Deirdre Donovan

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.

Reviews by Deirdre

  • Titanique

    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 can feel like a tidal wave of gags—so relentless at times that audiences may find…

  • Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)

    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 Tyne Rafaeli’s direction tends to favor deliberation over dramatic momentum—it opens a provocative dialogue with the classic that invites deeper…

  • An Evening with Brian Stokes Mitchell at The 92nd Street Y, New York

    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

    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 by Simon Stephens, directed by Sarah Frankcom, and starring Ian McKellen alongside Golda Rosheuvel, Arinzé Kene, and Rosie…

  • Anna Christie

    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, Brian d’Arcy James, and Mare Winningham, this production reframes O’Neill’s…

  • Initiative

    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 tender, clear-eyed direction by Emma Rosa Went, Else Went’s sprawling five-hour epic at The Public…

  • Chess

    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 world’s most cerebral game into a fierce theatrical showdown. Like Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita—also penned by lyricist…

  • Oedipus

    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 future, this electrifying adaptation thrusts Sophocles’ tragedy into an urgent modern arena where destiny collides…

  • Oratorio for Living Things

    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 from the Ars Nova premiere—creates a theatrical universe where the human and the celestial hum in…

  • Andre De Shields is Tartuffe

    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 from its audience, making hypocrisy feel both timeless—and uncomfortably close. Long before Tartuffe became a staple of the…