Writer
Fern Siegel is a journalist who has written for MediaPost, Huffington Post, The New York Times and BBC Radio. She believes Sondheim and Gershwin make America great.
When The Whoopi Monologues opened in 1984 on Broadway, it showcasedWhoopi Goldberg’sacting and writing chops. In its revival at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater, five actresses take on the challenge — and deliver an ensemble performance that veers between funny, insightful and heartbreaking. The roles are endlessly varied. From a 20-something junkie to a teen…
Louise Beresford, Luke Barton, Eddy Payne. (Photo: Harry Elletson) David Copperfield By Fern Siegel on June 7, 2026 It’s no mean trick to take a Charles Dickens’ novel and distill it to its essence. But that’s the genius of the Guildford Shakespeare Company, which is presenting David Copperfield as part of 59E59’s Brits Off Broadway…
Daphne Rubin-Vega, Michael Cyril Creighton, Sarita Choudhury (Photo: Monique Carboni) The Adding Machine By Fern Siegel on May 11, 2026 Elmer Rice wrote The Adding Machine in 1923, a play about the devastating effects of technology on employment. A bookkeeper with 25-years of dependable service is replaced by an adding machine touted as more efficient, without the need…
Schmigadoon! is a triumph of choreography and the chorus are first-rate singers and dancers. The show, however, is musical lite. The premise: Two Manhattan doctors hope to salvage their troubled relationship at a Catskills retreat. Instead, a hike leads them across a bridge to Schmigadoon, an early 20th-century hamlet that eagerly breaks into song whenever…
Jon Bernthal, Brian D. Coats, Jessica Hecht (Photo: Evan Zimmerman) Dog Day Afternoon By Fern Siegel on April 11, 2026 In August 1972, a Chase Bank robbery gone wrong quickly turned into one of the biggest media circuses in New York City history. Although the vault was half-empty, the robbers, John (“Sonny”) Wojtowicz and Salvatore…
Christine Heesun Hwang, Laura Sohn, Shannon Tyo, Tina Chilip (Photo: Joan Marcus) Jesa By Fern Siegel As four sisters gather on the anniversary of their father’s death for a jesa, a Korean ritual to honor the dead, tensions mount. Their emotions run the gamut from reverence to regret, rage to resentment. After all, family harmony…
John Kelly (Photo: Carol Rosegg) Bughouse By Fern Siegel on March 12, 2026 The correlation between mental illness and art is an intriguing one. That’s especially true when the topic is Outsider Art, work created by a self-taught artist far removed from the mainstream. Henry Darger, the focus of Bughouse, may be the most famous…
Michael Hunsaker, Tori Jade Lopez, Lauren Nicole Sherwood, Klea Blackhurst, JP Sarro, Gina Lamparella (Photo: Donald Kennedy) Just Desserts: A Musical Bake-Off By Fern Siegel on February 15, 2026 The premise of the off-Broadway musical Just Desserts: A Musical Bake-Off is simple: somewhere in the Midwest, there is a bake-off at the Jefferson County fair….
Daniel Yaiullo (center), Zack Calhoon (right) (Photo: Ben Hider) Hans Litten: The Jew Who Cross-Examined Hitler By Fern Siegel on February 8, 2026 There is a price to pay when you speak truth to power. And none more horrible than the fate of Hans Litten, a lawyer who called Adolf Hitler to the witness stand…
Amber Gray, Matthew Broderick (Photo: Marc J. Franklin) Tartuffe By Fern Siegel on December 26, 2025 Tartuffe, Moliere’s 17th-century farce about wealthy French people easily deluded by a religious hypocrite and moral reprobate, speaks to every age. Lucas Hnath’s new adaptation, now off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop, utilizes more modern language, but the message…