Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Jordan E. Cooper’s ‘Oh Happy Day!’ offers a queer update of Tyler Perry gospel plays (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Jordan E. Cooper, who delivered a satirical wake-up call to the theater world with his extended sketch comedy Ain’t No Mo’, is back with a new play. Oh Happy Day!, which is billed as a �…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:15PM
Monday, October 13, 2025

André De Shields camps it up as ‘Tartuffe’ in a classic setting (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

The appeal of classics is how they continue to speak to us across the centuries. Molière’s 1664 comedy Tartuffe is a telling example, offering both acute insights into religious hypocrisy…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM
Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Dylan Mulvaney romps through ‘The Least Problematic Woman in the World’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Dylan Mulvaney, the transgender performer best known for an ill-fated 2023 branding deal with Bud Light that created a media firestorm that led to boycotts of the beer, embraces all of her m…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Sunday, October 5, 2025

‘Torera’ celebrates Mexican bullfighting as an intimate telenovela-style saga (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Monet Hurst-Mendoza’s Torera, which opened Sunday at the WP Theater, simulates the experience of binge-watching a telenovela-style saga set in the world of a Mexican bullfighting. The twis…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 04:00PM

Abby Wambaugh wows with ‘The First Three Minutes of 17 Shows’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Why settle for one stand-up routine when you can deliver The First Three Minutes of 17 Shows? That’s the high-concept premise of American-born comedian Abby Wambaugh’s delightfully daffy…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 12:30PM
Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Chloë Grace Moretz plays a fierce but flawed mom in ‘Caroline’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Homecomings can be a tricky thing, as Chloë Grace Moretz’s Maddie learns in Preston Max Allen’s new drama Caroline. After fleeing home as a teenager amid drug-fueled rebellion, stealing…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 08:00PM
Monday, September 29, 2025

‘Masquerade’ reimagines ‘Phantom of the Opera’ as an immersive theme park ride (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

It’s only been two years since Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera ended its 35-year run on Broadway but the beloved sung-through musical that once carried the tagline “Now and …

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM

‘Punch’ packs an emotional wallop (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

How do we make sense of a senseless act? James Graham’s searing and unforgettable new drama, Punch, digs into a real-life incident in Nottingham, England in 2011 when a 19-year-old hooliga…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:30PM
Sunday, September 28, 2025

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter wrestle with existence in a Gen X ‘Waiting for Godot’ (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, who famously played stoner time travelers in the Bill & Ted comedies 35 years ago, were not high on anyone’s list to tackle the philosophizing tramps Estr…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM

‘The Honey Trap’ is a taut thriller about the legacy of Ireland’s Troubles (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Ireland can never seem to outlive the long, dark legacy of The Troubles — a period that looms large in Leo McGann’s often gripping new thriller, The Honey Trap, which opened Sunday at th…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM

‘And Then We Were No More’ delivers big ideas and a riveting debut in a lo-fi sci-fi package (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Tim Blake Nelson, the beloved character actor best known for his work in Coen Brothers films like O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, continues his foray into playwr…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 04:00PM

‘Murdoch: The Final Interview’ is a one-man hatchet job about a conservative bogeyman (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Much ink has been spilled about Rupert Murdoch, the Australian born media mogul who at 94 remains an influential force in politics and society who’s become a hero to the right and a bogeym…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 03:00PM
Thursday, September 25, 2025

John Leguizamo’s ‘The Other Americans’ reimagines Willy Loman as a Latino striver (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

John Leguizamo is no stranger to live theater, but he’s best known for solo shows like Spic-O-Rama and the 2018 Tony winner Latin History for Morons. His new play, premiering at the Public…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Sunday, September 21, 2025

‘Weather Girl’ forecasts a new dark comedy hit (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

How do we face the apocalyptic horrors of climate change? If you’re Stacey Gross, the Fresno, California, TV weather reporter at the center of Brian Watkins’ frenetically funny new one-w…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 06:00PM
Friday, September 19, 2025

Sia’s ‘Saturday Church’ blends ballroom, gospel, and house in a Black teen’s messy coming-out story (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

The teen coming-out story has become an all-too-familiar genre, but Saturday Church updates the form with surprising club beats as well as a starry creative team that hail from the worlds of…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 06:00PM
Thursday, September 18, 2025

