Raven Snook

If you’re the kind of person who has always dreamed of seeing their name in lights, you’re in the right place. It’s time to follow your dreams and enroll in one of the best acting classes in NYC. And look, even if you can’t afford to quit your day job to attend one of New York's acting schools (would be nice though, right?) there are plenty of part-time acting classes with flexible schedules and affordable prices. There are quite a lot of different classes on offer, too. So, if belting out the best Broadway songs of all time is your thing, or you just want to see whether being called a ‘character’ all your life means you have any actual talent, these workshops for beginners are the perfect place to start. And who knows? Maybe one day you’ll land your breakout role in one of the best Broadway shows on the Great White Way. Or how about a starring gig in the hottest new television show? Or maybe even Hollywood? All you need is a bit of ambition... and maybe an acting class or two. But you know that – that’s why you’re here! Smart. Very smart.  RECOMMENDED: Find more classes in NYC This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, click here.

After you finish Life and Trust, the new immersive, three-hour epic from the producers of Sleep No More, you may want to start over. With more than two dozen characters to follow around six floors of gorgeously crafted environments in a former bank building, this choose-your-own-theatrical adventure demands multiple viewings to see—and make sense—of it all. “I’ve now been seven times and there’s a million things that I still haven’t seen,” admits Jon Ronson, the seasoned British journalist and author making his playwriting debut with Life and Trust. “I think the best lesson is, don’t get FOMO. Each character has a full, rich arc. Some are bigger than others in terms of action, but the nice thing about following one character is they’ll take you to several different parts of the world, so you’re always experiencing something new.” Unlike Sleep No More, which uses Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a framework, Life and Trust is an original story inspired by a variety of sources, primarily different interpretations of the Faust legend, including The Red Shoes and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The narrative revolves around J.G. Conwell, the CEO of the fictional Life and Trust Bank, who made a mint peddling an ominous green elixir. When we meet him, he’s a regretful old man poised to lose everything in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. He sells his soul for a chance to time-warp back to his New York City Gilded Age youth for one last drama-packed day. The audience is invited to tag along—provid

There’s nothing quite like seeing a legendary show tune performed live in a great Broadway musical, but you can always satisfy your craving for emotion-filled performance by cranking up a cast recording or binge-watching clips on YouTube. But which are the very best Broadway songs—the ones that endure through the years because they not only stick in our heads but also capture some essense of the genre? It’s nearly impossible to create a list of something so subjective, but we’re here to try. With that in mind, we've come up with these 50 Broadway bangers: a mix of classic musical-theater numbers from 1927 through today. Many of these come from the best Broadway musicals the Great White Way has ever known; to narrow the field a bit, we've limited ourselves to a single song per show. (And sorry, jukebox musicals and movie adaptations: Only songs written for the stage are eigible.) You may not be familiar with all the entries on this list, but trust us: You’ll love them. Maybe they’ll introduce you to a new Broadway show to put on your list of must-sees. Maybe you’ll find one to add to your karaoke rotation. Either way, you’ll get an earful of tunes that are sure to stir your heart. RECOMMENDED: Full listing of Broadway musicals

Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada crackle with chemistry, even from on opposite coasts of the country. The two will soon share a Broadway stage in The Great Gatsby, a new musical based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel about obsession and indulgence in Jazz Age New York; he’s playing eternal striver Jay Gatsby, and she’s the unattainable Daisy Buchanan. But Jordan recently had to take a work trip to San Francisco while his co-star continued rehearsing in NYC, and as they reunite on Zoom for this interview, Noblezada is excited to share what he was missing. “We’re making so many changes. In the first scene, you come in on a camel!” she jokes. “Great,” Jordan deadpans back. “I approve of that.” Fitzgerald’s masterpiece entered the public domain in 2021, and many have rushed to theatricalize it since. Multiple musical versions are dancing around; one debuted in Massachusetts last year and another, Gatsby, will be at the American Repertory Theater this summer. But Jordan and Nobelzada’s version—directed by Marc Bruni, with a book by Kait Kerrigan and songs by Nathan Tysen and Jason Howland—is the first to make it to Broadway. After a buzzy run last fall at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, the production begins previews at the Broadway Theatre on March 29 and opens on April 25 (on the last day of Tony eligibility).  Jordan and Noblezada are Time Out New York’s cover stars for March and our spring preview of the Broadway season. Their photoshoot took place at The Plaza’s Palm Cou

"They're all going to laugh at you," cries Carrie's religious nut of a mother in Brian De Palma's intense 1976 film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Carrie. But if the creators of the musical get their way, no one will ever laugh at Carrie again—at least not in their revamped version for MCC Theater, which opens at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on March 1. A coming-of-rage story about a bullied teenager with an overbearing mother, who discovers she has telekinetic powers and wreaks havoc on her small town, Carrie probably seemed like strange source material for a Broadway tuner when it was originally produced in 1988. Indeed, the $8 million show was panned by most critics; audiences reportedly jeered and cackled; and it inspired Ken Mandelbaum's encyclopedia of flops, Not Since Carrie. But a quarter century later, when dark, gory flicks like The Silence of the Lambs and Evil Dead have been musicalized, Carrie seems ripe for revival. There's just one problem: Unlike those other shows, the creators refuse to go camp. For them, Carrie is deadly serious. A full-on camp production would have been the easier route, especially since the original was so (unintentionally) kitschy, what with leather-pants--clad bullies squealing like pigs and students in gym class wearing togas. But that's not what composer Michael Gore, lyricist Dean Pitchford and book writer Lawrence D. Cohen had in mind. "We got hundreds of requests a year to do [the original] Carrie in regional theaters, high school

