Off-B'way Review: Girl, Interrupted

Juliana Canfield in Girl, Interrupted.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Though it has flaws in terms of pacing and repetition, the new musical adaptation of Girl, Interrupted at the Public, based on Susanna Kaysen’s 1993 memoir, is a heart-wrenching portrayal of surviving mental illness. Pulitzer Prize-winner Martina Majok’s book feelingly depicts Susanna’s struggles with suicidal tendencies and her two-year residency at a mental facility in late 1960s Boston. The country’s collective nervous breakdown over civil rights and Vietnam parallels the psychological battles taking place within Susanna and her fellow patients. The title derives from a Vermeer painting “Girl Interrupted at Her Music.” Susanna obsesses over the work which she encountered during a visit to the Frick Museum with her high-school English teacher who may or may have been sexually inappropriate with her. She identifies with the girl in the painting since they both are interrupted at pursuing their full potential.

Ta'Rea Campell, Juliana Canfield and 
Lauren Jeanne Thomas in 
Girl, Interrupted.
Crdit: Joan Marcus

Issues of sexism are also addressed as her therapist dismisses her ambitions of becoming a writer (“No one is a writer”) and advocates a career for her as a dental technician. (Susanna is finally released when she accepts a proposal of marriage, but later fulfills her literary dreams.) There is only one male actor (a versatile Manoel Felciano), listed as “The Male Presence” who represents the restrictions of the patriarchal society. Majok emphasizes the bond developed between the protagonist and the other inmates. Their shared experiences of trauma and misogyny and feelings of oppression provide a strong connection. One of the most moving scenes involves Susannah and her friends visiting a patient in the violent ward. You can feel their hearts breaking at the degraded state of their former wardmate (she has smeared the walls of her cell with her own excrement), but also the fear that they could slip this far down.

Aimee Mann’s songs starkly evoke the period of the late 1960s, mixing folk-rock with soft-pop, Bacharach-like melodies. Her poetic lyrics chart the strange, far country the young men are trekking through. “Now you’re split in two/And each side isn’t you” they sing as they contemplate their interior conflicts.

Katherine Reis, Mia Pak, Juliana Canfield,
Gabi Campo, King Princess, and Sally Shaw
in Girl, Interrupted.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Director Jo Bonney’s staging is fluid, facilitated by the flexible set by the design team dots and the scene-shifting lighting by Heather Gilbert. Sarah Laux’s costumes subtly denote character such as a frilly mini-skirt for the flirtatious Daisy or radical rags for the rebellious Lisa. But, on the negative side, there are several slowly-paced sequences and many of the women’s stories are too similar, though the actresses including Gabi Campo, Mia Pak, Katherine Reis, and Sally Shaw do their best to provide differentiation.

The entire cast is exemplary. Constantly on stage, Juliana Canfield as Susannah carries the weight of the show on her slender shoulders and delivers a bravura performance, expressively conveying the young woman’s descent into irrationality and her valiant fight to regain her sanity. King Princess is fiery and funny as the defiant Lisa, the role which won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Angelina Jolie in the 1999 movie version.

Ta’Rea Campbell has several forceful moments as the compassionate nurse Valerie, expressing her divided emotions between sympathy for the young women and responsibility to perform her unpleasant job. Emily Skinner is properly starchy as Susanna’s no-nonsense British therapist. Lauren Jeanne Thomas is delightfully naive as an eager student nurse. She also ably doubles on the bass, flute and violin, along with Felciano who plays the guitar, bass and violin. Andrea Grody is the proficient music director and plays keys and guitar. There are slow patches, but over all, this Girl is a vibrant one.

June 4—July 12. Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., NYC. Running time: 110 minutes with no intermission. publictheater.org.

B'way Update: Second Stage Season

The 2026-27 theater season continues to take shape. Second Stage has announced its schedule for both its Broadway (at the Hayes Theater) and Off-Broadway (at the Signature Center) platforms. The company's Broadway shows will include a two productions of shows seen previously seen Off-Broadway: a revised version of the long-running favorite The Fantasticks and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Pulitzer Prize finalist Gloria. So far there are only four new plays planned for the upcoming Broadway season with eight play revivals. This is a growing trend of Broadway companies reviving relatively recent Off-Broadway shows and marketing them as Broadway debuts (which they are). Examples include Lobby Hero, Mary Jane, Eureka Day, Becky Shaw, and Marjorie Prime. 

Neil McCaffrey and Jeremiah Porter
in the revised version of The Fantasticks
at Flint Repertory Theater
Credit: Mike Naddeo

The new edition of Fantasticks will feature young lovers Matt and Louis rather than Matt and Luisa. Their scheming fathers will be replaced by two scheming mothers. The late Tom Jones revised his own book and lyrics (to Harvey Schmidt's music) before he passed away in 2023. Christopher Gattelli (Schmigadoon) directs and choregraphs. The adaptation was presented in 2022 at Flint Repertory Theatre in Flint, MI, and was developed in subsequent productions at the Provincetown Theater in Provincetown, MA, and Coachella Valley Repertory in Cathedral City, CA. Previews begin at the Hayes on Oct. 22 prior to a Nov. 16 opening. The Fantasticks holds the record for the world's longest-running musical at 42 years and is a favorite of community and high-school productions. (I appeared as The Old Actor in a Brooklyn church production directed by Jeffrey Seller, who later produced Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Hamilton.) 

2026 Tony Award Predictions

For the past few years, I've combined my predictions for the Tonys with the Drama Desks because the two theater-award ceremonies were so close together. But this year, the DDs were held much earlier than the Tonys. So here are my predix for the upcoming Broadway-only Tonys. This has been an odd season with only 34 Broadway productions (if you count return engagements Mamma Mia and Beetlejuice) as opposed to 43 the previous season and 39 the season before that. There are only six new musicals, two of which have already closed (Queen of Versailles and Beaches). Some attribute this to the high volume of shows held-over from previous seasons including The Outlaws, Operation Mincemeat, Death Becomes Her, Buena Vista Social Club, and Maybe Happy Ending. Fewer theaters were available for new shows. 

Best Play
Prediction: The Balusters
Preference: Liberation

Will The Balusters triumph over Liberation?
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

The Balusters is still running and won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Liberation (my choice) did take the Pulitzer Prize but closed as did NY Drama Critics Circle winner Little Bear Ridge Road. Liberation was not eligible for the DD or the OCC since it was nominated last season during its Off-Broadway run. Giant is seen more as a vehicle for John Lithgow than a play that could stand on it own. 

Best Musical
Prediction and Preference: Schmigadoon

The Lost Boys could sneak in, but there is much affection for Schmigadoon, the parody tribute to the Golden Age of Musicals even though most of it was already seen on the Apple TV+ series.

Best Musical Revival

Prediction: Ragtime

Preference: Cats: The Jellicle Ball

I voted for Cats: The Jellicle Ball because it was such a radical rethinking of the original, recasting Andrew Lloyd Webber's cosy musicalization of TS Eliot's poems as a drag ball celebrating outsider queer culture. Ragtime is magnificent, but this Lincoln Center revival is essentially the same show as the first production. As with Liberation, Cats was considered last season by the DD and the OCC for its Off-Bway run. It's very close and could go either way, but I have a feeling the Tony voters will lean towards the traditional with Ragtime.

Best Play Revival:

Prediction and Preference: Death of a Salesman

Despite multiple revivals of Arthur Miller's classic, director Joe Mantello found new insights.

Best Actor in a Play

Prediction and Preference: John Lithgow, Giant

Is John Lithgow on the way to his third Tony?
Credit: Joan Marcus

John Lithgow has two Tonys, Nathan Lane has three. Not that it matters. It's between these two past Tony champs. Lithgow has the edge because his role requires more shifting emotions from rage to deceptively ingratiating wit as the anti-Semitic author Roald Dahl. Lane is brilliant but his Willy doesn't go through as many changes.

Best Actress in a Play:

Prediction and Preference: Lesley Manville, Oedipus

Best Actor in a Musical:

Prediction and Preference: Joshua Henry, Ragtime

Best Actress in a Musical:

Prediction: Caissie Levy, Ragtime

Preference: Sara Chase, Schmigadoon

I preferred Sara Chase in Schmigadoon who was funny and touching as the musical-loving doctor trapped in the titular fantasy town but Drama Desk winner Caissie Levy will probably be part of a Ragtime sweep.

Book Review: Gay Bar: Why We Went Out

(Bought at Center for Fiction bookstore in Brooklyn): Jeremy Atherton Lin combines memoir with social history in his examination of gay bar culture in London, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Through the lens of his personal experiences, Lin dissects shifting attitudes on gays and our public gathering places. There are fascinating details about the history of certain establishments and how their very structure changed over time. Many gay bars covered their windows so patrons would not be seen from the street. Many had "no-touch" policies because same-sex dancing and displays of physical affection were illegal and could result in police raids. 

While I appreciated the history, I found Lin's personal story uninvolving. He does trace his relationship with a boyfriend, nicknamed for a Leonard Cohen song, but I felt I didn't get to know him (Lin or the boyfriend). The very fact that we don't know the guy's name is telling. During his time with the boyfriend, they engage in sex with others. It would have been interesting to delve into that aspect of certain gay unions and why fidelity is not seen by some as important. 

B'way/Off-B'way Update: Awake and Sing; Playwrights Horizons

Danny Burstein, Jessica Hecht and
Jeremy Shamos will star in an MTC
revival of Awake and Sing!

Manhattan Theater Club will present a Broadway revival of Clifford Odets' Depression-era family drama Awake and Sing! Previews begin at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater this December with an opening set for sometime in January 2027. The cast will be headed by Tony winner Danny Burstein (Moulin Rogue, Marjorie Prime), Tony nominee Jessica Hecht (currently in Dog Day Afternoon), and Tony nominee Jeremy Shamos (Clybourne Park). Tyne Rafaeli (Data) directs in her Broadway debut. 

“Awake and Sing! is one of the great masterpieces of our canon—it makes you laugh and breaks your heart in one fell swoop,” said MTC Artistic Director Nicki Hunter. “Though Odets wrote this story of a family caught between the life they imagined and the one they were saddled with nearly a century ago, its questions of ambition and sacrifice feel as timely as ever. I’m thrilled to bring the wildly talented Danny Burstein, Jessica Hecht, and Jeremy Shamos back to the Friedman stage. With Tyne Rafaeli—who will make her Broadway debut with this production—at the helm, I look forward to sharing the power of this play with our audiences.”

