Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Ariana DeBose charms in a reimagined ‘The Baker’s Wife’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

After nearly half a century, Stephen Schwartz’s 1976 musical The Baker’s Wife can finally claim a proud place in the American musical pantheon. Best known for the cabaret-standard ballad…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM
Monday, November 10, 2025

Michael Urie leads a wan ’80s-style ‘Richard II’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

There are good reasons why Richard II, the first play in William Shakespeare’s Henriad tetralogy, is less frequently performed than its successors, the two Henry IV plays (revived this pas…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 07:00PM
Sunday, November 9, 2025

Kristin Chenoweth squandered in tone-deaf ‘The Queen of Versailles’ (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Jackie Siegel, the buxom pageant queen turned billionaire’s wife who was the subject of Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary The Queen of Versailles, was present at the performance of th…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 11:59PM

‘The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire’ peters out after an intriguing premise (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Anne Washburn is one of our most gifted young playwrights, often interested in the nature of storytelling and the sense of community that can be built from shared public narratives. The Burn…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 08:00PM
Wednesday, November 5, 2025

‘Queens’ unearths the basement of the immigrant experience (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Martyna Majok’s ensemble drama Queens, which debuted in 2018 in the early years of the first Trump administration, remains a timely exploration of marginalized immigrant women forced into …

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:30PM
Monday, November 3, 2025

‘Kyoto’: The devil’s in the details. He’s also the narrator (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

International negotiations about climate change do not seem like the most promising subject for theater and yet Kyoto defies the odds in ways that are both surprising and utterly riveting. C…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:30PM
Thursday, October 30, 2025

Laurie Metcalf shines in ‘Little Bear Ridge Road’ (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

All the lonely people, where do they all come from? Samuel D. Hunter grapples with this question in his heartfelt one-act drama Little Bear Ridge Road, which opened on Broadway Thursday afte…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Tuesday, October 28, 2025

‘Liberation’ is an instant-classic memory play bursting with life-affirming power (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

In the last decade, Bess Wohl has emerged as one of the most talented and eclectic voices in American theater — whose work ranges from historical pieces (Camp Siegfried) to broad domestic …

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM

‘Romy & Michele: The Musical’ is a wan mimeograph of the Gen X cult movie (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Not every semipopular movie from the last half century needs to get the stage musical treatment. That’s the takeaway from the lukewarm mess that is Romy & Michele: The Musical, which t…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 07:00PM
Monday, October 27, 2025

‘Beau’ sets a gay coming-of-age story to a country-pop beat (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

The producers of the big-hearted new country-pop musical Beau have turned the subterranean black-box space at Off Broadway’s St. Luke’s Theater into a Nashville tavern/concert space, com…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM
Friday, October 24, 2025

‘Did You Eat?’ explores a Korean immigrant’s Dickensian childhood (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Early on in her brave and bravura solo performance piece Did You Eat? ((밥 먹었니?), Zoë Kim lulls you into thinking that hers will be a typical immigrant’s yarn about generational di…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:30PM
Wednesday, October 22, 2025

‘The Art of Leaving’ is a retrograde comedy that’s best left behind (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

There are throwbacks and then there’s The Art of Leaving, a new one-act comedy that could pass for a middling revival of a Neil Simon knockoff from a half century ago. The characters in An…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 08:00PM

Aubrey Plaza sizzles as a sexy siren in Ethan Coen’s ‘Let’s Love!’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Ethan Coen, whose best known for his Oscar-winning film work with his older brother, Joel, brings his distinct sensibility to Let’s Love!, a collection of three short playlets that are les…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 05:55PM
Monday, October 20, 2025

‘Not Ready for Prime Time’ is haunted by the ghosts of classic ‘SNL’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

We’re all familiar with the sketches that air during the final half hour of Saturday Night Live, the ones that start with a half-decent premise but outstay their welcome and only cling to …

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM
Sunday, October 19, 2025

Ari’el Stachel sweats through his competing identities in ‘Other’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

There’s an old adage that actors should work hard to make their performance seem effortless. Ari’el Stachel doesn’t do that — but he offers a solid excuse in his labor-intensive one-…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Thursday, October 16, 2025

‘Ragtime’ revisits a great musical and the promise of the American dream (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