Considering his vocation, it’s not surprising that David Hirson is a stickler for words. Yet even more than other playwrights, he expresses himself with painstaking care, correcting himself (and, politely, others) if he thinks the wrong verbiage has been used. Hirson’s love for language is evident in his farce La Bête, which opened and quickly closed on the Main Stem in 1991 after being trounced by most major critics, in particular The New York Times’ Frank Rich, who glibly dismissed it as a show “for anyone who confuses high-mindedness with high art.” But unlike most flops, the play, which is set in 17th-century France and written entirely in rhyming couplets, enjoyed an auspicious afterlife: It won the 1992 Olivier Award in London for best comedy, and went on to become a staple of regional and college theaters. Earlier this year, Tony-winning director Matthew Warchus (God of Carnage) helmed a star-studded West End revival featuring Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce, Absolutely Fabulous’s Joanna Lumley and stage legend Mark Rylance. Now, that production is headed across the pond to give La Bte a much-deserved second shot at Broadway success. Fresh from England where he caught the show’s final bow at the Comedy Theater, Hirson admits that the play isn’t the usual commercial stage fare. “It’s never compared to other things,” he notes. “It doesn’t resemble other plays. People have very extreme reactions to it. It’s...weird.” That adjective could also be used to describe Hirson’s care

Patrick Page and Amber Gray have been on the road to Hadestown for years. Anaïs Mitchell's bluesy folk opera, inspired by the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, had its first professional theatrical iteration in 2016, when director Rachel Chavkin staged it at New York Theatre Workshop with Page and Gray as the tempestuous gods Hades and Persephone. Three years and four productions later, Hadestown's Broadway version has earned 14 Tony Award nominations, including nods for both actors. The only cast members who've been with the show throughout its journey, they play been-there, done-that, seen-it-all spouses—while he builds a soulless underworld empire, she indulges in spirits and springtime above ground—who rediscover their lost passion through the story of the ill-fated central lovers. We chatted with Page and Gray about what it's been like to incarnate these dueling deities. Amber, you've worked with Rachel Chavkin on several projects, notably Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. But Patrick, how did you get involved with the show? PAGE: To my shame, I had been working uptown mostly. I hadn't worked downtown in a long time. I was looking for jobs for my acting students when I saw this ad and it said they wanted a bass. I thought, Nobody ever wants a bass: What the hell is this? And then I saw that it was directed by Rachel Chavkin, one of the best directors working today—I hadn't seen a director like her since Julie Taymor. So I downloaded the two Hades songs from

The last week of Pride month offers something new for the LGBTQ community to celebrate: a milestone in transgender representation on Broadway. Starting this week, three trans-identified performers will be on the Main Stem: The jukebox musical Head Over Heels stars RuPaul’s Drag Race favorite Peppermint, and Young Jean Lee’s play Straight White Men features nonbinary pioneer Kate Bornstein and rising interdisciplinary artist Ty Defoe. “Broadway was a dream I thought was impossible,” says Bornstein, a prominent activist, author and performance artist. In Straight White Men, she and Defoe play the Persons in Charge, who interact with the audience and provide a striking counterpoint to the titular characters. “I’m impressed that Second Stage Theater is choosing to do a show that talks about all these intersections,” says Defoe, a Native American performer who identifies as two-spirit. “It’s a play that speaks truth to power, and entertains while opening the perspective of how gender is seen.”  “We’re being cast specifically for our trans-ness within shows that need it,” Bornstein says. “That says a lot about where we are.” Peppermint, who stars as the oracle Pythio in Head Over Heels, agrees. “This role would not have existed even 10 years ago,” she says. A quirky Elizabethan romantic romp written in rhyming verse and built around hit pop songs by the Go-Go’s, the musical allows Peppermint to show off the skills she acquired at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy: “I’m a tr

Even though Kris Kringle won't fly into town until tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day parade, the elves at Macy's are already getting Santaland ready for its seasonal debut on Friday. We caught a sneak peek last week, and the fantastical toy-, train- and fake snow-filled world is as magical as ever. And it's a good thing too, since families often wait up to 90 minutes to see the big guy in red. After your visit, be sure to check out the store's 30-minute Miracle on 34th Street puppet show, presented by Park Slope theater Puppetworks (admission is $5 per person). And of course, be sure to check out Macy's Yes, Virginia-themed windows . (Seeing them in person definitely beats watching them in a slide show !)

Circus Arts at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center248 W 60th St between Amsterdam and West End Aves (212-787-1178, manhattanmovement.com). $585 for 13 weeks (semester signup only).Got a kid who loves clowning around? Help her channel that energy with this introduction to the circus arts. Instructors guide tykes through warm-up stretches and cardio exercises before showing them big-top basics, like aerial silks, plate spinning, juggling and stilt walking. But the class teaches more than just showy acrobatics—it helps little ones build trust in each other and conquer their fears in a noncompetitive setting. Ages 5 to 12.CircusYogaKarma Kids Yoga, 104 W 14th St between Sixth and Seventh Aves (646-638-1444, circusyoga.com). $25, children under 13 $10.Kevin O'Keefe, the multitalented performer behind the one-man act Circus Minimus, and his wife, Erin Maile O'Keefe, founded this traveling education program, which uses the West Village Karma Kids studio as its NYC home base. In mixed-age sessions, students practice traditional yoga techniques as well as acrobatics, juggling, slapstick and tightrope walking. Ages 7 and up.Juggling ClassesSat 3--4pm, 4-5pm. Theaterlab Studio, 137 W 14th St between Sixth and Seventh Aves, third floor (347-987-1311, jugglingclasses.com).Tue 6--7pm. Big Sky Works, 29 Wythe Ave at North 14th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (347-987-1311, jugglingclasses.com). $20.Founded by Rod Kimball (a.k.a. the really cute Flying Karamazov Brother), these one-off sessions ar