Off-B'way Review: Indian Princesses

Serenity Mariana, Haley Wong, Lark White,
Anissa Marie Griego and Rebecca Jiminez
in Indian Princesses.
Credit: Ahron R. Foster

The pain of adolescence and being labelled as different is conveyed with humor and compassion in Eliana Theologides Rodriguez’s insightful comedy Indian Princesses, now at Atlantic Theatre Company’s Linda Gross Theater in a co-production with Rattlestick Theater. The title refers to a father-daughter YMCA bonding program modeled on the Boy Scouts, but as the author explains in a program note, the well-intentioned activity is based on a “pernicious fiction.” An Indian Princess “is an archetype invented to justify the ongoing brutalities of colonization.” Ironically, five middle-school-aged, mixed-race girls spend a formative summer with their white fathers but fall victim to the program’s stereotyping cliches and the cruelty of the other girls’ tribes. The results are a deeper understanding of the young girls’ cultures and uncomfortable confrontations for the dads.

Each of the potential “princesses” and their conflicted pops are drawn with telling details. Andi, the eldest at 12 (entertainingly sullen yet suffering Rebecca Jimenez), longs for more information on her late Mexican Mom. Her macho working-class Anglo father Mac (Pete Simpson, expert at conveying subtext) refuses to open up to her. Whimsical Maisie (delightfully smart and perceptive Lark White), is obsessed with magic and fantasy while her unemployed, unfocused dad Wayne (soulfully struggling Ben Beckley) in an effort to protect from harsh reality, refuses to discuss her African-American background or the history of slavery. 

Anisa Marie Griego and Greg Keller
in Indian Princesses.
Credit: Ahron R. Foster

Well-meaning lawyer Chris (comically blundering Greg Keller) clumsily attempts to interject progressive ideas and attitudes into the gathering and to his strained relationship with his Native American stepdaughters, show-biz-crazy Lily (sweetly show-off-ish Anissa Marie Griego) and shy Hazel (enchanting Serenity Mariana). The group’s heavily religious “Chief” Glen (moving Frank Wood) is torn between keeping “politics” out of the program and acknowledging the raw truth of racism the girls have to face. His granddaughter Samantha (desperate and darling Haley Wong) is wracked with guilt for what she describes as “sinful thoughts.” 

Ben Beckley and Lark White in
Indian Princesses.
Credit: Ahron R. Foster

The Glen-Samantha storyline is the least developed here. We don’t find out why Samantha is living with her grandfather as opposed to with her parents or what she considers sinful. However, Wood and Wong fill in the missing backstory with subtle and layered performances, as does the entire cast. Director Miranda Cornell balances the dramatic and comic moments like an expert juggler. The troupe’s bizarre skit for the Indian Princesses’ Talent Night called “America the Beautiful” is a particularly wonderfully staged and written sequence. Chief Glen has written a wholesome, vanilla-flavored rendition of American history, suitable for a conservative audience. But each of the dads and daughters has their own agenda—Andi wants act on her secret crush on Chris; Chris wants to impose his “woke” sense of  diversity on Glen’s whitewashed version of our national past; Lily sees this as her big opportunity to sing and dance; and slightly embarrassed Wayne and Mac are just looking to bond with their girls. The resultant fiasco is a mess in terms of the story with the kids and parents stepping on each other’s lines, dropping props, and missing cues, but thanks to Cornell’s clear staging we understand each character’s objectives. 

This scene, along with the unspoken dialogue and incomplete sentences that mark the rest of this lovely play, tell us volumes about each of the unhappy daughters and their fathers. They’re all trying to love each other, but so much stands in the way. Rodriguez lovingly chronicles their efforts, failures and attempts to surmount the barrier of prejudice and to celebrate their heritages.

Emmie Finckel’s versatile set recreates a believable community center and the surrounding rustic woods while Mextly Couzin’s atmospheric lighting provides for several different additional locations. This is a beautiful and tender play of healing families and seeking one’s identity.

May 19—June 7. Atlantic Theater Company and Rattlestick Theater at the Linda Gross Theater, 336 W. 20th St., NYC. atlantictheater.org.

B'way Update: Other Desert Cities; Evita Dates and Theater

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and
Allison Janney will star in Other Desert Cities.

Eleven-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, Veep, etc.) will make her Broadway debut in a revival of Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities, beginning previews at the Hudson Theater on Sept. 29 with an opening set for Oct. 18. She will co-star with Ed Harris, Allison Janney (seven Emmys), Joe Kerry, and Lily Rabe. Tony winner John Benjamin Hickey will direct.

“I had, more or less, talked myself out of imagining Other Desert Cities back in New York,” said playwright Baitz said in a statement. “But John Hickey is family to me, and I trust him completely. We go back longer than I ever imagined: he hears a play – its ideas, its feeling, its music – with an intelligence and knowingness that anchors a room. And with this company of actors a playwright dreams about, I thought that if there were still something alive in it, they would find it. What’s slightly unnerving is that nearly 20 years later, through all the fractures and divisions, the questions remain the same: how to live with who we are and what we’ve done and call that a life.”

