New York

BROADWAY GETS FANTASTICK The world’s longest-running musical takes its first Broadway bow in a beautifully reconsidered form It took The Fantasticks 66 years to get to Broadway. Then again, a musical that ran Off-Broadway for 42 years and 17,162 performances has never exactly needed Broadway’s stamp of approval. But this fall, Tom Jones and Harvey…

ABE AMONG THE GRAVES Death of Classical takes “Lincoln in the Bardo” where it was practically begging to go: the cemetery Talk about knowing your venue. Before the Metropolitan Opera unveils Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Lincoln in the Bardo on October 19, Death of Classical is taking this ghost-filled new opera out for a…

IVANOV GETS THE SHORT END Chekhov’s despair survives the cuts, but the production struggles to connect the pieces It is difficult to make depression theatrically vivid when its essential symptoms are misery, inertia, and the absence of purpose rather than anything visually dramatic. That is the particular challenge of Chekhov’s Ivanov, and I have already…

THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW, WHETHER YOU NEED ONE OR NOT Bill Irwin makes a house call on Molière There are hypochondriacs, and then there is Argan, the gloriously self-absorbed “professional patient” at the center of Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid. This fall, Tony winner Bill Irwin returns to Broadway, and to a playwright particularly…

KNOCK, KNOCK. WHO’S THERE? TOC TOC. Six strangers, one missing psychiatrist, and a waiting room full of compulsions Six patients walk into a psychiatrist’s waiting room. No, that’s not the setup for a joke—although in Laurent Baffie’s international hit comedy TOC TOC, it certainly becomes one. Repertorio Español brings the play to New York in…

A THRILLER THAT TAKES A WHILE TO FLUSH OUT A perfectly matched cast and Andrew Block’s resourceful staging eventually ignite Tom Kelly’s pitch-black thriller, but the promised comedy rarely surfaces No, The Bathroom Attendant doesn’t take place in a public bathroom. The title refers to how far into indigence its protagonist has fallen—a condition made…

CAT COHEN HAS A STROKE! …OF COMIC GENIUS She turns a terrifying brush with mortality into a deliriously funny celebration of vanity, glamour and making absolutely everything about herself Only Cat Cohen can turn a sudden, life-threatening neurological event into an evening in which the audience laughs almost continuously and springs to its feet in…

10 THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT THIS ALREADY The popular teen comedy heads to Broadway with Carly Rae Jepsen supplying the tunes Padua High is back in session. 10 Things I Hate About You, the 1999 teen comedy that introduced a generation to Kat Stratford, Patrick Verona—and Heath Ledger singing his way across a set of…

MANGA À TROIS Duncan Sheik and Leah Nanako Winkler turn Moyoco Anno’s provocative graphic novel into an Off-Broadway musical A manga set in early 20th-century Paris is about to become an American musical, and it is getting a suitably unusual home. Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, with music and lyrics by Spring Awakening composer Duncan Sheik…

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE WORLD OF TECH An inventive immersive experience turns startup culture into an office you may not want to leave Starting a new job can be stressful, but luckily for audiences at The Whole Sky All Diamonds, most of the work will be done by the “real” employees in the cast. You’ll…

A WINTER’S TALE FOR ALL SEASONS Raúl Esparza anchors a spirited, grandly theatrical production of one of Shakespeare’s trickier plays Let’s face it, fellas, who among us hasn’t had our best friend stay with us and our wife for a few months only to suspect maybe bestie and wife got a little too friendly? Such…

A VIEW FROM THE INSIDE An intriguing drama keeps climbing but never quite reaches the heights it promises The New York premiere of The Vessel by Brendan George combines nonfiction with fiction, inspired by the true story of New York City’s infamous Hudson Yards landmark. The 150-foot-tall structure with eight levels of interconnected stairs and…

NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR CONTENT Shakespeare’s unruly tragicomedy gets a splendid Central Park outing powered by a remarkable cast Do not surrender to the city heat: after the opening production of Romeo & Juliet, The Public Theater returns to Central Park with The Winter’s Tale, the second offering of this summer’s Free Shakespeare…

A WOMAN UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Wendy Wasserstein’s political comedy remains disturbingly current nearly three decades after its Broadway premiere How fitting that La Femme Theatre Productions, an Off-Broadway company dedicated to exploring and celebrating the universal female experience, should revive Wendy Wasserstein’s An American Daughter. Nearly three decades after its Broadway premiere, Wasserstein’s 1997 play…

SACRED GROUND, SHIFTING FOOTING Bubba Weiler’s quietly affecting drama finds two boys questioning far more than their faith For generations, serving as an altar boy has been one of the most visible ways young Catholics participate in the life of the Church. Altar boys assist the priest by preparing for Mass, ringing bells, burning incense,…

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY SOUNDS Audible Theater’s immersive headphone horror transforms the oldest ghost story trick into a chilling theatrical experience Imagine listening to an audiobook through headphones when the story begins listening back. That’s the unnerving premise behind A Ghost in Your Ear, the acclaimed London horror hit making its American premiere this fall…