When Ragtime was first staged in the mid-1990s, it embodied a certain post-Reagan excess with producer Garth Drabinksy’s elaborate, budget-busting staging (fireworks! a working Model T!) a…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 11:00PM
Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Jordan E. Cooper’s ‘Oh Happy Day!’ offers a queer update of Tyler Perry gospel plays (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Jordan E. Cooper, who delivered a satirical wake-up call to the theater world with his extended sketch comedy Ain’t No Mo’, is back with a new play. Oh Happy Day!, which is billed as a �…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:15PM
Monday, October 13, 2025

André De Shields camps it up as ‘Tartuffe’ in a classic setting (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

The appeal of classics is how they continue to speak to us across the centuries. Molière’s 1664 comedy Tartuffe is a telling example, offering both acute insights into religious hypocrisy…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM
Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Dylan Mulvaney romps through ‘The Least Problematic Woman in the World’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Dylan Mulvaney, the transgender performer best known for an ill-fated 2023 branding deal with Bud Light that created a media firestorm that led to boycotts of the beer, embraces all of her m…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Sunday, October 5, 2025

‘Torera’ celebrates Mexican bullfighting as an intimate telenovela-style saga (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Monet Hurst-Mendoza’s Torera, which opened Sunday at the WP Theater, simulates the experience of binge-watching a telenovela-style saga set in the world of a Mexican bullfighting. The twis…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 04:00PM

Abby Wambaugh wows with ‘The First Three Minutes of 17 Shows’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Why settle for one stand-up routine when you can deliver The First Three Minutes of 17 Shows? That’s the high-concept premise of American-born comedian Abby Wambaugh’s delightfully daffy…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 12:30PM
Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Chloë Grace Moretz plays a fierce but flawed mom in ‘Caroline’ (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Homecomings can be a tricky thing, as Chloë Grace Moretz’s Maddie learns in Preston Max Allen’s new drama Caroline. After fleeing home as a teenager amid drug-fueled rebellion, stealing…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 08:00PM
Monday, September 29, 2025

‘Masquerade’ reimagines ‘Phantom of the Opera’ as an immersive theme park ride (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

It’s only been two years since Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera ended its 35-year run on Broadway but the beloved sung-through musical that once carried the tagline “Now and …

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM

‘Punch’ packs an emotional wallop (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

How do we make sense of a senseless act? James Graham’s searing and unforgettable new drama, Punch, digs into a real-life incident in Nottingham, England in 2011 when a 19-year-old hooliga…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:30PM
Sunday, September 28, 2025

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter wrestle with existence in a Gen X ‘Waiting for Godot’ (Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, who famously played stoner time travelers in the Bill & Ted comedies 35 years ago, were not high on anyone’s list to tackle the philosophizing tramps Estr…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM

‘The Honey Trap’ is a taut thriller about the legacy of Ireland’s Troubles (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Ireland can never seem to outlive the long, dark legacy of The Troubles — a period that looms large in Leo McGann’s often gripping new thriller, The Honey Trap, which opened Sunday at th…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 09:00PM

‘And Then We Were No More’ delivers big ideas and a riveting debut in a lo-fi sci-fi package (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Tim Blake Nelson, the beloved character actor best known for his work in Coen Brothers films like O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, continues his foray into playwr…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 04:00PM

‘Murdoch: The Final Interview’ is a one-man hatchet job about a conservative bogeyman (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

Much ink has been spilled about Rupert Murdoch, the Australian born media mogul who at 94 remains an influential force in politics and society who’s become a hero to the right and a bogeym…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 03:00PM
Thursday, September 25, 2025

John Leguizamo’s ‘The Other Americans’ reimagines Willy Loman as a Latino striver (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

John Leguizamo is no stranger to live theater, but he’s best known for solo shows like Spic-O-Rama and the 2018 Tony winner Latin History for Morons. His new play, premiering at the Public…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 10:00PM
Sunday, September 21, 2025

‘Weather Girl’ forecasts a new dark comedy hit (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

How do we face the apocalyptic horrors of climate change? If you’re Stacey Gross, the Fresno, California, TV weather reporter at the center of Brian Watkins’ frenetically funny new one-w…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 06:00PM
Friday, September 19, 2025

Sia’s ‘Saturday Church’ blends ballroom, gospel, and house in a Black teen’s messy coming-out story (Off Broadway review) by Thom Geier

The teen coming-out story has become an all-too-familiar genre, but Saturday Church updates the form with surprising club beats as well as a starry creative team that hail from the worlds of…

SOURCE: Culture Sauce at 06:00PM

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