In the theater world, it’s rare to get a second crack at a show. But that’s exactly what happened to Mark Thompson. The set-and-costume designer for Broadway’s latest bet, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, won an Olivier Award (London’s equivalent of a Tony) for his work on the original West End production. Despite the staging of Roald Dahl’s classic 1964 children’s novel, about an impoverished boy and the eccentric chocolatier who befriends him, doing well enough to run for almost four years, the consensus was it couldn’t travel across the pond without some major reworking. Thompson, along with songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (of Hairspray and Smash fame) and book writer David Greig, stayed on. Everyone else—including Oscar- and Tony-winning director Sam Mendes—cycled off. A new cast, choreographer and director—three-time Tony winner Jack O’Brien—convened to take a fresh approach. On a recent Friday morning during rehearsal, Thompson chats in the back of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, as the cast—headlined by Christian Borle as Willy Wonka in that iconic purple tailcoat and black top hat—goes through a group number that’s set just outside the chocolate factory. “It’s playful and full of mischief,” says Thompson of the set in front of us. A red carpet is unfurled, welcoming the lucky golden-ticket winners who get to tour the candy mecca, and the eye-popping costumes brilliantly capture each kid’s personality: There’s Violet Beauregarde, in her plush purple sweat suit

Unlike Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, New Year's Eve is a tricky holiday for parents. Do you hire a sitter and head out for the night? (If so, be sure to read our tips for hiring a sitter on December 31!) Or do you change into your jammies and watch the ball drop on TV with the whole family? Fortunately, there's a third option: Ring in 2010 with the brood in tow at one of these kid-friendly New Year's Eve events. Nighttime celebrations The Big Apple Circus: Dance On!Fri Dec 31 at 9:30pm. Lincoln Center, Damrosch Park, Amsterdam Ave at 62nd St (212-962-5471, bigapplecircus.org). Subway: 1 to 66th St--Lincoln Ctr. $25--$175. We loved this year's dance-heavy edition of the Big Apple Circus and we know your kids will too. Catch the show on December 31 and get an extra bang for your buck at the postshow party, during which ringmaster Kevin Venardos invites guests into the ring to count down to midnight. All ages. Black, White and Pink New Year's Eve at the PlazaDec 31; dinner seating at 5:30 or 6:30pm. The Palm Court, Fifth Ave at Central Park South (212-546-5300, theplaza.com/dining/palmcourt). Subway: N, R to Fifth Ave. $120, children under 13 $85.Overnight packages are also offered for an additional fee. Plaza-dwelling kid-lit character Eloise may be the most pampered tyke in town, but tonight your kids can get a taste of her lavish lifestyle at this swanky family fete. Guests join Eloise, her pets and her nanny for a three-course dinner in the Palm Court, followed by f

Theater review by Raven SnookThe program may say, "Time: Now. Place: Here."—a hat tip to A Chorus Line—but The Jonathan Larson Project is a celebration of a time and a city long gone. Best known for his game-changing 1996 rock opera Rent, a portrait of East Village artists in the specter of AIDS, Larson died of an aortic dissection on the day before that show's first preview. He didn't get to see it transfer to Broadway, win multiple awards and inspire a generation of musical-theater makers and mavens. (Lin-Manuel Miranda figures prominently in The Jonathan Larson Project's opening video). This revue, conceived by theater historian Jennifer Ashley Tepper and based on a series of concerts she curated at 54 Below, doesn't attempt to tell Larson's story; you can stream the marvelous tick, tick …BOOM! for some of that. Instead, as five powerhouse vocalists perform 20 previously obscure songs from Larson’s trunk and archives, it offers a sometimes exhilarating, sometimes frustrating peek at what was and what might have been. Divorced from their original contexts, the numbers can be intriguing or confounding, and sometimes both; a helpful program insert with background info for each song is best read before the show begins. Some of the selections, like "Casual Sex, Pizza, and Beer" and "Break Out the Booze,” are merely cute; one, the wan futuristic political satire "The Vision Thing," is pretty cringey. But there are also some gems in the bag. Andy Mientus, decked out as a jaded le

Theater review by Raven SnookThe path to greatness is paved with blood, sushi and tears in Sumo, Lisa Sanaye Dring’s hearty new play about Japan’s spiritually infused national pastime. The relatively diminutive Akio (a winning Scott Keiji Takeda) is a lowly newcomer at an elite Tokyo training facility. He’s stuck doing menial work and desperate to get a shot in the sumo ring himself, but he faces hefty competition from other wrestlers in the stable—particularly the disdainful highest-ranked fighter, Mitsuo (a quietly intimidating David Shih), who abuses and dismisses him. Anyone who's ever seen a sports movie knows what comes next. That seems to be by design: Dring transports a traditional hero's-journey plot to a setting that is rarely seen in American theatre, which gives it some freshness without taking it too far afield from the familiar. The ferocious sumo matches—fight-directed by James Yaegashi and Chelsea Pace, and choreographed to Shih-Wei Wu's live taiko drumming—get your blood pumping. Paul Whitaker's lighting is appropriately dramatic; Hana S. Kim's eye-popping projections set the scene and fill in cultural gaps, as do three Shinto priests who serve as narrators. Sumo | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus None of the actors have the sheer mass of authentic sumo greats, but they pull more than their weight. Director Ralph B. Peña elicits substantial performances from the entire cast of the production, which is presented jointly by Ma-Yi Theater Company and the Public

