Wednesday, November 4, 2026
I spent a few days in London and saw quite a few worthwhile shows, some that should definitely be considered for a Broadway or off-Broadway transfer. And, let’s face it, the Broadway seaso…
SOURCE: The Contending at 07:26PM[SHARE]Monday, August 10, 2026
Brit playwright John Donnelly’s The Pass is a brutal and devastating look at internalized homophobia and the fake life that certain people in the limelight are forced to live, still—alth…
SOURCE: The Contending at 11:30AM[SHARE]Monday, July 20, 2026
Jack is Back! Last year, Jack Stokes impressed New York City audiences and critics with his remarkable portrayal of a young British soldier in the WW2-era two hander Shellshocked which perfo…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 15, 2026
In Jonathan Spector’s theatrical masterwork Birthright, currently running at MCC, a sextet of Jewish Americans bonds after a “birthright” trip to Israel in 2006. The epic play follows …
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:45AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 11, 2026
There are gifted singers and gifted actors. The twain doesn’t always meet. Stephen Michael Spencer is a great example of that dynamic artistic collision meeting and melding with his outsta…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:35AM[SHARE]Monday, July 6, 2026
We are coming off a very sad Broadway season for musicals but a fairly strong one for plays. On the off-Broadway front, it was a mediocre season for both. I won’t purport to have seen even…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:00AM[SHARE]Sunday, June 28, 2026
In the buoyant revival of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, currently wowing audiences at Studio 54 on Broadway, Tony nominee Andrew Durand takes on the role of Brad Majors, a swe…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:22AM[SHARE]Thursday, June 4, 2026
You would easily recognize Margaret Colin, perhaps not by name, but she’s appeared in blockbuster films, popular TV shows and celebrated stage productions. Colin is currently wowing audien…
SOURCE: The Contending at 06:16PM[SHARE]Monday, June 1, 2026
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics kicked off Pride Month by bestowing Prince Faggot and Ragtime top honors in the 2026 Dorian Theater Awards. Radical Off-Broadway sensation …
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:30AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 28, 2026
Hannah Cruz enters the Chess stage early in act two, raising the already high stakes and she very near steals the show. For her electrifying work, she’s received a well-deserved Tony nomin…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:00AM[SHARE]Tony-winner Lena Hall continues to dive deep into the psyche of the singular character of Ali on season two of Apple TV+’s envelope-pushing dramedy Your Friends & Neighbors. Though pla…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:45AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 27, 2026
In Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Christiani Pitts plays jaded, New Yorker Robin Rainey tasked with picking up her too-excited soon-to-be nephew-in-law, Dougal Todd (Sam Tutt…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:45AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Brit born Sam Tutty makes quite the splash in the only original Broadway show to open this past season: Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York). He plays Dougal Todd, an overly eager yo…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:45AM[SHARE]Sunday, May 24, 2026
It was a strong year for plays, both new and old, on the Great White Way and a mediocre and slight year for musicals. Period. Let’s hope next season brings a better crop. There are some ti…
SOURCE: The Contending at 01:41PM[SHARE]Thursday, May 14, 2026
Anyone who saw The Who’s Tommy performance from the 2024 Tony Awards, experienced just how mesmerizing and magnetic a performer Ali Louis Bourzgui was in the titular role. After that elect…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:30AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 13, 2026
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics’ theater wing members announced their favorites in New York theater for the fourth annual Dorian Theater Awards. These awards celebrate t…
SOURCE: The Contending at 01:31PM[SHARE]Monday, May 11, 2026
Broadway has been playing it safe the last few years. Revivals are plentiful but when it comes to new plays that actually have something to say, sure we get the occasional Purpose or Prayer …
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 5, 2026
A few surprises with this year’s Tony nominations, but mostly they were pretty much as expected. Best Play and Musical went exactly as predicted. Ditto Revival of a Musical. In the Play Re…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:23AM[SHARE]Saturday, May 2, 2026
Heading into the May 5th announcement, here’s my take on what and who will be gifted Tony Award nominations, having seen most of the shows in contention. Note that it has been a good year …
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:00AM[SHARE]Friday, May 1, 2026
My intro to Rocky Horror was a midnight showing of the film version at the Hyway Theater in Fair Lawn NJ the summer after my senior year in high school. I went with a group that were fans. I…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:00AM[SHARE]Monday, April 27, 2026
