In Little Bear Ridge Road, Metcalf racks up the hits with ease, though the production feels more like watching home run derby than a full game. I couldn't escape the nagging sensation, as I …
The Orion's Belt comments prefigure all sorts of big discussions to come about cancer and meth addiction and child abuse. They are the same tropes that other, lesser playwrights stick in the…
This production, directed with superb acerbity by Joe Mantello, marks the playwright's overdue Broadway debut, and it doesn't disappoint. The play is a multifaceted gem, exquisitely shaped a…
Hunter is a master at creating these types of indelibly flawed characters, and his sensitive writing is beautifully complemented by Joe Mantello's typically precise direction and the superb …
Now that I am done telling friends to grab tickets to Little Bear Ridge Road, let's tell you about Samuel D. Hunter's latest drama, which opened on Thursday at the Booth Theatre. Little Bear…
1970s, Ohio. Lizzie gathers a group of women to talk about changing their lives, and the world. What follows is a necessary, messy, and bitingly funny exploration of what it means to be free…
If there is a show that can make the case for a Tony Award for best ensemble, it's this one. White directs the actors like a conductor leading an orchestra: Each one gets to shine in at leas…
Since seeing it earlier this year, I've found myself mentally comparing everything else onstage to Liberation, and frankly, not many other shows compare. Liberation is a must see. The post T…
Both times I've seen the play"Off Broadway this spring, now returning in a larger space on Broadway"I've felt unprepared for the emotional wallop it lands, the way that Wohl's work becomes c…
"Liberation" is a brilliant, well-acted, and sobering account of the women's rights movement, complicity, and the lens through which we view our caretakers " namely, our mothers. The post An…
When Bess Wohl's "Liberation" opened Off Broadway all the way back in February, it would have been ridiculous to grace it with best-of superlatives. Now that "Liberation" has opened on Broad…
Whitney White's direction elicits a triumph of ensemble acting whose equipoise is a perfect realization of the play's own themes. The actors work so well together, and so unselfishly, that i…
While Wohl's script is packed to the brim with thoughtful moments of beauty, comedy, and heartbreak, Liberation wouldn't be nearly as affecting and, sadly, relatable without its stellar cast…
There is something different about Liberation's Broadway production. Bess Wohl's play still features the same tight ensemble as in its Off-Broadway premiere earlier this year, and it is stil…
Liberation, which premiered off-Broadway earlier this year, is a welcome original play on Broadway that relies not on marquee Hollywood names for buzz but a slate of strong performances, whi…
RAGTIME is a sweeping musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's novel that follows three fictional families in pursuit of the American Dream at the dawn of the 20th Century: Black pianist Coalho…
As the plot follows the intersecting fortunes of those three characters' families, each seeking to redeem the country's promise at a time of tumultuous change, old-fashioned musical-theater …
From the moment the chorus rises from the stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater during the opening number of Ragtime, you know you're in for something special"a big Broadway musical with what…
It's a thrilling experience, though on the Vivian Beaumont Theater's vast stage this pageant of a musical feels a bit skimpy. Not that the musical needs opulent sets, but it does call for st…
Ragtime culminates with two huge 11 o'clock numbers, from Henry and Levy, a Tony-winner and Olivier-nominee whose names are rightfully big draws to the show. Yet the showstopping vocal momen…
Ragtime settles into a richer and more internal mode quickly, in a large part due to the textured performances of its leads and the thought they've applied to Ahrens and Flaherty's score. Th…
The original Broadway production in 1998 featured career-changing performances from Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald and Marin Mazzie. Now, in 2025, you feel every bit as fortunate to b…
While deBessonet could have better provided a certain focus or point of view " Ragtime's telling of America's immigrant tale is, at this point in history, ripe for the picking " she certainl…
Henry has been at the forefront of Broadway leading men for 15 years, but this show is his triumph. He takes one of the most demanding roles in the Broadway canon and he does it full justice…
One year ago, seated at City Center, I cried at both numbers and left the theater deeply shaken. If that same power hasn't quite held, it is perhaps no fault of a broadly first-rate producti…