All stories by Helen Shaw on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, on Broadway at Last by Helen Shaw

Starring a Peak TV supercast, the playwright’s “Appropriate” investigates a dysfunctional Southern family’s buried secrets.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Thursday, December 7, 2023

Two Dramas Take on the Dispossession Plot by Helen Shaw

Property and its discontents vex “Manahatta” and “Life & Times of Michael K.”

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Tuesday, November 21, 2023

“Hell’s Kitchen” Brings Alicia Keys’s Musical Power to the Public by Helen Shaw

The R. & B. titan shares a fictionalized version of her coming of age.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Thursday, November 9, 2023

Off Off Broadway Serves Up Comedy Three Ways by Helen Shaw

“FOOD,” “Redwood,” and “Faust (The Broken Show)” mask serious intent behind laughter.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Friday, November 3, 2023

High Camp and High Tragedy in Two Electrifying Off-Broadway Productions by Helen Shaw

Becca Blackwell and Amanda Duarte play exuberant, boundary-pushing alter egos, and the Irish Rep revives Brian Friel’s stately “Translations.”

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 04:19PM
Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Remembering Robert Brustein, a Giant of the American Theatre by Helen Shaw

The critic, professor, producer, and author was a pugilistic champion of the stage.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 02:03PM
Thursday, October 26, 2023

Stephen Sondheim’s Last Musical, “Here We Are,” Comes to the Shed by Helen Shaw

The writer David Ives and the director Joe Mantello continued without the late composer on an adaptation of two lacerating Luis Buñuel films.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Thursday, October 12, 2023

Epic Proportions in “The Refuge Plays” and “Zoetrope” by Helen Shaw

Two new intergenerational sagas, by Nathan Alan Davis and Javier Antonio González, explore the American legacy.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Friday, September 29, 2023

A Russian Theatre Director in Exile by Helen Shaw

Dmitry Krymov starts from scratch in New York.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 11:30AM
Thursday, September 21, 2023

“Swing State” and “Dig” Put Down Roots Off Broadway by Helen Shaw

Rebecca Gilman and Theresa Rebeck use plants as metaphors for human flourishing in their latest works.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 12:15PM
Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Annie Baker Turns a Philosophical Eye on Pain by Helen Shaw

The playwright’s exquisite new comic drama, “Infinite Life,” nails the absurdity of having a body.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 10:00AM
Friday, August 11, 2023

“The Shark Is Broken” Circles the Guts of “Jaws” by Helen Shaw

The new Broadway play, by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, imagines frequently irritable chats among the movie’s three main actors, including Shaw’s father, Robert Shaw.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Friday, July 21, 2023

“Here Lies Love” Tackles Broadway; “Uncle Vanya” Tiptoes Downtown by Helen Shaw

David Byrne’s electro-pop Imelda Marcos is a series of hard, mirrored surfaces.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Monday, June 26, 2023

The Witch Hunt in “The Doctor” by Helen Shaw

Helen Shaw reviews Robert Icke’s adaptation of an Arthur Schnitzler play, starring Juliet Stevenson as a doctor who is a target of anti-Semitism and language policing.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Monday, June 19, 2023

London Theatre at a Breakneck Pace by Helen Shaw

“Operation Mincemeat,” “Guys and Dolls,” and “The Motive and the Cue” gallop into the past.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Monday, June 5, 2023

The Writer Who Insists He Knew Tennessee Williams by Helen Shaw

James Grissom says that he met the playwright and his famous muses, and quoted them extensively in his work. Not everyone believes him.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Friday, May 12, 2023

Summer Theatre Preview by Helen Shaw

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s “Here Lies Love” on Broadway, Ato Blankson-Wood’s “Hamlet” in the Park, Robert Icke’s “The Doctor,” and more.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Sunday, April 16, 2023

“Camelot,” Reviewed: A More Congenial Spot by Helen Shaw

In a new production of “Camelot,” reimagined by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bartlett Sher, Arthur is more perfect than ever. But this iteration of the hero’s kingdom isn’t worthy of…

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Thursday, April 13, 2023

Soap Operas as Guiding Light by Helen Shaw

Experimental theatre and soap tropes commune in Julia Izumi’s “Regretfully, So the Birds Are” and Michael R. Jackson’s “White Girl in Danger.”

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Thursday, March 30, 2023

A Sonically Thrilling Revival of “Sweeney Todd” on Broadway by Helen Shaw

Sondheim’s music and lyrics gleam as bright as ever, even when the production loses its edge.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Thursday, March 16, 2023

History Repeats Itself in the Broadway Revival of “Parade” by Helen Shaw

Ben Platt stars as the doomed Leo Frank in Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s all too relevant musical tragedy.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 09:00PM
Thursday, March 9, 2023

Jessica Chastain’s Close Listening in “A Doll’s House” by Helen Shaw

Jamie Lloyd’s ascetic production of Ibsen’s 1879 drama eliminates nearly every conventional marker of character, location, or gesture.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 08:30PM
Friday, February 17, 2023

“Pictures from Home” Loses Focus on Broadway by Helen Shaw

Nathan Lane and Danny Burstein rely on shtick in Sharr White’s adaptation of Larry Sultan’s book, while Norbert Leo Butz can’t save the musical “Cornelia Street.”

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Friday, February 10, 2023

Mikéah Ernest Jennings, Prince of a Lost World by Helen Shaw

The actor, a fixture of New York’s experimental-theatre scene, did not “become” his characters; he stood, somehow, next to them, amused and delighted.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 02:21PM
Friday, January 27, 2023

The One-Person Show, Served Three Ways by Helen Shaw

In “Small Talk,” “Without You,” and “cryptochrome,” Colin Quinn, Anthony Rapp, and Evan Silver take the mike.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Tuesday, January 17, 2023

New York’s Theatre Festivals Imagine a World After Mankind by Helen Shaw

Recent shows’ visions of the future haven’t exactly been post-apocalyptic, with the violence and darkness that term implies. Instead, they have delighted in our disappearance, savored it.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Friday, January 6, 2023

Three London Productions Stretch the Boundaries of Reality by Helen Shaw

Getting lost with “Orlando,” “My Neighbour Totoro,” and “The Burnt City.”

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Sunday, December 18, 2022

A Witching Hour with Sarah Ruhl by Helen Shaw

The playwright and author discusses preshow rituals, throbbing anger, tenderness, and her new play, “Becky Nurse of Salem.”

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Friday, December 16, 2022

“Merrily We Roll Along” and “Some Like It Hot” Bring Blockbuster Energy to the Stage by Helen Shaw

Brilliant casting and a palpable sense of joy make old stories feel new.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM
Friday, December 2, 2022

“KPOP” Makes an Uneasy Transition to Broadway by Helen Shaw

Even when the scenes drag, the songs soar.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 10:00AM
Monday, November 21, 2022

“Evanston Salt Costs Climbing,” a Pitch-Dark Comedy About Municipal Workers on the Brink by Helen Shaw

Will Arbery tackles the climate crisis with a funny nightmare about human and environmental fragility.

SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:00AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum 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
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime