Editor
Julia Polinsky wrote, directed, produced, and starred in her first play when she was 7 years old. She’s been paying a lot of attention to theater ever since.
Performance: Extraordinary. Story: Heartbreaking. Production: Challenging. Firmly in the school of “solo performance acting with video projections of the actor,” Nothing Can Take You From The Hand Of God gives its star, Jen Tullock, who wrote the play with Frank Winters, a superb opportunity to display her acting chops. Which are significant. She’s superb. She…
This Is Not A Drill, now at the York Theatre, offers a pleasant enough way to pass a couple of hours in the theater. If there are no surprises, then also there’s something to be said about smooth sailing and just enjoying the show. The story of This Is Not A Drill follows 3 tourist…
Whip-smart, demanding, as aggressive and changeable as Rupert Murdoch himself, this new play by An Unnamed Source hits the highlights (and lowlights) of billionaire media mogul Murdoch’s mind. Heaven knows that may not be a comfortable place to visit. Jamie Jackson’s superb performance portrays a Medusa-like nest of snakes living inside Murdoch’s head. The media…
Take me to church. Please. Saturday Church, now playing at New York Theatre Workshop, opens with the magnificent, ebullient, Tony-winning, can-do-no-wrong J. Harrison Ghee as Black Jesus, asking, “Can I show y’all what collective love looks like? What collective joy looks like? What collective healing looks like?” As directed by Whitney White and based on…
The Ensemble (Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade) Rolling Thunder By Julia Polinsky on July 26, 2025 Rolling Thunder, a new show that originated in Australia, is about the Vietnam era, scored to the music of the times. It’s just opened at New World Stages, rolling out its considerable energy until September 7. Considering that this…
Now at New York Theatre Workshop, Lights Out may seem on the surface to be just another bio-musical, this time about Nat “King Cole” (Dulé Hill in a superb performance) but it is much more than that. Go with an open mind, and you’ll do well, because it’s very, very good. The audience seemed to…
Charming, tuneful, heartwarming, eye-filling, and predictable (but it doesn’t matter), Real Women Have Curves proves that everything old can be new again. And that’s just fine, thank you! This musical version of Real Women Have Curves has had a couple of lives before it became a Broadway musical. It started out as a play, written…
Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is The Villain draws an exhilarating, troubling portrait of teenage girls as they once were, are now, and may forever be. Set in 2018, and dealing with the mass of new, increasing, and disturbing #MeToo accusations at all levels of society, the play is, in some ways, a period piece. In…
First things first: you do not need to be at all familiar with the Netflix series to enjoy Stranger Things: The First Shadow, now on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre. You know zip, zero, nothing? That’s fine, because the Broadway show stands on its own. It may not be an origin story to you, just…
The best anti-depressant in the world is playing now at the Schoenfeld on 45th Street. Forget your Prozac, your Xanax, your anti-anxiety meds. Run, don’t walk, to see Buena Vista Social Club and let its magic blend of song, story, music, and dance wash the world out of your hair for two delightful hours. This…