All stories by Joshua Barone on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Review: ‘Oh, Mary!’ Turns an Unhinged Bit Into Real Theater by Joshua Barone

Cole Escola’s play, which imagines Mary Todd Lincoln as a frustrated cabaret singer, surprisingly pulls off stretching a stupid joke to its extremes.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:36PM
Sunday, February 4, 2024

The Musical Force Behind the Communal, Queer ‘Bark of Millions’ by Joshua Barone

Matt Ray is a prolific songwriter and the musical nexus of New York’s alt-cabaret scene. His next project: Taylor Mac’s latest marathon performance.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:32PM
Wednesday, December 20, 2023

How Richard Nelson’s ‘Our Life in Art’ Was Translated, Twice by Joshua Barone

Richard Nelson’s “Our Life in Art” has been translated into Russian and French. Both times required, above all, preserving a specific sensibility.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:12AM
Thursday, December 14, 2023

Stephen Sondheim Belongs in the Pantheon of American Composers by Joshua Barone

Sondheim was a titan of musical theater. But four recent shows onstage in New York argue for his place among classical music luminaries, too.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:12AM
Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Best Classical Music Performances of 2023 by Zachary Woolfe and Joshua Barone

Feats, farewells and musical treasures in a year of post-pandemic financial pressures.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:01AM
Thursday, November 16, 2023

Philip Glass’s Piano Etudes: A Diary of an Influential Life by Joshua Barone

Begun to improve his own technique, piano exercises that Glass wrote over decades are the subject this month of a new book, a concert and dances.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:58PM
Sunday, June 25, 2023

Meredith Monk’s ‘Indra’s Net’ Takes the Stage in Amsterdam by Joshua Barone

The staged premiere of her new work “Indra’s Net” in Amsterdam comes as a set of recordings offers a retrospective of one of our most humane artists.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:03PM
Thursday, April 20, 2023

‘Carmen’ Review: We’re Not in Spain Anymore by Joshua Barone

The choreographer Benjamin Millepied’s directing debut is an of-the-moment but scattered take on a classic love story.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:00AM
Friday, April 14, 2023

‘The Phantom of the Opera’: Thinking of a Spectacle Fondly by Joshua Barone, Alexis Soloski and Elisabeth Vincentelli

As the longest-running musical in Broadway history closes, Times critics with a lasting affection for the show take stock of its legacy.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:24PM
Friday, March 31, 2023

Review: Philip Glass and the Meaning of Life by Joshua Barone

The director Phelim McDermott, who has acted like a visual translator of Glass’s music, pays tribute to the composer in their show “Tao of Glass.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:12PM
Monday, March 13, 2023

A Conductor Arrives at Encores! With Jerry Herman’s ‘Dear World’ by Joshua Barone

Mary-Mitchell Campbell, the series’ new music director, will lead a restored performance of “Dear World,” starring Donna Murphy.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:09PM
Wednesday, February 22, 2023

What to See This Spring in NYC: Broadway Shows, Concerts and More by Steven McElroy, Joshua Barone, Siobhan Burke, Jon Pareles, Brian Seibert, Lindsay Zoladz and Roslyn Sulcas

“Life of Pi” and Laura Linney on Broadway, Lise Davidsen at the Met Opera, SZA on tour: Here’s what we’re looking forward to this season.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:00AM
Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Justin Peck’s New Americana, ‘Copland Dance Episodes’ by Joshua Barone and Mark Sommerfeld

At New York City Ballet, Peck’s “Copland Dance Episodes” brings the composer’s three classic ballet scores under one roof, at last.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:30PM
Monday, August 15, 2022

Solange Enters New Territory: Ballet Composer by Joshua Barone

The multihyphenate pop star will compose her first ballet score for the Fall Fashion Gala at New York City Ballet in September.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:00PM
Thursday, April 21, 2022

Ivo van Hove on His Famously Short Rehearsal Times by Joshua Barone

Since his first production a quarter-century ago, the director has honed a process defined by tight schedules and bold, decisive changes.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:33AM
Thursday, March 10, 2022

