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.
The Lyrics & Lyricists concert series at 92NY opened their 2024-2025 season with a tribute to the late, great Oscar Hammerstein II, titled Cockeyed Optimist: Where Hammerstein Found his Hope. Directed by Dick Scanlan, and co-written by Scanlan and Malcolm Gets, the performance was a delicious mélange of song and narration with Scanlan, not only…
Kenny Leon, director of the current streamlined revival of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, brings a fresh new interpretation to the classic. He takes the revered play and makes it into a multicultural theatrical statement that invites everybody to enjoy this hauntingly sublime work. Our Town is an outlier in American…
Jenny Lee Stern, Chris Collins-Pisano (Photo: Carol Rosegg) Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song By Deirdre Donovan The latest version of Forbidden Broadway is settling in just fine at Theater 555. Created, written, and directed by Gerard Alessandrini, this revue, entitled Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song, is 90-minutes of sheer theatrical fun….
The cast of Our Class (Photo: Jeremy Daniel) Our Class By Deirdre Donovan Those theatergoers who missed Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s Our Class at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) last winter have a second chance to see the award-winning play at Classic Stage Company. Directed by Ukrainian-born, Jewish director Igor Golyak, and with many in the cast…
Theatergoers can now rendezvous with Mary Todd Lincoln at the Lyceum Theatre as Cole Escola’s hit comedy Oh, Mary! transfers from its downtown digs to the Great White Way. Brilliantly directed by Sam Pinkleton, and starring Escola in the eponymous role, it is an uproariously funny show that delivers a wild and wooly version of…
The new Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress, starring Sutton Foster, stacks up to two hours of pure theatrical fun. Deftly directed by Lear deBessonet, this production arrives on the heels of its popular run at New York City Center’s Encores!, retaining some of its original cast members and adding a few fresh faces….
The competition of all competitions is underway at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC) this summer. Under the arrangement of the Really Useful Group, and the inspired direction of Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, a talented 23-member cast are strutting their stuff in Cats: The Jellicle Ball. This is a radical revisiting of the musical…
Chesney Mitchell and John Collins (Photo: Russ Rowland) It’s Not What It Looks Like By Deirdre Donovan With the dog days of summer settling in, it’s refreshing to visit John Collins’ thoughtful two-hander, It’s Not What It Looks Like at the SoHo Playhouse, the winner of its 2023 Lighthouse Series. Directed by Vincent DeGeorge,…
Ana Villafañe, Holland Taylor (Photo: Daniel Rader) N/A By Deirdre Donovan Who’s afraid of the political machine? Not Mario Correa. In his new play, N/A, directed by Diane Paulus and inspired by real people and events, he crafts two tough-as-nails congresswomen: N, the first woman Speaker of the House, and A, the youngest woman ever…
The company of Encores! Titanic (Photo: Joan Marcus) Titanic By Deirdre Donovan The Tony award-winning musical Titanic closed out the Encores! 30th anniversary season at New York City Center on a high note. Under the direction of Anne Kauffman, and with Maury Yeston’s brilliant music and lyrics intact, this sung-through concert staging of the original…