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…
Patrick Page and the Ensemble (Photo: Carol Rosegg) Titus Andronicus By Carol Rocamora on April 23, 2026 The ultra-violent Titus Andronicus is now enjoying (if you can use that word) a splendid revival at Signature Theatre, in the skillful hands of the Red Bull Theatre Company. And oh, is it sensational! Prepare yourself for the…
Christine Heesun Hwang, Laura Sohn, Shannon Tyo, Tina Chilip (Photo: Joan Marcus) Jesa By Fern Siegel As four sisters gather on the anniversary of their father’s death for a jesa, a Korean ritual to honor the dead, tensions mount. Their emotions run the gamut from reverence to regret, rage to resentment. After all, family harmony…
Susannah Perkins (Photo: Joan Marcus) Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) By Deirdre Donovan on March 26, 2026 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…
Jonny-James Kajoba, Rob McClure, Matt Walker, Michael Genet (Photo: Russ Rowland) Spare Parts By Julia Polinsky on March 14, 2026 Just imagine: you are a gazillionaire tech bro super uber master of the universe. Everything money can buy, you can buy. But you can’t buy youth or health. Or, with sufficient planning and unlimited funds,…
John Kelly (Photo: Carol Rosegg) Bughouse By Fern Siegel on March 12, 2026 The correlation between mental illness and art is an intriguing one. That’s especially true when the topic is Outsider Art, work created by a self-taught artist far removed from the mainstream. Henry Darger, the focus of Bughouse, may be the most famous…
David Lee Huynh, Melissa Maxwell, Sean Runnett, Douglas Rees, David T Patterson (Photo: Todd Cerveris) Zack By Marc Miller on March 9, 2026 An unambitious, ordinary, middle-class young man has been hassled by those around him into considering himself a nonentity. Along comes a spirited, forward-thinking young woman who sees qualities in him that others…
Emma Ramos, McKinley Belcher III, Sarin Monae West (Photo: Hollis King) The Tragedy of Coriolanus By Carol Rocamora on March 2, 2026 The scene is Rome; the time is the fourth century BC. But its themes of war, power, and leadership resonate painfully and urgently today. Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Coriolanus (1605), in a compelling…
Tedra Millan, Max Gordon Moore, Maddie Corman, Ethan Slater (Photo: Emilio Madrid) Marcel on the Train By Marc Miller on February 27, 2026 From the looks of it, much of the audience at Classic Stage Company probably remembers Marcel Marceau. He was a mime, widely considered the greatest in the world, and widely derided by…
Sean Hayes (Photo: Emilio Madrid) The Unknown By Lydia Sue Keidel on February 27, 2026 The Unknown, now in performances at Studio Seaview, is an 80-minute monologue, a one-act psychological thriller written with Sean Hayes in mind. The plot is loosely based on an experience of playwright David Cale thirty years ago. It follows Elliot,…