Hickey said in a statement, “I have loved Robbie’s plays since he began writing them. I acted in two of them early in my career, and when I recently revisited Other Desert Cities, I was stunned at how relevant the play remains, maybe now more than ever. It’s an incredibly funny, surprising, and heartbreaking play about an American family. OUR American family. To be able to bring it back to Broadway, with this powerhouse ensemble of actors, and incredible creative team, is a dream come true.”

The play opened Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater in 2011 with a cast including Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin, Stacy Keach, Thomas Sadoski, and Elizabeth Marvel. Joe Matello directed. The production transferred to Broadway with Judith Light (who won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress) and Rachel Griffiths replacing Lavin and Marvel.

The story concerns a family with political and show-biz connections facing a crisis over a Christmas holiday when the daughter announces she is writing a tell-all memoir, potentially exposing uncomfortable family secrets.

Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid, Part 5

Batman with Eric Shea as Andy

Come Back, Shame/It's the Way You Play the Game: Cliff Robertson satirizes Western cliches as Shame, instead of Shane as played by Alan Ladd. The references to that classic western proliferate including a little boy (played by Eric Shea) hero-worshipping the villain and following him around, crying "Come back, Shame." What's really concerning is this six-year-old kid is allowed to wander around Gotham City unsupervised. Even Batman and Robin don't bring him back to his parents after they escape from Shame's stampeding cattle, but just leave him to his own devices. 

This episode's window cameo is the weirdest one yet: Werner Klemperer in character as Col. Klink from Hogan's Heroes, but wearing 1966 clothes. He explained he was in Gotham City to catch a spy as if he were still in WWII and the Caped Crusaders tell him to say hi to Col. Hogan. How can a character from the 1940s exist in the 1960s? Only in the Batman 66 universe.

Comedian Jack Carter plays a radio dj but is unbilled.

Catwoman Goes to College/Batman Displays His Knowledge: Bruce Wayne acts as Catwoman's parole officer as she claims to be going straight--to college, majoring in criminality. Stanley Adams (Cyrano Jones from the Trouble with Tribbles episode of Star Trek) plays Capt. Courageous (wordplay on the movie title), an out-of-town cop who arrests Batman after Catwoman frames him. He gets to call the Caped Crusader a "costumed kook." In another cultural allusion, the head of a jewelry firm is named Amber Forever (instead of Forever Amber, a popular potboiler novel). Jacques Bergerac, a popular French actor who appeared on the Dick Van Dyke Show, plays Freddie the Fence. In addition to selling stolen goods, he's an expert swordsman, but not as good as Batman, of course. (In one lame bit, he has a meal of pasta strained through his fencing mask.) TV personality Art Linkletter who hosted People Are Funny appeared in the window cameo.

Book Review: The Best Short Stories 2024

(Ordered from Amazon)  Read for a class on short story reading. We would read two stories a week and then discuss them over Zoom. This collection follows a chronological time line, starting with stories on childhood and adolescence, moving to early adulthood and progressing to old age and death. Then the cycle starts over in the middle of the book. I preferred the strange, quirky stories like Morris Collins' "The Home Visit" and Dave Eggers' "The Honor of Your Presence" to sentimental tearjerkers like Brad Felver's "Orphans" and E.K.Ota's "The Paper Artist." The last story Allegra Hyde's sci-fi-ish "Mobilization" was a total surprise because it was so different for all the rest. 

Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Linda Emond Among Equity Award Winners

Justin Boone and Ruben Santiago-Hudson
in Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Just when you thought we were running out of theater awards, here comes another batch. The Actors' Equity Foundation Award winners have been announced. Presented by the stage actors' union, the accolades honor newcomers, veteran performers, and actors tackling classical roles. The 2026 Clarence Derwent Awards go to McKenzie Kurtz (Schmigadoon, Heathers) and Ali Louis Boutzgui (The Lost Boys). Established in 1945, the Derwent Awards are for the outstanding performances by those at the beginning of their careers.

The 2026 Richard Seff Awards will be presented to Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Joe Turner's Come and Gone) and Linda Emond (Becky Shaw). Established in 2004, the Seff Awards are for outstanding performers over 50 who have been in Equity for at least 25 years. 

The Joseph Calloway Award, established in 1989, for the best performances in a classic play goes to McKinley Belcher III (Titus Andronicus, Coriolanus) and Olivia Reis (Oedipus, Titus Andronicus).

The Judges Panel for the 2025-2026 seasonal performance awards included Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Theatre Guide; Adam Feldman, Time Out New York; Elysa Gardner, New York Sun, New York Stage Review; Kobi Kassal, Theatrely; and Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter, New York Stage Review. The awards will be presented on June 22 at the Green Fig in Manhattan in a ceremony hosted by Julie Halston.

Off-B'way/B'way Review: Animal Wisdom; The Emporium; Celebrity Autobiography

Kenita R. Miller in Animal Wisdom.
Credit: Ben Arons

The composer-theater artist Heather Christian has made a big splash with her previous work Oratorio for Living Things, garnering a shelfful of accolades including special New York Drama Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards. She is also a recipient of a MacArthur Genius grant. Though the music was lovely, I found the abstract choral piece vague and pretentious in its 2022 Ars Nova production. Her autobiographical Animal Wisdom now at Signature Theater after a run at Bushwick Star in 2017, is somewhat more satisfying, giving the audience more to hang onto. There are still long stretches of incomprehensible vocalizing, but there’s a stronger narrative arc here than in Oratorio. 