[Note: Queen of Hearts returns in February for an encore run, with Lindsay Rose in the title role.] Lewis Carroll's trippy Alice in Wonderland books have inspired many theatrical spectacles, but Company XIV's seductive Queen of Hearts is a singular sexcess: a transporting fusion of haute burlesque, circus, dance and song. Your fall down the glamorous rabbit hole begins upon entering the troupe's louche Bushwick lair, where scantily clad server-performers slink about in flattering red lighting. A cursory knowledge of the source material will help you make sense of the show’s three-act cavalcade of Alice-inspired routines, as our blue-haired heroine embarks on an NC-17 coming-of-age journey under the guidance of the White Rabbit. As usual, Company XIV impresario Austin McCormick has assembled an array of alluring and highly skilled artists, who look smashing in Zane Pihlstrom's lace-and-crystal-encrusted costumes. A contortionist emerges in an S/M-vinyl cocoon and transforms into a beauteous butterfly; mustachioed twins, as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, perform a cheeky spin on the Marx Brothers' mirror trick. As the title royal, voluptuous vocalist Storm Marrero rules over all in her stunning 11-o'clock number. With its soundtrack of pop songs, attractive ensemble cast and immersive aesthetics—plus chocolate and specialty cocktails—Queen of Hearts feels like Moulin Rouge! for actual bohemians. Hell, it even has a cancan. Like Alice, you may resist returning to reality when it's o

Theater review by Raven Snook The nicest kids in town grow up so fast. Marissa Jaret Winokur, Kerry Butler and Laura Bell Bundy all played spunky teens in the original cast of Broadway’s Hairspray; now, more than 20 years later, they reunite onstage in Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now!, a spirited concert show that celebrates their intertwined careers and three-way friendship. Written, directed and performed by the trio (with an assist from three sassy backup singers and a small band), it's a sweet, slapdash evening for fans of these talented performers and the show that gave their hair and careers a lift.All three are in fine shape and voice. In mostly chronological order, they share amusing showbiz stories—a run-in with Liza Minnelli, an understudy who went on to become a pop princess—and belt out tunes from Hairspray and other Broadway shows they’ve appeared in: Beetlejuice, Beauty and the Beast and Xanadu for Butler; Legally Blonde and Wicked for Bundy; and, for Winokur, one hilarious line from Grease. They also share other songs, including cute parodies (The Lion King’s “The Circle of Life” becomes “Larger Than Life,” a tribute to over-the-top theater kids), and talk frankly about their differing journeys to motherhood. Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now | Photograph: Courtesy Russ Rowland There isn't much to look at beyond the stars; the barely-there set consists of faux vanities and a screen for vintage pics and silly Photoshops. But the show’s DIY aesthetic is part of its charm. And w

Theater review by Raven Snook  Two estranged cousins try to reconcile in the wake of their grandmother's death in Bad Kreyòl, Dominique Morisseau's witty and perceptive new play. Simone (Kelly McCreary), a first-generation Haitian-American with good intentions and poor communication skills, has traveled to Haiti to see Gigi (the delicious Pascale Armand), an ambitious boutique owner with high-end taste—she looks fabulous in Haydee Zelideth's vibrant costumes—but no tact at all. From the get-go, the two are dissing cousins: Gigi criticizes Simone's weight, hair, aimlessness and crappy grasp of the local language; Simone takes Gigi to task for being judgmental and participating in corrupt class systems.  Plagued by guilt, privilege and unwitting American saviorism, Simone spends her visit attempting to make an impact on her troubled ancestral homeland while ignorant of the country's customs. While Gigi waits for her American cousin at home, longing to share family stories and their grandmother's pate recipe, Simone is out encouraging locals to stand up for themselves—particularly Pita (Jude Tibeau, in a spectacular performance), a former restavèk who came to work for Gigi’s family as a child and now, as a grown gay man, continues his duties. Bad Kreyòl | Photograph: Courtesy Matthew Murphy As with her previous plays, which include Skeleton Crew and Confederates, Morisseau parses complex issues like class, colonialism and the American-Haitian culture divide without resorting to

Theater review by Raven Snook The son of a climate scientist, the Australian writer-performer David Finnigan has spent his theatrical career exploring our planet’s existential crisis. In his solo cri de coeur Deep History, he interweaves a historical survey of ecological change with an illustration of its effects today: the harrowing tale of his friend Jack and his family’s efforts to escape the 2019 Australian bushfires, an unnatural disaster that scorched 59 million acres, displaced 65,000 people and killed 1 billion animals. When Finnigan began performing the piece two years ago, it bore a longer name: You’re Safe Til 2024: Deep History. The title may now be less dire, but the show itself remains unsettling—yet surprisingly hopeful, if not always dramatic. Witty, barefoot and exceedingly charming under Annette Mees’s straightforward direction, Finnigan puts a personal spin on this overwhelming subject. As he describes the six turning points that, according to his father, led humanity to this moment, he narrates the journey through the eyes of a magical time-hopping survivor. That certainly makes the science more digestible, as does Finnigan’s clever use of a stream of sugar to illustrate our exploding population. (As the grains pile up they come to resemble an hourglass, reminding us that we are running low on time.) But the show can’t quite shake the feel of an entertaining lecture.  It’s only during the climatic section, as Finnigan shares Jack’s desperate text updates w

Theater review by Raven Snook Musical-comedy queens will gag for The Big Gay Jamboree, a cheeky send-up of the form. Failed Broadway baby Stacey (Titanique diva Marla Mindelle) wakes up with a hangover to find that she is somehow trapped inside an old-time musical. The last thing she remembers is fighting with her tech-bro boyfriend (Alex Moffat, in a variant on his Guy Who Just Bought a Boat character from Saturday Night Live); now it’s 1945 in the small town of Bareback, Idaho, where everyone constantly bursts into song and Stacey is slated to be wed to an unseen groom. As she tries to get back home, she's joined by fellow misfits, in the tradition of The Wizard of Oz: the town's lone Black guy, Clarence (a steamy Paris Nix); Flora, a BDSM Ado Annie (Natalie Walker, fierce); and dance-happy homosexual Bert (Mindelle's Titanique collaborator Constantine Rousouli, who slays with a "Music and the Mirror"–style solo). The Big Gay Jamboree | Photograph: Courtesy Matthew Murphy The amusing pastiche score, by Mindelle and Philip Drennen, is performed with gusto by the exuberant cast, which is kept in nearly perpetual motion by director-choreographer Connor Gallagher. The parody numbers may not transcend their archetypes, but they're crowd-pleasers, particularly Nix's rousing "Gospel Song," Flora's vampy "Kitty Tickle," and "The Gay B-Cs" (a kind of "Do-Re-Mi" for modern gay slang). The bawdy book, by Mindelle and Jonathan Parks-Ramage, sparks bigger laughs. Despite its similar se

Theater review by Raven Snook Memories of the past and fears of a precarious future haunt an urban community in James Ijames's Good Bones. Set in an area undergoing a seismic transformation, the drama unfolds in a townhouse kitchen that a proud local contractor, Earl (a disarming Khris Davis), is renovating for a moneyed married couple: Travis (Mamoudou Athie), a restaurateur, and Aisha (Susan Kelechi Watson), who was raised nearby and now represents a controversial stadium project that promises to revitalize the neighborhood. Fan Zhang's superb sound design gives a sense of the vibrant lives beyond Aisha and Travis's door, which keeps opening on its own—one of a series of small, supernatural reminders that history is embedded in their walls.Aisha and Travis are trying to conceive a child, but they are also having trouble connecting. Her chemistry with Earl feels at once dangerous and inevitable. But their flirtation soon turns into something more like an interrogation. Aisha thinks Earl is romanticizing a district that she recalls as violent and oppressive; Earl is shocked that Aisha supports displacement and destruction. How could she be so tone-deaf? Good Bones | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus The audience may wonder that, too. Despite Watson's valiant efforts, Aisha too often feels like a political position, not a person. She has literally forgotten where she came from, and Earl is constantly reminding her of details it's hard to believe she lost—like the nickname of t

Theater review by Raven Snook  The subjectivity of truth is the smoldering core of Nancy Harris's The Beacon. On a remote Irish isle off West Cork, Beiv (Kate Mulgrew)—a fiery feminist artist infamous for possibly killing her ex-husband—reunites with her prodigal son: Colm (Zach Appelman), a software engineer who fled to California years earlier. He's brought some serious emotional baggage along with his young new bride, Bonnie (Ayana Workman), a garrulous college dropout who is interested in art history and psychology. The drama intensifies with the arrival of Colm's erstwhile townie pal, Donal (Sean Bell), who's helping Beiv transform her old cottage into a modern glass box. This stormy setup is echoed in Colm McNally's and Liam Bellman-Sharpe's stellar set and sound design; waves crashing audibly against the shore as these four desperate souls smash into each other. Mulgrew is sensational as Beiv, a battle-axe and self-described "ferociously selfish mother," who places her bohemian urges above all else but is more vulnerable than she appears. Longing for a traditional life, Appelman's stoic Colm is in denial about his own desires, which makes deluded Bonnie an ideal spouse. Only Donal, an achingly sympathetic Bell, knows who he is and what he wants—even if he can't have it. The Beacon | Photograph: Courtesy Carol Rosegg The Beacon is a slow burn as its characters parse their intertwined pasts, and director Marc Atkinson Borrull's pacing is deliberately unhurried, allowing

Theater review by Raven Snook  Words are wounding in Matthew Freeman's taut two-hander The Ask, an entertaining and empathetic examination of generational and philosophical differences that divide the political left. Savvy sexagenarian Greta (a flawless Betsy Aidem) welcomes Tanner (Colleen Litchfield)—a young, nonbinary representative from the American Civil Liberties Union—to her well-appointed Upper West Side study. A longtime liberal and high-level donor, Greta is polite but peeved: Her old ACLU contact has departed without warning, and she is wary of what she sees as the organization’s mission creep beyond civil liberties. Tanner knows they're there to listen, even when the conversation stings. But they also try to gently explain the group’s expanded priorities as they steel themself to make a big-money request. Inspired by his own long tenure as an ACLU fundraiser, Freeman gives this extended power play an uncomfortable verisimilitude. Aidem and Litchfield, who costarred in Leopoldstadt on Broadway, mine the unease for laughs but also understanding. As you listen to their arguments and their anguish—when Tanner uses inclusive gender language, Greta feels erased—you lament how quickly common ground can be swallowed in an ideological abyss. Craig Napoliello's chic-but-funky set, with Cindy Sherman photographs and other art hung on black-and-white wallpaper, reflects Greta perfectly: a woman who has fought her whole life but now worries that her kind is facing extinction.

Theater review by Raven Snook Eleven years ago, the Classical Theatre of Harlem presented Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as its first summer show in Marcus Garvey Park. Since then, its annual romps have remained free, fast, fun and family-friendly, but they are much more fabulous now—particularly this fetching new version of the Bard's enduring romcom, which has been edited down to a single act. Director Carl Cofield sets the action in the Harlem Renaissance: a fitting choice, as the company has been part of Harlem’s 21st-century rejuvenation. Lovestruck humans and fairies—bedecked in feathery and glittery getups by costume designer Mika Eubanks—chase each other around Christopher and Justin Swader's two-tiered set, which shifts from a '30s nightspot to enchanted forest with help from Alan C. Edwards's luscious lighting and Brittany Bland's illustrative projections. The seductive visuals are complemented by a high-energy ensemble of performers who act in broad strokes so that Shakespeare neophytes don't get lost in the poetry. A Midsummer Night's Dream | Photograph: Courtesy Richard Doubling as the welcoming emcee Philostrate and the playful sprite Puck, Mykal Kilgore commands every scene he's in, belting out songs by Duke Ellington and the Gershwins with backup dancers in tow. The four lovers in a daisy chain of romance—hopelessly devoted Helena (Noah Michal), who adores chilly Demetrius (Brandon Carter), who is betrothed to Hermia (Ra'Mya Latiah Aikens), who only

