All stories by Jesse Green on BroadwayStars

Friday, February 2, 2024

Remembering Chita Rivera’s Unique Voice by Alex Barron, Lynn Levy, Diane Wong and Jesse Green

Our theater critic on some of the Broadway legend’s greatest vocal performances.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:32PM
Wednesday, January 31, 2024

The Queer Kids Are All Right. And Now They’re Making Me Better. by Jesse Green

How watching gay coming-of-age stories has helped repair a heart still stuck in the past — and still scarred by a less welcoming world.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:18AM
Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Chita Rivera Found Her Emotional Voice for Shows Like ‘West Side Story’ by Jesse Green

Her dancing sometimes overshadowed her thrillingly dramatic way with a song: husky yet clarion, unaffected but full of comment and character.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:48PM

Chita Rivera, Finding Her Voice by Jesse Green

Her dancing sometimes overshadowed her thrillingly dramatic way with a song: husky yet clarion, unaffected but full of comment and character.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:18PM
Sunday, January 21, 2024

Leave the Poor Princess Alone by Jesse Green

Less than 30 years after her death, fictional reincarnations of Diana are everywhere. But even icons deserve more time to rest in peace.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:18AM
Friday, January 19, 2024

‘Terce’ Review: How the Other Half Prays, in a Reimagined Mass by Jesse Green

Heather Christian’s latest exploration of the religious sublime is a musical spectacle about the often overlooked “caregivers and makers.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:18AM
Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Review: For Jews, an Unanswered ‘Prayer for the French Republic’ by Jesse Green

In Joshua Harmon’s play about the legacies of antisemitism, a Parisian family must decide when it’s time to get out.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Monday, January 1, 2024
Thursday, December 28, 2023

For a Times Critic on Deadline, a Dramatic Reversal by Jesse Green

Stories evolve. But a recent review proved to a theater critic that people can change even more.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:12PM
Monday, December 18, 2023

Review: Sarah Paulson Makes a Horrible Discovery in “Appropriate” by Jesse Green

Making a blistering Broadway debut, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s 2014 play about the legacies of hatred feels like a new work entirely.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24PM
Wednesday, December 13, 2023

‘Buena Vista Social Club’ Review: Bringing a Classic Record to Life by Jesse Green

A new Off Broadway musical adds the thrill of intimacy and the weight of history to the Cuban songs popularized on a 1997 album.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:54PM
Sunday, December 10, 2023

Review: In ‘How to Dance in Ohio,’ Making Autism Sing by Jesse Green

A musical about seven autistic young adults, played by seven autistic young actors, breaks new ground on Broadway.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:12PM
Thursday, November 30, 2023

Review: A Shady Documentary Becomes a Weapon of War in ‘Spain’ by Jesse Green

Jen Silverman’s noir play considers the role of artists in the making of propaganda.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:32PM
Sunday, November 19, 2023

‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Review: Alicia Keys’s Musical Is Ambitious by Jesse Green

A promising Off Broadway jukebox musical features hits by the R&B star (including “Fallin’,” “If I Ain’t Got You” and “No One”) and a story much like her own.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:32PM
Thursday, November 16, 2023

‘Spamalot’ Review: You’ll Laugh in Its General Direction by Jesse Green

In the first Broadway revival of the Monty Python musical, the old bits are verbatim but the clowns are running the circus.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:24PM
Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Review: In ‘Scene Partners,’ Dianne Wiest Delivers Another Master Class by Jesse Green

The transcendent Dianne Wiest stars in an absurd yet poignant new play about a 75-year-old woman who sets out to be a star.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:06PM
Monday, November 13, 2023

‘Harmony’ Review: Barry Manilow Writes the (Broadway) Songs by Jesse Green

The pop star of the 1970s and ’80s crosses over to musical theater with a dark story about pop stars of the 1920s and ’30s.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:36PM
Thursday, November 2, 2023

‘I Need That’ Review: It’s Always Messy in New Jersey by Jesse Green

Danny DeVito returns to Broadway in a Theresa Rebeck comedy about a lonely old man lost in a houseful of junk.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:32PM

‘Pal Joey’ Review: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildering by Jesse Green

Joey is still a heel in this major revision of the 1940 antihero musical, but he’s now a Black artist trying to find his true voice.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:48PM
Monday, October 30, 2023

‘I Can Get It for You Wholesale’ Review: Rag Trade Revival, Recut for Today by Jesse Green

A story considered too dark for Broadway in its time is too much of a patchwork in ours.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:07PM
Sunday, October 29, 2023

Review: In ‘Stereophonic,’ the Rock Revolution Will Be Recorded by Jesse Green

David Adjmi’s riveting new play, with songs by Will Butler, is about a ’70s band that nearly destroys itself making an epochal album.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:19PM
Monday, October 23, 2023

‘Here We Are’ Review: The Last Sondheim, Cool and Impossibly Chic by Jesse Green

This inventive, beguiling and not quite fully solved puzzle of a show is a worthy and loving farewell to the great musical dramatist.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:03AM
Thursday, October 12, 2023

‘Gutenberg! The Musical!’ Review: Revenge of the Broadway Nerds by Jesse Green

The history of movable type is a terrible idea for a show. Which is why it’s so on brand for this satire of theater and its eternal hopefuls.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:19PM
Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Review: ‘Merrily We Roll Along,’ Finally Found in the Dark by Jesse Green

Jonathan Groff, supported by Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, is thrillingly fierce in the first convincing revival of the cult flop Sondheim musical.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:07AM
Tuesday, October 3, 2023

‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’ Review: A Shop Where Everybody Knows Your Mane by Jesse Green

Jocelyn Bioh’s Broadway playwriting debut, set in a Harlem hair braiding shop, is a hot and hilarious workplace sitcom.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:19PM
Wednesday, September 27, 2023

‘Purlie Victorious’ Review: Leslie Odom Jr. Shines in Revival by Jesse Green

Ossie Davis’s 1961 play is no period piece, as a blazing and hilarious revival starring Leslie Odom Jr. testifies.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:03PM
Thursday, September 21, 2023

‘Lunar Eclipse’ Review: A Dark, Cloudy Night of the Soul by Jesse Green

In Donald Margulies’s heavy-handed new play, Reed Birney is terrific as a farmer forced by his wife, played by Karen Allen, to face his grief.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:43AM
Sunday, September 17, 2023

‘Swing State’ Review: All Is Not Well in Wisconsin by Jesse Green

Rebecca Gilman’s play, set in a rural farmhouse, sees an image of the decline of Americans’ interdependence in the death of wildflowers.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:19PM
Tuesday, September 12, 2023

‘Infinite Life’ Review: Is There a Cure for Pain and Desire? by Jesse Green

Illness is no metaphor, and neither is pleasure, in Annie Baker’s weird and great new play set at a fasting clinic.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:55PM
Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Sondheim’s Last Musical, ‘The Wiz’ Revival and More Coming to Broadway This Fall by Jesse Green

Remaking a vintage musical for the 2020s takes guts, sensitivity and perhaps a medium.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:49AM

Have You Met My Collaborator? He’s So Classic, He’s Dead. by Jesse Green

Remaking a vintage musical for the 2020s takes guts, sensitivity and perhaps a medium.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:04AM

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
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic