New York

MARRIAGE, MOVIES & MISERIES AT MINETTA LANE Marriage may be like a garden — has to be consistently and attentively nurtured and cared for or it will wither instead of bloom and grow — but for Ben and Mira in The Disappear, nobody’s doing much watering, making this particular union look parched, prickly, and perilously…

There could have been a better time to bring back Bug, Tracy Letts’s disturbing drama about paranoia and its devastating consequences. We have enough to be paranoid about these days, don’t you think? Nevertheless, Manhattan Theatre Club has revived Letts’s 1996 psychological thriller—this is the 2020 production direct from Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago—starring Letts’s…

VIRTUAL CASTING SEARCH LAUNCHED FOR BROADWAY’S BEACHES Beaches, A New Musical has launched a virtual casting search titled “Are You a Little Cee Cee?”, inviting young performers to audition for the role of Little Cee Cee, the childhood version of one of the story’s two iconic best friends. Video submissions are being accepted now through…

SISTERHOOD, INTERRUPTED Ragtime, Liberation, and the unfinished work of women’s equality Even when we know better, most of us seem to think that history proceeds in a linear manner. Life in the present, while far from perfect, is an improvement over life in the past, isn’t it? Women as a whole today enjoy expanded educational…

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE, UP CLOSE AND BREATH-BY-BREATH Opera this intimate feels less like a performance and more like a shared act of wonder This holiday season, multi-Grammy Award winner and Olivier Award–winning star Joyce DiDonato made opera feel truly intimate—an entirely new experience for me. She brought her formidable talent to a brand-new production of…

One of the great pleasures of New York City is that it’s a place where it feels perfectly normal to hear someone say, “I’m headed to SoHo to see an adult Christmas puppet show,” and mean it sincerely. Now in its 26th year, Basil Twist’s Puppet Parlor, playing at HERE Arts Center, has become exactly…

ANNA CHRISTIE RIDES THE TIDE AGAIN An early O’Neill, boldly staged, will sweep you into a fog-shrouded world of fate, forgiveness, and hard-won grace. “A rich and salty play,” wrote one critic of Anna Christie when it premiered in New York in 1921. “Written with abundant imagination,” claimed another. Yet a third critic called the…

MORAL ROT MASQUERADING AS VIRTUE Broderick underplays the zealot Tartuffe in Lucas Hnath’s contemporary take, but the cast keeps the comedy crackling The art of looking virtuous while being utterly fake is a talent as old as theater itself, and Molière’s Tartuffe remains the most iconic theatrical example. Having seen André De Shields’s sly, invigorating version…

ENDURANCE, MANIA, AND THE WILL TO SURVIVE A raw solo performance that turns lived experience into hard-earned clarity Bipolar disorder, marked by its vertiginous highs and devastating lows, is an incurable condition that exacts a profound toll on those who live with it. Yet within this relentless struggle, many who are afflicted demonstrate a remarkable…

ALL TELL AND NO SHOW MAKES FOR A DULL OUTING Jake Shore’s thriller talks itself into submission ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ It’s the middle of the night when Joe (Ryan Tramont) hears pounding at his door. It’s his friend Barry (Brad Fryman), summoned in a panic because Joe claims…

AN EXCEPTIONAL ENSEMBLE IN A CROWDED PLAY Immigrant stories echo through a Queens basement — and across decades ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Queens is a New York borough unlike any other, celebrated as the most linguistically diverse place on Earth. Between 160 and 500 languages are spoken across its…

WHEN SUPERPOWERS SING Broadway’s new revival of Chess thrills more than it confounds ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ “Welcome to our Cold War Musical!” That greeting — from the narrator (aka Arbiter) of Chess, the famed rock opera now being revived on Broadway with a starry cast and new book…

A BELOVED CLASSIC REBORN WITH BELL CHOIRS, SNOWFALL & HEART ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Are you fond of bell choirs, Christmas carols, indoor snow, and classic holiday tales? Then you’ll want to make your way to the PAC, where the Old Vic’s production of A Christmas Carol opened last…