Jonathan Groff, “matinee idol” (Ben Brantley in the NY Times), heartthrob (Deadline) Broadway conqueror (Town&Country), will perform in a play by William Shakespeare for the first time, which is ostensibly the reason for the rapturous attention. But I think there’s another reason.
Yes, it’s an unusual production: He will play Rosalind in Royal Shakespeare Company’s all-male production of As You Like It , but it’s in England in September.
In the foreword to a newly published book by his friend and former co-star Lindsay Mendez (see review below), Groff writes: “I love and have always loved doing theater wherever I can – in the middle school play, in a community theater production, in a casino at Christmas while performing on a tour of The Sound of Music, or center stage in a Broadway show. The potential for that magical exchange between performer and audience is always there in theater…One of the biggest surprises for me in being on Broadway is that there are a lot of unhappy people there…”
That is the key: Groff stands out as a theater person – and a person in general – who seems happy, at a time when so many are unhappy, and have good reason to be, given the “rocky ground” on which theater currently rests (as does theater criticism too. See Helen Shaw’s essay below), and the war on culture (see below), not to mention the actual (albeit officially undeclared) war
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
Ro Reddick’s play with original music promises a light, knowing comedy about a Black girl and her family in Syracuse, New York in 1987, but swerves into a dark cloak-and-dagger tale of the Cold War, ending up more a low-budget imitation of a spy movie than a realistic reflection of American life in the 1980s. This is a surprise and a disappointment, because so much of “Cold War Choir Practice” is so good, not least its first-rate cast led by Alana Raquel Bowers, an adult who is completely convincing as ten-year-old Meek.
Call it “Madame Butterfly” with ADHD. “Grey Arias”… stars an unlikely duo whose divergent life experiences, talents and idiosyncrasies shape a show that initially seems a self-indulgent if often entertaining hodge-podge, but sharpens into a resonant political critique of Puccini’s opera.
Fringe: The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits
I was maybe 15 years old when a middle-aged man stopped me on the street and asked me if I was a swinger. I suddenly remembered the encounter while watching the soft porn comedy “The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits,” perhaps because I had a similar reaction: I am the wrong audience for this. That could be the reason why I found the play, presented as part of the International Fringe Encore Series, smarmy and excruciating. It could also be because of Michael Shaw Fisher’s clunky script and his largely awkward direction, as well as some terrible acting.
Gandhi was famous for walking, both for exercise and for the liberation of India, clocking some 49,000 miles on his protest marches. Aristotle believed that great thinkers are all great walkers. Virginia Woolf walked to find joy and stave off madness, although her final walk was into a river, where her body was found weeks later. They are part of “Footnotes,” Theodora Skipitares’ clever, cleverly-named, and enlightening hour-long puppet theater about the history of walking, which has the feel of an insanely ambitious school project
What We Did Before Our Moth Days
Those of us who couldn’t get tickets to see the production, and instead bought Wallace Shawn’s published play (What We Did Before Our Moth Days, Faber and Faber, 96 pages) are treated to the same alternating monologues by Dick, his wife Elle, his son Tim and his mistress Elaine, without listening to four actors sitting in chairs for three hours, “occasionally sipping from their mugs,” as one reviewer put it.
How to Succeed in Musical Theatre Without Really Dying
If the title is unfortunate, the book by Tony winning actress Lindsay Mendez and musical theater composer Ryan Scott Oliver is full of practical and specific advice, derived from the authors’ experiences in their own careers and in the training program they have run since 2012 called Actor Therapy…The authors don’t believe there is any “It factor”(unique talent or star quality) that determines a successful career in theater. Rather, what it takes, they say, is “expertise of the craft, industry savvy, business acumen, a collaborative mindset, tolerance of rejection, and, above all, perseverance.”
The War on Culture
From Arts Journal:
“it’s striking how many stories were about who gets to control cultural narratives — and how much that fight has escalated. Congressional Republicans introduced a bill that would take book banning national, the Trump administration was sued for rewriting history in national parks, and at the Smithsonian, volunteer citizen historians are quietly documenting every gallery to track whatever the government changes next.”
Independent: Kennedy Center Honors will continue despite closure, but not with Trump’s name on it.
MSN: The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) delayed its final vote on President Trump’s East Wing ballroom project until April 2, citing the unprecedented volume of public feedback. More than 32,000 comments were received, with over 97% opposing the plan and many using harsh language to describe its aesthetics and symbolism. (Words that regularly popped up included “obscene,” “low class,” “disgusting,” “cheap,” and “garish.” “If any of my previous students had submitted the proposed Ballroom addition to the White House as currently designed, I would have given them a failing grade,” said Kate Schwennsen, the former national president of the American Institute of Architects.)
From American Theatre Magazine: What Will D.C. Theatres Do Without a Full-Time Critic at the Post?
The Washington Post’s last theater critic, Naveen Kumar, and Washington, D.C.-area theaters reflect on the paper’s recent layoffs and what they mean for the arts ecosystem in one of the nation’s largest cities.
The Week in New York Theater News
Broadway marquees will dim on March 10 in honor of D.L. Coburn, John Cunningham, Carmen de Lavallade, Frank Dunlop, Robert Duvall, Bret Hanna-Shuford, Harry Haun and Isiah Whitlock Jr.
New digital lottery and rush policies:
Dog Day Afternoon (first preview March 10, opens March 30): Rush and digital lottery: $45
Giant (first preview March 11, opens March 23): In person rush: $45. Digital lottery:$49
Broadway 2025 2026 Season Preview Guide
See Broadway Rush and Lottery Policies
Mamdani Appoints New York’s Next Culture Czar:Diya Vij, the incoming commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, said she wanted to make “open, accessible and sometimes radical cultural activities possible.” (NY Times)
Ended runs yesterday: Bug (you can stop your itching) and All Out: Comedy About Ambition (but not really about that)
Helen Shaw, new New York Times chief theater critic, on her background, career and her take on theater and theater criticism, both on “rocky ground.”
The Week’s Theater Video
From the Metropolitan Opera, in response to Timothee Chalamet’s comment “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or, you know, things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive.’ All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason” (Here is a link to the orig hour-long conversationinal. Here is a link to commentary by dance critic Gia Kourlas that puts the comment in context.)
