New York

DEATH BECOMES HER IS NOT FOR PURITANS OR VICTORIAN GRANDMOTHERS. BUT HOW MANY OF THEM ARE AROUND TODAY? Death Becomes Her, the new musical based on the eponymous 1992 black comedy/fantasy and gay cult classic, starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, is boisterous, loud and crass. It’s filled with tasteless one-liners and bawdy slapstick. And…

A GENERATIONAL GAP AND A PLAYWRITING GAP As a result of the #MeToo movement, there has been much brought to light about women working in America. But here’s a note to the younger generations about life for women in the 80s: if you were homosexual, you were considered a pervert and treated as such; when…

JUST AS PROMISED, IT’S BIG! IT’S GAY! IT’S JAMBOREEING! Yes, there is a way to escape the post-election blues for 90 minutes: The Big Gay Jamboree at the Orpheum Theatre is the sublimely ridiculous remedy we need. Marla Mindelle — who co-wrote the book with Jonathan Parks-Ramage and the songs with Philip Drennen — definitely has a…

SOMETHING WICKED THAT WAY GOES No plague can kill a great show. It came back after COVID. In a rare clash of film noir, performance art, an awesome murder mystery party, and Shakespeare, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More is the ultimate voyeuristic thrill. Audience members don Venetian masks and explore the depths of the 1930s-style McKittrick…

A NEOLITHIC AND LEAN LEAR Shakespeare’s works can be read in many ways and I have witnessed so many diverse stage interpretations that I never know what I am about to see when I venture towards one of his plays. This time it was King Lear, which opened tonight at The Shed, directed by Rob Ashford, Kenneth Branagh,…

THE ZZZZzzz TEAM The Z Team, currently playing at Theatre Row, is a new work by father-and-son team Jeff and Jacob Foy. Directed by Jeff Whiting, it’s advertised to be uproarious: “If The Office and The Bad News Bears had a baby, it would be The Z Team.” Times like this call for lighthearted comedies, so…

THERE’S NO ‘MAYBE’ ABOUT IT HAPPINESS HAS LANDED AT THE BELASCO When Avenue Q ran against Wicked at the Tonys for Best Musical, it was often compared to the American folktale The Little Engine That Could vs. the big corporate multi-million-dollar musical. One was a small contender with lots of heart; the other a huge…

HELLO, SATCHMO! THANK GOODNESS LOUIS IS BACK IN TOWN; WE NEED HIM MORE THAN EVER There’s a new jukebox musical in town. But don’t run in the other direction. A Wonderful World, which opened at Studio 54 tonight, November 11, is the bio-musical of Louis Armstrong, aka the Ambassador of Blues, the King of Jazz,…

Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold on to Me Darling is playing through Dec. 22, starring Adam Driver, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Joining Driver as Strings McCrane are Heather Burns as Nancy, Adelaide Clemens as Essie, Keith Nobbs as Jimmy, CJ Wilson as Duke, and Frank Wood as Mitch. On learning of his mother’s death, country music icon Strings McCrane (Driver) finds himself in an existential tailspin. The only way out,…

There’s an eponymous and ominous presence onstage at New York City Center Stage I. You can’t see him. But his evil, autocratic and tyrannical nature permeates every scene in Erika Sheffer’s riveting play, Vladimir, from the moment we see a drunk Boris Yeltsin resign to the play’s tragic ending. That man, of course, is Vladimir…

EVERYTHING KREYÒL IS NEW AGAIN Seemingly caught between differing identities and life paths, Simone is at a crossroads. Half African American and half Haitian, this early thirties, native New Yorker recently left a potentially successful career in finance because it didn’t suit her more humanistic values. Looking to help heal the world and herself, Simone…

STARRING GEORGE CLOONEY IN HIS BROADWAY PREMIERE Good Night, and Good Luck, a new play by  George Clooney  and  Grant Heslov, and directed by Tony Award winner  David Cromer, will premiere on Broadway at the historic Winter Garden Theatre (1634 Broadway). Performances will begin on Wednesday, March 12, with an opening night set for Thursday, April 3, 2025. Clooney…

OUR SHOCKING HEALTH CARE SYSTEM Rawshock, a new drama by Rita Lewis which opened last night for a limited run by Manhattan Rep at the Chain Theatre, is set in a psychiatric hospital. As is often the case in this genre of plays and films, the people outside the mental health facility are more disturbed…