All stories by Jacob Malizio on BroadwayStars

Monday, December 8, 2025

Marjorie Prime by Jacob Malizio

It’s the age of artificial intelligence, and 86-year-old Marjorie — a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed the story of her li…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:38PM

A.I. Gave Her Back Her Husband. Was It Worth It? by Jacob Malizio

Harrison has a dream collaborator in Kauffman, who is a master at creating emotion without hitting an audience over the head. Her approach looks as if it is detached, almost clinical, but th…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:35PM

June Squibb Finds Post-AI Humanity in MARJORIE PRIME by Jacob Malizio

Freshly 96, June Squibb is giving one of the sharpest and most emotionally precise performances currently onstage in the Broadway premiere of Marjorie Prime, Jordan Harrison’s one-act abou…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:35PM

Marjorie Prime Predicted the Rise of the AI Companion by Jacob Malizio

Anne Kauffman, who helmed the 2015 off-Broadway production, directs with a steady hand and a keen sense of light and sound. Sharp blackouts barely give us time to catch our breath before we …

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:35PM

Return of the Replicants: Marjorie Prime by Jacob Malizio

I kept waiting to feel … well, more. More rapt, more heartbroken, more rattled by the harrowing questions presented by the long, slow, terribly seductive suicide humanity seems bent on car…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:35PM

June Squibb is a marvel in an early highlight of the Broadway season by Jacob Malizio

From the moment June Squibb takes the stage at the Hayes Theater in “Marjorie Prime,” you feel lucky to be in her presence. The stage and screen legend is back home on Broadway, where sh…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:35PM

Cynthia Nixon and June Squibb Make the Case for Everybody Becoming a Robot by Jacob Malizio

At its core, “Marjorie Prime” tells a simple kitchen-sink story of two adults trying to care for an aging relative. Harrison tries to up the ante by dipping into his gothic drawer of hor…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:35PM

Jordan Harrison’s play, an AI drama of very real intelligence, makes a timely Broadway debut. by Jacob Malizio

Much of the pre-opening press about this revival has revolved around the 96-year-old Squibb, who might be the oldest actor ever to play a principal role on Broadway. She merits that attentio…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:35PM

‘Marjorie Prime’ revival prescient in age of AI by Jacob Malizio

Nixon’s Tess is vulnerable enough for you to sense the fear in her eyes, but this is an actress with a steely core and, indeed, Nixon turns on a dime when her character realizes, as I thin…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:35PM

June Squibb stars in a sci-fi family drama with more questions than emotions by Jacob Malizio

For all the grief boiling over in Marjorie Prime, I walked away yearning to be more thoroughly wounded. But Harrison’s script is less interested in piercing the heart than it is the mind. …

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:35PM
Thursday, November 20, 2025

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) by Jacob Malizio

An original, new musical comedy about timing, connections, and unexpected detours. Meet Dougal, an impossibly upbeat Brit who has just landed in New York City for the first time to attend th…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:49PM

Meeting Cute, Toting Baggage by Jacob Malizio

The effervescent new musical comedy “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” which opened on Thursday at the Longacre Theater, is the most charmingly simple show on Broadway right…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:47PM

The Great British Millennial-Off by Jacob Malizio

I felt a disorienting generational whiplash throughout the treacly rom-com Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York). The latest British musical to make it through that country’s off-of…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:47PM

Broadway Transfer of West End Hit Two Strangers Doesn’t Quite Take the Cake by Jacob Malizio

But once the two are no longer strangers, the score, which most pointedly recalls Adam Gwon’s similarly small-scale tunes for Ordinary Days, loses its precision since there’s only so man…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:47PM

They Sing Together, They Dance Together, They Don’t Belong Together by Jacob Malizio

“Two Strangers” is one of those rom-coms where the two lovers are wrong for each other. He’s too boyish, she’s too brittle. It’s a new soul/old soul dynamic. That frisson works ini…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:47PM

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) Is a Little Sweet, a Little Spongy by Jacob Malizio

