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Still Open

These are the shows that – to the best of our information – we think are still open to see.

Jerome

June 11, 2026

John J. Caswell’s "Jerome" is a lovely low-key play about a love, loss and illness. However, Dustin Willis who also directed Caswell’s "Wet Brain" at Playwrights Horizons never really lets us know where the play is going and its loose ends tend to get in the way. However, its excellent cast of three, two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella, Jeorge Bennett Watson and Ken Barnett keep us interested in the fate of these three men, one dying of kidney and heart disease, while the others try to keep him alive and contented. [more]

And Then the Rodeo Burned Down

June 11, 2026

Throughout, Rice and Roland demonstrate extraordinary command of tone. They move effortlessly from slapstick to philosophical inquiry, from broad clowning to moments of startling vulnerability. Their dialogue crackles with wit, but it is their physical storytelling that leaves the deepest impression. Every gesture feels considered. Every movement carries meaning. The years of collaboration between these artists are visible in every second of stage time, producing a level of trust and precision rarely encountered even among the most accomplished theatrical partnerships. [more]

In the Devil’s Hands

June 9, 2026

Helen Banner’s "In the Devil’s Hands," receiving its haunting world premiere at Zoopraxic’s newly opened Long Island City performance space, is one of those rare theatrical experiences that seems to alter the rhythm of time itself. Inspired by the true story of Alphonse Le Gastelois, the Jersey resident who voluntarily exiled himself to a barren reef after being falsely suspected of a series of crimes, Banner transforms a historical curiosity into a profound meditation on loneliness, forgiveness, memory, and the strange seductions of self-imposed isolation. Set in the aftermath of the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands during the 1940s, the play unfolds with the inevitability of a tide, drawing audiences into a world where innocence is insufficient protection against suspicion and where exile can become both punishment and refuge. [more]

Mary, Queen of Scots (Scottish Ballet)

June 9, 2026

The Scottish Ballet’s exciting "Mary, Queen of Scots" tells its complicated story extremely well and balances classical and modern choreography with ease. Its minimal décor helps make swift transitions between the scenes without making the audience feel that the stage is underpopulated. The costume choices link the past and present so that we are not kept out of this Elizabethan story. The new score by Mikael Karlsson and Michael P. Atkinson avoids dissonance while also keeping it theatrical for modern audiences. This is a worthy addition to the repertory of contemporary dance. [more]

||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||

June 8, 2026

The title of Eisa Davis’ "||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||" tells it all: four gifted teenagers attend a prestigious girls’ music program in Berkeley, California, apparently for underprivileged students. Some have attended previously; some are new to the program. All are devoted to music: Fax for singing, Margot on the drums and percussion, Rile on the piano, and Clementine on the oboe and baritone sax. The play covered their studies and their interactions: some become friends, some enemies, and some would like to become lovers. Chance plays a role in their lives and choices. [more]

Girl, Interrupted

June 8, 2026

The Public Theater's adaptation of "Girl, Interrupted" is billed as a play with music. Curiously, the show isn't simply advertised as a musical--or as a concept album with lots of free-associative liner notes. Based on Susanna Kaysen's fragmented memoir about her 18 months of psychiatric confinement in the late 1960s, the production juxtaposes, rather than blends, the labors of iconic songwriter Aimee Mann and Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Martyna Majok. This approach allows each artist to pursue her own creativity while sparing director Jo Bonney from having to narratively merge their idiosyncratic contributions. It apparently explains, too, why "Girl, Interrupted" isn't officially a musical, since Mann's score doesn't have to push the plot forward--though, in fairness, Majok isn't worried about doing that on the script side, either. [more]

The Maids

June 7, 2026

Part of the play is an eye-filling fashion show with Solange and Claire trying on Madame’s gowns or taking them out of her closet to ogle them. However, what is most remarkable about Williams’ production is his use of technology as he did in his "Picture of Dorian Gray" with Sarah Snook on Broadway and his recent "Dracula" with Cynthia Erivo on the West End. The video technology used in "The Maids" is startling, almost overpowering at times. The mirror-lined closets and doors become giant screens that show us Madame’s online posts as well as her live footage of Solange, Claire and herself (from video designer Zakk Hein).  Using Tiktok filters and effects she turns them grotesque or changes their face or features. Eventually in a dream sequence, Solange leads Claire through Madame’s closets and they visit a hallucinatory world of fantasy that we see on the screens. The fact that the screens are 13 feet high adds to the power and the effectiveness of these images. [more]

