New York Theater

Grey Arias Review Call it “Madame Butterfly” with ADHD.  “Grey Arias,” which is running only through tomorrow at the Flea, stars an unlikely duo whose divergent life experiences, talents and idiosyncrasies shape a show that initially seems a self-indulgent if often entertaining hodge-podge, but sharpens into a resonant political critique of Puccini’s opera.

Grey Arias Review

Call it “Madame Butterfly” with ADHD.  “Grey Arias,” which is running only through tomorrow at the Flea, stars an unlikely duo whose divergent life experiences, talents and idiosyncrasies shape a show that initially seems a self-indulgent if often entertaining hodge-podge, but…

Fringe: The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits I was maybe 15 years old when a middle-aged man stopped me on the street and asked me if I was a swinger. I suddenly remembered the encounter while watching the soft porn comedy “The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits,” perhaps because I felt again I was the wrong audience for this. That could be the reason why I found the play, presented as part of the International Fringe Encore Series, smarmy and excruciating. It could also be because of Michael Shaw Fisher’s clunky script and his largely awkward direction, as well as some terrible acting.

Fringe: The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits

I was maybe 15 years old when a middle-aged man stopped me on the street and asked me if I was a swinger. I suddenly remembered the encounter while watching the soft porn comedy “The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits,” perhaps because I felt again I was the wrong…

How to Succeed in Musical Theatre Without Really Dying "One of the biggest surprises for me in being on Broadway is that there are a lot of unhappy people there,” Tony winner Jonathan Groff writes in a foreword to this book co-written by Lindsay Mendez, his “Merrily We Roll Along” co-star and fellow Tony winner.  “I think this is a reflection of what can happen when we finally get what we think we want.” Groff acknowledges that people wanting a career in Broadway are exactly who would pick up a book entitled “How to Succeed in Musical Theatre Without Really Dying: The Actor's Guide to Booking Work and Building a Career That Lasts…

How to Succeed in Musical Theatre Without Really Dying

"One of the biggest surprises for me in being on Broadway is that there are a lot of unhappy people there,” Tony winner Jonathan Groff writes in a foreword to this book co-written by Lindsay Mendez, his “Merrily We Roll Along” co-star and…

Broadway marquees will dim on March 10 in honor of
D.L. Coburn, John Cunningham, Carmen de Lavallade, Frank Dunlop, Robert Duvall, Bret Hanna-Shuford, Harry Haun and Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Footnotes Review. A puppet guide to walking Gandhi was famous for walking, both for exercise and for the liberation of India, clocking some 49,000 miles on his protest marches. Aristotle believed that great thinkers are all great walkers.  Virginia Woolf walked to find joy and stave off madness, although her final walk was into a river, where her body was found weeks later. They are part of “Footnotes,” Theodora Skipitares’ clever, cleverly-named, and enlightening hour-long puppet theater about the history of walking, which has the feel of an insanely ambitious school project. Also featured: Thoreau, Rimbaud, Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh, medieval pilgrims, prehistoric humans, members of the Los Deliveristas Unidos union of delivery workers, as well as figures of Greek mythology, an oversized mechanical ape, Octarina the Octopus, and Kelly the Kangaroo.

Footnotes Review. A puppet guide to walking

Gandhi was famous for walking, both for exercise and for the liberation of India, clocking some 49,000 miles on his protest marches. Aristotle believed that great thinkers are all great walkers.  Virginia Woolf walked to find joy and stave off madness,…

Off Broadway Rules! #Stageworthy News of the Week February ended with a bang, and not just overseas. There were some heavy shows Off Broadway. The six I reviewed just this week are full of sickness and sexism, personal betrayals and public denunciation...And these are almost all comedies! NYC Off Broadway Week continues ro4 ten more days. But March madness will soon take over, in more ways than one. March 2026 New York Theater Openings Theater Quiz for February 2026

Off Broadway Rules! #Stageworthy News of the Week

February ended with a bang, and not just overseas. There were some heavy shows Off Broadway. The six I reviewed just this week are full of sickness and sexism, personal betrayals and public denunciation...And these are almost all comedies! NYC Off…

