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Someone has died, and the family is arguing about whether the reception needs a second cheese tray. The argument becomes vicious. A cousin says the deceased hated cheddar. Someone else says he ate it every Christmas. For six minutes, everyone has a position on cheese because nobody can bear to discuss the empty chair. That…
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There are serious theatrical questions. Can love survive disaster? Can art confront mortality? Can the human spirit endure against impossible odds? And then there is Titanique, which asks the most important question of all: What if Céline Dion had been on the Titanic and refused to let anyone else tell the story correctly? The answer is…
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The title of Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) tells you almost everything about the plot and almost nothing about what makes the musical so affecting. Yes, two strangers meet. Yes, there is a cake. Yes, they carry it through New York. But beneath that deliberately whimsical premise is a funny, tender story about loneliness,…
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There are musicals that tell a story about America. There are musicals that celebrate America. And then there is Ragtime, which asks America to sit down, be quiet, and listen to the stories it has spent more than a century trying not to hear. I saw Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of Ragtime on July 29, and I absolutely…
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway is an undeniably impressive production from a technical standpoint, but as a complete theatrical experience, I found it much less satisfying than I expected. There is a great deal to admire in the staging, lighting, and special effects, yet those elements are doing most of the heavy lifting.…
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I saw Schmigadoon! on Broadway last night, and it was an absolutely delightful evening from beginning to end. Bright, funny, romantic, and bursting with theatrical energy, the production feels like both a loving celebration of classic musicals and a wonderfully clever comedy in its own right. It captures everything that makes musical theater so joyful – the…
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There is a peculiar kind of theatrical magic that happens when a show fully embraces its own absurdity. It stops trying to convince you that what you’re watching is realistic and instead dares you to believe that the ridiculous is, somehow, the most honest thing on stage. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has been…
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There are Broadway musicals that tell you a story. There are Broadway musicals that let you hear a catalogue of familiar songs. And then there are the rare productions that dissolve the invisible wall between stage and audience until you forget you’re watching a performance at all. Just in Time belongs firmly in that last category.…
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I walked out of MJ the Musical asking myself a question that I don’t think the show necessarily wants you to ask: If you removed the music and the dancing, would the story still hold you? That’s not a knock against the production. It’s a question about theatre itself. Because from the moment the lights come up, MJ does…
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I saw Proof at the July 1 matinee, which feels like the correct way to see a play about genius, grief, and familial distrust: in the middle of the day, when the sun is behaving like an overconfident undergraduate and Broadway is full of people carrying tote bags, iced coffee, and unresolved maternal narratives. David Auburn’s Proof has always…
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