Sunday, March 23, 2025

Interview: Orchestrator Doug Besterman’s B’way Triple Play by Barry Gordin

By David Sheward March 23, 2025. After 31 Broadway shows, three Tony and two Drama Desk Awards, orchestrator Doug Besterman is achieving a rare feat: three shows running simultaneously in o…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 04:17PM

Operation Mincemeat*** by Barry Gordin

By Paulanne Simmons March 23, 2025. Satires on war are perhaps as old as war itself. Consider Lysistrata, M*A*S*H, Catch-22 and now, Operation Mincemeat, the very energetic and occasionally…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 03:02PM
Saturday, March 22, 2025

Purpose ****1/2 by Barry Gordin

By Samuel L. Leiter March 22, 2025. Family dramas are theatrical staples, especially the kind where relatives gather from far and wide for some unifying function, like a holiday, death, or …

SOURCE: theaterlife at 11:02AM

We Had A World **** by Barry Gordin

By David Sheward March 22, 2025. “There is no straight line to tell this story,” says Joshua, the character standing in for the playwright Joshua Harmon in his touching autobiographical…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:47AM
Thursday, March 20, 2025

A Streetcar Named Desire ****, Ghosts ***, and Vanya **** by Barry Gordin

By David Sheward March 20, 2025. Sex plays a vital role in three classics works, now in revival Off-Broadway: Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and, su…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 05:35PM
Wednesday, March 19, 2025

We Had A World *** by Barry Gordin

By Samuel L. Leiter March 19, 2025. We Had a World, the new, three-character, autobiographical dramedy by Joshua Harmon, Off Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club’s City Center Stage II, i…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:00PM

Five Reasons Why Redwood Reaches Soaring Heights by Barry Gordin

By Iris Wiener March 19, 2025. Tony-Award winner Idina Menzel (Wicked) sure knows how to make a much-anticipated return to Broadway. She currently stars in Redwood, a musical that she co-…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 05:37PM
Monday, March 17, 2025

Music City *** by Barry Gordin

By Paulanne Simmons March 17, 2025. If you’re a fan of country music, and especially the music of songwriter JT Harding, you’ll definitely like Bedlam’s Music City. The show is dir…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 12:14PM
Sunday, March 16, 2025

The White Room Gallery by Barry Gordin

Sara Blue and Dan O'Shea from Maureen’s Haven Homeless Outreach with The White Room Gallery Co-Owners Andrea McCaffery and Kat O'Neill at the opening reception this week for TRUE COLORS, i…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 12:58PM
Saturday, March 15, 2025

Ghosts **1/2 by Patrick Christiano

By Samuel L. Leiter March 15, 2025. Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, now in an uninspired production at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, has not received anywher…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 11:37AM
Friday, March 14, 2025

The White Room Gallery by Barry Gordin

March 14, 2025. The White Room Gallery, 2 Railroad Avenue in East Hampton, will present, TRUE COLORS, featuring Patrick Schmidt, Diego Velez, Seek One, Fringe, Stephan Gubert, Punk Me Tende…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:41AM
Monday, March 10, 2025

Sumo ***1/2 by Barry Gordin

By: David Sheward March 10, 2025. At first Lisa Sanaye Dring’s Sumo, at the Public Theater in a co-production with Ma-Yi Theater Company and La Jolla Playhouse, seems to be plotted lik…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 11:17PM

THE GREAT PRIVATION (HOW TO FLIP TEN CENTS INTO A DOLLAR) *** by Jesse Ayala

By: Samuel L. Leiter March 10, 2025. It’s good to see the always daring Soho Rep back in business, with Nia Akilah Robinson’s The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar),…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 11:02PM
Friday, March 7, 2025

Grangeville **** by Jesse Ayala

By David Sheward March 7, 2025. Just as August Wilson centered most of his dramas of the African-American experience in his home city of Pittsburgh, Samuel D. Hunter has returned again and…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:27AM
Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Dakar 2000 ** by Jesse Ayala

By Samuel L. Leiter March 4, 2025. Raviv Joseph, whose plays, like Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Gates (a 2010 Pulitzer finalist), Guards at the Taj, and King James, have made him one of the …

SOURCE: theaterlife at 06:01PM
Saturday, March 1, 2025

Curse of the Starving Class ****, Dakar 2000 **** by Barry Gordin

By: David Sheward February 28, 2025. Sam Shepard’s darkly funny and tragic family drama Curse of the Starving Class premiered in London in 1977 and then Off-Broadway at the Public Theater…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 11:19AM
Tuesday, February 25, 2025

CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS *** by Barry Gordin

By: Samuel L. Leiter February 25, 2025. It’s been only six years since the 2019 revival of Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class (London, 1977; New York 1978) at the Pershing Square…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 07:01PM

Garside’s Career**** by Barry Gordin

By: Paulanne Simmons February 24, 2025. Having grown up in the industrial north of England, the son of a manager for a cotton-spinning business and a school headmistress, Harold Brighouse c…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 07:00PM

Redwood *** by Barry Gordin

By: Paulanne Simmons February 24, 2025. According to Finn (Michael Park), the environmental scientist in Redwood, the roots of the redwood tree don’t go down very far. They form relatio…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 06:52PM
Saturday, February 22, 2025

Liberation **** The Antiquities **** by Barry Gordin

By: David Sheward January 21, 2025. The trouble with most “issue” plays is the characters seem more like animated talking points, rather than complex, flesh-and-blood human beings. Fort…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:00AM
Friday, February 21, 2025

Redwood **1/2 by Barry Gordin

By: Patrick Christiano February 21, 2025: Redwood, a visually stunning new musical about healing, directed by Tina Landau, and starring Idina Menzel in her highly anticipated return to Broa…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 12:00PM
Thursday, February 20, 2025

GARSIDE’S CAREER**** by Barry Gordin

By: Samuel L. Leiter February 20, 2025. The Mint Theatre, whose mission is to find forgotten modern plays deserving revivals, sometimes swings and misses; with British playwright Harold Bri…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 08:01PM

Amy Beth Williams: In Reverse**** by Barry Gordin

By Paulanne Simmons February 19, 2025. Amy Beth Williams’ Valentine’s Day show at Don’t Tell Mama, Amy Beth Williams: In Reverse, was about time and how it cycles through the season…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 08:16AM

My Man Kono ***1/2 by Barry Gordin

By: Alix Cohen February 19, 2025. When playwright Philip W. Chung noticed an Asian man in the cast of Charlie Chaplin’s 1917 short, The Adventurer, he was sufficiently intrigued to do so…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 08:15AM
Monday, February 17, 2025

Kowalski**, Cellino v. Barnes*** by Barry Gordin

By: David Sheward February 17, 2025: The potential is there for a gripping and informative play in Gregg Ostrin’s Kowalski, but sadly all we get is forced conflict and sitcom-level humor.…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 09:47AM
Thursday, February 13, 2025

Redwood ** by Barry Gordin

By: David Sheward February 13, 2025. There’s an awful lot of talk about trees in Redwood, the uneven new musical at the Nederlander after a run at the La Jolla Playhouse. During one of t…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 10:30PM

BroadwayCon 2025 by Barry Gordin

By: Paulanne Simmons Broadway Con Celebrating their 10th Consecutive Year February 12, 2025. Whether you want to make your friends jealous with a selfie taken with your favorite celebrity…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 01:27PM
Wednesday, February 12, 2025

How Sondheim Can Change Your Life – From Philosophy to Analysis by Barry Gordin

By: Alix Cohen February 12, 2025: There will probably never be a last word on masterful composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021). As I write, I’m sure students are researching thes…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 05:00PM
Saturday, February 8, 2025

A Knock on the Roof **** by Barry Gordin

By: David Sheward February 8, 2025. The most striking image in Khawla Ibraheem’s disturbing and moving solo play A Knock on the Roof at New York Theater Workshop is not the one you’d e…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 12:03PM
Friday, February 7, 2025

Mrs. Loman *1/2 by Barry Gordin

By: David Sheward February 7, 2025. Sequels of classic plays have a mixed history. Some are total bombs such as the famous flop musical A Doll’s Life which follows Ibsen’s Nora after …

SOURCE: theaterlife at 05:45PM
Tuesday, February 4, 2025

THE ANTIQUITIES **1/2 by Patrick Christiano

By: Samuel L. Leiter February 4, 2025: In Jordan Harrison’s play, The Antiquities, receiving its premiere at Playwrights Horizons, one of the characters is a writer who thinks artificia…

SOURCE: theaterlife at 07:30PM

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