Night Side Songs Review “Night Side Songs” is in part an original musical that tells the story of the terminal illness of a character named Yasmine Holly (portrayed by Brooke Ishibashi.) But it’s also a “kaleidoscope of theatrical experiments” to see illness in general, as the five cast members take turns explaining to us upfront. They tell us the show is “informed by conversations with nurses, doctors, patients, and caregivers,” and they recite a passage from Susan Sontag’s 1978 book “Illness as Metaphor” from which the show gets its title: “Illness is the night side of life,” Sontag wrote; we have passports to both “the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick,” and if we of course prefer the good passport, “sooner or later, each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.” The score by the Lazours is full of lovely folk songs; some of the theatrical experiments are intriguing.

Night Side Songs Review

“Night Side Songs” is in part an original musical that tells the story of the terminal illness of a character named Yasmine Holly (portrayed by Brooke Ishibashi.) But it’s also a “kaleidoscope of theatrical experiments” to see illness in general, as the five cast members…

Bigfoot Review Bigfoot’s mother, Francine Foot, explains how her big, kind, hairy monster came to be: “You have sex with a carnie next to a nuclear power plant, you end up with a giant son.” That’s the kind of goofy humor found in abundance in this campy musical comedy, opening tonight Off Broadway, featuring some top Broadway talent. It’s safe to say that nobody going to a show entitled “Bigfoot” expects Ibsen, but only about one out of every three jokes landed for me. Actually, Ibsen seems one of the plot’s many, many influences, albeit through a funhouse mirror.

Bigfoot Review

Bigfoot’s mother, Francine Foot, explains how her big, kind, hairy monster came to be: “You have sex with a carnie next to a nuclear power plant, you end up with a giant son.” That’s the kind of goofy humor found in abundance in this campy musical comedy, opening tonight Off…

Puppetopia: The Magnificent Ms. Pham This elaborate, tuneful puppet musical doesn’t just tell the story of the journey of Kim Pham from Vietnamese “hometown girl” riding a water buffalo to young romantic in Saigon to war refugee “boatperson” to mother of four sons in Houston, Texas.  It threads the tale with Vietnamese history and mythology, populates it with elephants, lions, dragons and demons, presents it as shadow puppetry and a contemporary downtown spin on traditional Vietnamese water puppetry (complete with a stage-wide pool of water), and accompanies it with sixteen songs from rock to pop to country – all in 60 minutes.

Puppetopia: The Magnificent Ms. Pham

This elaborate, tuneful puppet musical doesn’t just tell the story of the journey of Kim Pham from Vietnamese “hometown girl” riding a water buffalo to young romantic in Saigon to war refugee “boatperson” to mother of four sons in Houston, Texas.  It threads…

Theater Quiz for February 2026 How well were you paying attention to the New York theater news, views and reviews in the month of February? Find out with this ten-question quiz, plus a doozy of a bonus question.

Theater Quiz for February 2026

How well were you paying attention to the New York theater news, views and reviews in the month of February? Find out with this ten-question quiz, plus a doozy of a bonus question.

March 2026 New York Theater Openings Below is a day-by-day calendar of selected theater opening* this month in New York, including three starry plays on Broadway: A solo turn by Daniel Radcliffe (opening March 12), a British import led by John Lithgow (March 23), and a gritty movie adaptation featuring The Bear’s Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (March 30.) All the musicals opening in March are Off-Broadway. March 1 March 1 March 18 March 19 March 29 Daniel Radcliffe is not the only solo performer in March. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Wallace Shawn and Anthony Rapp are among those starring in one-person shows, Off and Off-Off Broadway.

March 2026 New York Theater Openings

Below is a day-by-day calendar of selected theater opening* this month in New York, including three starry plays on Broadway: A solo turn by Daniel Radcliffe (opening March 12), a British import led by John Lithgow (March 23), and a gritty movie adaptation…

Chinese Republicans Review The four power-suited Chinese-American women who work at the same Wall Street bank meet every third Tuesday for lunch at Golden Unicorn in what they call an affinity group. But it doesn’t take long to realize they have little affinity for one another. Iris (Jully Lee), the only one born in China, tells Ellen (Jennifer Ikeda) that her Mandarin “sounds like diarrhea in your mouth.” Phyllis (Jodi Long), the grand dame of the group, is incensed that the youngest and newest member is late, even though she’s not late. But as Phyllis instructed Ellen decades ago when she hired her: “Early is on time, on time is late.”

