Good theater can heal, as proven by the daily dose of theater openings last week – four shows on Broadway, several Off Broadway and beyond – many of them restorative. Ok, some were not. But the miss is essential to the mix that animates theater lovers.
The Week in New York Theater Reviews and Previews
In “Purpose,” an extraordinary play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Tony winner for last season’s “Appropriate”) opening on Broadway in a terrifically acted, crowd-pleasing production that marks Phylicia Rashad’s Broadway directorial debut, Kara Young as Aziza is starstruck when she discovers that her shy friend Naz (John Michael Hill) is the son of the Rev. Solomon Jasper. (Harry Lennix)
“Your father has been Solomon Jasper this whole time!?..” Aziza exclaims “You said your daddy was some sort of reverend but not like this kind of reverend! Not like a I-organize-marches reverend! Not like I-used-to-kick-it-with-Rosa-Parks reverend! Not like a MLK-shrine-in- the-living-room reverend!”
But then Aziza has dinner with the Jasper family in their dining room, sitting close to the oil painting of Martin Luther King Jr, but their behavior — which bears little resemblance to Dr. King’s — turns her awe into shock.
Andrew Scott portrays all eight characters by himself in a new version of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” which is playing Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel through May 11..I was just not sure why he is performing a one-man Vanya, other than to impress us by pulling it off. What does it add to the play?…. Scott is rarely lugubrious, and never stilted in the roles. He’s sometimes riveting. He is almost always busy
Harmon’s grand title for his latest play is somewhat misleading, since the personal story he tells, which focuses on his recollections of his relationship with his grandmother, feels considerably narrower in both focus and effect than the worlds he has created previously for the theater.
As a band and a brand, “Buena Vista Social Club” has been gold from the get-go: It was a hit Grammy-winning album that in 1996 had brought together an impromptu group of old-time Cuban musicians into a vintage 1950s recording studio in Havana…..In 2023, it became an exciting Off-Broadway musical. “Buena Vista Social Club” is now an even better Broadway musical. With many of the same multitalented singers, dancers and musicians who performed Off-Broadway, the show gets a far larger stage and more elaborate sound system for its electrifying concert of addictive rhythmic Cuban music. It again overlays a plot that alternates between two timelines — the making of the album in 1996, and the lives of the musicians involved forty years earlier…In the transfer to Broadway, the plot is sharper, and the musical numbers even more engaging.
“Operation Mincemeat” is terribly clever and frightfully British, with a strong next-generation Monty Python vibe. If it ultimately feels too clever by half, that may be because this new musical by comedy troupe SpitLip….is different in a crucial way from, say, “Monty Python’s Spamalot” or Mystery Theater Company’s “The Play That Goes Wrong.” The show provokes just as many laughs (or groans), but the bizarre story it dramatizes is true…SpitLip wanted to tell a strange true story, but also have a frenetic fringe/ sketch comedy type of fun. Sometimes these two aims felt at cross purposes.
Joshua William Gelb writhes nude and mute in a box for forty-five minutes. That’s “Untitled Miniature” in a nutshell. It’s my job to put this in context, so I’ll try. I’ll also explain how it turned out to be entertaining, which was, believe me, a surprise.
Denzel Washington stars in the title role of Othello, and Jake Gyllenhaal as his secret nemesis Iago, in director Kenny Leon’s production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, opening at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theater– the first “Othello” on Broadway in 43 years. The dozen critics whose reviews I excerpt offer mostly mixed to negative reviews of the production as a whole, disappointed with Washington’s performance, and impressed with Gyllenhaal’s and several other cast members. Most mention the high ticket prices.
New York City Fringe Festival 2025
Greg Kotis, whose “Urinetown” won a Tony shortly after its debut at the New York International Fringe Festival, now offers a new post-apocalyptic musical at a new New York fringe festival. His “The End of All Flesh,” in which a countrified family sing about environmental collapse atop a distant mountain, is one of 64 shows to be presented at five venues from April 2 – 20 at the New York City Fringe Festival.
The Week in New York Theater News
Theater Facts 2023: A new report from Theatre Communications Group
Out of the Frying Pan (American Theatre)
“With noticeable drops in contributed income from donors, lagging bottom lines, and expanding operating costs, the industry remains in a state of flux, the report demonstrates. A central takeaway: While trendlines have been steadily and encouragingly improving since the depth of the pandemic shutdowns, none of the indicators show full recovery from pre-pandemic levels. And though the pre-Covid years may look booming in hindsight, many of the issues that have battered the field since 2020 were in fact long-standing and systemic, and are still being worked through.”
Theatre Advocacy Week 2025, March 24-31
A week-long series of free virtual events “empowering and equipping you to advocate for a just and thriving theatre ecology” Registration required. ” you’ll be able to take advantage of advocacy training, deep dive into critical discussions on the challenges facing our field—including funding threats, censorship, and artist mobility…”
Maria Manuela Goyanes, currently the artistic director of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, has been named artistic director of LCT3 and will also take on the role of producer. Mike Schleifer, currently managing director of Alliance Theater in Atlanta, will be Lincoln Center Theater’s Managing Director.
A new musical is in development: “Fire and Rain” featuring the music of James Taylor, with a book by Tracy Letts and direction by David Cromer. This is electrifying news in one way. But… The song is about a suicide. Will that be the story? It came out when Taylor was 22. He just turned 77
Sonia Friedman and Hugh Jackman have launched Together “a new company dedicated to creating live theater that is intimate and accessible.” (Deadline)
Latest trend in immersive theater: jury duty (NY Times)
High prices
Following up on the article he wrote last week, Michael Paulson explains Broadway price-gouging from producers’ perspective, in The Morning newsletter of the NY Times:
“Producing Broadway shows has become more expensive since the pandemic, and a vast majority of them lose money. So producers have been staging more short runs of plays with stars in lead roles — the stars attract ticket buyers, and the short runs allow those stars to more quickly return to filmmaking, which pays better than Broadway. Limited runs also seem to incentivize potential ticket buyers, because people find the now-or-never aspect motivating.”
All he really says on the other side is that theater lovers “find these prices upsetting.” How about exploring the argument about how these prices (these producers) are destroying the theater. (Broadway Producer Emanuel Azenberg: “We’ve chased away an audience.”)
In the war on culture:
Sondheim at 95
Stephen Sondheim would have turned 95 on Sunday. In the three years and four months since his death, attention to the Broadway composer has only grown, with the opening of a new musical, a revival of five of his shows on Broadway, and a new Sondheim revue starting previews in a couple of days, as well as the publication of numerous books about Sondheim and his work.
