Theater lovers can point to Oscar wins for Broadway veterans Sean Penn and Amy Madigan, and the moving tributes by Broadway veterans to Broadway veterans: Billy Crystal on Rob Reiner, Rachel McAdams on Diane Keaton, Barbra “Babs” Streisand on Robert Redford. But there were more hidden Broadway connections at the 98th Academy Awareds: Paul Thomas Anderson, director of the night’s big winner, “One Battle After Another,” has four children with his long-time partner Maya Rudolph, who next month will make her Broadway debut. That may sound like a stretch, especially since that film is among the least likely to be adapted into a play or musical (Best Picture Oscar Nominees Ranked for Broadway)
A literal (and satisfying) stretch: Broadway veteran and ballerina Misty Copeland dancing at the end of the musical number “I Lied to You” from “Sinners” as if in rebuke to Timothée Chalamet (see videos below of his comment via The View, and of her performance)
And then there is the Best Actress trophy for Jessie Buckley for portraying William Shakespeare’s wife in “Hamnet,” a film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, which has also been adapted into stage play by Lolita Chakrabarti for the Royal Shakespeare Company, currently on U.S. tour.
Oscar Winners 2026 complete list
For a different take: Dorian Film Awards
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
Before Daniel Radcliffe gets on stage to start this funny and moving play that’s built around his character compiling a list of “everything worth living for,” he rushes around the Hudson Theater, greeting and chatting up individual members of the audience…in a way so up-close and sociable that the thought occurred to me: Had he been the star of “Every Brilliant Thing” when I first saw a production of it Off-Broadway in 2014, several theatergoers each night might have fainted…once “Every Brilliant Thing” gets underway now, the size of the Broadway theater challenges the very intimacy and informality on which this highly interactive show depends.
Beneath its surface as a comedy about two Deaf roommates’ escalating argument about who should take out the garbage, “Trash” offers entrée for hearing theatergoers into the world of the Deaf. The play, written by James Caverly and Andrew Morrill, is performed almost entirely in American Sign Language, but it’s made accessible for those who don’t know ASL in some inspired ways. And as we learn more about the two main characters, portrayed by Caverly and Morrill themselves, we are made privy to some of the complicated challenges and resentments of Deaf people in their interactions/collisions with the hearing world.
Henry Darger spent his life creating a 15,000-page novel, a 5,000-page autobiography, and more than 350 large watercolor paintings, none of which he ever attempted to publish or exhibit. His landlord and a neighbor discovered this body of work in the cluttered apartment they were clearing out when Darger moved to a nursing home shortly before his death in 1973 at the age of 81. “Henry Darger is viewed today as probably the greatest Outsider artist in the art brut canon,” says art historian Michael Bonesteel.
Theatergoers learn the basics of this fascinating story from the wall labels that accompany posters of Darger’s artwork along the walls of the Vineyard Theater, but not in “Bughouse” itself, a largely listless and unilluminating solo play about Darger that is running at the Vineyard through April 3.
This hyperactive, interactive, competitive show may not wind up running for 34 years at Astor Place Theater like “Blue Man Group,” a previous tenant, but “Burnout Paradise” runs every night for 17 miles, more or less. That’s how much distance the Australians running on four treadmills collectively clock, and whether it’s more or less is crucial to the contest – if anything can be said to be “crucial” in this Fringe-flavored frenetic silliness.
The Week in New York Theater News
Broadway Poll for the Final Stretch
Barack and Michelle Obama are coming to Broadway. %he former president and first lady are making their Broadway producing debut with the upcoming revival of “Proof” through their Higher Ground production company. (Variety)
In The Heights, New York City Center, Oct 28 – Nov 8, 2026
Maya Rudolph will make her Broadway debut as Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh, Mary” April 28 – June 20. “Ever since I was a little girl I have dreamed of being Cole Escola”
Fed Up With High Costs, American Theater Takes a Trip to London: Skyrocketing budgets and falling profitability have driven a new form of offshoring, with U.S. producers staging shows across the Atlantic. (NY Times)
For American artists telling American stories, American productions remain the dream and the goal. But the costs of developing and running shows in the United States have skyrocketed — $20 million Broadway budgets, rare a decade ago, are now common. And profitability rates have plunged — just four of the 48 new musicals that opened since the pandemic have made money thus far….“London is very busy with American producers who are looking for better value,”
Edinburgh international festival will explore America’s creativity and cruelty, says director (Guardian)
New York’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel Will Stage a Private Broadway Show in Your Suite (Robb Report)
The aptly named Curtain Call package includes a private concert during which two acclaimed Broadway artists will belt out your favorite show tunes.
The War on Culture
The Trump Administration Goes To War, By Any Memes Necessary (NY Times)
A series of White House social-media videos turn the carnage in Iran into gleeful entertainment.
Kennedy Center President is leaving after tumultuous year: Since Richard Grenell was appointed by President Trump, the arts center has endured waves of cancellations and departures. It will soon close for lengthy renovations. (NY Times)
In Memoriam
Jane Lapotaire, 81, Tony winning actress for “Piaf”
The Week’s Theater Video
Timothee Chalamet’s comment about opera and ballet shown at the View, whose panelists then comment on it.
Misty Copeland’s wordless comment
