Monday, April 28, 2025

‘Just in Time’ Review: Jonathan Groff Ignites Broadway in a Dazzling Tribute to Bobby Darin by Rex Reed

Jonathan Groff delivers a whirlwind, show-stopping performance that redefines what a Broadway star can be. Though the musical's biographical details are thin, Groff’s magnetic presence, at…

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 07:36PM
Sunday, April 27, 2025

Review: ‘Dead Outlaw’ Is An Exquisite Corpse and Killer Close to the Broadway Season by David Cote

This darkly exhilarating musical has what is easily the best new score on Broadway, written by by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, and an irreverent yet wistful book by Itamar Moses.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 05:37PM
Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Review: Not-Such-Happy Campers Vacation with Bereavement in ‘Grief Camp’ by David Cote

A group of teenagers retreat to the woods to process their feelings in playwright Eliya Smith's thoughtful and elliptical dramedy.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 09:23AM
Tuesday, April 22, 2025

‘Floyd Collins’ Review: Adam Guettel’s Best Work Still Lies Ahead by Rex Reed

National treasure and Broadway's last great hope Adam Guettel is back onstage—but not with something new. Rex Reed reviews the revival with a wince and a wish for Guettel to move on—to s…

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 11:56AM
Thursday, April 17, 2025

Review: A Caryl Churchill Tasting Menu of Haute Weird at the Public Theater by David Cote

Four short works from England’s greatest living playwright blaze forth in outstanding American debuts.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 02:41PM
Monday, April 14, 2025

Review: High Schoolers Tell Truth and Shame the Devil in ‘John Proctor is the Villain’  by David Cote

In the most energizing and emotionally wrecking drama this season a group of high school students is studying "The Crucible" and processing the #MeToo movement.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 11:01PM
Thursday, April 10, 2025

‘Smash’ Is Escapist Fluff and Exactly What We Need Right Now by David Cote

Loosely adapted from a short-lived television series, this musical comedy about the making of a musical is full of showstopping songs and powered by a phenomenal cast.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 10:31PM
Wednesday, April 9, 2025

‘Sondheim’s Old Friends’ Is a Love Letter in Two Acts—One Whispered, One Roared by Rex Reed

Leaden direction and limp gags almost derail 'Sondheim’s Old Friends,' a tribute show that feels as uneven as it is ambitious. But with Bernadette Peters, Lea Salonga and a late-breaking j…

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 01:14PM
Monday, April 7, 2025

Clooney Lights Up Broadway, but ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ Flickers in the Footlights by Rex Reed

Two decades after the film first flattered Oscar voters, 'Good Night, and Good Luck' returns—this time as a Broadway spectacle, complete with chain-smoking nostalgia, McCarthy-era paranoia…

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 10:15AM
Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Review: Does Kieran Culkin Close the Deal in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’? by David Cote

Culkin leads a cast that includes Bob Odenkirk, Michael McKean and Bill Burr in this latest Broadway revival of David Mamet's classic tale of trash-talking salesmen.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 04:04PM
Thursday, March 27, 2025

Review: Sarah Snook Blows Up in Multimedia Dazzler ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’  by David Cote

Snook gives a master class, playing 26 characters in an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel that's hideously apt for our age of Instagram filters and social media.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 10:01PM
Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Kate Baldwin Takes On The Story Of A 230 Year Marriage With ‘Love Life’ by Harry Haun

The go-to singer for musical theater heroines talks about the Encores! revival of the Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner musical.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 12:27PM
Monday, March 24, 2025

Review: Denzel Washington’s ‘Othello’ Has Star Wattage But No Illumination by David Cote

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal are megastars, but that doesn't solve the problems of this maddeningly bland production.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 07:15AM
Thursday, March 20, 2025

Review: British Musical Farce ‘Operation Mincemeat’ Is Anything But Dead on Arrival by David Cote

Imported from London, this musical about a WWII counterintelligence operation is totally lovable and expertly zany.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 10:01PM
Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Review: ‘Amerikin’ Asks Questions About Identity, Family And Race by Katie Gee Salisbury, Katie Gee Salisbury

A would-be white supremacist finds out his own identity isn't quite what he thought it was in this tragicomedy that registers closer to reality than fiction.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 02:27PM
Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Joy Behar Adds Playwright to Her Resume With ‘My First Ex-Husband’ by Harry Haun

