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.
Jonathan Groff Photo credit: Richard Termine by Deirdre Donovan What his life lacked in length, it made up for in height. Singer-songwriter Bobby Darin was born on May 14th, 1936, in East Harlem and died 37 years later on December 20th, 1973, in Los Angeles following a heart operation. But he left…
Amy Londyn in a scene from Eric B. Sirota’s new musical FRANKENSTEIN. Photo Credit: Adam Smith Jr. by Deirdre Donovan A new musical adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel is now humming a ghoulish tune at St. Luke’s Theatre. Directed by Clint Hromsco, and with book, music, and lyrics by Eric B. Sirota,…
Ian Holcomb, Orlagh Cassidy, Aaron Gaines, and Dewey Caddell photos by Carol Rosegg by Deirdre Donovan Of all the holiday shows in New York this season, none is as life-affirming as It’s a Wonderful Life: The Live Radio Play. This stage adaptation of Frank Capra’s classic film returns to the Irish Repertory Theatre…
Ethan Slater photos by Joan Marcus by Deirdre Donovan The first ripples of delight from the audience at the Palace Theatre, where the musical SpongeBob SquarePants has just washed up, is prompted by David Zinn’s jaw-dropping nautical set: an imaginative replica of what life beneath the waves would look like. The second…
Manny Urena and cast Photo credit Russ Rowland by Deirdre Donovan True story of a Guatemalan teen in the immigration courts in the United States. Thanks to Jefffrey Solomon’s new docudrama De Novo, theatergoers can now get an insider’s look at what really happens in the immigration courts in the United…
by Deirdre Donovan The holidays came early at Don’t Tell Mama, as Robin Kradles took the stage with her vivacious new solo show, “Gambling on Love.” Kradles stirred in all the right ingredients for a spicy holiday brew: a dash of glamour, a splash of fun, a sprinkling of anecdotes, and meaty…
David Greenspan. Photo © Carol Rosegg by Deirdre Donovan David Greenspan’s marathon performance of Eugene O’Neill’s nine-act play Strange Interlude is a stunner. Greenspan not only performs all the roles in the dramatis personae, but he delivers every syllable in the text verbatim. Under the aegis of the Transport Group, and directed…
David Lutken by Deirdre Donovan “Unless we do hear the work songs, war songs, love songs and dance songs of all the people everywhere, we are most apt to lose the peace, and this world right along with it.” That is a line from Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody…
Ben Curtis, Kathleen Huber, Julie Campbell, and Jacques Mitchell (© Russ Rowland) by Deirdre Donovan Plays about gun shootings seem to be the rage on New York stages nowadays. Moss Dewey becomes the latest playwright to try his hand with this hot-button topic in his Crusade of Connor Stephens. Directed by Moss,…
K.T. Sullivan Photos by Seth Cashman by Deirdre Donovan Fans of Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz recently were treated to a smorgasbord of their songs at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on June 20th, courtesy of the Mabel Mercer Foundation. Hosted by the luminous KT Sullivan, who now serves as the…