The Circuit

June 6, 2026

"The Circuit" is a multimedia dance show that takes place outside, using a combination of narration, dance, and music that allows the audience to watch a story unfold across the streets of DUMBO. Audience members are given headphones that play both the show’s score and its dialogue, delivered via prerecorded voiceover while the performers act and dance silently. Director John Kroft ("Dan Cody’s Yacht," "The Weak and the Strong") and choreographer/co-director Josh Zacher ("How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "La Cage Aux Folles") stage the performance wonderfully, making innovative use of the city as a set. [more]

I Wanttt a Unicorn Frappe!!!

June 4, 2026

While "I Wanttt a Unicorn Frappe!!!" could have been a satire on wedding and wedding planning, the mockery is much too mild and familiar to have any sting. Both Darla and Cassandra are way ahead of Jenny on noticing that Sebastian is not to interested in her – as are we. Why it takes so long for Jenny to wake up to reality is a mystery. However, the unicorn frappe may be a metaphor for the pink dream that she has about her life once married though it appears to all be in her head. The play is much too long for its content, going over the same ideas over and over. [more]

ON THE TOWN WITH CHIP DEFFAA… CELEBRATING “BROADWAY BEFORE BEDTIME”

June 2, 2026

There are plenty of podcasts dealing with theater and pop culture.  (I’ve been a guest on my share of them.)   The podcast “Broadway Before Bedtime”—presenting new episodes every week--features two theater pros interviewing other theater pros. What makes this podcast unique is that its gifted co-creators/co-hosts—Yair Keydar and Remi Madden Tuckman--are just 13 years old! They first gained attention when they alternated, playing a key character, “Brendan,” in the 2024-25 Off-Broadway musical, Drag.  I wrote in these pages back then—and I choose my words with great care--that they were the most talented child actors on stage in New York that season, and about as impressive as any child actor I’d seen in years. [more]

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

May 31, 2026

Unlike earlier New York productions, for this "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" set designer David Gallo has moved the set and action up close to the audience. It is as though we have been invited into the boarding house ourselves. Surrounding the boarding house are the factories and bridges that make up Pittsburgh’s life blood. Boone is more sympathetic than previous actors who have played Herald Loomis, a troubled man but one we can sympathize with. As his wife Martha, Abigail Onwunali brings an otherworldliness that adds another level to the play. As Bynum, Santiago-Hudson also endows his character both authority, wisdom and spirituality. [more]

Dirty Books

May 28, 2026

For most of its running time, "Dirty Books"—a slyly seductive immersive production written and directed by Mara Lieberman for Bated Breath Theatre Company—behaves less like a play than like a forbidden object one has discovered hidden in a filing cabinet marked “Moral Decay.” The audience enters a narrow white-walled performance space on West 14th Street that has been transformed into a miniature museum of American censorship: stacks of banned books, clothespinned documents, timelines of obscenity law, View-Masters displaying coyly erotic photographs, typewriters waiting for confessions. Before a word of drama has officially begun, the production has already implicated us in its central question: who gets to decide what stories may be told, what desires may be spoken aloud, and what forms of intimacy are permitted to exist in public? [more]

Animal Wisdom

May 26, 2026

There are evenings in the theater when one feels not merely entertained but altered—mysteriously unfastened from the ordinary mechanisms of perception and delivered into some older, stranger chamber of human experience. Signature Theatre’s revival of Heather Christian’s astonishing "Animal Wisdom," now directed with ecstatic precision by Keenan Tyler Oliphant, belongs emphatically to that rare category. To call it a musical is technically accurate in the same way that calling a cathedral a building is technically accurate. What Christian has fashioned is less a stage work than a séance disguised as an oratorio, a requiem disguised as autobiography, and a communal rite disguised—very loosely—as theater. The evening begins with a sly acknowledgment of its own displacement. This piece, we are informed, was intended for a ruined church or some other “holy space,” though the observation quickly becomes theological rather than logistical: theaters, after all, are continually deconsecrated and reconsecrated. By the time the performance ends, one understands precisely what Christian means. The Romulus Linney Courtyard has ceased to function as a conventional performance venue. It has become a sanctum for grief, memory, and ecstatic release. [more]

Schmigadoon!

