The Infectious Qualities of "Bug" by Jan Simpson

Maybe it’s the current dystopic state of the world but I had a hard time with Bug, the revival of Tracy Letts’ 1996 play that opened this month at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. F…

10 Shows That Meant the Most to Me in 2025 by Jan Simpson

As usual, I’m late with a list of the shows I most enjoyed in 2025 but I’m going to share it anyway and since I am late, I’m also going to cut right to the chase. There were musicals I…

Happy New Year! by Jan Simpson

Wishing You All the Merriest Christmas... by Jan Simpson

 ...from me and some of our mutual friends:

Challenging Power Plays in "The Burning Cauldon of Fiery Fire" and "Practice" by Jan Simpson

Getting others to see the world in a certain way and then convincing them to do almost anything to preserve that point of view requires a toolbox of skills that include charisma and a ferven…

Thankful Thoughts for This Thanksgiving by Jan Simpson

Happy Thanksgiving!  It’s been a crazy month. An avalanche of shows have been opening both on and off Broadway. I’ve seen 20 of them over the past four weeks—some good, some just OK, …

"Kyoto" is a Call to Action on Climate Change by Jan Simpson

The only thing small about Kyoto, the latest import from Britain that opened this week at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse theater, is its one-word title. Everything else is outsized: th…

Going Solo: "The Least Problematic Woman in the World," "Other" and "Did You Eat? by Jan Simpson

One-person shows are popping up everywhere. And it makes sense that they should.  They’re comparatively cheap to put on since by definitiion there’s only one performer to pay and the co…

Wrestling with the Head Trips of "And Then We Were No More" and "This Much I Know" by Jan Simpson

Every once in a while I see a show that is filled with smart ideas, and that is interestingly directed and well-performed and yet still leaves me cold. Over the past week or so I saw two sh…

"Mexodus": a Hip Mix of Hip-Hop and History by Jan Simpson

Theater lovers have been celebrating the 10th anniversary of Hamilton this year, and well we should. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical about the Founding Fathers made seeing musicals cool again…

The 4 Shows I Most Want to See in Fall 2025 by Jan Simpson

Once again I seem to be late to the party. Other bloggers, critics and influencers have been putting out lists of the things they most want to see in this new theater season since mid-August…

A Labor Day Salute to the Back Office Folks by Jan Simpson

Well, here we are: it’s Labor Day Weekend already.  And every year since I started writing here, I’ve marked this unofficial end of summer—and the real start of the fall theater seaso…

A Highly Subjective List of the (So Far) Best Plays and Musicals of the 21st Century by Jan Simpson

The New York Times recently published a fancy interactive list of what it considers to be “The Best Movies of the 21st Century.”  The editors say they assembled the list by asking more …

Why "Ginger Twinsies" Just Isn't for Me by Jan Simpson

It's often said that imitation is the highest form of flattery but sometimes it's just a knock-off of something more original. And I'm afraid the latter seems to be the case with Ginger Twin…

Theater Books for Summer Reading 2025 by Jan Simpson

We’ve already had our first heat waves of the season—the temperature hit 101° in Central Park this past week!—which is a sure sign that summer is here. But for almost 20 years now, th…

Praise for the Reimagined Myth of "Eurydice" by Jan Simpson

In most tellings of the myth about the ill-fated love story between Orpheus and Eurydice that famously has him going to the underworld to bring her back from the dead, he gets top billing an…

Let Down By "Lights Out: Nat 'King' Cole" by Jan Simpson

Several years ago, I reported a piece on the Smithsonian's "American Popular Song" album, which was intended to be a collection of the best rendition of each song in the Great American Songb…

Why Just About Everyone Loves Kara Young by Jan Simpson

This is a slightly different post than I use write but maybe like me, you have wondered why the nominators for so many different theater awards seem to love the actress Kara Young so much th…

The Angry Young Women in "John Proctor is the Villain" and "Five Models in Ruins, 1981" by Jan Simpson

A new genre has been developing over the past few years, one that in tribute to the post-war change in British theater I’ve been calling “angry young women plays.”   These new works …

Celebrating the OCC's 75th Anniversary— and Its Nominees for the 2024-2025 Season by Jan Simpson

The 2024-2025 theater season ends on Sunday with the dual openings of the musicals Dead Outlaw and Real Women Have Curves. And I’m exhausted. But it’s the kind of good exhaustion that c…

It's a Smackdown Between Show and Business in "Irishtown," "I'm Assuming You Know David Greenspan" and "minor•ity" by Jan Simpson

  The ever present tension between art and commerce moves centerstage in three recently opened off-Broadway productions—Irishtown at the Irish Repertory Theatre, I’m Assuming You Know…

The Martin Musicals: "Smash" & "Boop!" by Jan Simpson

Bob Martin burst onto the Broadway scene back in 2006 with The Drowsy Chaperone, a loving send-up of Broadway musicals that ran for 674 performances, was nominated for 13 Tony awards and won…

Star-Struck on Broadway: "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Othello" and "The Picture of Dorian G by Jan Simpson

As everyone knows, big name movie and TV stars have been invading Broadway this spring (click here for a rundown of who is doing what) and theatergoers are paying big bucks for the bragging …

A Tardy Celebration of 18 Years of B&Me by Jan Simpson

Even though these are crazy times, I don’t know how I let last week’s anniversary of Broadway & Me slip by. I started writing here on Feb. 14, 2007, which means it’s now been 18 ye…

"My Man Kono" Tweaks the American Story by Jan Simpson

A thank you to the National Endowment for the Arts is prominently displayed on the cover of the program for My Man Kono, the new show that Pan Asian Repertory Theatre opened this week at A.R…

"The Antiquities" is Superbly Up-to-Date by Jan Simpson

History, they say, is written by the winners and the winners in Jordan Harrison’s thought-provoking new play The Antiquities are the artificial intelligence entities that the play imagines…

"A Knock on the Roof" Pushes too Hard by Jan Simpson

When the Palestinian playwright Khawla Ibraheem began working on her one-woman show A Knock on the Roof a decade ago, it was a 10-minute monologue. Now the show, which is currently playing …

5 Shows I Most Want to See in Spring 2025 by Jan Simpson

Some theater-goers lust after seeing big-name stars and there will be plenty of them for those folks to see in the upcoming spring season, from theater-grown ones like Idina Menzel in Redwoo…

The 10 Shows That Spoke to Me in 2024 by Jan Simpson

It’s that time of year when people like me who are lucky enough to see lots of shows are supposed to look back and draw up a list of the ones we consider to have been the best. But that’…

Wishing you a theatrically merry little Christmas by Jan Simpson

Wishing you a theatrically merry little Christmas…

"Cult of Love" Fails to Keep the Faith by Jan Simpson

Leslye Headland has developed a following for her acclaimed Netflix series “Russian Doll” and for “The Acolyte,” the Disney Channel’s latest installment of the “Star Wars” saga…