All stories by Laura Collins-Hughes on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

‘Twelfth Night’ Review: A Shot of Joy Under a Darkening Sky by Laura Collins-Hughes

At an uptown amphitheater, the Classical Theater of Harlem stages Shakespeare’s comedy with fizzy delight.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:12PM
Friday, July 8, 2022

‘He Presented Another Path’: Actors and Directors on Peter Brook by Laura Collins-Hughes

Patrick Stewart, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Tina Landau and Tim Robbins on being challenged and inspired by the legendary theater maker, who died last weekend.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:18PM
Wednesday, June 29, 2022

She’ll Have You at Moo: Milky White and the Power of Puppetry by Laura Collins-Hughes

She breathes, coughs and mourns, and now the cow puppet that captured hearts in the Encores! “Into the Woods” revival is on Broadway.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:42AM
Monday, June 27, 2022

‘Chains’ Review: Drab Lives, but Dreaming of More by Laura Collins-Hughes

A young boarder’s plan to make a new life in Australia unsettles a staid British family in Elizabeth Baker’s 1909 play, revived by the Mint Theater Company.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:43PM
Thursday, June 23, 2022

‘Lessons in Survival: 1971’ Review: The Past Echoes in the Present by Laura Collins-Hughes

The writer James Baldwin and the poet Nikki Giovanni are at the center of a crackling work of verbatim theater at the Vineyard Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:24PM
Thursday, June 16, 2022

Review: In High-Tech ‘Orchard,’ It’s Hard to See the Forest for the Trees by Laura Collins-Hughes

Jessica Hecht, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Chekhov himself too often get overwhelmed by this ambitious Arlekin Players Theater adaptation.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:42PM
Friday, June 10, 2022

‘Quince’ Review: A Mexican American Tale That Explains Too Much by Laura Collins-Hughes

The new play, about a 15-year-old girl and her impending quinceañera, creates a fitting party vibe. If only the script didn’t clarify every cultural reference.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:07PM
Tuesday, June 7, 2022

In ‘Buggy Baby,’ Shadows Creep In by Laura Collins-Hughes

Josh Azouz’s vivid, nightmarish play at Astoria Performing Arts Center in Queens is a hallucinatory tale about two refugees and a talkative infant.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:07PM
Thursday, June 2, 2022

Review: In ‘A Kid Like Rishi,’ Hazy Uncertainty Shrouds a Teen’s Killing by Laura Collins-Hughes

A cast of three recount the gripping drama of the death of a teenager by the Dutch police in 2012.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:18PM
Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Review: In ‘Romeo & Bernadette,’ It’s Off to Brooklyn for This Tale of Joy by Laura Collins-Hughes

In this sweet, spoofy romp of a musical comedy, Romeo awakens from a 400-year slumber and follows a Juliet look-alike to Brooklyn.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:42PM
Wednesday, May 25, 2022

‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ Review: A Life Too Simplified by Laura Collins-Hughes

This New York City Children’s Theater adaptation of Maya Angelou’s celebrated memoir faces the challenge of faithfully telling a story that encompasses a great deal of pain.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:07PM
Thursday, May 19, 2022

Broadway Set Designers on Their Appealing Sets by Laura Collins-Hughes and Vincent Tullo

Live theater summons energy no digital performance can match. Set designers for five of this season’s plays explain how they built eye-catching environments that crackle with it.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:07AM
Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Why the Tonys Need an Award for Best Ensemble by Laura Collins-Hughes

Theater has always been a team sport. But this Covid-stalked Broadway season has made clear that a prize for the entire cast should be added.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:33AM
Friday, May 13, 2022

Broadway Guide: What to Know About Tickets, Shows and Covid Protocols by Laura Collins-Hughes

From new shows like “Macbeth” and “A Strange Loop” to long-running Tony Award winners, a rundown of everything you need to know.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:06PM
Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Comic or Graphic, Shows About Abortion Surface a Stark Divide by Laura Collins-Hughes

Decidedly anti-sensationalistic, Alison Leiby’s shrewd and funny personal monologue plays downtown. Uptown, a staged reading focuses on a gruesome case.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:06PM