May 25, 2026

Sara Chase, McKenzie Kurtz, Brad Oscar, Alex Brightman and the company of Cinco Paul’s new [more]

The People Versus Lenny Bruce

May 23, 2026

The trials and downfall of groundbreaking 1960s counterculture comedian Lenny Bruce is a fascinating story judging from the success of Julian Barry’s play "Lenny," Bob Fosse’s film version and a myriad of documentaries. Susan Charlotte has attempted to duplicate that success with The People Versus Lenny Bruce, adapted from civil rights lawyer Martin Garbus’ 1972 account of his part in the trial in the chapter of the same name in his book "Ready for the Defense." Unfortunately, Charlotte has not followed the theater dictum to show not tell and too much of the play is devoted to the defending lawyer’s very flat delivery of not very interesting narration. Another major problem may be that the evidence presented in 1964 is no longer very shocking in 2026 and it now seems that it should have been an open and shut case for which Bruce was convicted. [more]

REX REED: A REMEMBRANCE

May 16, 2026

I'm sorry to note the passing of Rex Reed. He was 87. And it's startling for me to write that he was 87, because to me he was always the handsome, dashing young man about town whom I first met decades ago. (That's why I'm posting a couple of publicity photos of him when he was younger, as well as one from more recent years, along with a snapshot of Rex, taken a few years ago, with several cabaret stars he liked very much: KT Sullivan, Joyce Breach, and Jeff Harnar.) I liked Rex. Oh, he could be quite acerbic in reviews, if he didn't like a film or a concert, or a cabaret show. And he cultivated a public image of being a curmudgeon. But if he liked you--and we always got along great--he was a pussycat. [more]

The Rocky Horror Show

May 6, 2026

As Frank-N-Furter, Luke Evans amply fills the towering platform heels of Tim Curry, who originated the role on stage and, much more indelibly, that supreme silver screen. To put it as delicately as possible, Evans owns a distinct advantage in bodily charms over a 1970s Curry, which costume designer David I. Reynoso maximally emphasizes. But the sizable difference between the two fellas doesn't make Evans any less emotionally vulnerable in the later numbers "I'm Going Home" and "Floorshow/Rose Tint My World." Despite Frank-N-Furter's deeply problematic take on love, Evans sentimentally honors his character's need for a very peculiar and lonely form of it. [more]

The Balusters

May 4, 2026

Following in the footsteps of Joshua Spector’s "Eureka Day" and Tracy Letts’ "The Minutes," also stories of local community service groups, David Lindsay-Abaire’s hilarious satire "The Balusters" is simply the best new play of the 2025-26 season. Set at a series of meetings of the Vernon Point Neighborhood Association in a landmarked enclave of an East Coast city, the pointed dialogue skewers liberals who really want to maintain the status quo as well as their white privilege. Hypocrisies abound as the nine members discuss local issues that stir up a great deal of heated debate as well as revealing their personal biases, while little change actually gets voted on. Director Kenny Leon’s terrific ensemble cast is led by Tony Award-winner Anika Noni Rose and Emmy Award-winner Richard Thomas, and the play also reunites the author with Marylouise Burke who has created roles in his "Fuddy Meers," "Wonder of the World" and "Kimberly Akimbo." [more]

Proof

May 3, 2026

Thomas Kail’s elegant and polished production now at the Booth Theatre (probably the best Broadway venues for dramas) has recast the family as African American and it works just as well – if not better - than the original production in which the family was white. Two stars from the world of film and television – Ayo Edebiri (Chef Sydney on "The Bear") and Don Cheadle ("Devil in a Blue Dress," "Crash," "Hotel Rwanda," "Traffic," etc.) – make their Broadway debuts and take to it like a duck to water. In addition, the remarkable Kara Young, nominated for the Tony Award the last four years and winning two in the last two years in a row, plays the supporting role of the sister with the assurance we have seen in her previously. [more]

The Lost Boys

May 1, 2026

Despite the revisions—1980s’ Republicans become a dull running joke—"The Lost Boys" is, like its source, a banal, comic‑book‑level depiction of family dysfunction and B‑movie vampire‑thriller shallowness. Amped up to supersonic levels with loud, uninspired rock music by The Rescues, whose lyrics are often indecipherable, it seems even more inane in its new guise. Even the ballads can’t resist morphing into tear‑the‑house‑down anthems, no matter their underlying emotional simplicity, as in Lucy’s paean to her son, “Michael.” [more]