‘Mexodus’ live-loops the little-known story of the other Underground Railroad (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Theater can be a powerful force, both for education and entertainment. The electric new two-man musical Mexodus, which opened at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre following a successful run l…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM
Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Neil Patrick Harris, Bobby Cannavale, and James Corden paint ‘Art’ in broad comic brushstrokes (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

It’s easy to see why actors are drawn to the showy comedic roles in Yasmina Reza’s zippy three-man comedy Art, which is getting a zippy, high-profile revival on Broadway nearly three dec…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Sunday, September 14, 2025

Charles Ludlam’s ‘Galas’ campily celebrates one of the great divas (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Charles Ludlam was a pioneering figure in queer theater in the 1980s with campy send-ups of classic works (Satyricon in Turds in Hell, Hamlet in Stage Blood) as well as Old Hollywood (like h…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM

Ibsen’s ‘The Wild Duck’ remains untamed in handsome but uneven revival (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Two years after Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, in which a community rejects a truth-telling Cassandra in their midst warning about a public health scandal unfolding in their town�…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 04:00PM
Wednesday, September 10, 2025

‘The Brothers Size’ powerfully tests the limits of brotherly love (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” features prominently in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size, and for good reason. The play, which I first saw in 2009 as the middle sec…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM
Tuesday, September 9, 2025

‘House of McQueen’ is an unfortunate fashion fail (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

The best part of House of McQueen, a paean to the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, doesn’t even occur on the stage of the cavernous new Off Broadway venue dubbed the Mansion at Hud…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Thursday, August 21, 2025

A starry, breezy ‘Twelfth Night’ reopens Central Park’s Delacorte Theater (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Huzzah! Shakespeare in the Park has returned to Central Park’s newly refurbished Delacorte Theater — the perfect venue to celebrate one of the city’s most remarkable and entirely free …

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Monday, August 18, 2025

‘Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride’ peels back a comic’s tragic past to mixed results (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Jeff Ross has earned the moniker “Roastmaster General” for a brand of insult comedy he’s honed on stage and in multiple Comedy Central specials over the years. But he proves himself to…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Thursday, August 14, 2025

‘Mamma Mia!’ returns to Broadway a taking-it-all winner (Review) by Thom Geier

Nobody could mistake Mamma Mia! for high art. Cardboard-cutout characters vamp through a ridiculous romantic plot, while beloved disco-era ABBA hits are shoehorned in often as clumsily as Ci…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM
Thursday, August 7, 2025

Elizabeth McGovern channels Ava Gardner in ‘Ava: The Secret Conversations’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

It’s easy to see why Elizabeth McGovern might have been drawn to the story of Ava Gardner, another American actress who found Hollywood fame in her 20s and 30s and then moved to London as …

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM

‘Well, I’ll Let You Go’ is a tour de force for Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Quincy Tyler Bernstine, one of the finest actors of her generation, is the heart and soul of Bubba Weiler’s transcendent new drama Well, I’ll Let You Go, which opened Thursday in a magni…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 08:00PM
Monday, August 4, 2025

‘Can I Be Frank?’ pays homage to pioneering gay comic Frank Maya (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Frank Maya was a true pioneer, arguably one of the first out gay American comics to reach a mainstream audience. In the early ’90s, he appeared on MTV and landed a half-hour special on Com…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 08:00PM
Thursday, July 24, 2025

‘Ginger Twinsies’ takes ‘The Parent Trap’ back to camp (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Parody is a tricky art form. Off Broadway iterations like Ginger Twinsies, an unauthorized sendup of the 1998 Nancy Meyers family comedy The Parent Trap, seem to thrive on inside jokes but n…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM

‘Rolling Thunder’ revisits the Vietnam era in song. It’s complicated (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Rolling Thunder, which opened Thursday at New World Stages, is a curious exercise in boomer nostalgia — a jarring blend of jukebox musical and tribute-band concert that evokes the Vietnam …

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 08:00PM
Monday, July 21, 2025

‘Josh Sharp’s ta-da!’ is a PowerPoint-perfect comedic gem (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

We’re in a wonderful moment when the stand-up set as a form is open to radical reinterpretation by talents as diverse as Hannah Gadsby, Tig Notaro, James Acaster, and more. The latest inno…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 08:00PM
Sunday, July 20, 2025

‘Joy’: a musical about a mop maker that’s still in prototype stage (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

The opening number of Joy, a new bio-musical about the QVC-famous Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano, is a marvel of narrative concision. In short strokes set to composer-lyricist Annmarie Mil…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 08:00PM

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