Review: A Rescue Operation Salvages Leonard Bernstein’s Final Opera by Joshua Barone

In Paris, a new production of “A Quiet Place” makes a strong case for a work that has long struggled to join the repertory.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:24PM
Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Teresa Reichlen Retires From New York City Ballet by Joshua Barone

A principal dancer since 2009, Reichlen will make her final appearance in George Balanchine’s one-act “Swan Lake” on Feb. 19.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:00AM
Monday, November 22, 2021

The Emails Behind the Opera ‘Eurydice’ by Joshua Barone

For several years, the composer Matthew Aucoin corresponded with Sarah Ruhl about how to adapt her play into the Met Opera’s latest premiere.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:33PM
Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Ballet Theater Gives the Stage to This Pianist’s Drag Persona by Joshua Barone

Lypsinka, the alter ego of John Epperson, a longtime pianist for Ballet Theater, will perform as part of the company’s inaugural Pride Nights.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:01PM
Friday, October 22, 2021

Andrew Lloyd Webber Brings the Music of the Night Back to ‘Phantom’ by Joshua Barone

After a long pandemic pause, “The Phantom of the Opera” is returning to Broadway with some help from its creator.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:36PM
Friday, October 15, 2021

Glimmerglass Festival Unveils Its Leader’s Final Season by Joshua Barone

Francesca Zambello, who has overseen a dozen editions of the opera festival in upstate New York, will depart next summer.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:32PM
Tuesday, September 14, 2021

A Climate Opera Arrives in New York, With 21 Tons of Sand by Joshua Barone

“Sun & Sea (Marina),” an operatic installation that won the top prize at the Venice Biennale, is being staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:36PM
Friday, September 3, 2021

When Opera Livestreams Became Live Performances by Joshua Barone

This summer, three European productions, previously available to American audiences only online, were at last accessible in person.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18AM
Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Richard Nelson’s New Play Closes a Chapter of Theater History by Joshua Barone

“What Happened?: The Michaels Abroad” is the 12th and final installment in the quiet yet sweeping “Rhinebeck Panorama.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24AM
Sunday, August 15, 2021

Review: ‘The Threepenny Opera’ Returns Home, Liberated by Joshua Barone

Barrie Kosky’s new production for the Berliner Ensemble, at the theater where the famous work premiered, knows where to break the rules.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:42PM
Tuesday, August 10, 2021

An Opera Screams for Human Dignity by Joshua Barone

Luigi Nono’s furiously political and prophetic “Intolleranza 1960” arrives at the Salzburg Festival.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:54PM
Tuesday, May 25, 2021

‘Myths and Hymns,’ a Theater Cult Favorite, Changes Shape Again by Joshua Barone

Adam Guettel’s genre-clashing song cycle has taken on many forms. The latest: a starry online mini-series.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:18PM
Thursday, March 25, 2021

Kurt Weill’s Path From Europe to Broadway Was a Straight Line by Joshua Barone

Weill’s early, Weimar-era works reveal the qualities that found a natural home in his golden age American musicals.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:42AM
Wednesday, March 10, 2021

A New ‘Aida’ Lands in the Middle of France’s Culture Wars by Joshua Barone

The production, which examines the work’s colonial legacy, opened after the far right accused the Paris Opera of “antiracism gone mad.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:36PM
Sunday, October 18, 2020

Anne Washburn Just Wants Her Trump Play to Be Irrelevant by Joshua Barone

“Shipwreck,” a fantasia about white liberals and the president’s infamous dinner with James Comey, has been adapted into an audio play.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:48PM
Sunday, May 24, 2020

The Fall of Autumn: Live Performance Producers Are Giving Up on 2020 by Michael Paulson, Joshua Barone, Ben Sisario and Zachary Woolfe

Uncertainty about the coronavirus and the challenge of protecting audiences and artists is prompting many prominent presenters to wait till next year.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:32PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards