of the Enoch Cree Nation, Beaver First Nation, Big Stone Cree Nation, Frog Lake, Muskeg Lake, Gift Lake, Mvskoke and Navajo Nation makes this an entertaining evening in the theater. [more]

Beau the Musical

June 26, 2025

"Beau The Musical" is not only absorbing as a story, the songs help to move the story along, something few musicals accomplish these days. The multi-talented cast is splendid, while the story hits on a great many hot button topics: bullying, intolerance, self-identity, single parenting, finding one’s identity. Best of all Beau The Musical is extremely satisfying, sending you out pleased by what you have seen. [more]

Passengers

June 22, 2025

Montréal’s physical theater troupe The 7 Fingers has made their third visit to New York with Passengers and the wait has been worth it. Using circus events, music, dance and monologues, "Passengers" follows nine travelers who perform as their train travels across the country. Like Cirque du Soleil, the varied acts are all unified by a theme, but The 7 Fingers is more intimate in scale and eschews clowns, giving the nine acrobats, gymnasts and circus artistes more and more daring acts to do. As the journey continues, the performances become more breathtaking and demonstrate the versatility of the cast. [more]

The Moby Dick Blues

June 14, 2025

"The Moby Dick Blues" is nothing short of a working-class opera for the Anthropocene—equal parts "Trainspotting" and "The Perfect Storm," churning with fury, addiction, and mythic ambition. In Michael Gorman’s daring reimagining, Melville’s epic is filtered through the hard truths of the contemporary opioid crisis, reframing Captain Ahab as a tragic addict and the White Whale as a haunting symbol of narcotic oblivion. The reframing lands with seismic force, compelling us to reconsider not only Melville’s obsession-driven narrative, but our own self-destructive relationships with nature, legacy, and escape. [more]

Goddess

May 31, 2025

In the title role, Amber Iman makes a sensational return to Off Broadway after her Tony Award and Drama League-nominated performance in "Lempicka" last season. This beautiful statuesque actress brings poise and elegance to the role of the goddess who comes down to earth in human form. Her magnificent singing brings the audience to its feet for her final solo. Austin Scott is a stalwart Omari both in his singing and saxophone playing which also impresses. As the excitable Rashida and Ahmed, Arica Jackson and Nick Rashad Burroughs make a terrific team playing off of each other. [more]

The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse

May 19, 2025

And what does it all mean? The new musical takes on pop fandom, celebrity, the Internet, MTV, pop culture, influencers, Gen Z and everything in between. "The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse" is not only cutting edge but it may presage the dawning of the next kind of musical – which may not be to all tastes. It may also take you by surprise as to how much it pulls you into to its story and investigation of a period a little less than two decades old. [more]

Seussical

May 16, 2025

A scene from the Epic Players’ production of Flaherty and Ahrens’ musical “Seussical” at [more]

Maddie: A New Musical

May 14, 2025

The show at The Players Theatre is not exactly the same show that played in London's West End with book by Shaun McKenna and Steven Dexter which like the original novel was set in San Francisco. Now the show has been reset in New York’s East Village. Unfortunately, this also means Finney’s tribute to silent film stars is entirely missing which is one of the original novel’s strong suits. Additionally, the authors do not make use of the new setting except for a scene under the Queensboro Bridge. [more]

Wonderful Town (New York City Center Encores!)

May 3, 2025

Fast-forward to 2025, and City Center has once again turned to this dependable crowd-pleaser, reportedly as a last-minute substitute for Michael John LaChiusa’s "The Wild Party." The choice makes logistical sense: "Wonderful Town" offers hummable tunes and a quirky, heartfelt book by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov. But under the direction of Zhailon Levingston—whose past work includes "Table 17" and the vogue-infused "Cats: The Jellicle Ball"—this new iteration stumbles. Lacking Marshall’s instinct for the show’s fine balance between earnestness and irony, Levingston’s staging never quite finds its rhythm, veering too far into knowing kitsch and losing the tender charm that once made Wonderful Town feel, well, wonderful. [more]

