“Buena Vista Social Club” won the Grammy for best musical theater album, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande won for Best Pop Duo/Group Performances. Nazareth Hassan’s “Bowl EP,” Carmelita Tropicana and Whitney White were among the Obie winners. Three annual theater awards, including the Tonys, announced their timelines for the year. There is much to celebrate in theater, including a whole new month of exciting shows opening on New York stages:
February 2026 New York Theater Openings
But the new month also begins in protest. See the video below of the entire eight hours of “The People’s Filibuster,” a starry procession on the steps of the Public Theater ,”in solidarity with our neighbors in Minnesota and across the country who are angry and grieving…”
And even more reasons to protest with more news about the Kennedy Center.
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
Under the Radar: Watch Me Walk
Anne Gridley’s favorite neurologist has told her that people can only concentrate on walking for about eight seconds; human beings are designed to walk without thinking about it. But her play asks the audience to spend nearly two hours thinking about her walking. Gridley hobbles, accompanied by one of twenty walking sticks (“I’m the Imelda Marcos of mobility aids.”) She has a disease called Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, or HSP, the same one her mother and grandmother had; it didn’t affect her until she was in her thirties…There are many moments of humor and ingenuity in “Watch Me Walk,” a SoHo Rep production running through February 8 at Playwrights Horizons as part of this year’s festival. But Gridley’s play is also at times dark, at other times didactic. She deliberately aims to make her audience uneasy, to make a point.
Book review: Marc Shaiman’s “ Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner”
The Week in New York Theater News
The 69th annual Obie Awards, honoring achievement Off and Off Off Broadway gave lifetime achievement awards to Carmelita Tropicana and Kate Valk, sustained achievement in director to David Herskovits and Whitney White, and sustained achievement in performance to Paul Sparks and Stephanie Berry. Full list of Obie winners.
Buena Vista Social Club Wins Best Musical Theater Album Grammy 2026
2026 Tony Awards timeline
April 26: Cut-off Opening Night for eligibility
May 5: Nominations announced
June 7: The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall and CBS
2026 Drama Desk Awards timeline
April 26: Cut-Off Opening Night for eligibility
April 29: Nominations announced
May 17: The 70th Annual Drama Desk Awards at Town Hall
2026 Outer Critics Circle Awards timeline
April 19: Cut-off for nominators to attend a show
April 21: Nominations announced
May 11: Winners announced
May 21: The 76th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony
With a Grammy for producing a music documentary, Steven Spielberg is now one of the fewer than 30 people who have achieved EGOT status, as if he needs any more acclaim. (He was one of the dozens of people to win a Tony in 2022 as the producer of “A Strange Loop”)
Closed Sunday February 1 on Broadway: Liberation and Mamma Mia
The following original cast members of The Outsiders play their final performance on Sunday, March 15th: Trevor Wayne (Broadway debut as a swing and currently plays “Ponyboy Curtis”), Brent Comer (Broadway debut as “Darrel Curtis”), Jason Schmidt (Broadway debut as “Sodapop Curtis”), Kevin William Paul (Broadway debut as “Bob”), Renni Anthony Magee (originated the role of “Steve”), SarahGrace Mariani (Broadway debut as “Marcia”), Melody Rose (Broadway debut as “Beverly”) along with Alex Joseph Grayson, who joined the cast in February 2025 as “Dallas Winston,”
Complete cast of Dog Day Afternoon: Joining the previously announced Emmy Award winner Jon Bernthal (“The Bear,” “The Walking Dead”) and two-time Emmy Award winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Fantastic Four: First Steps, “The Bear”), Drama Desk Award nominee John Ortiz (Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train), three-time Tony Award nominee Jessica Hecht (Eureka Day) and SAG Award nominee Spencer Garrett (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) are: Michael Kostroff (“The Wire”), Elizabeth Canavan (Between Riverside and Crazy), Brian D. Coats (Jitney), Drama Desk Award Esteban Andres Cruz (Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven), Alex J. Gould (Broadway Debut), Danny Johnson (All The Way), Drama Desk Award nominee Paola Lázaro (To The Bone, “The Walking Dead”), Dom Martello (Broadway Debut), Wilemina Olivia-Garcia (Broadway Debut), Michael Puzzo (Broadway Debut), Christopher Sears (Cult of Love), Michael Shayan (“The Book of Queer”), Jeff Still (Job), Andrea Syglowski (Queens) and Carmen Zilles (Deep Blue Sound).
The War on Culture
Theater Blog Roundup: Looking Back in Anger
The war on culture has played out in many ways over the past year, as chronicled by the bloggers/substackers,podcasters to whom I link. There’s famously the mess at the Kennedy Center, but also a theater company “blacklisted”/defunded by a state arts council; a student production canceled because of a new state anti-DEI law; a “visa freeze” that’s wreaking havoc on international cultural exchange. Commenters look too at the way that theater has been responding.
Five Fronts in Trump’s Culture War:
- The Smithsonian Institution
- Federal Architecture
- The Federal Communications Commission
- The National Endowment for the Arts/National Endowment for the Humanities
- The Kennedy Center
Amid a backlash in response to Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center — an avalanche of cancellations (the latest: Philip Glass, Renee Fleming), resignations, and consistent low attendance — Trump announced on social media that he would shut it down for two years starting on July 4th, in order, he said, to renovate it. (NY Times)
In Memoriam
Woodie King, Jr.,88, founder of New Federal Theater