Like Titanique, Schmigadoon seems to want to capitalize on audience familiarity—not just with the Apple TV series it’s based on but with the old-fashioned Broadway musicals of the past i…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:47AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 23, 2026
Mad & Hell, Mame & Vera, Elphaba & Glinda–one can add to this short list of famous frenemies of stage, the names Julia and Jane, the delightful and dastardly dynamic diva duo i…
SOURCE: The Contending at 05:11PM[SHARE]Monday, April 20, 2026
Trip Cullman is one of the most prolific theater directors working today both on and off Broadway as well as in London and regionally. He also happens to be one of the most gifted. The theat…
SOURCE: The Contending at 08:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 16, 2026
Twenty-five years ago, David Auburn's powerful play, Proof, won both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The original production, which I found quite moving, starr…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:00PM[SHARE]Sunday, April 12, 2026
Full disclosure, I loved Titanique off-Broadway. Saw it twice and reveled in the  unabashed zaniness, the super gay sensibility and the show's refusal to concern itself with hyper-sensiti…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:00PM[SHARE]Thursday, April 9, 2026
Gina Gionfriddo's hilarious, biting yet supremely satisfying dark comedy, Becky Shaw, has finally made it to Broadway and is most definitely the boldest, funniest show of the season to date.…
SOURCE: The Contending at 02:27PM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Those pesky Andrew Lloyd Weber/T.S. Eliot Cats seem to have a lot more than nine lives. This time the divisive musical, which ran on Broadway from 1982 to 2000 (toppling A Chorus Line as the…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:00PM[SHARE]Monday, April 6, 2026
1975 was a banner year for cinema"just gander at the Best Picture Academy Award nominees: Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon, Steven Spielberg's Jaws, Robert Al…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:49AM[SHARE]Monday, March 23, 2026
Boundless enthusiasm and sheer ebullience go a very long way towards making Duncan Macmillan's hopeful, if slight one-man play, Every Brilliant Thing, soar. The show is currently wowing audi…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 18, 2025
Theater on-and off-Broadway, started out quite strong in 2025, but the promise of an exciting fall never really materialized, with a few key exceptions, and instead the biggest box office hi…
SOURCE: The Contending at 06:41PM[SHARE]Monday, December 1, 2025
Maria Friedman is one of the UK's most celebrated stage performers and has been nominated for nine Olivier Awards, winning four. Her first major role onstage was originating Dot/Marie in Ste…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:45AM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 25, 2025
The musical Chess has had quite the checkered and tumultuous past. Much like Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, the show began life as a concept album, written by lyricist Tim Rice and compos…
SOURCE: The Contending at 10:44AM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Lincoln Center Theater's sensational new production of the musical Ragtime, which began its renewed life as a Gala produced in 2024 by New York City Center, is a theatrical wonder for the ey…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:58AM[SHARE]Monday, November 3, 2025
The memory play is a genre that has grown a bit stale since Tennessee Williams shattered it with The Glass Menagerie's Broadway premiere in 1944. But Tony-nominee Bess Wohl has breathed new,…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:11AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 11, 2025
Evita was the definite highlight of my recent London theatergoing experience. The production is truly inspired and I am so excited for it's Broadway run. You can read my rave HERE. But I did…
SOURCE: The Contending at 04:58PM[SHARE]Sunday, August 24, 2025
Even as someone who has special childhood memories tied to the show, I can admit Evita is a flawed work. It's more rock opera than book musical. The politics can get a bit muddled. And the f…
SOURCE: The Contending at 09:08PM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 1, 2025
A true star performance is on display seven times a week in a smallish off-Broadway house on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. Matt Rodin takes the stage at Theater 154 and metaphoric…
SOURCE: The Contending at 08:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 24, 2025
There's a (nearly) hidden, gay-themed gem playing this Pride season in Greenwich Village. A musical, seven-years in the making, that is rousing, disturbing and, ultimately, empowering. Beau …
SOURCE: The Contending at 12:25PM[SHARE]Friday, June 20, 2025
Nicholas Barasch is currently wowing audiences as young Frederic in the Roundabout Theatre Company's splendid reworking of Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera, now titled, Pirates! The Penz…
SOURCE: The Contending at 05:42PM[SHARE]Thursday, June 12, 2025
I managed to avoid reading anything about Call Me Izzy except for the obvious fact that it stars Jean Smart and it's a one-character play. Full disclosure, I am NOT a fan of one-person shows…
SOURCE: The Contending at 11:00PM[SHARE] 
