New York

THIS COMPANY KNOWS HOW TO QUARK IT One of Tom Stoppard’s most accessible plays gets a fine Off-Broadway revival by Bedlam Theatre Company. Like a very cerebral whodunit, the plot of Arcadia follows Thomasina Coverly, who in 1809 is a gifted teenager with very advanced ideas about physics and math. She studies with Septimus Hodge,…

GREAT STUFF IS COOKING IN THIS KITCHEN The world premiere of new coming-of-age musical, HELL’S KITCHEN, with music and lyrics by New York’s own 15-time Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys and playwright Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety), now in previews at The Public Theater with the official opening on November 19, 2023….

TAKING REFUGE IN THEATER Where does one find refuge? Is it somewhere in this physical world or on the spiritual plane? Or is there some intersectional vortex where the two meet and handily co-exist? Possibly in a hand-hewn house with no address, maybe off the grid and deep in the Illinois woods? In Nathan Alan…

THE LONG-PLAYING STEREOPHONIC SHOULD’VE BEEN A SINGLE David Adjmi’s Stereophonic at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Daniel Aukin, has an excellent ensemble cast, a perfectly realistic set by David Zinn and pleasant, if derivative music by Will Butler. Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite make up for the verbosity and excessive length of the play. Eli Gelb and…

THE BLOOM IS SOON TO BE ON THE WHITE ROSE Based on the true story of young people bravely standing up to injustice, White Rose: The Musical , which begins its Off-Broadway debut   January 17, 2024, is a powerful new musical that follows the inspiring story of a courageous group of university students who stood…

DRAC-OOH-LA-LA Beware ladies and gentlemen and every other gender expression currently walking the planet.   There’s a new Dracula in town and he is HAWT! Looking much more like a young Dolph Lundgren than an old Bela Lugosi, the tall, blonde, Aryan ideal at the center of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors  is on the prowl for…

FINALLY, A MUSICAL THAT ISN’T GUTEN-FREE Those who saw Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells in The Book of Mormon have been looking forward eagerly to their return as a team in Gutenberg! The Musical!  They will not be disappointed. Scott Brown and Anthony King’s Gutenberg!, nimbly directed by Alex Timbers, is a blast from beginning to…

NO LONGER JUST ROLLING ALONG, MERRILY HAS LANDED WHERE IT BELONGS: BROADWAY It’s fitting that Merrily We Roll Along, which originally opened on Broadway in 1981 to mostly negative reviews, has been refurbished in the equally restored Hudson Theater. Both the theater and production make the perfect classy pair — stunning theater at its best…

SWING…AND MISS The Chicago Tribune review of Swing State, as advertised on the production poster, charged me with excitement in seeing Rebecca Gilman’s new play. “Perhaps the first of the great American plays of this decade. It blew me away!” Well, I wish I had that same experience. Mary Beth Fisher and Bubba Weiler The…

‘CAUSE YOU GOT TO HAVE FRIENDS Israeli playwright Anat Gov’s Best Friends comes to the 14th Street Y with an impressive history. Best Friends is the longest-running comedy in Israel and winner of the prestigious Israel National Theater Award for Best Comedy in 1999. It also had a sold-out run at Rattlestick Theater. Now, directed…