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.
Damien Warren-Smith (Photo: Austin Ruffer) Garry Starr: Classic Penguins by Deb Miller on September 8, 2026 After winning multiple awards and selling out shows in Sydney and Melbourne, London’s West End, and the Edinburgh Fringe, Garry Starr: Classic Penguins is now making its US debut at Off-Broadway’s Studio Seaview. The super-wacky, rapid-fire, no-holds-barred solo comedy,…
. Two New Theater Book Releases . by Deb Miller on September 4, 2026 . Theater lovers can catch up on their reading and revisit some of their favorite works and NYC landmarks with two recently released books. One is a two-play volume that concludes a series of twelve critically acclaimed award-winning Off-Broadway productions; the…
Soph Metcalf, William DeMeritt, Kimberlee Walker, Sam Adegoke, Jordan Lage, Sarah Long, Sam Underwood, Spencer Aste, Amelia Mason (Photo: Russ Rowland) . The Real Ivanov . by Deb Miller on August 24, 2026 . Anton Chekhov’s four-act drama Ivanov took him only ten days to write. First performed in 1887, the play was not well…
Anthony Alfaro (Photo: Julieta Cervantes) The Potluck By Julia Polinsky on July 21, 2026 Trauma exists; never doubt it. Dealing with trauma impels a lot of art, and many artists weave their lives, and their wounds, into their work. Sometimes, that makes super theater; sometimes, it feels like that time and care could have been…
Jonathan Judge-Russo, Lauren Lolo Pritchard, and Stephen Michael Spencer (Photo: Jeremy Daniel) Music City: A New Musical (2026 remounting) By Julia Polinsky Bedlam’s Music Ciyt: A New Musical, a country-music jukebox musical featuring the songs of zillion-selling songwriter JT Harding, is as warm-hearted and feel-good as a Hallmark Christmas movie. Originally presented at the West…
Billy Porter and the Ensemble (Photo: Joan Marcus) La Cage aux Folles at Encores! By Julia Polinsky on June 27, 2026 Directed by Robert O’Hara, this all-Black revival of La Cage is an Encores! production, so you know the drill: a little under-rehearsed (and who can cavil at that with less than 2 weeks to…
Stephen Spinella, Jeorge Bennett Watson (Photo: Maria Baranova) Jerome By Julia Polinsky on June 8, 2026 A heartbreakingly excellent performance from Stephen Spinella and heavily timely subject matter infuse Jerome, John J. Caswell, Jr.’s new play now at Playwrights Horizons. It’s June; Pride Month is here, and LGBTQ-forward theater is everywhere. But Jerome can’t seem…
Superb performances; slice of life storytelling; a bit of something extra: all this and more greet you at the Barrymore Theatre, where August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is getting a handsome revival. Part of the Century Cycle of 10 plays Wilson wrote about the Black experience in America, Joe Turner takes place in…
Baize Buzan (Photo: Alexia Haick) Beauty Freak By Julia Polinsky James Clements has given us a new play about Leni Riefenstahl. She was one of the more fascinating and polarizing people of the 20th century. Unquestionably a feminist pioneer, she was also a monster of pragmatism, using concentration-camp inmates as extras in her film, then…
Love. Intelligence. Genius, even. Betrayal. Sacrifice. The revival of David Auburn’s Pulitzer- and Tony-winning Proof, now at the Booth, has all this and more: great structure, superb writing, knockout performances. Proof centers around Catherine (Ayo Edebiri), a slouchy, visibly depressed 25-year-old college dropout, the daughter of Robert, (Don Cheadle) who in his younger days was…