"Wicked," a mission for marketers, has become a darling of pundits as well. During the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC, after interviews with Cynthia Erivo (No, she doesn't mind theate…
Below is a selection of theater opening* in New York in December, including four shows on Broadway, one starring Audra McDonald (Gypsy), two more with love in the title (The Cult of Love;…
Holiday shows take center stage between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve each year. Some of the plays, ballets, operas, concerts, musicals, burlesques, and hybrid entertainments have reappear…
Theater seems of little interest to the Times staff who put together the 100 Notable Books of 2024. Published plays are ignored (although books of poetry are included), and their annual l…
How well were you paying attention to theater news, views and reviews in November, a month of Wicked and politics, and six Broadway openings? Take the quiz below and find out. Loading…
Below are videos from the Broadway casts who performed at the 2024 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade; Hell's Kitchen, The Outsiders and Death Becomes Her, and a bonus: Billy Porter leads the pa…
The surreal and now shocking election year is arguably responsible for much of my favorite theater in 2024, for which I give thanks, as I've done every Thanksgiving for more than a decade. T…
With "Wicked" and "Death Becomes Her" topping  theatergoers' attention in a busy and starry week, Paul Tazewell " the costume designer for both "  is offering lessons in the a…
Wicked, which just had the biggest ever opening weekend for a movie adaptation of a Broadway musical ($160 million + globally), is faithful to the stage musical in several ways, and signific…
Below is the Broadway schedule for Thanksgiving Week 2024, which differs from the usual week's schedule: Only one show of the 38 currently playing has a performance on Thanksgiving Day, Thur…
"The Piano Lesson" has always been a family affair. The story it tells is of the legacy of pain and pride in generations of one Black family.  But August Wilson's 1990 Pulitzer Prize-w…
They brought us down Alice's rabbit hole in a former school building in Williamsburg meticulously made over to resemble a mental hospital in Then She Fell, took us to a tropical island resor…
There will be "chaotic, seismic change happening in Washington" as a result of the 2024 Election, with uncertain impact on the arts on a national, state and local level. Arts advocates need …
"Death Becomes Her," a stylishly macabre Broadway musical comedy about a love/hate triangle, has much the same plot, catty repartee, and even some of the same comically gruesome special effe…
Marisa Tomei, who got her Oscar for portraying a super-competent woman who solves the case for her somewhat-clownish lawyer-boyfriend in "My Cousin Vinny," has a new role Off-Broadway in "Ba…
In "Swept Away," which is loosely inspired by the grim true story of a 19th century shipwreck, a quartet of magnetic performers work passionately to deliver the mellifluous folk-rock s…
The quartet of Broadway openings this past week were split between a feel-good nostalgia for two real-life Americans, and a mostly feel-good look at the future " anything but what for many t…
The last time "Elf: The Musical" was on Broadway, during the holiday season a dozen years ago, I saw an autism-friendly performance of it. This turned out to be a great way to view this stag…
Allee Willis, a Tony-nominated songwriter for "The Color Purple," had trouble getting the gig.  "You've never written for the theater before, and you're not Black,"  Broadway pro…
A few years in the future,  the debate will no longer be whether or not climate change is a "hoax," as the president-elect in 2024 claims, but whether there is any possibility of survi…
The Palace Theater, the venue for this disappointing British import about the rise and fall of American televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, feels like a metaphor for the musical, but in reverse…
In forty years, there will still be fireflies, and there will still be love. But fireflies will only still exist on Jeju Island near Seoul, Korea, and when Oliver and Claire (Darren Criss an…
When he's told that the State Department wants him to tour the world representing the United States of America, Louis Armstrong and his fourth wife Lucille both laugh in disbelief. "Louis cu…
The news zipper at One Times Square proclaimed "Trump's Win Brings New Era of Uncertainty,"Â Â and Saturday Night Live cast member Kate McKinnon solemnly performed the song "Hallelujah,"…
Long before he became a Tony-winning playwright, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins enrolled at NYU in hopes of becoming a downtown performance artist, and took a course taught by Carmelita Tropicana, w…