Anna Ziegler’s Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) at the Public Theater is a show you should see. It is a powerful, performance-driven piece that draws on the ancient tragedy to make a contemporary argument about bodily autonomy and state power. Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, the production grounds the story in recognizable, present-day…
NYC Theater Review: A Latina in the State Department Deserves a Bolder Play
Public Charge, a new play by Julissa Reynoso and Michael J. Chepiga, directed by Doug Hughes at the Public Theater, arrives with strong material and a capable production. The staging is clear, the direction disciplined, and the acting consistently solid. It is a story worth telling. The problem is that the writing undermines it, diminishing…
Oh, Mary!: A First Lady in Full Comic Frenzy
Mary Todd Lincoln is having a moment. Cole Escola’s gleefully unhinged portrait of the First Lady built a cult following off-Broadway before arriving on Broadway last season with Tony nominations and audiences already primed to laugh. The show’s success was confirmed at the Tony Awards, where Escola won for Best Actor in a Play and…
Broadway Review: Initiative
Initiative runs for five hours with two intermissions. That length sounds punishing until you are twenty minutes in and the play has no interest in testing your patience. It holds your attention through people worth following and scenes that keep shifting their center of gravity. You stay because the characters earn the time. Written by…
Broadway Review: Archduke
Roundabout’s revival is sharp in moments but lighter than the history that powers it. Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke, now at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre, takes on the three young Bosnian Serb men whose actions helped ignite World War I. Joseph, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, approaches their confusion…
Broadway Review: The Seat of Our Pants
The Public’s new musical version of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth hurls every idea it has at the audience and hopes some of them sing. It is smart, ambitious, and at least half an hour too long. And I give it a thumbs up. Adapted, composed, and lyricized by Ethan Lipton and directed…
Theatre Review: Prince Faggot Isn’t Here to Shock You
Imagine someone tells you they’re writing a play about the heir to the British throne being a homosexual, complete with nudity. You’d brace for cliché: the easy satire, the tired provocation, the self-aware wink that so often passes for queer transgression. Prince Faggot is none of that. It’s precise, intelligent, and one of the best…
Theater Review: Bat Boy Comes Out of the Cave
It’s hard to imagine a better Halloween pairing than a cape, a mask, and a seat at Bat Boy: The Musical. Presented as a gala concert at New York City Center, this revival reminded everyone why the institution remains one of New York’s most joyous theatrical homes. It’s the place where forgotten, too-weird, or too-brilliant…
Fall Into Queer New York
The world really doesn’t need another “Best Three days in New York City” page. That being said, I’m gonna give you my twist on some good ideas anyway — because this one’s especially for the queers. You can follow up with General Google’s, but here are my curated tips. And if you find yourself completely…
Floyd Collins: Beautiful Music, Resonating Underground
A meditation on dreams, ambition, and the price of spectacle. Reviewed by Adam Josephs, Out in STL May 2025, Lincoln Center Theater – Vivian Beaumont Theater The secret to great performance art is that it makes you care about the characters, no matter how abstract or unconventional. Lincoln Center’s revival of Floyd Collins Hooks you…
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