Theater review by Raven Snook Thanks in part to old Hollywood westerns, the Wild West looms large in American self-mythology. It's exhilarating and disturbing to see its tall tales viciously dismantled from an outsider's perspective in Dark Noon, a fast and furious transhistorical one-act—written by Denmark’s Tue Biering, who also co-directed it with the Johannesburg-based multidisciplinary artist Nhlanhla Mahlangu—that St. Ann's Warehouse has imported from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Seven South African performers, playing European settlers, literally construct a pioneer town onstage, in the form of Johan Kølkjær's ingenious, easier-to-assemble-than-IKEA set. Their plans to push west, of course, rely on slaughtering Indigenous people to clear the land, enslaving Africans to work the fields and importing Chinese immigrants to build the railroads. Dark Noon | Photograph: Courtesy Teddy Wolff An inexhaustible cast of one white and six Black actors engages in a tongue-in-cheek minstrelsy, broadly portraying characters of all genders and backgrounds, like kids playing very bloody make-believe with whiteface, wigs and guns. They even enlist the audience to help: Be prepared to be preached to, sold at auction or hidden from gunslinging outlaws. Many sections of the text, especially the narration, are also shown via live video feed, both as a nod to the show’s send-up of classic movie tropes and as a way to see around the town’s new structures. Dark Noon is outrageously enterta

Kandi Burruss has spent more than 30 years defying expectations and building opportunities. Her 14 seasons on The Real Housewives of Atlanta made her a star of reality TV and social media; prior to joining the franchise, she had already achieved a measure of fame in the 1990s R&B girl group Xscape. But as much as Burruss enjoys the spotlight, she's savvy enough to look beyond it for longevity and influence: She parlayed her early music-industry success into a career as a Grammy-winning songwriter (for acts including TLC, Destiny's Child and Pink), and she has produced a series of Real Housewives spinoffs for herself—including The Real Housewives of Atlanta: Kandi's Wedding, which chronicled her nuptials to producer Todd Tucker. Burruss has enjoyed a similar trajectory on Broadway. After making her Main Stem debut in 2018 as the amusingly corrupt prison matron Mama Morton in Chicago, she segued into producing projects that showcased Black stars and stories, including Thoughts of a Colored Man, the Samuel L. Jackson-led The Piano Lesson, which earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Revival, and the family favorite The Wiz starring Wayne Brady. This spring, she and her husband are part of the team bringing Shakespeare's racially charged Othello back to Broadway for the first time in 43 years. Denzel Washington plays the valiant but gullible main character, and Jake Gyllenhaal is the manipulative underling who goads him into jealous rage. "The only way that change can be made is

It was an unexpectedly dramatic way to return to Broadway. The night before the first preview of Patriots—which chronicles how the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky helped Vladimir Putin rise to power—the play’s star, Michael Stuhlbarg, was randomly attacked near Central Park. Fortunately, he was fine. Stuhlbarg even pursued his assailant: a fitting move, given how Berezovsky always went after his enemies.Patriots is Stuhlbarg's first Broadway performance since he earned a 2005 Tony nomination for his chilling turn in The Pillowman. Since then, he's become a sought-after character actor on television and in films, equally adept at icy villains, blustery braggarts and sympathetic victims. Berezovsky is all three at once and, like many of Stuhlbarg's most acclaimed performances—Richard Sackler in Dopesick, Arnold Rothstein in Boardwalk Empire, Edward G. Robinson in Trumbo—he's also a real-life figure.  A wunderkind mathematician who became a bully of a billionaire, Berezovsky survived political animosity (and an assassination attempt) as he used his money, influence and power to remake his homeland. Installing Putin as president was part of his plan, but the two men turned out to have very different visions for Mother Russia. Stuhlbarg says he feels "a great responsibility" to get Berezovsky right in Patriots, a 2022 work by recent history specialist Peter Morgan (The Crown). A few days before Patriots’ first performance and the assault that landed Stuhlbarg in the headlines, h

Photograph: Josh Lehrer   Sara Bareilles spent more than a decade in the spotlight as a platinum-selling pop pioneer before getting a taste of backstage artistry as the songwriter for Waitress, which earned her a 2016 Tony nomination for Best Score. But when original lead Jessie Mueller gave notice, Bareilles realized it was the perfect opportunity to take her star turn—after all, she’d been dreaming of performing on Broadway since childhood. On March 31, Bareilles slips into the practical shoes of Jenna, a downtrodden but dream-filled waitress with an abusive husband, a baby on the way, a talent for baking pies, and a very complicated love life.  Why did you decide to go into the show now?  The perfect confluence of circumstance. I had thought that, maybe after I did my next record, I would join the show for a short period of time. But it just kind of dawned on me: I’m as close to the show as I’ll ever be right now. It’s been really exciting and fun over the rehearsal process to see the character emerge from myself. I had such a wonderful experience discovering her from the inside out as I was writing the songs; now to get to interpret it as the storyteller onstage feels like a nice full-circle moment.  Is your take on the role very different from Mueller’s?  There are sort of natural differences that are emerging. Jessie and I are two different humans so we just kind of move through the world a little differently. Also, my scene partners are different.  That’s right: Wil