Scammed into Love

April 12, 2025

Although there are humorous moments, the production doesn't work for various reasons, including characterizations and technical issues with sound reproduction. None of the eight songs are memorable, and the characters do not engage the audience, which is a question of direction and acting. While the performers work hard at portraying their characters, the effect is uneven. Some characters appear two-dimensional, and performances feel like a college or community theater production. The vocals are problematic, with some performances being overpowered while others pitchy. Overall, the show doesn't engage the audience in caring about the characters or their stories. [more]

According to Howard

April 11, 2025

Except for a couple of main characters, the people in his life seem to come and go making it a little bit difficult to follow. While the opening of each act is in the form of a Technicolor musical, the limited budget and the staged reading format does not allow for this. Actor Michael Halling is tall enough to represent the 6’4” Hughes but he does not portray his undoubted charisma to have taken the world by storm. There are also many anachronisms as well as at least one scene which is out of order and facts that are inaccurate. [more]

Who is Jimmy Pants?

March 28, 2025

The second in the York Theatre’s Spring New2NY series is "Who Is Jimmy Pants?," an entertaining spoof of bio-jukebox musical, a genre that could use some taking down. Presented concert-style with book-in-hand, as were the York’s Mufti Series, the high-powered cast of nine directed by Stephen Nachamie (Ken Ludwig’s "Dear Jack, Dear Louise") make the rather clichéd material seem better than it is. [more]

The Trojans

March 25, 2025

"The Trojans" effortlessly blends sharp, often hilarious high-school dialogue with an inventive and evocative score, creating a musical experience that feels both contemporary and nostalgic. The characters’ voices ring true to their age and environment, and their dialogue flows seamlessly into the show’s musical numbers. The soundtrack, crafted from cassette tape loops and vintage analog synths, infuses the production with an infectious energy, while also echoing the show's 1980s-inspired aesthetics. There are exceptional songs throughout the score but "Boys are Bad," a standout solo for Lucas (Daphne Always), not only delivers a memorable melody but also weaves in pointed commentary on masculinity—a theme that reverberates throughout the production. [more]

Avalona: A Musical Legend

March 9, 2025

"Avalona, A Musical Legend," created by Dina Fanai, with music and lyrics, is a concept album with elements of modern opera. While not a musical in the usual sense of that form, it fits in a class of shows with the feel of a musical, such as "Jesus Christ, Superstar," which in its original form was a concept album concert with some notable productions being in the form initially conceived by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, but many not. It is a show at the edge of being a spectacle in the best meaning of that word, and one to be experienced as if viewing oneself on an immersive journey of discovery and transformation. [more]

Safe House

February 23, 2025

"Safe House" is an amorphous mosaic of sight and sound just out of reach of being any one thing. It is at once a song cycle, memory play, comedy, tragedy, a visual and aural potpourri of sensation resembling a modern avant-garde opera more than a theatrical musical or play with music. Written and directed by Enda Walsh with music by electronic-acoustic composer Anna Mullarkey, the show tells the story of Grace, a young, homeless Irish woman living on a handball court in Galway. According to Walsh, it is a story of survival in the chaotic jumble of memories mixed with dreams and fantasies of a different life. [more]

B*tchcraft

February 13, 2025

Bitch turns herself inside out in ways sometimes difficult to bear, particularly with her frank, anatomical language, but she communicates her joy and anguish so honestly and unflinchingly that it is all somehow totally fine. "B*tchcraft" is a collaboration between Bitch and her director Margie Zohn.  Between them they have crafted a powerful show that is both personal and universal in its emotional heft.  The language and imagery are strong, maybe not for everyone, but they resonate with Bitch’s totality. [more]

Urinetown (NY City Center Encores!)

February 8, 2025

“What an awful name for a musical,” spouts Little Sally (a brilliantly talented Pearl Scarlett Gold) as one of the narrators of the New York City Center Encores’ witty production of the 2001 surprise hit "Urinetown."  Yes, it is, but it’s also an entertaining show that actually has inadvertent relevance to today’s audience with its artful jabbing at big business. [more]

Show/Boat: A River

January 17, 2025

If only he had carried through on that idea. We will never know if this staging might have worked as Herskovits has sabotaged all that is best in the original and made it both more confusing and less entertaining. Originally produced with 27 actors, Herskovits has reduced the cast to ten with so much doubling that it is difficult to know who is who. At least one character (Parthy Hawkes) is sometimes played by two actresses simultaneously which does not make for coherency. While the majority of the characters are white, Herskovits has cast it mainly with Black actors who wear sashes across their chest identifying them as white which is distracting rather than edifying. If you have not seen one of the two famed movie versions recently, it is impossible to follow the story line. Some actors switch gender as well as character or race. [more]

Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now!

