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…
Review: Real Women Have Curves
Real Women Have Curves is fun. It’s fresh. Everyone on stage is having a great time, and that joy is infectious. The show has no shame about its two major themes: first, that beautiful women often have curves, and second, the immigrant story, specifically the struggle of Latino immigrants living without regular status. In fact,…
Tony Winner: The Spy Who Sang to Me
A brisk, brainy WWII caper with more narrative density than emotional depth. Operation Mincemeat plays like the fever dream of a pub crawl among history nerds. The kind of night that ends with someone pounding out a patter song about Allied disinformation campaigns while the rest harmonize over pints. The result is a clever, chaotic…
Quiet Please, There’s a Lady on Stage
When Bernadette Peters first appears, it’s jarring. She’s visibly trembling. Her voice is uncertain. You worry. It’s a long show. Are we about to spend two and a half hours bracing for heartbreak? But then the Into the Woods medley arrives. You start wondering at the juxtaposition of her playing Little Red Riding Hood, and…
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