Chinese Republicans Review

The four power-suited Chinese-American women who work at the same Wall Street bank meet every third Tuesday for lunch at Golden Unicorn in what they call an affinity group. But it doesn’t take long to realize they have little affinity for one another. Iris (Jully Lee),…

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize announced joint winners for the 48th Annual Award. US playwright Ro Reddick for her play Cold War Choir Practice and U.K./Ireland playwright Hannah Doran for her play The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights.
www.blackburnprize.org/year/2026_/c...

Jeff Ross Take a Banana for the Ride Broadway Review After his mother died when he was just 14 years old, as Jeff Ross tells us from the stage of Broadway’s Nederlander Theater, “I remember sitting in my room thinking, ‘Is this what life is? You thin…

On March 24, Netflix will begin streaming a film version of the Broadway solo (+ dog) show "Jeff Ross: Take A Banana for the Ride"

My Broadway review:
newyorktheater.me/2025/08/18/j...

Well, at least it’s not slush

The Red Steps. no snow
That was quick

“The scale of the corruption is unprecedented” Democratic Response to the 2026 State of the Union video and transcript "Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?" Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger asked in her 12-minute Democratic response to President Trump's 108-minute State of the Union address. "We all know the answer is no." Below the video and transcript of her remarks.

“The scale of the corruption is unprecedented” Democratic Response to the 2026 State of the Union video and transcript

"Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?" Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger asked in her 12-minute Democratic response to President…

The Reservoir Review Early on in Jake Brasch’s comedy about an alcoholic helped to sobriety by his grandparents, Josh (Noah Galvin), recovering from his latest full-on bender (blacked out, 11 stitches), is comforted by each of them telling him what a precocious child he had been. His Grandpa Shrimpy (Chip Zien) remembers how Josh thanked him for changing his diaper. “Joshy,” Shrimpy recalls saying, “if you speak in full sentences, why are you still shitting your pants?”To which college-age Josh now comments: “I’ve shat my pants a few times over the last couple months.”

The Reservoir Review

Early on in Jake Brasch’s comedy about an alcoholic helped to sobriety by his grandparents, Josh (Noah Galvin), recovering from his latest full-on bender (blacked out, 11 stitches), is comforted by each of them telling him what a precocious child he had been. His Grandpa…

Celebrating yesterday's snow day in Times Square, captured by NY Times photographer
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/n...

Mother Russia Review Near the beginning of Lauren Yee’s dark farce set in Russia after the collapse of Communism, Evgeny (Adam Chanler-Berat) reunites with his old friend Dmitri (Steven Boyer), reminiscing fondly about once having to share the same piece of chewing gum, but now exclaiming together over a Filet-O-Fish from newly opened McDonald’s. “Is this what capitalism tastes like?” Dmitri exults. Actually, the taste is considerably more bitter, as we start learning right away in this clever, pointed comedy starring a crackerjack comic quartet.

Mother Russia Review

Near the beginning of Lauren Yee’s dark farce set in Russia after the collapse of Communism, Evgeny (Adam Chanler-Berat) reunites with his old friend Dmitri (Steven Boyer), reminiscing fondly about once having to share the same piece of chewing gum, but now exclaiming together…

Snow Day on the Great White Way. #Stageworthy News For the first time in a decade, a blizzard canceled all of Broadway. The Broadway League announced the cancelation of all performances Sunday evening “due to anticipated travel impacts from t…

Update from Broadway League:
"Due to the continuing impacts from the blizzard and local travel restrictions still in place, Broadway theatre owners and producers have come to the consensus that performances tonight (Monday) will be canceled"
Details newyorktheater.me/2026/02/23/s...

Its a Winter Wonderland. It has been snowing for something like 20 hours.

I was just informed that The Fever has been canceled tonight due to the weather.

