All stories by Laura Collins-Hughes on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Review: A Bus Crash, a Breakup and More Reverberations in ‘Tremor’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

Brad Birch’s psychological thriller finds former lovers warily circling each other in Wales.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:24PM
Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Review: In ‘Woman and Scarecrow,’ Female Fury Doesn’t Get Its Due by Laura Collins-Hughes

Marina Carr’s blistering play seems ideal for this cathartic cultural moment. Its Irish Repertory Theater production is a missed opportunity.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:12PM
Monday, May 21, 2018

Review: After the Earthquake, a ‘Room’ Haunted by Memories by Laura Collins-Hughes

The aftermath of the Fukushima disaster infiltrates the lives of a young couple in Toshiki Okada’s spare, affecting play

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:32PM
Thursday, May 10, 2018

Review: In ‘The Gentleman Caller,’ a Talky Tennessee Williams by Laura Collins-Hughes

Philip Dawkins’s play blends realism and campy melodrama as it envisions the fumbling beginnings of an affair between Williams and William Inge

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:18PM

Joshua Henry Does Whatever It Takes, in ‘Carousel’ and as a Father by Laura Collins-Hughes

As the first black actor to play Billy Bigelow on Broadway, Mr. Henry is changing theater, while a newborn son is changing him.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:18AM
Thursday, May 3, 2018

Review: ‘Unexpected Joy’ Is a ‘Me’ Generation Musical by Laura Collins-Hughes

The show had its premiere on Cape Cod two summers ago. It has been revised, but it retains its primary strengths and its fatal weaknesses.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:48PM
Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Review: In ‘Assembled Identity,’ They Laugh Alike, They Walk Alike, but They’re Not Twins by Laura Collins-Hughes

Twins who discover they’re far more than sisters are at the center of a high-tech sci-fi drama at Here.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:06PM
Monday, April 16, 2018

Review: Toxic Masculinity, Vonnegut Style, in ‘Happy Birthday, Wanda June’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

A conquering hero comes home in a ferociously funny, and surprisingly timely, revival of the novelist’s 1970 play.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:06PM
Sunday, April 15, 2018

Review: In ‘One Thousand Nights and One Day,’ New Tales of Old Persia by Laura Collins-Hughes

Jason Grote and Marisa Michelson‘s new musical, set in modern-day New York, deconstructs the Middle Eastern folk tales of “One Thousand and One Nights.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:00PM
Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Review: A Girlhood Interrupted in ‘The Edge of Our Bodies’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

First produced in 2011, this coming-of-age story about a pregnant teenager lands uncomfortably in the wake of #MeToo.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:17PM
Monday, April 9, 2018

Review: ‘Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was Queen’ Takes On the Cringeworthy by Laura Collins-Hughes

A solo show by Eliza Bent and directed by Knud Adams explores cultural appropriation — and how we can call it out when we see it.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:47PM
Friday, April 6, 2018

A Childhood Eden Seared by Violence. Set to Music? by Laura Collins-Hughes

The Bengsons are a folk-rock duo adapting their personal stories for the stage. But their new show, “The Lucky Ones,” posed a painful challenge: “Is it possible to tell the truth kindl…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:27AM
Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Review: A Fairy-Tale Life Above the Library in ‘Feeding the Dragon’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

In this Primary Stages production, Sharon Washington recalls how an enchanting period in her family’s history was also tinged with pain.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:30PM
Monday, April 2, 2018

Review: Betting on a Rooster in ‘No One Writes to the Colonel’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

Repertorio Español delivers an intimate, transporting adaptation of the Gabriel García Márquez novella.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:41PM
Friday, March 30, 2018

Review: A Salon With Strangers in a Freewheeling ‘War and Peace’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

Familiarity with Tolstoy’s novel is no prerequisite for enjoying this antic show by the Berlin-based troupe Gob Squad.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:55PM

Finding New Meaning in ‘Mean Girls’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

The movie is beloved. But it also pits girls against girls. How, then, do you make a stage musical that satisfies fans and meets our cultural moment?

