626 stories by "Jan Simpson"
Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. At least that's the approach two recent plays have taken with the current political morass in which we all find ourselves. Selina Filling…
All The Drama is hosted by Jan Simpson. It is a series of deep dives into the plays that have won The Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama: "Harvey"1945 Pulitzer winner "Ha…
Now that Covid has been around for more than two years and vaccines have made contracting the virus a little less scary, a new kind of normal is settling in. The Tony award ceremonies return…
For the second time this month, there will be no regular post here. It's not because there haven't been shows to see and talk about: although it will be weeks before anything new opens on Br…
The Stagecraft podcast is hosted by Jan Simpson. It is a series of interviews with playwrights (and musical book writers) of shows opening on Broadway and off-Broadway. Guest: Madhuri Shekar…
The settings and the circumstances are the same in two new off-Broadway shows that portray the plight of the young Black and Brown people who are so often trapped in systems that view them"a…
All The Drama is hosted by Jan Simpson. It is a series of deep dives into the plays that have won The Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama: "The Young Man From Atlanta"1995…
Dreaming Zenzile, the musical that opened at New York Theatre Workshop this week, began as a tribute concert. And it probably should have stayed one. Â
The show, a co-production wi…
The girls aren't what they're expected to be in Belfast Girls, the new show that opened at the Irish Rep this week. They also aren't what we've come to expect to find in historical dramas li…
It may seem strange for a theater lover"and hip-hop know-nothing"like me to be quoting the rapper Drake but his self-congratulatory lyrics "Started from the bottom, now we're here" seem part…
Samuel D. Hunter's A Case for the Existence of God has been almost universally adored by the critics. And the play, which has just been extended at Signature Theatre through May 22, deserves…
Seventeen shows opened or reopened on Broadway this month and as I bounced from one to the other, I found myself asking what exactly is a Broadway show. The simplest answer to that question …
We're in the midst of the spring crush when new shows are opening literally every night as they rush in to be considered for the awards that celebrate the end of each theater season.Â
So …
Making a good musical is hard. Now I don't consider that statement to be a conceptual scoop that no one has ever considered before. But the thought has been much on my mind after seeing and …
In the opening monologue of Confederates, now running at the Pershing Square Signature Center through April 24, a college professor runs down a list of popular culture centered around slaver…
All The Drama is hosted by Jan Simpson. It is a series of deep dives into the plays that have won The Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama: "Beyond the Horizon"1920 Pulitze…
Here's the dilemma: reviews are usually written by people who see anywhere between 200 and 300 shows a year but the people who read those reviews may see only two or three shows a year, ofte…
There are so many things to admire about Lloyd Suh's The Chinese Lady which is currently running at The Public Theater through April 10. And here are just a few of them.
ADMIRATION #1: T…
There are so many themes"cultural assimilation, filial responsibility, sibling rivalry, climate change, animal cruelty, homophobia"packed into This Space Between Us that this new dramedy, wh…
All The Drama is hosted by Jan Simpson. It is a series of deep dives into the plays that have won The Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama: "Of Thee I Sing" Of Thee I Sing …
The playwright Charly Evon Simpson had written a bunch of stuff before she got her breakthrough three years ago with Behind the Sheet, a devastating drama about how the father of American gy…
There have been so many voices absent from the American stage that sometimes we don't even know what we've been missing until we suddenly hear it. English, the deceptively simple play by San…
Even before it opened at the Pershing Square Signature Center on Tuesday, some people were calling the musical Black No More "the new Hamilton." And it's easy to see why.Â
The score, much…
I can hardly believe it but I published the first Broadway & Me post 15 years ago on Valentine's Day. So this post should have gone up yesterday. However I was so busy celebrating V-Day …
All The Drama is hosted by Jan Simpson. It is a series of deep dives into the plays that have won The Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama: "How I Learned to Drive" by Paul…