The red steps of Times Square at noon.
For those who have been asking "Will the show I have tickets for tonight be canceled?" -- my answer: Call up the box office, or contact the "point of purchase" (e.g. Ticketmaster)

Snow Day on the Great White Way. #Stageworthy News For the first time in a decade, a blizzard canceled all of Broadway. The Broadway League announced the cancelation of all performances Sunday evening "due to anticipated travel impacts from the impending blizzard and evening travel bans already announced for our surrounding areas." This was in contrast to last month's major snowstorm, when ten shows decided on their own to cancel but most remained open. Operation Mincemeat canceled what was scheduled to be the final performance of its original Broadway cast, and instead live-streamed it on Instagram

Snow Day on the Great White Way. #Stageworthy News

For the first time in a decade, a blizzard canceled all of Broadway. The Broadway League announced the cancelation of all performances Sunday evening "due to anticipated travel impacts from the impending blizzard and evening travel bans already…

Marcel on the Train Review It’s easy to see how the dynamic physical performer Ethan Slater, Broadway’s SpongeBob and Hollywood’s Boq, would be drawn to the irresistible true story of the world’s most famous mime having been an active member in the French Resistance. Marcel Marceau smuggled dozens of Jewish children to safety in Switzerland, using his skills as an entertainer to keep them calm and quiet during the long train rides. In “Marcel on the Train”  Slater portrays Marceau using some of the same skills Marceau perfected, even reproducing some of the mime’s most famous routines – Catching a Butterfly, Walking Against the Wind.

Marcel on the Train Review

It’s easy to see how the dynamic physical performer Ethan Slater, Broadway’s SpongeBob and Hollywood’s Boq, would be drawn to the irresistible true story of the world’s most famous mime having been an active member in the French Resistance. Marcel Marceau smuggled dozens…

You Got Older Review Mae is awkward and messy, and so is the play she is in, a revival that is the second theatrical production at the Cherry Lane Theater under its new owners, the A24 movie studio. Portrayed by “Arrested Development” alumna Alia Shawkat making her stage debut, Mae is back in her hometown living with her widowed father (Peter Friedman), who has cancer. It is an awkward situation for her, and it comes at a terrible time, “the second worst moment in my life so far,” as she explains at great length to a guy named Mac (Caleb Joshua Eberhardt) who she runs into when she sneaks off to a local bar while her father is sleeping.

You Got Older Review

Mae is awkward and messy, and so is the play she is in, a revival that is the second theatrical production at the Cherry Lane Theater under its new owners, the A24 movie studio. Portrayed by “Arrested Development” alumna Alia Shawkat making her stage debut, Mae is back in her…

Teatro Fest 2026 TeatroFest 2026, a citywide festival of twenty-four productions by the ten member theaters of the Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY , launches February 27 with a free Spring Preview at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Below is a sample of the productions that will be presented during the festival, organized more or less chronologically. Some of the shows are in English, some in Spanish, some bilingual.

Teatro Fest 2026

TeatroFest 2026, a citywide festival of twenty-four productions by the ten member theaters of the Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY , launches February 27 with a free Spring Preview at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Below is a sample of the productions that will…

Worried about the forecast?
Check out my
Broadway and the Blizzard 2026: Questions and Answers.
Will the shows be canceled?
What if I can’t make it to a show that hasn’t been canceled?
Will shows offer a snow day discount?

(prepared for Jan., good for Feb)

newyorktheater.me/2026/01/24/b...

Puppetopia: Parched and Ruby & Charlie “Ruby & Charlie,” one of the three works of puppetry at the fifth annual Puppetopia festival presented at HERE,  uses the music of Ray Charles, played by a live band, to chronicle the 1950s courtship and coupling of two lovers of swing dancing.  These are cool cats; even the puppeteers wear black fedoras.The ups and downs of Ruby and Charlie's life together over the years (actually, over 45 minutes) is dramatized without dialogue, but with plenty of props and accessories that alternate between miniaturized and oversized.

Puppetopia: Parched and Ruby & Charlie

“Ruby & Charlie,” one of the three works of puppetry at the fifth annual Puppetopia festival presented at HERE,  uses the music of Ray Charles, played by a live band, to chronicle the 1950s courtship and coupling of two lovers of swing dancing.  These are…