It’s a good time to be a fan of theatre and The Gilded Age. Over the last year, Cynthia Nixon, Carrie Coon, Nathan Lane, and Ben Ahlers came to Broadway when they weren't filming the HBO series. Their co-star Denée Benton is now treading the boards
Halfway through The Lost Boys, I would’ve called it one of the worst shows I’d ever seen. Luckily, Act Two brings a massive jump in quality. The musical (based on the 1987 film) follows the Emerson family as they move to California for a fresh start. Son Michael
Two of the decade’s best musicals now have exquisite film captures that preserve these brilliant works while giving them a new intimacy. First up is Hadestown, Anais Mitchell’s Tony-winning tribute to Greek myths. The show’s original Broadway cast reunited in London to film this classic tale.
Christopher Nolan could’ve rested on his laurels after winning an Oscar for Oppenheimer, but instead he decided to adapt one of the most famous stories ever told. The fact that he (mostly) succeeds is a triumph in itself. Nolan’s version of The Odyssey features all the trials familiar
Even the darkest works offer moments of beauty when you give them time to percolate. That was my experience with Girl, Interrupted. The new play with music deftly handles depressing subject matter. Martyna Majok’s play is an adaptation of Susanna Kaysen’s memoir (which also inspired the Oscar-winning
The ads for Death of a Salesman call it “the greatest American play.” It's also one of my favorites. The 2012 revival starring Philip Seymour Hoffman remains a high-water mark for Broadway in general and for this play in particular. A 2022 revival featuring a Black Loman
August Wilson’s Century Cycle is one of the great experiments in American drama: 10 plays about the Black experience, each set in a different decade of the 20th century. A revival of any of the works is worth celebrating, even if not every element succeeds. The 1910s entry Joe
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the musical theatre world must be very flattered by Schmigadoon. This loving parody of Golden Age Broadway (which recently got 12 Tony nominations) will entertain both fans of the Apple TV series and new audiences. As in many shows of this type,
In families, the math sometimes doesn’t add up. Exhibit A is the Broadway revival of Proof, David Auburn’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The emotional dynamic in this piece (directed by Thomas Kail) will resonate with anyone who’s had a personal or professional disagreement with a
Plays about meetings might sound boring, but they often make for compelling drama, whether the venue is a city council (The Minutes) or a school board (Eureka Day). Building on this trend, David Lindsay-Abaire’s The Balusters zeroes in on a homeowner’s association. The play touches on common
Audiences get a new perspective on a literary titan in Giant, which puts beloved children’s author Roald Dahl under the microscope. The play takes place on an afternoon in 1983, soon after Dahl wrote an anti-Semitic book review. His new novel, The Witches, is about to be published,
Daniel Radcliffe is more than Harry Potter; he’s also one of the best stage actors working today. From How to Succeed and The Cripple of Inishmaan to The Lifespan of a Fact and Merrily We Roll Along, you can’t take your eyes off him. That streak continues in
It’s a gutsy move to include “Puttin’ on the Ritz” in a new Frankenstein movie since it’s so closely associated with Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. But like many of the bets in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride, it pays off. The film transposes the story of the Bride
Blizzards and bitter cold kept me away from Broadway for several weeks, but I came back to an absolute gem. While I’m all for theatrical glitz, there’s nothing like a well-told story. Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) is exactly that. The deceptively simple premise
Desperate times call for desperate measures. It’s a common theme, and two recent movies take it to both dramatic and comedic places. Dead Man’s Wire Fans of gritty 70s crime films like Dog Day Afternoon will find a lot to like in Dead Man’s Wire, a tense
Although it deals with artificial intelligence, Marjorie Prime has a deep humanity that will resonate with anyone who’s cared for an aging relative. Set in the near future, Jordan Harrison’s play focuses on Marjorie (June Squibb), an older woman with dementia. To help jog her memory, her conflicted
Happy New Year! As we turn the page on 2025 (a week late in my case due to illness), I wanted to share my favorite film, theatre, and TV of the year. All 12 of them (listed alphabetically) are well worth your time. Happy viewing! Black Bag This twisty thriller
This Christmas week, I’m sharing a Grinch-like opinion: most Hollywood blockbusters bore me. Marvel movies feel like homework, and I literally fell asleep during a Transformers flick. There are some exceptions: The Quiet Place movies scratch my jump scare itch, and the Planet of the Apes films are
One of this year’s leading Oscar contenders, Hamnet powerfully shows how art can heal. The film traces the love story of William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, who’s dogged by rumors that she’s the daughter of a forest witch. Regardless, the couple marries and raises three children,
Two pieces of art tackle the passage of time, one haphazardly and one brilliantly. This World of Tomorrow Tom Hanks is one of our great actors, but he’s developed some literary pursuits as well. In his latest venture, This World of Tomorrow, he adapts several of his short stories
Writer-director Rian Johnson weaves another layered mystery in Wake Up Dead Man, the latest Knives Out film. This time, the action takes place at an upstate New York church led by the fiery Msgr. Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), who even the bishop says is “a few beads short of
As the saying goes, if it’s not one thing, it’s your mother. That’s never been truer than in Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Oedipus, in which the title character kills his father and marries his mother. The current Broadway revival, adapted and directed by Robert Icke, sets the story
In the last week, I saw two works that dealt with similar issues, so it seemed fitting to combine them. 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝘆 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 The prologue of this Netflix miniseries asks, “Who the f-ck is Charles Guiteau?” The short answer is that he’s a presidential assassin, but there’s much more to
One of my least favorite criticisms lobbed at movies is “stagy.” Just because a film takes place in one location doesn’t mean it’s any less worthy than a big Hollywood blockbuster. Some of my favorite movies, like Doubt and Fences, fit the “stagy” description. While Blue Moon isn’