When the show’s creators zero in on those feelings, something a lot more specific and wistful than a love story between two strangers, the piece comes alive. If only it stayed there. The p…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:47PM

A hilarious new star bursts onto Broadway by Jacob Malizio

What elevates the show from an assembly-line rom-com is the way Barne and Buchan balance the genre’s baked-in cliches with sharp left turns and nuanced commentary about life experience and…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:47PM

Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York—and Onto Broadway by Jacob Malizio

“Two Strangers” is funny in places, occasionally moving in others, and just a little off-feeling throughout, as if it is trying too hard to charm across the storytelling and whimsy chasm…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:47PM

A delightful rom-com musical comes to Broadway by Jacob Malizio

Tutty is an absolute star in the role, displaying boisterous enthusiasm as well as a tender naivete that hints at the inevitable act two disappointment to come. The actor’s flawless comedi…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:47PM

A sweet love letter to rom-coms and NYC by Jacob Malizio

Two Strangers could have sunk into treacly territory, but it stays afloat on a banter-filled book and twinkling contemporary score by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan. While the lyrics aren’t grou…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 10:47PM
Sunday, November 16, 2025

Chess by Jacob Malizio

This fall, see powerhouse trio Tony Award® winner Aaron Tveit (Moulin Rouge!), acclaimed stage and screen star Lea Michele (Funny Girl, Glee), and breakout talent Nicholas Christopher (Swee…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:58PM

At Least They Have the Music by Jacob Malizio

Parts of the show are absolutely thrilling and parts are flat at best, aggressively dumb at worst. At least Mayer’s production, starring Nicholas Christopher, Lea Michele and Aaron Tveit, …

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:57PM

Lea Michele Reigns as Queen of This Uneven Broadway Revival by Jacob Malizio

In its sweeping musical moments, it’s easy to see why “Chess” has diehard fans. However, there’s so much else that brings everything down: clunky plotting, nonsensical character moti…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:57PM

Chess Returns to Broadway With Checkmate Vocals and a Checked-Out Book by Jacob Malizio

Chess has always been a great score in search of a good book, and writer Danny Strong believes he’s cracked the code by reframing it as a self-referential examination of Cold War-era Ameri…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:57PM

The Winner Takes It All: Chess Returns to Broadway by Jacob Malizio

“One Night In Bangkok” walked so Sam Rockwell’s White Lotus monologue could run. The song is such a ridiculous rush that it pretty much justifies the whole project. I think some plot s…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:57PM

The infamous Broadway flop attempts to shed its checkered past with a powerhouse cast by Jacob Malizio

The script has been reworked and the characters retooled, only for Chess to end up back where it started: impeccable music, a flat story and a baffling execution. But the eternal contradicti…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:57PM

Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher Headline Conflicted Broadway Revival of Cold War Concept Musical by Jacob Malizio

While I found myself longing for a wholly heartfelt Chess — whatever that might be — I also enjoyed the peppery, style-forward way that this production almost makes the amoebic musical i…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:57PM

Board stiff. by Jacob Malizio

The production at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre, directed by Michael Mayer, has plenty of good moves. Memorable and tuneful songs, including some bona fide bangers? Check! Slickly staged mus…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:57PM

‘Chess,’ Theater’s Most Notorious Strange Beast, Finally Returns by Jacob Malizio

Big numbers and baffling story almost spent, Chess leans into the possibility that nuclear war is extremely nigh, and the outcome of a final chess match could kill us all. There is even more…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:57PM

In ‘Chess,’ the music attacks – but the book retreats by Jacob Malizio

After the revelatory 2023 revival of “Merrily We Roll Along,” which finally clarified another difficult 80s musical, there was hope that “Chess” might enjoy a similar breakthrough. T…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 11:57PM
Friday, November 14, 2025

Oedipus by Jacob Malizio

Election night. The polls predict a landslide victory. Everything is about to change. Direct from a sold-out, record-breaking, Olivier Award-winning West End run, Sophocles’ epic tragedy i…

SOURCE: Did They Like It? at 12:54AM

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