Kenrex

April 30, 2026

There are evenings in the theatre when the air seems to tighten, as though the room itself has drawn a breath it cannot quite release. Such is the case with "Kenrex," a work of unnerving command and cumulative force, written by Jack Holden and Ed Stambollouian, and directed by the latter with a vigilance that borders on the prosecutorial. What begins as a seemingly familiar excursion into the annals of American true crime—its outlines recognizable, its destination foreknown—steadily transforms into something far more disquieting: a communal autopsy, conducted in real time, of a place where the mechanisms of justice have not merely failed but quietly abdicated. [more]

Titaníque

April 26, 2026

Some shows are better Off Broadway either because the smaller theater helps the ambiance or the smaller budget inspires greater imagination or there is a “let’s put on a show” vibe that enhances the fun. "Titaníque," the Off Broadway hit musical which has traveled from The Asylum NYC to the Daryl Roth Theatre to ultimately Broadway’s St. James Theatre, is one of those shows. Not that is it not still an entertaining musical, but the feeling of spontaneity with props that looked like found objects is now missing. The cast is mainly the same but for some superstar additions particularly Emmy Award-winner Jim Parsons as a mugging Ruth DeWitt Bukater and Grammy Award winner Deborah Cox as the unsinkable Molly Brown. [more]

The Fear of 13

April 22, 2026

Renowned theatrical spoilsport Bertolt Brecht decried the stupefying effect of catharsis. By contrast, the new Broadway offering The Fear of 13 revels in it. Adapting liberally from British filmmaker David Sington's 2015 documentary of the same name, playwright Lindsey Ferrentino turns the true story of Nick Yarris--a Pennsylvania man who served an unjust 22-year death row sentence for rape and murder--into something that feels decidedly less true. Admittedly, Ferrentino adheres to the basic facts of Nick's brutal mistreatment, but, with the masterful assistance of director David Cromer, packages them into an easily digested and forgettable form. [more]

Death of a Salesman

April 20, 2026

As you may have read, a lot of critics are saying that “attention must be paid” to the sixth Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman," Arthur Miller’s 1949 “tragedy of the common man,” innovatively directed by Joe Mantello at the Winter Garden. Indeed, it is an attention‑getting, nearly three-hour mounting, led by sterling performances from Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf as Willy and Linda Loman, and Christopher Abbott and Ben Ahlers as their sons, Biff and Happy. My companion was so moved when it ended she could barely speak. I was impressed but with tearless results. [more]

REMEMBERING KEN PEPLOWSKI

April 13, 2026

Ken Peplowski was not just the greatest clarinet player of his generation; he was a friend I admired for some 46 years—beginning well before he became famous. Oh, he did a bit of work outside of jazz on his way to the top. (He told me he witnessed far more hijinks of every sort when he did the musical “Annie” than he ever witnessed in the supposedly dissolute world of jazz.) But jazz was his first love. I found his unflagging zest for life inspiring. [more]

Becky Shaw

April 10, 2026

Gionfriddo’s play, which runs nearly two and a half hours, is directed with finely calibrated control by Trip Cullman. It’s a tart, unsettling, and often wickedly funny examination of the emotional minefields that define modern intimacy. At its center is the seemingly innocuous act of a blind date, but as in so many comedies of manners, what begins as social ritual quickly metastasizes into something darker, probing the uneasy intersections of manipulation, vulnerability, and power. [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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Chess

November 23, 2025

Strong’s book belies his name, its overlong (two hours, 40 minute) narrative, with all its scheming realpolitik, being more formulaic than authentic. Its points about the individual vs. the state, personal ambition vs. national loyalty, truth vs. propaganda, the pressures of celebrity, and so on, are clear, but Chess is too addicted to larger-than-life histrionics to make us more than cerebrally grateful or deeply invested in the choices the characters must face. [more]

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

November 22, 2025

With its big, if economical, imagination, "Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)" also seemingly contains a metropolis of non-digital humanity, thanks, in particular, to Tony Gayle's robust and amusingly familiar sound design ("stand clear of the closing doors, please"). But Robin and Dougal are the only people ever actually present onstage, which is enough. As they repeatedly scale the twin mounds of literal baggage on Soutra Gilmour's circular treadmill of a set--rotating away from and towards each other--the metaphoric intent is obvious. Still, it's the promptly endearing Pitts and Tutty who must translate that visual meaning into a palpable bond, so that the audience cares deeply when it is eventually threatened by both past and future complications. [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]

