My guide to the underground immersive hit “Life and Trust” was the best-read post on my NewYorkTheater.me blog in 2024, followed by my comparison of Wicked the movie with the Broadway musical. Only two of the ten most popular articles this year were posted before 2024: The oldest dates back more than a decade (ranking plays that go back more than a century.); the most recent of the top 10 went up just last week. Since most of the top 10 are reviews of specific plays and musicals – which was not the case last year – can we see this as evidence of a post-pandemic renewal of interest in theatergoing?

Each title, organized by popularity, is linked to the full piece, with an excerpt and the date of publication.

Life and Trust. Review and Guide to an Immersive Paradise (and Hell)

“Life and Trust,” put together by a massive first-class creative team and an army of fearless performers, fulfills all but one of these elements of immersive theater superlatively, as beautifully as any show I’ve ever seen in a decade of immersive theatergoing. For the one aspect of the show that some have complained about, I discovered a couple of hacks, which I share below. (Sept 8, 2024)

Wicked Movie vs Stage Musical

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 significantly different in one major way.
What I find more interesting than every little change that director John Chu made (or didn’t make) is how they affect our overall reaction to the story. Is someone more or less likely to appreciate the film if they have attended (and liked) the musical, which is still running? (November 25, 2024)

Romeo + Juliet Broadway Review

This is a Romeo and Juliet aimed unapologetically at Gen Z: Its two stars, fan-magnets Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, are both recent teens. They lead a young cast, all but two of whom are making their Broadway debuts, in which the chorus is performed by a DJ, and the characters move (dance/ fight) collectively as if club kids…The response on the night I attended was frequent, thunderous cheering; the most demonstrative audience for a Shakespearean tragedy I’ve ever seen….
My inner English teacher is grateful to director Sam Gold for drawing a younger crowd (voluntarily, eagerly!) to Shakespeare. The production sometimes thrilled my outer theatergoer too. Sometimes, but not always. There are downsides to Gold’s presenting the tale of star-crossed lovers primarily through youthful energy. (October 24, 2024)

The 50 Best Plays of The Past 100 Years

The Number one play of the past 100 years is Arthur Miller’s 1949 play “Death of A Salesman,” according to Entertainment Weekly’s issue of July 5/12, 2013.  Number 50 is Conor McPherson’s 1997 play “The Weir.” In-between are 48 other plays (the scripts, really, not any specific productions) that EW’s critics have chosen…(June 27, 2013)

 Our Town Broadway Review

What most surprised me about director Kenny Leon’s production of “Our Town” were not his distinctive touches.  

What most surprised me is how emotionally I reacted to this “Our Town” – not just the intensity of the feelings, but the variety, and, sometimes, the incongruity.

But yes, for better or for worse, Leon’s directorial choices do stand out, which I suppose is an accomplishment in and of itself, given how familiar the play is. This is the sixth production of Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play on Broadway, and, more to the point, one of more than forty productions running over the next three months in North America alone, in high schools and colleges from Prattville, Alabama to Brattleboro, Vermont.  (October 17, 2024)

Empire The Musical Review

Empire: The Musical” has a pleasant enough score, and a hard-working cast,  but there’s nothing thrilling about it – certainly not its own dancing-on-beam number, “Lookahee,” whose lyrics begin “Hey, pretty girl, turn your head and look at me.” For all its busyness, “Empire” is too often an energy-sapping exercise, its fictionalized plot  so pointlessly convoluted it hardly feels worth sorting out. (July 12, 2024)

Sunset Blvd Broadway Review

 Of its three dozen or so musical numbers, I find only a few to be tuneful, and only one that truly stands out, “As If We Never Said Goodbye.”  The  lushly orchestrated but largely unmemorable score is coupled with forgettable lyrics (the only distinctive lines are those lifted verbatim from the 1950 movie starring Gloria Swanson), in service to a dated plot:…This is the context in which I concede how adeptly this production pulls off many of its effects – technically, visually, in the movement of the cast — even as I don’t understand why they have undertaken to do so. I especially acknowledge how much the intense performance by Nicole Scherzinger, the former lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, has proven to be catnip for Broadway diva worshippers, even as the character she’s portraying now makes no sense (if it ever did.) (October 26, 2024)

Poll: Best and Worst Broadway Show of 2024?

What did you think was the best of the forty-four shows that opened on Broadway in 2024? Which was the worst? Take the two polls below. Judge the quality of the show as you see it, not how it did at the box office. (December 13, 2024)

(To see the results of the Best poll, without having to take it, scroll to the bottom entry of Top 10 lists of Top 10 NYC Theater in 2024)

Stereophonic Review

“Stereophonic”  chronicles a year of recording studio sessions by the members of a popular 1970s rock band (never named, fictional) as they put together their latest album and have their ups and downs with one another. Watching this play by David Adjmi made me think of the last (and possibly the only other) play I’ve seen that was set in a recording studio, “Million Dollar Quartet,” not because there were any similarities between the two, but precisely because their differences made me realize how I could be impressed by the writing and acting in “Stereophonic” and still be disappointed by it.
At three hours long (plus intermission), “Stereophonic” feels as if it’s in Annie Baker territory – which is to say, long and slow but meticulously observed from real life, unfolding as if in real time, but also offering a subtle wit and the possibility of deeper meaning. But does that sound like the right approach for a play about ROCK N ROLL?! …(October 29, 2023)

Note: This was a review of the show when it was Off-Broadway. I subsequently saw it on Broadway, and then listened to the cast recording, which I found a more rewarding experience. My revisits allowed me to rethink my take on the play, although I still did not as fully embrace it as Tony voters did, who awarded it five Tonys, including Best Play (The Music of Stereophonic.)

Job Broadway Review

“Job” is the second 80-minute play this month that has powered onto Broadway after sold-out runs downtown. (The other is “Oh, Mary!” .) That this two-character play about a therapy session written by a little-known 29-year-old playwright is opening tonight at the Hayes Theater is the theatrical equivalent, I suppose, of going viral – which feels an especially apt way to talk about “Job,” since the plot revolves around a viral moment, and the characters are obsessed with the Internet….But if Broadway audiences wind up closer to my own demographic and sensibility than those who were Off-Broadway, I suspect the production will be in trouble, because my reaction hasn’t changed much. “Job” sacrifices its potential as thought-provoking drama for horror movie-level theatrics. (July 30, 2024)