A note from the author-composer handed out before the Animal performance explains “It’s my life story, as clearly as I can tell it (which is not very clearly at all). It is a requiem within a requiem.” Audience members enter scenic designer Emmie Finckel’s fascinating environment—a combination of lush country garden and cosy antique store. Colorful flowers and plants alternate with shelves of knickknacks and curios, as well as a functioning soda dispenser and what appears to be an old-fashioned slot machine. The main performer “H” (incredibly talented Kenita R. Miller) explains the stories we are about to hear are from Heather, not her.

Then the piece begins. With the aide of a delightfully lively six-piece band, H unfolds her tale of growing up in Natchez, Mississippi where the invasive vegetation known as kudzu and catfish the size of buses proliferate. Spirits are also in abundance as H informs us two of her closest companions were the playful ghosts Victor and Johanna. Her late grandfather is now inhabiting her car and her grandmother is reincarnated as a red bird. The libretto doesn’t really fit into a neat, linear narrative. We get stories of H’s supernatural encounters and the eccentric characters who populate her childhood, but her attitudes towards them is fuzzy. Christian’s beautiful lyrical songs which Miller skillfully and movingly sings are sad and melodic, but the source of H’s sorrow and conflict is not clearly defined.

Schmigadoon! Dances Away With Chita Rivera Awards

The dance ensemble of Schmigadoon!
Credit: Matthew Murphy and
Evan Zimmerman

Schmigadoon! dances away with the most Chita Rivera Awards, honoring excellence in dance in NYC theater and film, presented May 18 at NYU Skirball (after having won Outstanding Musical and Choreography at the Drama Desks the night before). The musical parody of Golden Age tuners based on the Apple TV + series won for Christopher Gattelli's Choreography, Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Dancers. Max Clayton and Isabella McCalla of Schmigadoon! shared the award with Robert "Silk" Mason of Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Show-biz legend Ann-Margret (Bye Bye Birdie, Carnal Knowledge) was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award (presented by Leslie Uggams) and the revue Gotta Dance! won the Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics Choice Award.

This year's awarding committee was chaired by Sylviane Gold, and also included Gary Chryst, Peter Filichia, Robert LaFosse, Wendy Perron, Stephanie Pope, and Lee Roy Reams.

Broadway and film categories have a separate nominating committee that oversees the nominations. This year's Broadway nominating committee included Caitlin Carter, Gary Chryst, Don Correia, Sandy Duncan, Peter Filichia, Dr. Louis Galli, Sylviane Gold, Jonathan Herzog, Robert La Fosse, Joe Lanteri, Michael Milton, Mary Beth O'Connor, Wendy Perron, Stephanie Pope, Lee Roy Reams, Andy Sandberg, and Randy Skinner. The Film nominating committee, chaired by Jonathan C. Herzog, comprised Steven Caras, Wilhelmina Frankfurt, Mary Beth O’Connor, and Andy Sandberg.

List of winners:

Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show
WINNER - Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Lorin Latarro, Chess
Ellenore Scott, Ragtime
Ellenore Scott, Titaníque
Ani Taj, The Rocky Horror Show
Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Outstanding Dancer in a Broadway Show
Jonathan Burke, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Baby Byrne, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
WINNER - Max Clayton, Schmigadoon!
Zachary Downer, Schmigadoon!
Sydney James Harcourt, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Dava Huesca, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
WINNER - Robert “Silk” Mason, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
WINNER - Isabelle McCalla, Schmigadoon!
Sarah Meahl, Chess
Constantine Rousouli, Titaníque
Layton Williams, Titaníque
Lyrica Woodruff, Schmigadoon!

Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway Show
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Chess
Ragtime
WINNER - Schmigadoon!
The Rocky Horror Show
Titaníque

70th Drama Desks Spread the Wealth

Nygel D. Robinson and Brian
Quijada of Mexodus, won 
for Outstanding Book and Music
at the Drama Desk Awards.

Two Broadway shows, The Balusters and Schmigadoon, won the top awards of Outstanding Play and Musical at the 70th annual Drama Desk Awards, presented on May 17 at Town Hall in a three-hour ceremony. The remainder of the 36 awards and seven special awards were distributed among 18 other productions both on and Off-Broadway. Unlike the Broadway-only Tonys, the DDs include on, Off and Off-Off-Broadway in each of its multiple categories. The revival of Ragtime took home the most awards with five including Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Director (Lear de Bessonet), two for Lead Musical Performance (Joshua Henry and Caissie Levy) and Featured Musical Performance (Ben Levi Ross). Death of a Salesman won four including Outstanding Revival of a Play, Director of a Play (Joe Mantello, winning his fourth DD), Lighting and Set Design for a Play. This places Balusters, Schmigadoon, Salesman and Ragtime in the frontrunner positions of the upcoming Tony Awards on June 7.

The show was hosted by Marla Mindelle, star and co-author of Titanique now on Broadway which received DD nominations for its Off-Broadway run. Mindelle joked that the awards were named for Andromeda Desk, an obscure actress, and performed a brief musical number with two dancers from Death Becomes Her. She also performed an introductory comedy monologue, quipping that We'll I Let You Go was what her agent said after a bad audition for In Transit.