Amaze

August 31, 2025

British illusionist Jamie Allan has brought his aptly named magic show "Amaze" to New World Stages and it is truly awesome. His act is so low key that one doesn’t at first realize how remarkable his tricks are taking many familiar and famous magic acts one step further – like the card trick with a deck of blank cards. He also uses his show to build the theory that children are more susceptible to magic and illusion and that we all need to return to our childhood memories and imaginations. [more]

well, i’ll let you go

August 10, 2025

"well, i’ll let you go," Bubba Weiler’s exquisitely devastating new work, staged with unpretentious yet profound grace by director Jack Serio leading a magnificent cast at the Space at Irondale in Brooklyn is, in a word, haunting. The play unfolds as a poignant, slow-burning elegy to ordinary lives and the extraordinary grief that can shatter them. It is a tender meditation on loss, memory, and the fragile architecture of community—one that both embraces and exposes the complex, often contradictory, human heart. [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]

Just in Time

May 9, 2025

Groff is simply sensational in both his roles, charming as himself and astonishing in his revelatory Darin.  He confesses to being “a wet man.”  He proves it with his near aerobically paced performance, which included much singing and dancing and even a touch of beefcake.  (Well, if you got it—and Groff got it—flaunt it!) [more]

Stranger Things: The First Shadow

April 30, 2025

"Stranger Things: The First Shadow" concludes with a Netflix joke that, besides being pretty funny, also represents a bit of chest-thumping for the play's outsized number of developers who manage to successfully blur the line between theater and television. Whether that's a good thing is a matter of taste, or a lack of it, but there's no denying that "Stranger Things: The First Shadow," which has journeyed from the West End to Broadway, is exactly the type of experience it wants to be: immersive; scary; and, even if you've never seen an episode of the streaming series from whence it comes, familiar. That's because, imaginatively befitting its source material, the play is a storytelling stew of cultural callbacks that owes a debt--presumably unpaid-- to Stephen King, Wes Craven, and other unsettling shapers of Gen-X childhoods. [more]

Operation Mincemeat

March 31, 2025

The new musical attempts to out Monty Python "Monty Python" by creating a full-length show and story in their style, although its origins also go back to British Music Hall where there is also much cross-dressing (i.e. men playing women and women playing men). Those who love Monty Python will have a great time; those who don’t may find the two hour and 30 minute show heavy going. The show is also Very British and a great many of the jokes and gags don’t land for American audiences. However, the hard working cast is impressive playing many roles each and Robert Hastie’s fast paced direction doesn’t give a lot of time to think about the antics on stage. [more]

Death Becomes Her

November 27, 2024

“Glitter and Be Gay” is not just a Leonard Bernstein aria from Candide, but the perfect description of the campily funny new musical "Death Becomes Her" which just hit the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre like a friendly tornado.  Double entendres explode in all directions.  Take the song titled “For the Gaze,” as a tongue-in-cheek example. Based on the 1992 film of the same name, the creators of the musical—Marco Pennette (book), Julia Mattison and Noel Carey (music and lyrics)—have taken the smarmy, star-studded film and turned it into an entertaining, equally star-studded musical. [more]

Maybe Happy Ending

November 20, 2024

Helen J Shen and Darren Criss in a scene from the new musical “Maybe Happy Ending” at the [more]

The Great Gatsby: A New Musical

May 2, 2024

As for previous theatrical takes on the classic Jazz Age novel--and a few cinematic ones, too--the understandable allure of Fitzgerald's breathtaking sentences has represented a deathly siren's song for those tempted to dramatically interpret Fitzgerald by emulating him. Adopting a much smarter tack, book writer Kait Kerrigan avoids crashing into the tony shores of Long Island, where the story is mostly set, by remembering that imitation is not only the sincerest form of flattery but also usually very boring. Kerrigan still dutifully opens ("In my younger and more vulnerable years...") and closes ("So we beat on, boats against the current...") with the literary hits, also leaving in place the unhappy character arc of the novel's Midwestern narrator Nick Carraway (Noah J. Ricketts), but she lets the transplanted naif enjoy a friskier journey arriving at the disillusionment that he eventually feels from witnessing the cruel machinations of the East Coast elite. [more]

