The first month of the Fall theater season is coming to an end with disparate worries – that “the Broadway musical is in trouble” and that there’s a “fascist takeover of the American theater industry” (to quote two headlines; see below.)  The presence of so many stars in the shows that have opened so far has delighted some fans, but some theater lovers are frankly frustrated at the title towards stars, revivals and screen adaptations. With a new generation of artistic directors now in place (see below), perhaps there will be a new approach.  

But there is another way to look at, say, Keanu Reeves , making his Broadway debut “Waiting for Godot.”This is not something he had to do. The movie studio A24 didn’t have to buy The Cherry Lane Theater. And John Leguizamo, rather than coasting on his comedy, is trying tragedy with “The Other Americans.”  Shift perspectives and it’s clear that theater remains a place to try something new.

Theater Quiz for September 2025

The Week in New York Reviews

Waiting for Godot

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, the latest Estragon and Vladimir, were stars of “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” The 1989 movie differs in some ways from Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett’s signature play, first produced in Paris in 1953, one of the most influential works of theater of the 20th century, in which two characters nicknamed Didi and Gogo wait for a third character, who (spoiler alert) never shows up.  But director Jamie Lloyd could have done a lot worse than recapture the humor of those goofy characters Bill and Ted…. In any case, he also could have done a lot better than he has done in helming this fifth Broadway production of “Waiting for Godot.”

Punch 

In one of the most moving scenes that I’ve ever witnessed in a theater,  Jacob finally meets the parents of the young man whom he killed. Making an extraordinary Broadway debut, Will Harrison as Jacob’s. memorable encounter with Joan (Victoria Clark) and David (Sam Robards)  comes in the final half hour of “Punch,” a play by James Graham based on Jacob Dunne’s 2022 memoir “Right from Wrong,” and it turns the true story into compelling drama. I wish I could feel as strongly about the two hours leading up to that moment. 

Weer at Cherry Lane Theater

 In the first play officially opened to the public at the Cherry Lane under the ownership of movie studio A24, Natalie Palamides portrays a man and a woman simultaneously,  an exercise in gender-switching slapstick that normally would last no longer than a Weekend Update guest spot on Saturday Night Live.  But “Weer” goes on for more than 80 minutes, and it goes where no one-man/woman clown act has ever gone before;  ever-escalating into both fake and actual nudity, simulated sex, simulated birth, bloody violence —  sometimes hilarious, occasionally shocking. It is a bravura/shameless performance…If I found “Weer” uncomfortable, it’s mostly because it’s the show chosen as “the theater” that inaugurates the new Cherry Lane Theater.

The Other Americans 

 John Leguizamo’s new play is a sober family drama inspired by some of the same people and places from Leguizamo’s past that powered “Freak” and the five other solo stage comedies he has written and performed over the past 35 years. But those shows were marked by his off-the-wall energy and wildly comic impersonations. “The Other Americans” is an ambitious play more in the mold of Arthur Miller’s tragedies about the failure of the American Dream. If the script aspires to more than it ultimately achieves, the production is solid and satisfying even before any of the seven cast members step out on stage: Set designer Arnulfo Maldonado has recreated a traditional middle-class home, intricately detailed with polished wood floors, a working kitchen, fancy iron latticework, an elegant Tiffany-style window.

This is the house in the wealthy Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills to which Nelson Castro (Leguizamo) owner of a string of laundromats, moved his family, to escape what he calls “ghetto ass Jackson Heights,” where he (and Leguizamo) grew up. By the end of the play, everybody except Nelson realizes that the move was a tragic mistake.

Sixties Surreal at the Whitney

Sixties Surreal,” a just-opened exhibition at the Whitney Museum, offers some 150 works (paintings, sculptures, photographs, illustrations, films, collages, assemblages, an album cover, a newspaper cover, a fake toilet, an I’m-not-sure-what-you’d-call-it) created by 111 artists in the 1960s. Most of them were not the art stars of the decade, but the show’s curators argue that they more directly reflected the times: “These artists from diverse backgrounds took license from the wildness of the Surrealist imagination to express the psychosexual, fantastical, spiritual, strange,and revolutionary qualities of their time.”

The Week in New York Theater News

“A stage musical based on the Apple TV+ cult favorite series is heading to Broadway. Schmigadoon, which follows the events of the TV show’s first season, will enjoy a limited engagement at New York’s Nederlander Theatre in 2026….Previews begin on April 4, with an official opening night set for April 20. The production is currently set to run through Sept. 6.” (Entertainment Weekly)

Nicki Hunter has been named the new artistic director of Manhattan Theater Club.  She started there as an intern in 2009 and has worked there ever since. Hunter, who is currently the associate artistic director, assumes the position on December 1, when Lynne Meadow, who has held the position for 53 years, gets a new title: artistic advisor. All four of the non-profit theater companies with Broadway theaters have now seen a changeover in artistic leadership .   

“Evan Cabnet, who was artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3, an initiative to produce new works, was recently named as new artistic director of Second Stage Theater, replacing Carole Rothman after a 45-year career. Lear deBessonet was named the artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater, succeeding André Bishop after his 33-year tenure. And Scott Ellis is serving as interim artistic director at Roundabout Theatre after the death of Todd Haimes, who had run programming for 40 years.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

“The work we make here I want it to be something that anyone of any background — whether they are visiting New York City or were born here — could come in and feel restored to humanity, feel connected to other people. Part of why I’m such a passionate advocate for the theater as an art form is, I really believe, it’s a place where we can gather across difference.” — Lear deBessonet on her first Lincoln Center Theater season (AP)

Broadway Musicals in Trouble: With the cost of staging song-and-dance spectacles skyrocketing and audiences drawn to older hits, none of the musicals that opened last season have made a profit. Fewer are planned this season. (NY Times)

Accounting for the Fascist Takeover of the American Theater Industry (Stage Left Report)
A look at seven tactics by the Trump Administration, and how they compare to  authoritarian regimes past and present:
1.Stacking the boards of arts institutions with party loyalists
2.Control the mechanisms for licensing art
3. Crackdown on travel and visas
4. Funding leverage and grant conditionality
5. Venue monopolies and consolidation
6. Enlisting elite institutions to launder reputation and neutralize dissent
7⬜️. Spectacle and propaganda

Jerrod Carmichael and Sam Jay join the Comedy Series,  a new collaboration between LCT3 and Seaview

The Week’s Video

Watch Jimmy Kimmel’s full monologue, plus Robert De Niro as FCC Commissioner

And I am telling you I’m not going