Presenters included Beth Leavel, Bryce Pinkham, Constance Wu, Norbert Leo Butz, Christopher Fitzgerald, Donna McKechnie, BD Wong, Doug Wright, Bess Wohl, Jenn Colella, Ethan Slater, Javier Muñoz, Nikiya Mathis, Daniel Breaker, Helen J Shen, Whitney White, Alex Brightman, Ann Harada, Hunter Foster, Lea DeLaria, Zhailon Levingston, John Ortiz, Whitney Leavitt, Jasmine Cephas-Hones, Ali Louis Bourzgui, Liisi LaFontaine, Solea Pfeiffer, David Zayas, Liza Colon Zayas, Jon Cryer, Paul Tazewell, Rafael Espinal of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, Qween Jean, Mark Strong, and Zhailon Levingston. 

The presenter banter by Kevin Zak was brief and witty. Lea DeLaria did ad-lib brilliantly as John Lithgow, winner of Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play for Giant, made his way to the stage by improvising a song "Take your time, John Lithgow." Lithgow hugged co-presenter BD Wong and revealed he had lost a Drama Desk Award when he co-starred with Wong in M. Butterfly in 1988. Lithgow said he did some research and found out this was his fifth Drama Desk Award. He also revealed his co-winner in the category, Lesley Manville for Oedipus, also won with him last year when they both were victorious at the Olivier Awards when both shows were in London. They might repeat theirs wins at the Tonys. Four years ago, the DDs made all performance categories non-gendered, doubled the number of nominees, and changed the rules so the top two voter-getters both win. Sometimes, two men win, sometimes two women, sometimes one of each gender. In the case of ties, there have been three winners. The only tie this year was for choreography which was shared by Schmigadoon and Cats: The Jellicle Ball.

The most memorable acceptance gesture was provided by Christopher Lowell of the Marjorie Prime outstanding ensemble who set offer a series of confetti canons on his way to the stage.

Cynthia Nixon, Christopher Lowell,
and Danny Burstein
accept Outstanding Ensemble for
Marjorie Prime.

Entertainment was provided by Liz Callaway singing "The Story Goes On" from Baby by David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr, honorees for the William Wolf Award. The songwriting team whose About Time was named Outstanding Revue earlier in the evening, gave their acceptance speeches from the audience. There was also a medley of songs from Disney musicals performed by Rodney Ingram, Kissy Simmons, Sierra Boggess, Ainsley Melham, and Zachary Noah Piser in tribute to Thomas Schumacher, former president of Disney Theatrical Productions who was receiving the Harold S. Prince Award. 

A video presentation hosted by Drama Desk Historian Leslie Hoban Blake documented the history of the Drama Desks and featured interviews with six Drama Desk icons--Gretchen Cryer, Andre De Shields, Richard Maltby Jr., Austin Pendleton, Jennifer Tipton, and Maury Yeston. The icons then come on stage to receive bouquets of flowers and a standing ovation. There was also an announcement that the following year's ceremony with take place at the Shed.

This year’s awards were produced by Drama Desk Awards Productions, a venture of Scene Partners in partnership with the Season. Chaired by the Martha Wade Steketee (UrbanExcavations.com), the 2026 nominating committee which saw and considered 270 productions this season includes Linda Armstrong (Amsterdam News), Daniel Dinero (Theater Is Easy), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), Kenji Fujishima (freelance, Theatermania), Margaret Hall (Playbill.com) and Raven Snook (TDF).  Charles Wright and David Barbour are co-presidents. The Drama Desk considers Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway in each of its multiple categories. 

Here is a list of the 2025-26 Drama Desk nominees and winners:

Outstanding Play
Caroline, by Preston Max Allen
Cold War Choir Practice, by Ro Reddick
Meet the Cartozians, by Talene Monahon
Prince Faggot, by Jordan Tannahill
WINNER - The Balusters, by David Lindsay-Abaire
The Porch on Windy Hill, by Sherry Stregack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse, and David M. Lutken
Well, I’ll Let You Go, by Bubba Weiler

Outstanding Musical
Beau the Musical
Mexodus
WINNER - Schmigadoon!
The Seat of Our Pants
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Off-B'way Review: Kenrex; Masquerade

Jack Holden in Kenrex.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

It’s hard to believe that Jack Holden is British since the solo star and co-writer of Kenrex, the one-man thriller at the Lortel Theater after an Olivier-winning run in London, so convincingly recreates an entire American Midwestern town in the midst of a crisis. Based on an actual case, this true-crime narrative focuses on the tiny municipality of Skidmore, Missouri where the title character bullied and dominated everyone around him until the law-abiding citizens could take no more. Kenneth Rex McElroy stole cattle, committed arson and rape, and even attempted murder, but got away with each of his numerous offenses thanks to a slick attorney. Feeling betrayed by the legal system, the Skidmoreans finally took the law into their own hands. Holden and co-author Ed Stambollouian, who also directs with imagination, tells this grim story through the eyes of a disillusioned prosecutor. It’s a chilling cautionary tale leaving this viewer severely shaken and unsure of what he would have done had he been there in Skidmore that day in 1981 when Kenrex met his fate.

