Thursday, October 16, 2025
RAGTIME is a sweeping musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel that follows three fictional families in pursuit of the American Dream at the dawn of the 20th Century: Black pianist Coal…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:55PMAs the plot follows the intersecting fortunes of those three characters’ families, each seeking to redeem the country’s promise at a time of tumultuous change, old-fashioned musical-thea…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:52PMFrom the moment the chorus rises from the stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater during the opening number of Ragtime, you know you’re in for something special—a big Broadway musical with …
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:52PMIt’s a thrilling experience, though on the Vivian Beaumont Theater’s vast stage this pageant of a musical feels a bit skimpy. Not that the musical needs opulent sets, but it does call fo…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:52PMRagtime culminates with two huge 11 o’clock numbers, from Henry and Levy, a Tony-winner and Olivier-nominee whose names are rightfully big draws to the show. Yet the showstopping vocal mom…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:52PMRagtime settles into a richer and more internal mode quickly, in a large part due to the textured performances of its leads and the thought they’ve applied to Ahrens and Flaherty’s score…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:52PMThe original Broadway production in 1998 featured career-changing performances from Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald and Marin Mazzie. Now, in 2025, you feel every bit as fortunate to b…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:52PMWhile deBessonet could have better provided a certain focus or point of view – Ragtime‘s telling of America’s immigrant tale is, at this point in history, ripe for the picking – she …
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:52PMHenry has been at the forefront of Broadway leading men for 15 years, but this show is his triumph. He takes one of the most demanding roles in the Broadway canon and he does it full justice…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:52PMOne year ago, seated at City Center, I cried at both numbers and left the theater deeply shaken. If that same power hasn’t quite held, it is perhaps no fault of a broadly first-rate produc…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:51PMMonday, September 29, 2025
As Jacob tears through Nottingham in a whirlwind of drugs, girls, and bar fights, he makes a fatal mistake that lands him in prison. But as he struggles to accept the consequences of his act…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:26PM“Punch” comes up short in capturing the exchange between the victim’s family and the perpetrator because it always leans on Jacob’s perspective, down to an ending that shows him happ…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:26PMJames Graham’s play Punch, as directed by Adam Penford, is a very, very British work: it’s sturdily acted, choreo-directed within an inch of its life and shot through with a sense of com…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:26PMIt leads to a luminous climax, arguably the most beautifully written single scene of the year. Jacob, Joan, David, and moderator Nicola (Camila Canó-Flaviá) sit in a simple half-circle, on…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:26PMIt’s quite a story, though not necessarily the kind that makes for the most astonishing theater. That’s not to denigrate Punch, which is solidly built and well-meaning without sanctimony…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:26PMDespite the inherent drama and sadness of the entire situation, Punch too often feels like a PSA for the restorative justice procedure, with lots of exposition and step-by-step procedural in…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:25PMTo criticize a play that tells this story of transformation is to be a grump. But good intentions aren’t enough to make a good play. The suspense leading up to the first meeting between th…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:25PMBold and deeply human, Punch is initially a bit slow on the wind up, but its stellar cast help weave together an almost unbelievable story of compassion and empathy in its second act that le…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:25PMBut while story itself is inspiring, some central emotional focus seems missing from the way it unfolds in Punch, which winds up feeling less like a full-blown play and more like a digressiv…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:25PMJames Graham’s Punch, just brought to New York from England’s Nottingham (approx. 127 miles northwest of London) and London’s fringe, plunges more deeply into emotional areas—almost …
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:25PMSunday, September 28, 2025
Celebrated actors Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are real-life friends who are starring on Broadway as two friends searching for meaning in an absurd world. Waiting for Godot is the greatest p…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:28PMWhat’s curious in “Waiting for Godot” is that the textual distillation we have come to expect from Lloyd is largely missing. So is his interpretive stamp. For the most part here, he do…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:28PMTheir finely tuned performances are unshowy and completely in service of the production. They’re neither vaudevillians clowning for our enjoyment nor thespians hamming up each ponderous li…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:26PMNeither one of them is reinventing the wheel, and neither is Lloyd. Despite the absence of a tree—or maybe they’re inside the tree?—it’s a relatively straightforward Waiting for Godo…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:26PMIs Reeves any good? Eh, not really. This particularly meandering and stiff “Godot” is hardly an excellent adventure. Nor, by the way, is it a bogus journey. It’s, as Bill and Ted would…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:26PMAs for the acting, there’s little doubt that Winter is the most natural (and more experienced) stage actor of the two, more versatile and, when necessary, capable to drawing real pathos fr…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:26PMThis production isn’t exactly cracking the material open in any new way, but soars in one particular aspect: the friendship between its leads. Reeves and Winter are old friends playing old…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:26PMLloyd’s production isn’t an embarrassing misfire but it’s underwhelming. This is a work in which the slapstick clowning and the tricky verbal non sequiturs should be merely the surface…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:26PMThe pleasant prospect of seeing Reeves and Winter together makes this production to some extent critic-proof—and anyhow, this is a play in which “Crritic!” is the worst insult that Est…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:26PMThis return match-up (“Together again at last!”) has turned the playwright’s vaudevillian clowns into comics of a cooler sort. If not stoner dudes — they are, after all, both 60ish n…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:26PMTuesday, September 16, 2025
Bobby Cannavale, James Corden, and Neil Patrick Harris return to the stage in the first Broadway revival of the Tony Award®-winning play ART by Yasmina Reza. Directed by Scott Ellis (Take M…
SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:14PM 