The Outsiders: A New Musical

April 22, 2024

The cast of "The Outsiders: A New Musica"l bring their own substantial charisma to the stage, but it's been dramaturgically constrained by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine's book, which sacrifices poetry for explanation. That unfortunate choice is abetted by a score from Levine, Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance (the latter two comprising the folk duo Jamestown Revival) that, influenced by "Oklahoma!" instead of pure sentiment, is far too Rodgers and Hammerstein, when it should have aimed for Rodgers and Hart. [more]

Oh, Mary!

April 9, 2024

No one should be sacrosanct or above satirical treatment, not even our heroes.  Everyone has feet of clay.  Cole Escola in their huge hit "Oh, Mary!" at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Greenwich Village certainly believes this.  Their over-the-top, irreverent take on Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth is so scurrilously sexual that it is difficult to avoid guffawing at their magnificent awfulness helped by Escola’s constant silly shtick and blatant playing to the audience, all of whom seemed to be having fun. [more]

Singfeld! A Musical Parody About Nothing!

June 15, 2023

Picking the easiest possible creative path, a decision the effort-averse George would no doubt admire, the McSmiths forgo imaginative risk-taking in favor of simply copying their source material, shaping "Singfeld!" as a parody musical about writing a parody musical. In other words, "Singfeld!" is also about nothing, which makes the entire endeavor feel, at times, akin to a Sartrean spiral or, as Jerry's archnemesis Newman (Jacob Millman) more bluntly puts it, "hackey." That's not to say there aren't some funny moments during "Singfeld!," but when humor is largely based on "remember when?," the comedic ceiling is right above your head. [more]

On the Town with Chip Deffaa: At the Museum of Broadway

December 13, 2022

Everyone who loves theater owes a debt of gratitude to Julie Boardman and Diane Nicoletti.  About five years ago, they got the idea of creating a museum in the theater district, dedicated to Broadway.  They would raise the funds themselves, hoping to create a self-sustaining operation.  The museum they have co-founded has now opened.  And it’s a winner! Oh, I’m not saying it’s perfect. Nothing in this world is quite perfect.  And like all new ventures, the museum is experiencing some growing pains.  (Later in this piece, I’ll suggest some ways that the museum could be made even better.) But what they’ve achieved thus far is mighty impressive.  There are a few kinks to be ironed out, but this is a major addition to the theater district. [more]

& Juliet

November 30, 2022

The cast is a combination of New York stage favorites (Stark Sands, "Kinky Boots," and Betsy Wolfe, "Waitress," "Falsettos" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"), new faces (Lorna Courtney, Ben Jackson Walker, Justin David Sullivan) and older veterans (opera baritone Paolo Szot and London stage star Melanie La Barrie making her Broadway debut.) The clever book is by writer David West Read previously seen in New York with "The Performers" and "The Dream of the Burning Boy" as well as the long running television series Schitt’s Creek. The show seems to have been influenced by "Something Rotten"(parody of Elizabethan times), "Six "(its updated 16th century costumes by Paloma Young), "Head Over Heels" (reboot of a classic tale wedded to a pop-rock score) and "Moulin Rouge" (the over-the-top staging by director Luke Sheppard and choreographer Jennifer Weber) – but is actually more fun than all of those shows. At times it resembles "Saturday Night Live" skits but knows enough to keep them short and not let any of them go on too long before introducing the next complication. [more]

MJ

February 10, 2022

Wheeldon and Pulitzer Award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage make every effort to hide the fact that MJ is a jukebox musical, despite the fact that the first notes of every song elicited loud shouts and applause (part of the reason the show runs two and a half hours). Nottage has invented a plodding framework for the show.  It is 1992 in Los Angeles. TV reporter, Rachel (a down-to-earth Whitney Bashor who acts as the play’s Greek chorus) and her hyperactive assistant, Alejandro (a charming Gabriel Ruiz) corral a reluctant Jackson to have his rehearsals for his huge upcoming 'Dangerous" tour documented. [more]

