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  Theatre in Review: Prayer for the French Republic (Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
What a difference a few years makes: Prayer for the French Republic, returning after an acclaimed 2022 run at MTC's City Center venue, remains (despite a few structural oddities) a powerful piece, but current events -- ...
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Theatre in Review: Appropriate (Second Stage/Hayes Theater)
For his 2014 work, now making a scorching Broadway debut, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has imagined the most spectacularly dysfunctional family since the Westons of August: Osage County. Congregating at an Arkansas ...
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Theatre in Review: The Night of the Iguana (La Femme Theatre Productions)
The Night of the Iguana is Tennessee Williams' showdown at the Last Chance Hotel. Officially called the Costa Verde, it's a rattletrap retreat, set high above the ocean, which acts as a terminus for the dying, ...
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Theatre in Review: Buena Vista Social Club (Atlantic Theater Company)
Can a musical thrive on musicianship alone? That's the question posed by Buena Vista Social Club, which puts the exceedingly gifted members of its band at center stage. It's a clear case of playing to a show's strengths and ...
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Theatre in Review: Death, Let Me Do My Show (Orpheum Theatre)
One thing is clear from the new show at the Orpheum: Death becomes Rachel Bloom. As someone who doesn't particularly consider myself a fan, I approached Death, Let Me Do My Show with trepidations, none of which were ...
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Theatre in Review: Madwomen of the West (Actors Temple Theatre)
The hell with a balanced budget: It's time for Congress to pass The Defense of Actresses of a Certain Age Act. This highly necessary law will highlight and punish the creators of shoddy vehicles for gifted female performers who, for ...
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Theatre in Review: The Gardens of Anuncia (Lincoln Center Theater Company)
Our subject today is the care and feeding of future stars. Graciela Daniele was raised by her mother, aunt, and grandmother in Buenos Aires in the 1940s and '50s; in this new musical memoir, she pays tribute to their indelible ...
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Theatre in Review: How to Dance in Ohio (Belasco Theatre)
How to Dance in Ohio puts its best foot forward, bringing its young lead performers onstage for a quick pre-show talk and, instantly, you grasp the show's rationale: They're the most winning bunch of talents you're likely to ...
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Theatre in Review: Life and Times of Michael K (St. Ann's Warehouse)
There are two ways of thinking about Life and Times of Michael K, and whichever you subscribe to will certainly influence your experience at St. Ann's Warehouse. The first has to do with the sheer display of craft. A co ...
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Theatre in Review: Lone Star (Ruth Stage/Theatre Row)
"Imagine a Burt Reynolds movie as written by Mel Brooks, and you might have an approximation of the hilarity." So wrote Mel Gussow about Lone Star when it opened on Broadway in 1979 to general acclaim (and admittedly, a ...
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Theatre in Review: Manahatta (Public Theater)
Manahatta is a thing of mirrors, a fact immediately obvious in Marcelo Martínez García's set, which features an upstage reflecting wall that, when backlit, reveals new depths. This is, I think, a nod to the structure ...
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Theatre in Review: Spain (Second Stage)
The care and handling of historical material is an ongoing challenge for playwrights. Stick too stodgily to the historical record and you might bore the audience; reach too insistently for contemporary relevance and you risk ending up ...
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Theatre in Review: Here We Are (The Shed)
You didn't think Stephen Sondheim would say goodbye with a warm hug, did you? For his final act, our greatest musical theatre artist teamed up with playwright David Ives and director Joe Mantello on a wicked little ...
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Theatre in Review: 'Til Death (Abingdon Theatre)/The Jerusalem Syndrome (York Theatre)
Some weeks, nothing goes right; for example, two new plays, opening just after Thanksgiving, made for back-to-back headscratchers, leaving one pondering the mysterious process by which some shows get produced. 'Til Death ...
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Theatre in Review: Spamalot (St. James Theatre)/Mind Mangler (New World Stages)
Right now, in New York, you have an opportunity to sample two very different kinds of British humor, each with its own distinct provenance. The choice is yours, although one is, despite its revival status, noticeably fresher than the ...
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Theatre in Review: Amusements/School Pictures/Sad Boys in Harpy Land
For its fall attraction at the upstairs Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, Playwrights Horizons has cracked open a three-pack of solo shows. It's putting it mildly to note that they are a mixed lot, but this often seems to be the dominant format ...
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Theatre in Review: Hell's Kitchen (Public Theater)
The trouble with Hell's Kitchen, I think, is that it didn't spend enough time in the development kitchen. The new musical at the Public is a seriously undercooked dish, a slice of New York life that comes out of the oven ...
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Theatre in Review: Amid Falling Walls (National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, Museum of Jewish Heritage)
The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene has given us some mighty revelatory things over the years, including the lost 1920s operetta The Golden Bride and a heartbreaking Yiddish-language Fiddler on the Roof. In terms of ...
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Theatre in Review: Harmony (Ethel Barrymore Theatre)
After wandering the regional theatre scene for lo these many years -- I first saw it in La Jolla in 1997 -- Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's musical comes to Broadway in the production it has always deserved. Harmony
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Theatre in Review: Make Me Gorgeous! (Playhouse 46)
"Life, am I right?" So says Wade McCollum, his head wrapped in a scarf, his face obscured by movie-star sunglasses, the very picture of ennui; when an actor gets a laugh on the first line, you suspect you're in good hands. In this ...
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