★★★☆☆Wes (Jeremy Pope)—a self-obsessed millennial aspiring fashion designer—just wants to be loved. So does this heartfelt yet disappointingly maudlin musical about the good old, bad old days of being gay in the '70s. After fleeing NYC and buying a decrepit building in his hometown of New Orleans to turn into a store, Wes is magically transported back 40-plus years when the space served as a gay bar full of colorful queer folk. There's Henri (Frenchie Davis, the best singer of the bunch), the lesbian who runs the joint. Buddy (Randy Redd), the resident pianist who passes as straight out in the streets. Willie (Nathan Lee Graham, the audience favorite), a sass master seemingly channeling Lola from Kinky Boots. Puerto Rican drag queen Freddy (Michael Longoria) and his supportive mom/stylist Inez (Nancy Ticotin). Richard (Benjamin Howes) sporting a clerical collar though he's singing with the choir, not converting them. And a pair of hustlers: the stud Patrick (Taylor Frey, crush-worthy) and the dud, Dale (Ben Mayne, making a scary guy sympathetic). That's a lot of disparate characters to pack into a one-act musical, which may be why they're painted and (mostly) played in such broad strokes under Scott Ebersold's unsubtle direction. Each one gets a big, defining song in the spotlight, but it soon starts to feel like a pride parade of gay archetypes.The story, such as it is, involves Wes getting schooled in queer history, and realizing he has it pretty good compared to the genera

★★★☆☆A dual coming-of-age tale set in ’80s suburban South Carolina, writer-director Erica Schmidt's raw one-act drama at the New Group juxtaposes the first sexual encounters of a pair of 14-year-old BFFs as they pursue their respective crushes. While this is hardly virgin territory, there's a stinging authenticity to their awkward interactions that's alternately hilarious and horrifying.You can tell by her junk-food diet and how long she stays out at night that lifelong townie Jenny (Abigail Breslin, struggling a bit) lacks a stable home life. Meanwhile relative newcomer Emily (Isabelle Fuhrman, excellent) is keen to shake up her sheltered existence. Their wildly different backgrounds inform their choices of lovers: Jenny picks Smiths-crooning senior Adam (Alex Wolff, spot-on) while Jenny takes up with Joseph, a 28-year-old man from church (Joe Tippett, letting glimmers of humanity shine through the sleaze). Organized into a series of two-person scenes, All the Fine Boys falls into a predictable rhythm, though a few necessarily stomach-churning sequences jolt. You'll probably know where these ladies are headed long before they do, but that comes from experience—and that's exactly what they go in search of, with life-changing results.Pershing Square Signature Center (Off Broadway). Written and directed by Erica Schmidt. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 40mins. No intermission. Through Mar 26. Click here for full venue and ticket information.Keep up with the latest news an

      You think your job's a nightmare? Be thankful you're not one of the four desperate corporate drones trying to save their company (and hence, themselves) over one insane night in Brian Parks's zippy and loopy romp. This quartet is so stressed out, they pee themselves when chastised by the (unseen) Chairman. This must be how Trump's staffers feel.Like Parks's previous Gemini CollisionWorks show, last year's riotous The Golfer, Enterprise values linguistic acrobatics and absurd exchanges over narrative. The story, such as it is, unfurls in brisk, wordplay-packed scenes that end in brief blackouts as Sanders (Fred Backus), Landry (Adam Files), Weaver (Derrick Peterson) and Owens (Alyssa Simon) brainstorm cockamamie ways to save the day. As befits their sports-inspired surnames, they play a lot of games, suffer from infighting and form various alliances, though even before they get to the animal sacrifice you sense the keycards are stacked against them.The success of a surreal comedy like this is all in the timing. And the performers, though impressively committed, are still finding their rhythm under the directorial hand of Parks's frequent conspirator Ian W. Hill. The blustery Backus is most consistently entertaining, though the other three have moments. From a design standpoint, it's pretty bare-bones, but Kaitlyn Day's costumes are appropriately soulless and Hill's clever music choices often provide apt buttons to the vignettes. Like an entry-level job, Enterprise may no

      No one emerges unscathed from Paul Cameron Hardy’s insightful new play—including the audience. What starts as a raunchy comedy about a pair of low-level porn-industry pals escalates into something darker and poignant: a searing portrait of an alt-righter as a youngish man.Trevor (Eric T. Miller, painfully convincing) is the quintessential straight, clueless white dude, a no-name adult-film performer prone to casual racist and sexist behavior who pretends to be a party boy but deep down knows he’s tanking. His ambitious African-American roommate and coworker, Shawn (the charming RJ Brown), is constantly chilling with their new Asian neighbor, Alice (Jennifer Tsay, pitch-perfect). Trevor got Shawn into the biz, and they have a longtime codependent bromance, but as the latter moves up and on, his buddy unravels. Effectively staged by RJ Tolan and produced by EST’s emerging-writers collective Youngblood, Hardy’s sly one-act seduces with raucous laughs, then slowly shifts as tension builds within this sad, scary man. Politics are never mentioned, and yet, in the shadow of our catastrophic election, we know Trevor shouldn’t be dismissed as harmless. Mope’s sex talk and nudity aren’t what shock; the way it exposes our society’s just-below-the-surface fury is what truly jolts. Ensemble Studio Theatre (Off Broadway). By Paul Cameron Hardy. Directed by RJ Tolan. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 45mins. No intermission. Through Feb 19. Click here for full ticket and venue inf

Paola Lázaro has her heart in the right place: the slums of Old San Juan in her native Puerto Rico. This is a side of the island that tourists rarely see, and like many dramatists before her—August Wilson comes to mind—she knows that the everyday struggles of the underprivileged can be imbued with poetry and epic emotion. Unfortunately, the dozen downtrodden characters in Lázaro’s debut play, Tell Hector I Miss Him, are more likely to try your patience than inspire your empathy. This is no fault of the production’s capable actors, nearly all Latino, who bring authenticity to somewhat stereotypically written roles as addicts, abusers, adolescents and amantes. Some of their intertwined stories are engaging, such as one in which a sick schoolgirl (Yadira Guevara-Prip) crushes on the local sexpot (Orange is the New Black’s Dascha Polanco); others are tedious, like the one about a lost gringa (Talene Monahon) who spends most of the play meowing. Too many of Lázaro’s neofolktales fall into the second category, and although she has reportedly based some characters on her own family members, there’s a sameness to the way they express themselves. As a young Puerto Rican woman, Lázaro offers a voice and perspective too rarely seen onstage. Maybe next time she’ll have a hit instead of this Miss. Atlantic Stage 2 (Off Broadway). By Paola Lázaro. Directed by David Mendizábal. With ensemble cast. Running time: 2hrs 10mins. One intermission. Click here for full ticket and venue information.