Six: The Musical

October 10, 2021

More concert than musical, the 80-minute show's libretto adds little to its cast album, with the lyrics of each queen's autobiographical song also pruning their individual histories to a point even a Wikipedia writer might consider reductive. The English nursery rhyme "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived," which the women recite at the beginning of the sing-off, pretty much sums up writers Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow's level of interest in the lives of Catherine of Aragon (Adrianna Hicks), Anne Boleyn (Andrea Macasaet), Jane Seymour (Abby Mueller), Anna of Cleves (Brittney Mack), Katherine Howard (understudy Courtney Mack in the performance I saw), and Catherine Parr (Anna Uzele). In between the songs, the women disparage one another's suffering, all in an attempt to snipe their way to the grand prize: leader of the group and, with it, the audience's adulation. [more]

Little Shop of Horrors

November 5, 2019

In a counterintuitive casting coup, handsome Jonathan Groff stars as the nebbish Seymour Krelborn who works at Mushnik’s (a funny, kvetchy Tom Alan Robbins) failing flower shop on Skid Row.  Seymour discovers an odd potted plant in Chinatown after an eclipse, a plant that leads to great success for both Mushnik and Seymour. Although it is difficult to forget Groff’s physical attributes (well-hidden under Tom Broecker’s costumes), he delivers a brilliantly realized sad sack Seymour. Poor Seymour is in love with the much put upon Audrey played with ditzy perfection by Tammy Blanchard.  Two-time Tony Award winner Christian Borle chews the scenery as Audrey’s sadistic dentist boyfriend, Orin Scrivello plus several other characters such as a William Morris agent and an NBC TV executive. [more]

Katsura Sunshine’s Rakugo

September 29, 2019

Katsura Sunshine is the stage name of this charismatic 49-year-old Toronto-born performer who relocated to Japan and apprenticed to a Rakugo artiste. Mr. Sunshine eventually became a notable practitioner in his own right and has the distinction of being a Westerner. Sunshine is affable, animated and possessed of a pleasing fast-paced vocal delivery that demonstrates comic timing and dramatic heft with a Canadian lilt. This vocal expressiveness combined with his shock of jagged blonde hair, striking facial features that he contorts into a gallery of expressions enables him to command the stage. Wearing a kimono, kneeling at a small table and handling the hallowed props of a fan and a hand cloth, he evokes the genre’s essence with assured authenticity. [more]

Moulin Rouge! The Musical

August 3, 2019

As the romantic, tubercular and charismatic Satine, the magnetic Ms. Olivo delivers a ferocious, sensual and grandiose performance that’s one of the most memorable recently seen on Broadway. Her sensational characterization is more Eartha Kitt than Nicole Kidman and all her own. Clad in slinky costumes, the voluptuous Olivo perpetually dazzles. Her titanic singing and dancing is matched by her intense acting which grounds the busy production with riveting focus. Her “Diamonds are Forever” is spellbinding and there’s saucy humor when it’s followed by “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,” “Material Girl” and “Single Ladies.” [more]

Hadestown

April 29, 2019

The dazzling Broadway production of Anais Mitchell’s musical "Hadestown" proves director/developer Rachel Chavkin to be a creative genius. If you had not known it after she fitted her theater-in-the round production of "Natasha and Pierre and the Comet of 1812" into a Broadway theater, it is even more obvious now. This time she has turned her 2016 New York Theatre Workshop staging in the round into a production suitable for Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre with its proscenium stage without losing the sense that the musical takes place in many different places. Along with gripping choreography and movement from David Neumann and an onstage jazz band of six, the show simply takes your breath away, telling the joint stories of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Hades and Persephone. [more]

The Play That Goes Wrong

April 12, 2017

While the non-stop buffoonery is reminiscent of Charles Ludlam and his Ridiculous Theatrical Company, this British import (produced by London’s Mischief Theater, no less) immediately evokes inevitable comparisons with "Noises Off," Michael Frayn’s divine and (admittedly, more) sophisticated farce about a community theater company putting on a play--perhaps the most hilarious, theatrical farce that has ever been devised by a playwright. But the present offering also has less of an agenda, settling for the sheer mayhem of putting together a group of people on a stage, during an ongoing performance, when absolutely everything that can possibly go wrong, does. It’s a surefire setup for the comic and rewarding chaos that ensues. In the end, and basically throughout, "The Play that Goes Wrong" has gone very right, indeed. [more]
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Copyright Jack Quinn, 2001-2026