‘The Vagrant Trilogy’ Review: Palestinians in Exile, Yearning for Home by Laura Collins-Hughes

Mona Mansour’s rich trilogy, now at the Public Theater, follows a displaced Palestinian family.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:03AM
Friday, May 6, 2022

Marjan Neshat on Her ‘Kind of Miraculous Season’ Onstage by Laura Collins-Hughes

Now starring in “Wish You Were Here,” the Iranian-born actress has made her mark in three works by playwrights of Middle Eastern descent.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:18AM
Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Review: Billy Crystal Carries the Tune in ‘Mr. Saturday Night’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

In a mishmash new musical based on his 1992 movie, he charms the audience as a has-been comic reconnecting with family.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Review: ‘For Colored Girls’ Returns, Leading With Joy by Laura Collins-Hughes

Camille A. Brown’s revival of Ntozake Shange’s 1976 Broadway landmark brings exuberant life to a play that celebrates Black women’s solidarity in the face of pain.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:07PM
Friday, April 8, 2022

‘Penelope’ Review: Adrift Between Ithaca and Progress by Laura Collins-Hughes

A new musical-comedy retelling of “The Odyssey” from the York Theater Company tries to center a powerful woman but feels like a show about and for men.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:03PM
Tuesday, April 5, 2022

‘Garbageman’ Review: Just a Couple of Straw Men by Laura Collins-Hughes

In Keith Huff’s new play, two friends head to the Jan. 6 insurrection, but this production substitutes unfunny cartoonishness for the characters’ humanity.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:06PM
Sunday, April 3, 2022

‘Balkan Bordello’ Review: A Tragic Tale Reborn for a Time of War by Laura Collins-Hughes

In this international production, you can check into the Balkan Express Motel, if you dare, and fulfill an ancient generational curse.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:18PM
Thursday, March 17, 2022

Review: ‘The Medium’ Is Less a Message and More a Museum Piece by Laura Collins-Hughes

This early 1990s play, based on the life of Marshall McLuhan, is being revived by the company that created it.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:18PM
Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Review: In ‘Book of Mountains & Seas,’ Puppets Embark on Mythic Quests by Laura Collins-Hughes

Huang Ruo and Basil Twist’s new choral-theater piece at St. Ann’s Warehouse borrows from traditional Chinese tales.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:54PM
Monday, March 14, 2022

‘Man Cave’ Review: Things That Go Bump in the American Night by Laura Collins-Hughes

John J. Caswell Jr.’s play is a political drama wrapped in the spooky pleasures of the horror genre.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:42PM
Sunday, March 13, 2022

Review: ‘A Song of Songs’ Makes a Sacrament of Remembrance by Laura Collins-Hughes

Grief for a lost love is the unhealed wound at the core of this play by Agnes Borinsky, which takes a disquieting turn into the underworld.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:03PM
Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Review: ‘The Chinese Lady’ Casts a Long Look at Hate by Laura Collins-Hughes

Lloyd Suh’s play is a riff on the arrival of the real Afong Moy, possibly the first woman from China in the United States, and a lens on contemporary racism.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:33PM
Wednesday, March 2, 2022

I Love London Theater. But Not London Theatergoing. by Laura Collins-Hughes

While full of fine shows, a long-awaited binge was also full of stress about how loosely audiences followed rules about staying healthy in a pandemic.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:07AM
Tuesday, March 1, 2022

‘Out of Time’ Review: Once Sidelined, Now Taking Center Stage by Laura Collins-Hughes

Five Asian American actors, all over 60, deliver monologues that touch on grief and heritage, on adult children and cultural cancellation.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:33PM
Friday, February 25, 2022

‘The Daughter-in-Law’ Review: Sons and Wives by Laura Collins-Hughes

In this D.H. Lawrence play, a production by the Mint Theater, men are trouble, “pure and simple.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:42PM
Thursday, February 24, 2022

With ‘Cyrano,’ James McAvoy Is Savoring a ‘Purer Form of Storytelling’ by Laura Collins-Hughes

The actor will be making his New York stage debut with Jamie Lloyd’s Olivier Award-winning production, coming in April to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:33AM