@collinshughes
Reporter/critic writing about theater, mostly. • Posting about theater, culture, journalism, NYC. • Curiosity saved the cat.• Banner detail: David Hockney’s “Dancers with Audience and Orchestra, August 2025.” • Freelance. • laura.collinshughes@gmail.com
It has always been true that only a fraction of the readership reads long pieces. Or reads past the jump, as they used to say in the newspaper biz.
The ones who read it all are called "readers." And they are more likely to subscribe to the publication and/or become lifelong fans of the writer.
That “Into the Woods” revival … really did not wow me. Great merch, though.
“Many people believe what they see on TV and do not distinguish between dramatization and documented fact — and the impact is not abstract.” Our raging world being a case in point. Anyway: This op-ed about lies and “Love Story” is well argued. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/o...
Rooting so hard for Marianne Jean-Baptiste, for her Kate Keller in “All My Sons”; Sophie Thompson, for her Annie Parker in “When We Are Married”; and Tom Edden, for his Mr. Curry in “Paddington,” while feeling aggrieved that the great Hank the Pigeon and his human, Ben Redfern, go unrecognized.
(Understudies are great *and* it sometimes is nonetheless a bummer when an actor you looked forward to seeing is out.)
But this sat all day in NYC, where I live, and now is in a completely different state. Which is deranged.
“Not in thrall to AI” seems like an ever-more winning tagline for news outlets dedicated to human-made journalism. Proof of critical thinking and backbone on the premises, for one thing.
On the Lazours’ “Night Side Songs” (gift link). www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/t...
In fun news, though, from the Goodman in Chicago: “NICK OFFERMAN SET TO JOIN MEGAN MULLALLY FOR THE MUSICAL EVENT OF THE SUMMER: ‘ICEBOY! OR THE COMPLETELY UNTRUE STORY OF HOW EUGENE O’NEILL CAME TO WRITE “THE ICEMAN COMETH”’”
Additionally, I want to speak directly to Iranian New Yorkers: you are part of the fabric of this city — you are our neighbors, small business owners, students, artists, workers, and community leaders. You will be safe here.
So I noticed a line in my review of “Cold War Choir Practice” last June, about the U.S. having bombed Iran during the show’s run.
Playwrights Ro Reddick and Hannah Doran have been named joint winners of the 2026 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
Read more here 👉 www.thestage.co.uk/news/ro-...
On Aya Ogawa’s “Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood,” breast-milk explosions and all. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/t...
There is a version of this world that could exist where, at any given time, the majority of humans beings are just chillin’ and eating fruit.
On Lauren Yee, her political comedy “Mother Russia” and her play cycle in progress.
“Mother Russia” is a lot of fun, btw, and very smart. Go.
(gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/t...
I was at the Baftas – and while hearing the N-word was unsettling, all anger should be aimed at the BBC | Jason Okundaye
Wasn't there, haven't watched the videos, don't know, but: A big-city blizzard that leads to police getting flustered about a snowball fight sounds like something out of a musical.
please I want to see all the pictures of all of your dogs in the snow
No, I'm sorry, we are not "still on for today," and no, I cannot do a zoom because, uh, the snow broke my zoomer. Best of luck to you and let's circle back in April.
I dunno, but a New York City theater company that e-blasts a discount code for its show this evening, “for those brave enough to go out!,” may not have the best interests of its audience or its artists in mind.
I did not expect Daniel Fish's "Kramer/Fauci" to be so moving, so beautiful, so deeply felt. I did not expect it to make me want to throw my arms around Larry Kramer. It's not even that I had a concrete expectation of it. I just didn't expect such a potent meditation.
The redone Cherry Lane is great, but, for real: longest theater bathroom line in Manhattan.
Oof! Realism intrudes.
Aside from every other issue this appalling account raises, it makes me wonder — as I have for months — how worried the NYC theater ecosystem in particular is about the international audience and artists from abroad choosing not to risk the trip and staying home. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
In the past few years, interviewers and readers have asked me "How did you know??" and all I can say is, I read history and I have a good sense of pattern recognition
An odd thing about this article is that it mentions by name only two people, other than the actor, who were part of the production or of A.R.T.: the playwright and the artistic director. Neither of whom, I would think, was actually involved with this.
Talking with the authors of the addiction-and-recovery plays “Blackout Songs,” “The Reservoir,” “The Dinosaurs” and “Anonymous.” Gift link, and a note that, even though the great Mary Beth Peil isn’t shown in the “Reservoir” photos, she is very much in it. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/t...
Karen Sillas Instagram post saying that her dear friend and costar Tom Noonan passed peacefully on Valentine's Day.
Tom Noonan as Francis Dolarhyde in Manhunter
Oh, man. Tom Noonan died? His performance as Francis Dolarhyde in Manhunter is one of the most terrifying, mesmerizing I've ever seen in a film.
I worked for 15+ years as an NYC divorce paralegal & got to know 60 Centre St, where divorce paperwork is filed, like a second home. It’s dank, depressing.
Then I got married across the street and it was like an alternate universe. Bright, clean, joyful. The DMV of Love, my wife calls it.