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:00AM
Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Review: ‘Distant Observer’ Shifts Shape as Authors Take Turns by Laura Collins-Hughes

Reality and identity are mutable things in “Distant Observer: Tokyo/New York Correspondence,” by Takeshi Kawamura and John Jesurun, at La MaMa.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:45AM
Sunday, March 18, 2018

Review: In ‘The Wholehearted,’ Old Wounds Feel Angry and New by Laura Collins-Hughes

A boxing champ who survived an attempt on her life prepares to seek revenge in this multimedia play at Abrons Arts Center.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:00PM
Sunday, March 11, 2018

Review: ‘Breitwisch Farm’ Brings Chekhov to Wisconsin by Laura Collins-Hughes

Jeremy J. Kamps’s play — a smart but overloaded riff on “The Cherry Orchard” set on a family farm — doesn’t quite hit the right accent.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:06PM
Sunday, March 4, 2018

Review: ‘Folk Wandering,’ a Wistful Musical Full of Story and Searching by Laura Collins-Hughes

Jaclyn Backhaus and Andrew Neisler’s new play wants to be a collection of stories about fierce women. But it’s so packed with plot lines, it only partly succeeds.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:45PM
Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Review: ‘A Walk With Mr. Heifetz’ Stumbles Through History by Laura Collins-Hughes

The play, inspired by real people and events in the decades leading up to the foundation of Israel, cuts to the role of music in creating a nation.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:45PM

3 Young People to Watch in Theater This Spring by Laura Collins-Hughes, Sopan Deb and Matt Trueman

Get to know the playwright Hammaad Chaudry, the 13-year-old actress Rileigh McDonald and the actor Andrew Burnap.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:22PM
Monday, February 19, 2018

Review: Lee Krasner Gets the Upper Hand in ‘Pollock’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

This bio-play about the married artists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner is a surreal sparring match, steeped in alcohol and dripping with paint.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:31PM
Thursday, February 15, 2018

So You Know Nothing About ‘Harry Potter’? Let’s Catch You Up by Laura Collins-Hughes

A primer of the books and films to get you ready for the Broadway opening of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:17PM
Monday, February 12, 2018

Review: ‘Flight’ Has No Live Actors. But Its Story of Two Afghan Boys Feels So Real. by Laura Collins-Hughes

It may not be typical theater, but this immersive show is pulse-pounding and intensely affecting.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:45PM
Friday, February 9, 2018

Critic’s Notebook: Return Editions, with Magnetic Additions, Off Broadway by Laura Collins-Hughes

Roslyn Ruff and Jeff Hiller bring new dimensions to plays about Betty Shabazz and a chatty wedding guest.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:22AM
Monday, February 5, 2018

Critic’s Notebook: Women’s Voices Festival a Potent Reminder of Who Goes Unheard Onstage by Laura Collins-Hughes

From a historical drama to an updated Restoration comedy classic, Washington, D.C., theaters make a case for evening the playing field.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:11PM
Friday, February 2, 2018

Review: An ‘Our Town’ With Sex Offenders, in ‘America Is Hard to See’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

This smart, troubling piece of documentary theater spends time with men cordoned off from regular society, and those who believe they can be redeemed.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:30PM
Sunday, January 28, 2018

Review: An Online Chat Turns Unnerving in ‘The Thing With Feathers’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

Alexa Shae Nizak is uncannily persuasive as an adolescent girl who gets more than she bargained for in Scott Organ’s play.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:51PM
Thursday, January 25, 2018

Review: In ‘Jericho,’ Another Spin of the Romantic Carousel by Laura Collins-Hughes

Michael Weller resets “Liliom,” the play that inspired Rodgers and Hammerstein, in Coney Island. But the central romance remains problematic.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:45PM
Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Critic’s Notebook: Exponential Festival: Unexpected Theater in Unfamiliar Real Estate by Laura Collins-Hughes

This New York-based showcase offers the kind of experimental plays, like “Pillowtalk,” that thrive in more obscure performance spaces.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:26PM

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