Augmented by the symphonic, immersive sound design by Giles Thomas and John Patrick Elliott’s pulsating score combining rock and country idioms, the tale unfolds with hypnotic intensity, starting with the frantic 911 call by Kenrex’s hysterical teenage bride and then progressing through interviews with the prosecutor and the FBI to flashbacks of Kenrex’s decades-long reign of terror. 

Drama League Awards to Josh Henry, Mexodus, Liberation

Joshua Henry of Ragtime won
the Drama League Award for 
Outstanding Performance.

The 92nd Drama League Awards were presented on May 15 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom to Joshua Henry (Outstanding Performance) of Ragtime (which was named Outstanding Revival of a Musical), Mexodus (Outstanding Production of a Musical), and Liberation (Outstanding Production of a Play). Additional winners included Death of a Salesman (Revival of a Play) and its director Joe Mantello (Director of a Play). Lear de Besonnet was voted Outstanding Director of a Musical for Ragtime. Frank DiLella of NY-1 hosted the ceremony. Presenters included Bryan Cranston, Bebe Neuwirth, Nathan Lane, Brian Stokes Mitchell, John Lithgow, Christopher Ashley and Whitney White. Even though Liberation was presented Off-Broadway last season, Drama League rules permit for transfers from Off-Broadway to on to be considered in both years. Joshua Henry has already won the Outer Critics Circle Award and is nominated for the Drama Desk and Tony.

The previously announced Special Honorees were presented as follows: Tony Award-winning producer David Stone presented the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater award to the Olivier and Grammy-nominated actress Caissie Levy; Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning actor and playwright Tracy Letts presented the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing to Tony Award-winning director David Cromer; Tony Award winning actor and director Ruben Santiago-Hudson presented the Contribution to the Theater Award to Executive Producer of the Apollo Theater Kamilah Forbes; and Tony Award-winning scenic designer David Rockwell presented the Gratitude Award to Tony nominee and Olivier Award winner Scott Ellis.

A complete list of winners follows:

Book Review: Too Much Money

(Bought at the Center for Fiction bookstore in Brooklyn for $5): After having read the memoirs of Dominick Dunne and his son Griffin, I picked up this last novel of Dunne's on a cart of discounts in Brooklyn. It's like eating an entire box of chocolates. You know it's not good for you, but the treats are so sweet and yummy, you keep munching on them. At barely over 260 pages, the story flies by. Dunne's stand-in Gus Bailey, an intrepid high-society journalist faces twin crises--a slander lawsuit and the wraith of a wealthy widow who may or may not have engineered her husband's death in a fire. Meanwhile, a disgraced financier and his ambitious wife plot to regain a foothold in New York Page Six land after his release from prison. They made numerous philanthropic contributions (Now I know why the NY Public Library was renamed.) 

I suppose part of the fun of Dunne's books is guessing who his ultra-rich, entitled characters are based on. Brooke Astor, Klaus von Bulow, Barbara Walters, Larry King make appearances. I'm not familiar enough with the upper echelons of Gotham grandeur to recognize all of the dramatis personae, but it's great deal of juicy fun to follow their vicious doings. It appears Dunne worked on this final tell-all as he was dying and wanted to get some final licks in. 

I imagine this is what Truman Capote's Answered Prayers would have been like if he ever finished it. I needed a quick light read and this was it. There's too much repetition of events as if we're watching a soap opera and may have forgotten the events of yesterday's episode. But that's a minor quibble. Perhaps I'll try some of Dunne's earlier, longer works.

B'way Update: Paranormal Activity; Celebrity Autobiography; Etc.

Melissa James and Patrick Heusinger in
Paranormal Activity in London.
Credit: Johan Persson

As the 2025-26 theatrical season draws to a close, there's lots of news about the 2026-27 schedule. Two new off-beat productions have been announced, a Shakespeare revival from London finds a home and dates, an Off-Broadway revival with a rotating star-filled cast is coming, and Weird Al Yankovic is working on a show.

Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Broadway (in case you think it's a movie), a new play inspired by the popular film franchise, will begin previews at the August Wilson Theater on Aug. 14 prior to a Sept. 15 opening. Written by Levi Holloway (Grey House) and directed by Felix Barrett (Sleep No More), the production will come to Broadway directly from its run in Boston, following stands in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and San Francisco as well as an Oliver-nominated edition in London's West End.

The plot follows James and Lou who have relocated from Chicago to London in hopes of escaping their past, but they discover "place aren't haunted, people are."

Meanwhile, the first show of the 2026-27 season will open soon. Celebrity Autobiography, the revue featuring actors reading from the memoirs of famous people, will return to the New York stage for a summer run. The show which will feature a rotating cast starts previews at the Shubert Theater May 16, opens May 18 and runs througb Aug. 16. Autobiography played the Triad Theater Off-Broadway in 2008-09 and won a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.

The opening night cast includes Scott Adsit, Mario Cantone, Jeff Hiller, Jackie Hoffman, Gayle King, Andrea Martin, Bobby Moynihan, Ben Mankiewicz (of TCM), Kenan Thompson, Nia Vardalos, and Rita Wilson.