Behar has written a show of eight monologues crafted from interviews with women about their divorces.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 11:38AM
Friday, March 7, 2025

Review: Whale-Loving Islanders Drown In Fathomless Loss in ‘Deep Blue Sound’ by David Cote

Playwright Abe Koogler's portrait of a group of Pacific Northwesterners is rich, funny and devastating, with a cast that's a tasting menu of acting brilliance.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 04:30PM
Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Spring Theater Preview: History Sings, Classics Get Twisted and Experiments Explode by David Cote

Broadway has George Clooney and two different shows based on TV series. Downtown has space travel and T.S. Eliot. Brooklyn has Chekhov and an ant invasion. This theater season, there's somet…

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 03:59PM
Monday, February 24, 2025

Review: Half-Brotherly Love Is a Struggle Against Darkness in ‘Grangeville’ by David Cote

This two-hander about estranged half-brothers with a dying mother is painfully gorgeous.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 09:01PM

Review: Family Feuds and Plenty of Punchlines in ‘Conversations with Mother’ by Rex Reed

An endearing but inconsistent exploration of love, loss and motherly meddling.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 03:51PM
Friday, February 21, 2025

A Mother, Her Gay Son, and the Off-Broadway Show About Them by Harry Haun

"There's a very special relationship between a mother and a gay son and an extremely special relationship between a mother and a gay Italian son,” says playwright Matthew Lombardo, who's m…

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 04:01PM
Thursday, February 13, 2025

Review: Idina Menzel Goes Out on a Limb in Eco-Musical ‘Redwood’ by David Cote

Menzel remains an indomitable diva in this well-intentioned misfire.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 08:01PM
Monday, February 10, 2025

Review: Is ‘Urinetown’ Still Good to the Last Drop? by David Cote

Nearly a quarter century after its Broadway debut, the Tony winning musical is back at City Center Encores. Does its ghoulish giddiness still work?

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 12:01PM
Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Review: The Distant Future Is Already Ancient History in AI Drama ‘The Antiquities’  by David Cote

The human race is presented like a museum exhibit—a grimly compelling concept, but one that makes for a glitchy play.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 09:01PM

Melissa Gilbert Acts Her Age In ‘Still’ by Harry Haun

She grew up on TV in 'Little House on the Prairie,' but now she gets a chance to play a real grown-up in this Off Broadway two-hander about a couple who love each other, but not each other's…

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 03:39PM
Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Review: ‘A Knock on the Roof’ Lays Bare the Absurdities of Life During Wartime by Katie Gee Salisbury, Katie Gee Salisbury

In Khawla Ibraheem’s one-woman play a mother tries to go about her life in Gaza—including preparing for the possibility that her house will be destroyed.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 10:00AM
Thursday, January 23, 2025

Review: ‘English’ Speaks Eloquently of Language and Loss by David Cote

Pulitzer Prize winner Sanaz Toossi's play about a group of Iranians studying for the Test of English as a Foreign Language transfers to Broadway in an impeccable production.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 09:31PM
Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Review: Does A Race-Critical ‘Show Boat’ Weather the Winds of History? by David Cote

This minimalist staging strips 'Show Boat' to its bones, scraping away a century of cultural rust and sentimentality to reveal an often deeply sad and frequently funny masterpiece of music-t…

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 08:01PM
Thursday, January 9, 2025

What’s Coming to BAM in 2025: An Interview With Amy Cassello and Gina Duncan by Dan Duray, Dan Duray

Observer caught up with the art space's artistic director and president to learn more about what the institution has in store for the coming year.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 10:35AM
Monday, December 23, 2024

Mare Winningham On The Dysfunctional Holiday Drama of ‘Cult of Love’ by Harry Haun

Mare Winningham plays the matriarch of a family gathered around the Christmas tree to air some serious issues. "I thought, ‘Well, it’s called Cult of Love, so there has to be a leader," …

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 01:09PM
Friday, December 20, 2024

Review: Audra McDonald Is One Mother of a Rose in a Stupendous Gypsy by David Cote

Audra McDonald is the first Black actress to play Madame Rose on Broadway, and she and director George C. Wolfe deliver what may be the most heartstopping 'Gypsy' you’ll ever see.

SOURCE: The New York Observer at 12:01AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre