At the start of Duncan Macmillan's "People, Places & Things," which concludes its triumphant run at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn on Sunday, Emma, an actress with a serious substance abuse…
A fascinating experiment is underway on Broadway. A substandard comedy that received, let's just say, mixed reviews out of town has been recast with fashionably hip actors in a new productio…
Every season theater producers drop a wad of coins in the jukebox like gamblers pouring quarters into slot machines. Broadway jackpots might be rarer than Las Vegas windfalls, but the behemo…
Is there a play-doctor in the house? A concerned onlooker would have reason to make this plea during "Chasing Mem'ries: A Different Kind of Musical." Unfortunately, there's not much anyone c…
"King Charles III," British playwright Mike Bartlett's "future history play" that was nominated for a Tony Award last year, begins with the funeral procession for Britain's longest ruling mo…
If you can't beat 'em, parody 'em. Gerard Alessandrini, the man behind the popular "Forbidden Broadway" series, has made his theatrical career spoofing his musical theater betters. He's turn…
Following in the audaciously silly footsteps of "The Book of Mormon" and "Spamalot," "Something Rotten!" is a Broadway musical that sets out to pinion you with laughter. Punchlines and pratf…
The theater excited Albert Camus' communal instincts as a writer, but the stage wasn't the ideal medium for his brand of political existentialism. "Caligula" is perhaps his most fully realiz…
"Gem of the Ocean" may not rank at the top of August Wilson's plays, but anyone doubting the soul-shaking power of this drama should brave Orange County traffic to see this wrenching new rev…
As one theatergoer's bliss is another theatergoer's cornball, let's accentuate the positive before delving into the negative of a show that reveals just how thin the line is between hokey an…
After acclaim for HBO's "The Leftovers" and an Emmy nomination for FX's "Fargo," Carrie Coon talks about returning to the stage to star in Amy Herzog's "Mary Jane" off-Broadway at New York T…
Dick Gregory, the comedian and civil rights activist who died this year, played the role of the Shakespearean fool to white America, quipping subversive sentiments about race relations in a …
Bravo, Bruce. The star of Broadway's fall season delivers a piece of theater that few will forget - two hours of longing, loss, quiet melancholy and reflection, all from the man who was born…
"Our Town" has become such a chestnut that it's easy to forget just how innovative it was when the drama premiered in 1938. Thornton Wilder's style, so thoroughly absorbed by the 20th centur…
The word "audience" comes from the Latin word "audientia," meaning a hearing. People gather to listen, and an individual or group is given the opportunity to be heard. It is a basic exercise…
John Douglas Thompson, the British-born actor of Jamaican heritage who trained in America and is now a citizen here, has carved out a reputation as one of our leading classical actors. His O…
"Head of Passes," Tarell Alvin McCraney's play set where the land trails off into the sea in hurricane-prone Louisiana, has undergone quite a bit of tinkering since I saw it at Berkeley Repe…
In a posh Beverly Hills hotel suite overflowing with gift baskets, Michael, the central character of Paul Rudnick's tentative new comedy, "Big Night," is anxiously primping for what may be t…
Karla, a struggling stand-up comic, is furiously jotting in her notebook while trying out different versions of a new routine. "I've been single for so long, I've started having sex dreams a…
The straightforward production of "Iphigenia in Aulis" that opened Wednesday at the Getty Villa's outdoor Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater might be retitled "Clytemnestra," so enliven…
Who is Hamlet? This might seem like a strange question to ask about the most famous character in all literature, a figure incarnated by some of the most brilliant actors of the last four cen…
More than two years after "Hamilton: An American Musical" had its world premiere at New York's Public Theater, becoming the biggest theatrical sensation in at least a generation, it's still …
NEW YORK " Michael Moore looked like a fish out of water " or was it a deer in headlights? " at a preview of his Broadway show, "The Terms of My Surrender," which had its official opening at…
Jumping on bandwagons is my least favorite activity. Don't force me to tell you all the must-see movies I've skipped ("Forrest Gump" is all you'll get out of me), the No. 1 bestsellers I've …
Barbara Cook's career can be divided into two parts: her Broadway ingénue years, in which she enchanted audiences with her glittering soprano, and her cabaret years, in which she basically …