I had much the same opinion of FEAR OF 13 as most of my colleagues, but I must say that Adrien Brody makes an impressive stage debut. Is it a self-conscious star turn? Yes. A tad schmactory? No question. But the guy can hold the stage, and in the right role I think he'd kill.

Reading Walter Kerr on the advice of @helenshaw.bsky.social and I’m still thinking of this brilliant turn of phrase, at the end of an item about how Eddie Foy brought his usual vaudevillian shtick to an ostensibly serious role: “We pretend to believe in legitimacy, but we can’t be serious.”

I don't know who introduced me to the great Brazilian singer-songwriter Tim Bernardes—thank you, whoever it was! I've been lost in this lush, sinuous 2022 record all day. Imagine Jeff Buckley and/or Nick Drake doing MPB and you're close. Exquisite. timbernardes.bandcamp.com/album/mil-co...

Best known for his role on Sesame Street, Alan Muraoka will next helm Wai Yim and Jason Ma’s TYA play The Great Race at Rose Theater. In our spring 2026 print edition, the actor/director chats about the joys of TYA.

Lin Manuel Miranda just posted his cast for the movie musical of Octet and it’s bananas.

New issue just dropped. Very proud of this one

Happy Praying Mantis Appreciation Day, to all who celebrate… CHILD PRAYING MANTIS: Dad, who are we all praying to exactly? DAD PRAYING MANTIS: Depends which religion you belong to CHILD: So not all people follow the same religion? DAD: No, son… we’re in sects

This is really worth watching.

Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe. “All is vanity.” ALL.

more than suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own

I can't stop laughing at this post. It's perfect.

Had a blast writing this column, for which I had the honor of visiting both Dmitry Krymov and Bill Rauch in the midst of rehearsal.

I’m so happy for the brilliant puppeteer James Ortiz to land and nail such a high-profile gig as PROJECT HAIL MARY. He does yeoman’s work in a movie I otherwise found cutesy and cloying.

Okay this isn’t really happening anymore so I can tell you how l had “internal ICE sources”: the 3000 very stir-crazy ICE agents were all going wild on Minneapolis Tinder. Local girls would match with them and string them along for intel. They loved to brag about what they were doing all day

When Victory Gardens Theater re-emerged with a new mission—“New work. Boldly.”—we at American Theatre had a lot of questions. Emily McClanathan sat down with new leadership to find out where the company is headed since its implosion. www.americantheatre.org/2026/04/08/c...

How quickly can a song go from one I’ve never heard before to one of my favorites of all time? This folky, sneakily complex gem by Cécile McLorin Salvant is in the running for fastest uptake. What a gorgeous meeting of craft and inspiration. Can’t stop playing it. youtu.be/8OQ8tnOkOy8

Oh my gd, the Artemis II crew doing a parody of a bad 1980s sitcom intro from in space. Source: www.instagram.com/p/DWwuHPfCZ8Z/

"The way I think about criticism is that it is itself a form of theatre. You have a voice, and you grip people, and you're honest, and you have an audience, and your way of respecting the medium that you're writing about is engaging with it publicly." podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

2 new books on Stephen Sondheim reveal the revered composer/lyricist as a nuanced and complex man—and as a master puzzle maker and solver. www.americantheatre.org/2026/04/03/s...

Hal Willner (born on this date in 1956) was a behind the scenes giant in American music – from his work for NBC on Saturday Night Live to the many tribute lps he produced. He was the force behind Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (A&M, 1988). Willner died in 2020

I could have read 10,000 more words on this www.nytimes.com/2026/04/05/s...

Film executives to John Boorman: We’re going to greenlight your King Arthur movie, EXCALIBUR. John Boorman: Green light, coming right up.

I suspect that BECKY SHAW will be divisive, possibly generationally. I was fully on board for its rocky ride, but I’ve spoken to others who don’t love its prickly mix of misanthropic humor and relationship drama. Either way I think the new production surpasses the 2008 original, which was excellent.