December 4, 2024

The trio demonstrates that their voices are as supple and fine as they ever were. Each gets to play their best suit: Winokur’s loud, clarion voice, Bundy’s wry wit and Butler’s recounting her hilarious but painfully missed opportunities even though she has appeared in 12 Broadway shows and been nominated for the Tony Award. Their patter and narration is entertaining and hilarious and the musical numbers are both tributes to their careers as well as songs we have not heard them sing before. [more]

Welcome to the Big Dipper

November 30, 2024

"Welcome to The Big Dipper" is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Jimmy Roberts and a book by Catherine Filloux and John Daggett (inspired by the play "All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go" by Filloux). It is under the direction of DeMone Seraphin and is billed as being based on an actual event. However, the nature of the event is never revealed. It is a mixed bag of things that work and don’t, which leads to confusion about what it’s about and where it’s trying to go. [more]

We Are Your Robots

November 25, 2024

While the musicians are exemplary, it is Lipton who does the heavy lifting in the show. With what amounts to a very witty hosting duty, his singing voice is one that is rich and quite comfortable in various genres. Director Leigh Silverman keeps him moving and talking at all times, always engaging the audience even when he is being upstaged by his “Grandpa Morrie,” a Roomba that speaks (and sings) in Roomba-ese. Morrie has the audience wrapped around his finger, rather circuitry, when Lipton asks him to wait backstage and Morrie can’t make it back up the ramp without help. Morrie later duets with Lipton and at one moment stops cold. Lipton’s attempts at restarting Morrie fail (is this what Roomba death looks like?) until bass player Riggs offers a battery from his own mouth to recharge Morrie. The whole audience goes “Awww” and applauds. [more]

Music City

November 17, 2024

By all outward appearances, the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on West 86th Street is an unlikely location for a performance space, but deeply nestled into its 2nd floor can be found the West End Theatre, current home of the new country-western musical "Music City," featuring songs and lyrics by successful songwriter J.T. Harding. Harding’s songs have been sung by the likes of Kenny Chesney, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and others, but they are a perfect fit for this small musical with a big heart. [more]

Ragtime

November 9, 2024

"Ragtime," thought of as an unwieldy musical with too many characters and too many themes, hit Broadway in 1998.  Based on the 1975 E.L. Doctorow novel of the same name, the many storylines were artfully tamed by the team of Terrence McNally (book), Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics). New York City Center has chosen "Ragtime" as its 2004 Annual Gala presentation in a brilliantly streamlined production directed with an eye to its still-important message by Lear DeBessonet with a large and exceptional cast and an excellent orchestra under the baton of James Moore playing William David Brohn’s original rich orchestrations. [more]

Medea: A Musical Comedy

November 3, 2024

Fisher directs a solid ensemble through a production of "Medea" that is a spoof of a college production with a gay man in the role of Jason and a feminist as Medea. It takes place from the last days of rehearsals to opening night. It is a play within a play with a romantic entanglement between the actor playing Jason and the actor playing Medea. It is amazing that with all the different elements of two storylines being played out the show works as well as it does. [more]

Little House on the Ferry: The Musical

November 3, 2024

The good news is that "Little House on the Ferry" is full of heart and brimming with laughs. Sook’s use of the space is commendable even if she struggles to wring a few ounces of earnestness out of the largely cartoonish characters. Michael McCrary’s choreography is simply awesome, and the music and songs are super fun. The actors are having such a great time that even some of the lesser jokes and moments of duller wit in the script are forgiven. “So far, so fun!” exclaimed my theater companion after the first number, and when a towering Galganni as Xana DuMe breaks out into a vigorous tap dance, it’s truly a fantastic moment that throws the audience into a delicious tizzy, present company included. [more]
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Copyright Jack Quinn, 2001-2026