Saturday, July 12, 2025
The Price of Popularity
By Alix Cohen
July 12, 2025: A splashy satire that bakes bullying, teenage suicide, and sexual assault in dark, subversive humor. Heathers has been around since th…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 12:50PMFriday, July 11, 2025
By David Sheward
July 11, 2025: Heathers the Musical (Off-Broadway at New World Stages) is one of many recent teen-angst tuners. Others of this new genre include Tony-winning Best Musicals …
SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:27AMThursday, July 10, 2025
By Samuel L. Leiter
July 10, 2025: Eleven years ago, in 2014, I reviewed a show called Heathers: The Musical at New World Stages. So it wasn’t very fresh in my mind when I visited its …
SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:00PMTuesday, July 8, 2025
By Alix Cohen
July 8, 2025: On the fifth anniversary of Charles Kirsch’s Backstage Babble, the young uber- fan/interviewer (250 and counting) again takes to the stage at 54Below to prese…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 01:17PMMonday, July 7, 2025
By David Sheward
July 7, 2025: When Prince Harry of England married Meghan Markle, an African-American actress, in 2018, I was teaching high school. On the Monday morning after their royal…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 02:12PMThursday, July 3, 2025
By David Sheward
July 3, 2025: In a program note for her play Trophy Boys (at MCC Theater), Emmanuelle Mattana observes, “Gender is a scam but it is also a gift. Drag is radical joy and l…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:30AMMonday, June 30, 2025
Behind every child who believes in themselves is a parent who believed first.
By Alix Cohen
June 30, 2025: Lorelei Edwards comes from a musical family. “I’m Irish/Italian. Everybody …
SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:29AMSaturday, June 28, 2025
By Alix Cohen
June 28, 2025: Canada 2025 Duke, a successful, American rap artist, is questioned by an interviewer about a visit to Kabul, Afghanistan. At the insistence of his record comp…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 05:49PMBy David Sheward
June 28, 2025: Two unconventional plays about odd romantic pairings recently opened Off-Broadway. Both attempt to tackle significant topics outside of the “boy-meets-gir…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 05:40PMSaturday, June 21, 2025
By Isa Goldberg
June 21, 2025: During gay pride one should experience at least one gay happening – it’s a stereotypical thing to do. Such an event, Beau the Musical, performed on nat…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 12:58PMFriday, June 20, 2025
By David Sheward
June 20, 2025: Moliere is having a modern moment. Two adaptations of the 17th century French playwright’s comedies are now on display Off-Broadway. Both employ contempor…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 07:46PMTuesday, June 17, 2025
By Paulanne Simmons
June 17, 2025: Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade Imaginaire) premiered in 1673, but its themes of narcissism, greed and the failures of healthcare, are just …
SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:07AMSunday, June 15, 2025
By Alix Cohen
June 15, 2025: As Producing Artistic Director of Musicals Tonight, Mel Miller began his endeavor with no experience managing to build an enthusiastic subscription audience fo…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:16AMFriday, June 13, 2025
By David Sheward
June 13, 2025: Even though there is much that is familiar in Call Me Izzy, Jamie Wax’s new solo play at Studio 54, its star Jean Smart gives it a unique individual life.…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:51AMThursday, June 12, 2025
By Samuel L. Leiter
(Note: Taylor Mac uses “judy” as a pronoun, but I’ve used conventional pronouns here.)
June 12, 2025: Molière, Molière, he’s everywhere. Well, not quite, but…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:42AMTuesday, June 10, 2025
By David Sheward
June 10, 2025: Donald Margulies’ tender and moving new play Lunar Eclipse from Second Stage at the Signature Theater Center, is a simple, direct depiction of a long marr…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:44AMSunday, June 8, 2025
Potent and Beautifully Produced
By Alix Cohen
June 8, 2025: I’d be tempted to call this a perfect production were it not for the haunting Leonard Cohen quote, “There’s a crack in ev…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 06:48PMWednesday, June 4, 2025
Photos from the 69th Annual Drama Desk Awards
June 1, 2024: The 69th Annual Drama Desk Awards held at the NYC Skirball Center on Sunday, June 1 hosted by Tituss Burgess and Debra Messing.
SOURCE: theaterlife at 12:00PMMonday, June 2, 2025
By Samuel L. Leiter
June 2, 2025: It’s a bitter irony that, only days after the passing of Barry Gordin, Theater Life’s beloved editor-in-chief, the first two shows I’m reviewing for…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:01PMBy Samuel L. Leiter
June 2, 2025: Molière’s 1673 farce, The Imaginary Invalid, has had perhaps half a dozen professional New York revivals over the past century, most of short duration,…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:00PMSunday, June 1, 2025
Purpose and Maybe Happy Ending win Outstanding Play and Outstanding Musical Awards. Maybe Happy Ending leads with 6 total wins across all categories.
June 3, 2025: The 69th Annual Drama De…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:00PMBy Isa Goldberg
June 1, 2025: Among the worst nightmares is the one where you’re watching a play, and the conversation on stage feels so deadly, the atmosphere so stifling, and the propo…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 11:46AMWednesday, May 28, 2025
By Paulanne Simmons
May 28, 2025: Lights Out: Nat ‘King’ Cole, the new jukebox musical by Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor, is very different from other shows in its genre. In the …
SOURCE: theaterlife at 07:25PMTuesday, May 27, 2025
By Isa Goldberg
May 27, 2025: A playful revival of William Inge’s 1955 play, Bus Stop, at Classic Stage Company makes for a cheerful confection.
Watching the classic film starring Maril…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 07:42PMMonday, May 26, 2025
By David Sheward
May 26, 2025: There are several thrilling elements in Goddess, the new musical at the Public Theater, and in Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole, the new play with music at th…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 05:49PMSunday, May 25, 2025
By Alix Cohen
May 25, 2025: Ogresse is a musical fable billed as “both a biomythography (weaving myth, history, and biography in epic narrative) and an homage to Erzulie”, the Haitian …
SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:49AMWednesday, May 14, 2025
By Paulanne Simmons
May 14, 2025. There’s something deliciously anarchistic about Fat Cat Killers, Adam Szymkowicz’s new play now at the Gene Frankel Theatre, under the direction of And…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:46PMBy David Sheward
May 14, 2025. The impact of our celebrity-obsessed digital culture is explored in the intimate and funny new musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse from The New Group at …
SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:38AMWednesday, May 7, 2025
By Paulanne Simmons
May 6, 2025. If you thought all Irish plays are dark and depressing, think again. Irishtown, by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth may be one of the funniest plays of the season. It�…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 12:23AMFriday, May 2, 2025
By Samuel L. Leiter
May 2, 2025. In a season low on original musicals that spotlight underrepresented voices (The Buena Vista Social Club excepted), Real Women Have Curves: The Musical arri…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 08:53AMBy Paulanne Simmons
May 2, 2025. Abby Stein was born Srully Abraham Stein to a Hassidic family living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She grew up speaking Yiddish and Hebrew. She attended an all…
SOURCE: theaterlife at 08:44AM 