Jesus Clarifies Return Will Be Strictly Limited To Carpentry Business

Just saw CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL on Broadway. Hard to recall another show with such do-anything-to-dazzle-you excess that was also so full of heart and joy—there's not a cynical note in it. I also don't think I've ever seen a costume get a standing ovation (shout out to Qween Jean). Now and forever

Among the many things she’s good at, Helen Shaw is a master of the kicker—just one of numerous reasons to always read her reviews to the end www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/t...

Back on my bullshit—i.e., writing about Sondheim. In all seriousness, I was grateful for the windows Daniel Okrent's and Barry Joseph's new books gave me into the man and the artist, and for the chance that affords me to contemplate him again in print. www.americantheatre.org/2026/04/03/s...

Since Jan Sterling's birthday seems to be sparking discussion of ACE IN THE HOLE (1951), I've taken down the paywall on my 2007 review. Enjoy, if that is the word we want for Wilder's bleakest movie: open.substack.com/pub/selfstyl...

Another good one, if I may say so myself. Dafoe offers some memorable thoughts on Robert Wilson, and the long-awaited Shaw/Nussbaum summit is as lively and digressive as you might imagine.

Just got to the part of the Iliad where Hephaestus makes a new shield for Achilles and somehow inscribes on it several detailed scenes and multi-chapter narratives—it’s a real through-the-looking-glass moment, capped by this apt sentence (in Emily Wilson’s translation)

From a collection of hard NY Times crosswords. Notice anything odd about this one?

Now there’s a pair of understudy slips you don’t see every day.

#tbt Looking back at my 2011 review of THE BOOK OF MORMON, THE MOTHERFUCKER WITH THE HAT, GOOD PEOPLE, and WAR HORSE. Can you guess which of them I liked best? www.americamagazine.org/theater/2011...

Madison Cunningham did not disappoint last night at Town Hall. Instead of a full band she was joined by wind player Jesse Chandler for a set of mostly introspective songs and soundscapes on piano and guitar. I love where her artistry is taking her; she is shaping up to be one of the all-time greats.

I'd heard LMM was trying to make this happen, so glad to see it get the greenlight. (I know I'm not the only one who noticed what score was on his piano in this New Yorker photo spread)

BREAKING: The renaming of Rattlestick Theater in Terrence McNally’s honor accompanies a renovation of the 99-seat Off-Broadway venue in the heart of the West Village, announced at the apartment McNally shared with his husband, theatre producer Tom Kirdahy. www.americantheatre.org/2026/04/01/t...

The streaming giant Netflix has announced PlayFlix, which promises to stage live performances in subscribers’ homes.

In Korean, the word for cowboys, 속기 쉬운, translates literally to “American horse pirates” * read on for more of my all-time favourite translations from around the world (a thread)…

objectively the funniest critique an american could level at another country

Oh, how I wanted to like this show. Here's my review, with a cameo from my son Oliver (who did like the show) www.americamagazine.org/theater/2026...

This is brilliant. Read the last paragraph. Slowly. [gift article] Is It 1914 in America? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/o...

RIP Mary Beth Hurt, who said one of the best things I’ve ever heard about acting (relayed here by the director Daniel Fish, in an interview with Cynthia Ozick).

This morning at Greenpoint Reformed Church I discovered an alternate use for an (empty) Omny card: I forgot my guitar pick and this cut-out piece worked reasonably well

TRUMP RUINED BAD TASTE John Waters at #NoKings in Provincetown (Pic via petermarietoto on X)

Happened to catch Ravyn Lenae's strutting, snappy "Love Me Not" in a coffeeshop today, and now I've got her latest LP on repeat. Its lush songcraft and old-school production is catnip for my ears. open.spotify.com/album/1uE3dR...

Really would like to read L.A. Material but I can't get past this prompt (I've pressed and held 3 times in a row now). Any pointers @juliaturner.bsky.social ?

My wife just pointed out that that’s (half of) her on the far right of the photo (her sign reads “Love Teachers More Than Real Estate)

It occurs to me that two current theater neighbors on 44th Street have a lot in common: To wit, MAYBE HAPPY ENDING and EVERY BRILLIANT THING aren’t just marked by a similarly touching appreciation of the little things that make life worth living but specifically of vintage vinyl records. It me

A thousand NYU contingent faculty went on strike Monday and today they have a real contract with real security in one of the most expensive places on earth