      Who knew Othello could be so funny? The Q Brothers have transformed the bloody tragedy into a rip-roaring, rapped one-act rich with dizzying rhymes. Lest anyone think these B-boys are riding on Hamilton’s red coattails, writers-directors-stars-siblings GQ and JQ pioneered hip-hop theater back in 1999 with their uproarious The Bomb-itty of Errors, inspired by Shakespeare’s similarly titled romp. Othello: The Remix, commissioned by Shakespeare’s Globe, is their first stab at a non-comedy, yet you wouldn’t know it from all the laughs and jokey references to Jay Z, D&D and Game of Thrones.The narrative is reset in the music industry, with MC Othello (Postell Pringle) sparking jealousy and a murderous plan in his presumed pal Iago (GQ) by mentoring wannabe Cassio (a broad Jackson Doran) and marrying diva Desdemona (represented by a disembodied voice). Joined by JQ, the quartet plays all the characters, tackling quick changes as deftly as tongue-twisting text against DJ Supernova’s slick beats. Yet only Pringle attempts to find the gravitas in the tale and, bizarrely, racial strife is practically ignored. The show is clever and exhilarating, but also a missed opportunity—as if the creators were looking at the green-eyed monster through rose-colored glasses.Westside Theatre (Off Broadway). Written, composed and directed by GQ and JQ. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 20mins. No intermission. Click here for full ticket and venue information.Keep up with the latest news and

      It can't be a coincidence that the last time Irish Rep shared its scaled-down revival of this tuneful Burton Lane–Yip Harburg musical in 2004, it was also an election year. Though written in 1947, this fairy tale-romance-cum-social satire touches on still-relevant issues such as racism, income inequality, shady politicians and predatory lending.Not that you go to Finian's Rainbow for its narrative. After all, one generation's progressivism seems quaint (or, worse, backward) to its descendants. Plotwise, it's sentimental blarney about an old Irishman named Finian (spry sexagenarian Ken Jennings—the original Tobias in Sweeney Todd!) and his daughter, Sharon (Tony nominee Melissa Errico reprising her 2004 turn and still managing to pass as an ingénue) immigrating to the mythical Missitucky in the Jim Crow South with a stolen pot of gold—and its rightful Leprechaun owner, Og (Mark Evans), in hot pursuit. After misunderstandings, accusations of witchcraft and some magic, they find love and prosperity in their new homeland while teaching a racist Senator (Dewey Caddell) a thing or two about tolerance.Even if that description makes you gag, the glorious songs—which make up most of the two-hour run time thanks to director Charlotte Moore's judicious book cuts—should win you over. Backed by a four-piece, string-heavy band (piano, harp, cello, and fiddle), the 13 unamplified cast members are in superb voice throughout. It's hard to pick highlights, but Angela Grovey raises the ro

      With Americans on the cusp of (fingers crossed!) electing our first female President, Betty Shamieh's cheeky reimagining of how a woman named Hatshepsut became Pharaoh 3,500-plus years ago feels appropriately timely. Mercifully, Fit for a Queen is no staid historical drama. It's a transhistorical mash-up of sensibilities that dispenses with the facts in favor of a feminist farce, albeit one about serious subjects such as slavery, subjugation and sexism.The cast is draped in costume designer Rachel Dozier-Ezell's alluring, body-baring togas that look more Plato's Retreat than Ancient Egypt. The brief, butt-shaking dance interludes that facilitate scene changes are choreographed to percussion and funk. And the language and accents ping-pong between old-time poetical and modern-day street. This aesthetic fluidity is mirrored in the story, which seems like a lesbian variation on Macbeth as Queen Hatshepsut (April Yvette Thompson, campier than a RuPaul's Drag Race contestant) is encouraged to go for the throne by any means necessary by her favorite slave/lover, Senenmut (Sheria Irving, a standout). While Senenmut's machinations are in large part self-serving—she wants to move up in the world and keep her mistress busy so she can fool around with dudes—she also sees the bigger picture. Like her real-life namesake (who was male), she was of lowly birth but savvy enough to earn a spot at the royal court, and she thinks if the Queen becomes King, it will benefit all women. Sadly

      No-holds-barred roast diva and formerly fat (her word) stand-up comic, Lisa Lampanelli gives us a lot to chew on with her first play: a plotless meditation on the food and body-image issues that plague many women. Featuring four ladies of varying dysfunctions and sizes—including Lampanelli, who famously dropped more than 100 pounds thanks to gastric sleeve surgery a few years back—the show aims for real and raw but comes off as stilted and stale from the first course on.Stuffed begins with the quartet enthusing about their favorite foods directly to the audience before settling into an unstructured living room gabfest, complete with a fridge stocked with snacks. Bulimic Britney (Jessica Luck, struggling) survived abuse. Unwitting "skinny bitch" Katey (Eclipsed's Zainab Jah, woefully miscast) had a disapproving mother and absent father. Stacey (the always adorable Ann Harada, doing all she can) is happy being "big." (Maybe a size 12, she's the largest woman onstage and far from obese.) And Lisa (Lampanelli) chews the scenery as herself.Though each woman gets her own meaty, melodramatic monologue, none transcends her stereotype, save for Lampanelli. That's not surprising considering the neophyte playwright has decades of experience penning intoxicatingly profane, first-person material for her routines, plus a 2009 memoir. Stuffed was initially conceived as an autobiographical one-woman show until she decided to expand it. Yet the evening fares best when the so-called "Que