New York

The “J2” in the name J2 Spotlight Theater Company of Manhattan doesn’t refer to descriptions that start with the letter “J,” like “joyful” and “joke-filled,” but it might as well, because their current offering is all that and more. The double dose of J is actually a nod to its co-founder/executive producer, Jim Jimirro, partnered…

MATH APPEAL The Monday Night Musicals series at the intimate Magnet Theater offers a vibrant platform for new work that blends comedic storytelling with musical innovation. Stripped down to the essentials — music, lyrics, and performance — the series feels like both a showcase and a springboard, providing a glimpse of shows that could thrive…

FLESHING IT OUT OF THE PARK The Monday Night Musicals series at the intimate Magnet Theater is serving up a theatrical amusement for those who like their bluegrass pickin’ with a side of post-apocalyptic patriarchy. Produced by Theater of Apes, this one-act musical runs through June on Mondays. The series spotlights new works that blend…

BEYOND THE SEA AND STRAIGHT INTO YOUR HEART Well, ring-a-ding-ding, folks — Broadway’s got itself a bona fide, velvet-voiced heartthrob lighting up Circle in the Square, and his name’s Jonathan Groff. In Just in Time, Groff doesn’t just croon — he glides, he grins, and he’s got more razzle-dazzle than a sock hop under a…

THIS IS HOW GLORY FEELS Here’s an especially poignant and powerful musical about a real episode from the past that finally gains the word “Broadway” to its history exactly 100 years after the actual incidents took place. Its triumphant current incarnation is prominent in the lists of nominees for various theatre awards (including six Tony…

A JAZZY JUMBALAYA OF JOY The current revival of The Pirates of Penzance at the Todd Haimes Theatre isn’t just a revival — it’s a reincarnation. Yes, rechristened, reimagined, and thoroughly rewired, this rollicking remix of Gilbert and Sullivan’s nautical nonsense has a new title, a new book, a new sound, and enough New Orleans…

FROM SWEATSHOP FLOORS TO BROADWAY DOORS: REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES SEAMS TOGETHER A RUNWAY HIT The empowering new musical Real Women Have Curves, which opened Sunday night at the James Earl Jones Theatre, is a feel-good, crowd-pleasing celebration of identity, ambition, and body positivity. Based on Josefina López’s play and the acclaimed HBO film (co-written…

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” ~ Oscar Wilde The Louvre, Uffizi, and Hermitage may dazzle you with their emphasis on fine arts, the British Museum may educate you with its historical range, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art does it all; it is undoubtedly the Eighth Wonder of…

First produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969, Lonne Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark Old Men became an immediate critical success and a defining work of its era. For decades, it stood as the definitive Black American family drama — a blueprint for generations of playwrights, including August Wilson. Now, in a limited Off-Broadway…

HOORAY FOR THIS BANQUET OF BLISS— ALL THOSE SENSATIONAL SONGS AND ENERGY— BEING ALIVE ON STAGE Words seem woefully inadequate to praise the wonderful, song-stuffed, dazzling and polished production featuring highlights from the musicals of Stephen Sondheim. The limited run of Sondheim’s Old Friends is highlight after highlight. For those many fans who’ve seen Bernadette…

A FUN, LIVELY KANDER & EBB MUSICAL AND THE TICKET PRICE ISN’T EX-ZORBA-TANT Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: If a character in musical theatre is going to make a declaration of independence, these three things are cherished. A good example is Zorba!. It is a cornucopia of carpe diem being treated to a…

SEEING THE UNSEEN: JULIA BELL BARRY’S HAUNTING NEW PLAY Part memoir, part The Sixth Sense, Julia Barry Bell’s new play, which opened tonight at Theatre Row, asks a haunting question: how do we respond to a child who seems to have extraordinary gifts? In the 1999 film, young Cole, who sees dead people, is sent…

DEATH BECOMES HIM In 2016, Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star introduced a sound I’d never heard on Broadway—a blend of Americana and bluegrass so distinct it felt like a new musical dialect. Nearly a decade later, that rare sensation returns with Dead Outlaw, the dark and bizarre new musical by David Yazbek and…