Writer
Journalist Deirdre Donovan has written for the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, among others. Her theater writing has been published in The Brooklyn Paper, Our Town, West Side Spirit, Curtainup, Theaterscene, and Offoffonline.
Marla Mindelle (Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade) Titanique By Deirdre Donovan on April 17, 2026 A deliriously camp send-up that gleefully rewrites pop culture history, Titanique finds Céline Dion commandeering the Titanic’s legacy with a jukebox score and a wink that never fades. Yet for all its riotous invention and winning performances, this Broadway transfer…
Susannah Perkins (Photo: Joan Marcus) Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) By Deirdre Donovan on March 26, 2026 In Antigone (This Play I Read in High School), playwright Anna Ziegler reimagines Sophocles’ tragedy through a contemporary, self-aware lens that blurs the boundaries between text and memory. While this bold adaptation doesn’t fully cohere—and…
Spring was in the air at the 92nd Street Y, New York, as the legendary Brian Stokes Mitchell sauntered onstage for his one-night-only concert, An Evening with Brian Stokes Mitchell. Presented as part of the Tisch 2025/26 season—and marking his debut at the landmark institution—the program drew from Broadway, jazz, and the American Songbook, showcasing…
An Ark at The Shed (Photo: Marc J. Franklin) An Ark By Deirdre Donovan on February 2, 2026 With An Ark, The Shed and Tin Drum unveil the world premiere of what they describe as the first play created for and in mixed reality, a work that replaces physical presence with one-to-one digital intimacy. Written…
Michelle Williams (Photo: Julieta Cervantes) Anna Christie By Deirdre Donovan St. Ann’s Warehouse revives Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Anna Christie with Michelle Williams inhabiting one of the most formidable roles in the American canon, under the assured direction of Thomas Kail. Set against the Brooklyn waterfront and supported by a distinguished ensemble including Tom Sturridge,…
The cast of Initiative (Photo: Joan Marcus) Initiative By Deirdre Donovan on December 2, 2025 Initiative sweeps through four tumultuous years in a nowhere town on the California coast, where seven teenagers cling to one another as they stumble into friendship, first love, and the aching question of who they’re allowed to become. Guided with…
Aaron Tveit and the cast of Chess (Photo: Matthew Murphy) Chess By Deirdre Donovan on November 25, 2025 In its sweeping Broadway revival, Chess transforms a Cold War standoff into a pulse-pounding triangle of power, love, and betrayal. With Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele, and Nicholas Christopher at its center, Michael Mayer’s new production turns the…
Mark Strong, Lesley Manville (Photo: Julieta Cervantes) Oedipus By Deirdre Donovan on November 21, 2025 Robert Icke’s Olivier Award–winning Oedipus arrives on Broadway as a sleek, nerve-jangling thriller, propelled by Mark Strong and Lesley Manville reprising their celebrated West End roles. Set on a tense national election night where every revelation threatens to upend the…
The company (Photo: Ben Arons) Oratorio for Living Things By Deirdre Donovan on November 18, 2025 Signature Theatre launches its newest residency with Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things, an immersive, in-the-round explosion of sound and spirit that bridges science, memory, and cosmic wonder. Under the direction of Lee Sunday Evans, the celebrated ensemble—many returning…
André De Shields (Photo: Joan Marcus) André De Shields is Tartuffe By Deirdre Donovan on November 8, 2025 André De Shields presides over Tartuffe with a velvet-gloved authority that turns Molière’s satire into something intimate, hypnotic, and deliciously treacherous. Staged in the lavish library of House of the Redeemer, this candlelit production unfolds just feet…