New York

GOTTA SEE THIS SHOW! ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ I’ve been a fan of American Dance Machine since I was a kid in the 1980s—a company devoted to restaging Broadway choreography with museum-level precision and theatrical verve. Part artifact, part history lesson, and wholly a celebratory toast to Broadway’s golden-age…

A PLAY HELD TOGETHER BY BANDAGES: SCALPAL, PLEASE Colt Coeur’s world premiere of The Surgeon and Her Daughters, written by Chris Gabo, is a play of ideas—debates volleyed across generations, races, and cultures. Yet for all its verbal sparring, very little actually happens over the course of its two hours. It isn’t until the end…

“TOWN OF NASTY” AND OTHER THINGS WE BLURT OUT FOR FREE SPEECH Immersive pulp fiction where the audience writes the filth The world premiere of Dirty Books is an immersive play written and directed by Mara Lieberman, which opened November 13 at Bated Breath Theater—a decidedly Off-Off-Broadway adventure. Part art installation, part scripted play, part…

THE MARATHON OF MAKING ART A process piece that asks as much of the audience as the ensemble Perhaps the title of Nazareth Hassan’s new play Practice, which opened at Playwrights Horizons tonight, was inspired by the old joke: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.” Fittingly enough, the play follows a…

WHERE LONELINESS ECHOES AND CONSTELLATIONS ARE CALLING She gets up at dawn and is asleep by eight. She lives alone and doesn’t like people. Nobody at the hospital (where she’s worked for forty years) likes her. She watches TV and complains non-stop. In short, she’s thoroughly disagreeable. But what can you do if she’s your…

GLAMOUR BEFORE THE FALL A pansexual Richard II struts through power, pleasure, and ruin in the 1980s In its current staging at the Astor Place Theatre, Red Bull Theater serves up a Richard II for 2025 with lots of flash and style (some over substance). Director Craig Baldwin, who also adapted Shakespeare’s history play, leans…

THE SANDWICHES THAT COULD HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD A wickedly funny revision of history delights even as it faces catastrophe All they ever wanted was a sandwich… That’s the revised motivation for the young Bosnian conspirators who plotted to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in 1914. It’s posited by playwright Rajiv…

“It will never be forgiven.” With those chilling words, delivered just days ago, the UN climate chief branded our reckless indulgence in fossil-fueled destruction as a transgression so grave it stains the conscience of humankind, and he is not being dramatic! From Stratford-upon-Avon to London’s West End, and now at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater…

THE ONLY THING STRAIGHT IN THIS ROOM IS THE LINE TO THE CREDENZA Messy White Gays—which opened November 2 at Off-Broadway’s Duke on 42nd Street—is a contemporary drawing-room comedy, a modern spin on the comedy of manners, built on witty exchanges, social commentary, and the absurdities of its characters. Classic models include Oscar Wilde’s The…

A SPELLBINDING CAULDRON BOILS OVER, SUMMONING THEATER’S WILD GODS Suffice it to say, there’s nothing else in New York quite like Anne Washburn’s new play The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire, now at the Vineyard Theatre in collaboration with The Civilians. For anyone bored by the constraints of realism and naturalism—and instead drawn to theater…

A LOVE LETTER TO THE OBAMAS THAT BRINGS THE WHITE HOUSE DOWN The biggest surprise of the season for me has been 44 – The Musical, which opened last night at the Daryl Roth Theatre. Billed as a satirical look at the rise and presidency of Barack Obama—and the eccentric characters he met along the…

NOSTALGIA IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MODERNITY IN THE WINGS At a time when most new musicals chase novelty, Reunions looks lovingly backward. Conceived as a pair of one-act chamber pieces performed back-to-back without intermission, the evening runs about an hour and forty minutes and draws its stories from early-20th-century plays. Both feel distinctly old-fashioned (but, in…

POP-UP, FLOP-DOWN: WHEN DINNER UPSTAGES THE THEATER The foundational idea of Suite 524’s Pop Up Dinner Theater at Barlume Downstairs is solid — four courses from Barlume’s excellent kitchen matched with four one-act plays created for this venue, directed by Michael Domitrovich. The first play is set in the bar, where hors d’oeuvres are served, and…