Two of the three shows I reviewed this past week felt like implicit acts of resistance to currently encroaching authoritarian rule. One was modeled on a play by Brecht that he wrote to fight against fascism in Germany, the second focused on a true story from that era of uniformed thugs attacking migrants and claiming self-defense; the connection to recent events was unavoidable, and chilling.
Some theater is more explicitly engaged in protest against the Trump administration, as Mallory Carra recounts in The Guardian (“All the world’s enraged: a new era of ‘resistance theater’ is rising as Trump attacks the arts”) citing such recent events as Fall of Freedom, which organizer playwright Lynn Nottage, expects to repeat. (Last week’s The People’s Filibuster is certainly another example, although not mentioned in Carra’s article.)
The most arresting example in the article is the Clemente Center on the Lower East Side, which has put in place safety protocols for patrons who could be targeted by ICE. “People understand that showing up is not neutral any more,” says the Clemente’s executive director Libertad O Guerra. “…attendance itself has become a form of civic support.” Just going to the theater, can be an act of resistance.
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
Gooey’s Toxic Aquatic Adventure
The artist known as La Daniella portrays Gooey, who is billed as “an orphaned sorta mermaid” and dressed in what looks like a fishnet with dredged up detritus from the sea. Her costume looks cleverly homemade, colorful and cluttered. The same could be said of her show, a puppet musical that’s fanciful and fun, but goes on for too long.
Hans Litten: The Jew Who Cross-Examined Hitler Review.
It took until the twenty-first century for the extraordinary story of Hans Litten to reach the public at large. In 1930, stormtroopers attacked the patrons of Eden Dance Palace in Berlin. The victims hired Litten to prosecute their case and yes, he subpoenaed Adolf Hitler….There is so much that is compelling about this story, and about Hans Litten himself, that one wishes “Hans Litten: The Jew Who Cross-Examined Hitler” were a less obvious and clunky play.
Anna Fierling, the spokesperson for the National Rifle Association who tells her story in “And Her Children,” is a fictional character clearly inspired by former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, but merged with the main character (not coincidentally named Anna Fierling too) of Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children.” Those who know Brecht’s 1939 play understand it to be agitprop against the rise of Fascism in Germany, and an argument against complicity, since Anna is a war profiteer whose actions (and inactions) lead to tragedy. “And Her Children” is billed as a “reimagining” of “Mother Courage,” but what they have in common is mostly just a similar ending and a similar purpose. The new play is agitprop for gun control.
The Week in New York Theater News
Moulin Rouge! The Musical will end its Broadway run on Sunday, July 26, 2026, having played 2,265 regular performances, 24 previews. My review when it opened in 2019 called it “a jukebox musical for the age of Spotify”
Madeline Brewer from the Handmaid‘s Tale will play the title role of Becky Shaw and Lauren Patton from Jagged Little Pill will play the role of Susanna in Becky Shaw, which opens April 6 at Second Stage’s Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway.
Anika Noni Rose (Broadway: Caroline, or Change, Uncle Vanya, A Raisin in the Sun; Film: Dreamgirls, The Princess and the Frog; Television: “Maid”) has joined the cast of the world premiere of The Balusters,
She replaces the previously announced Renée Elise Goldsberry, who has left the production due to a scheduling conflict.
A new cast of “The Outsiders” will begin performances together on Tuesday, March 17
The cast will be led by Noah Pacht (John Proctor is the Villain) as “Ponyboy Curtis,” Caleb Mathura (Broadway debut,The Notebook National Tour) as “Johnny Cade,” SeQuoiia (joined the Broadway company earlier this year as a swing) as “Dallas Winston,” Dan Berry (originated the role of “Paul” in the Broadway company) as “Darrel Curtis,” Sutton James Kaylor (Broadway debut) as “Sodapop Curtis,” Nicholas McDonough (Broadway debut, Paramount+’s “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies”) as “Bob” and Victor Carrillo Tracey (a swing in the original Broadway company) as “Paul.” Original Broadway cast members Emma Pittman as “Cherry Valance” and Daryl Tofa as “Two-Bit” continue with the company.
Anthony Rapp to star in solo play “Touch” 3/14-29 East Village Basement as Syd Blatter, a middle-aged gay man, failed writer, & burned-out fifth-grade teacher whose unexpected encounter with a former student sends him spiraling into anxiety, regret, desire, and reckoning.
Tickets are now on sale for Off-Broadway Week, where you can buy two tickets for the price of one for 26 shows, for performances from February 16 through March 12. Sixteen of the shows are newly discounted.
A Look at Black Broadway, 1820 – 2026
Poll: Which 2026 Best Picture Oscar Nominee Would Work the Best and Worst on Broadway?
.Which 2026 Best Picture nominee would make the best play on Broadway?
Forty percent said “Hamnet,” thirty percent “Bugonia”
Which could be adapted into the Best Broadway musical?
Fifty-five percent said “Sinners”
In Memoriam
Harry Haun, 85, theater journalist. (An appreciation by his former editor at Playbill, Blake Ross)
Libby Howes, 70, a legendary actress at the Wooster Group during its formative years. (An appreciation by Helen Shaw)
Woodie King Jr, 88, a leader in Black theater. (An appreciation by Clinton Turner Davis.)
The Week’s Theater Video
A number from the current Encores! concert
The latest music video from the 2025 Broadway cast recording of Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of Ragtime,