Speaking of rotating all-star casts, Eric Bentley's Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?, about the 1950s House UnAmerican Activities Committee hearings, will also have a limited summer run and feature a revolving company. Tony winner Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County) directs. The cast(s) have yet to be announced. Performances at New York City Center Stage I begin June 2. The play which features transcripts from the HUAC testimony of Jerome Robbins, Lillian Hellman, Arthur Miller, Sterling Hayden and many others played Off-Broadway in the 1970s. There was a brief Broadway run in 1979.

Book Review: The Little Friend

(Borrowed from the 40th St. NYPL)  I enjoyed Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch and The Secret History, so I thought I'd give this second novel of hers a try. It was certainly involving and absorbing and kept me interested for over 600 pages. The characters were portrayed with detail and compassion, even the slimy criminals. It reminded me of To Kill a Mocking Bird. Twelve-year-old Harriet spends a summer in the 1970s in her small Mississippi town searching for the killer of her brother who has found strung up on a tree ten years ago. The town of Alexandria comes alive in Tartt's fascinating descriptions. I loved Harriet's no-nonsense grandmother Edie and the put-upon yet determined black housekeeper Ida Rhew. Edie's many sisters and the downtrodden Ratcliffe clan also are vibrantly portrayed.

The exact time period was a little unclear. The many TV, movie and music references ring true, but they are not consistent. Ida and Harriet's sister Allison are obsessed with Dark Shadows, the supernatural TV soap opera, which ended in 1971 yet a child has a Star Wars figure which didn't come to theaters until 1977.  

Without revealing any spoilers, the ending left me confused and unsatisfied, but I relished the entire book. Tartt is a major talent.

Ragtime and Schmigadoon Tie for Most OCC Awards

Ragtime won 5 OCC Awards.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Ragtime and Schmigadoon have tied for the most awards bestowed by the Outer Critics Circle, receiving five each. Ragtime was voted Outstanding Musical Revival and Schmigadoon won for Outstanding Broadway Musical. The OCC, founded during the 1949-50 Broadway season, is composed of about 85 writers on theater for national, out-of-town, and digital media, and divides between Broadway and Off-Broadway in some categories and combines them in others. The awards will be presented on May 21 at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. Mexodus was named Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. David Lindsay-Abaire's The Balusters won for Outstanding Broadway Play and Talene Monahan's Meet the Cartozians was voted Outstanding Off-Broadway Play. The John Gassner Award for a new play preferably by a new playwright will be shared by Ro Reddick's Cold War Choir Practice and Bubba Weiller's Well, I'll Let You Go, since the two plays received an equal number of votes.

Read the full list of nominees and winners below:

Outstanding New Broadway Musical
The Lost Boys
WINNER - Schmigadoon!
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
Beau the Musical
Goddess
WINNER - Mexodus
Oratorio for Living Things
Saturday Church

Outstanding New Broadway Play
WINNERS - The Balusters
Giant
Little Bear Ridge Road
Oedipus
Punch

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
Angry Alan
WINNER - Meet the Cartozians
The Monsters
Prince Faggot
The Reservoir

John Gassner Award (for a new American play preferably by a new playwright)
Call Me Izzy, Jamie Wax
Caroline, Preston Max Allen
WINNER - Cold War Choir Practice, Ro Reddick (tie)
Data, Matthew Libby
WINNER - Well, I'll Let You Go, Bubba Weiler (tie)

Off-B'way Review: Hamlet at BAM

Hiran Abeysekera in Hamlet.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Is Hamlet actually mad? That’s a question that has bedeviled scholars since the first performance of Shakespeare’s greatest play and is rarely addressed in modern productions. Most stagings I have seen (at least 20 on stage, film or TV that I can recall) assume that the Melancholy Dane’s antic disposition is a put-on job to distract from his investigation of his uncle Claudius murdering the king, Hamlet’s father. Robert Hastie’s elegant, somewhat flawed production imported from the National Theater to BAM’s Harvey stage, leaves the question of the hero’s sanity open and thus delivers an intriguing and challenging interpretation of one of the world’s most produced classics. 

Set in an opulent ballroom (Ben Stones designed the majestic sets and smart costumes, creatively lit by Jessica Hung Han Yun) and starring a youthful, frenetic lead (vibrant Hiran Abeysekera), this Hamlet takes a fresh, different approach to a familiar classic and finds new insights. 

Hiran Abeysekera and Matthew Cottle in
Hamlet. Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Take for example the closet scene wherein Hamlet murders the elderly advisor Polonius mistaking him for the treacherous Claudius. Without revealing any spoilers, Hastie’s staging is truly shocking and surprising, causing the audience to doubt Hamlet’s sanity…and perhaps their own. Hastie then has the Dane address empty air rather than the actor playing the ghost of his father (as per usual), further complicating our perceptions. Was the ghost an illusion the whole time, a figment of Hamlet’s fevered imagination? 

Theater World Awards

Elliot Levey, Rachael Stirling and
John Lithgow in Giant.

Theater awards just keep pouring in. The winners and location of the 80th Theater World Awards for outstanding Broadway and Off-Broadway debut performances have been announced. The awards will be presented on June 2 at the Longacre Theater, home of Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York). Theater journalist Peter Filichia will host. Rachael Stirling of Giant will receive the 17th annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in Theater. 

2026 Theatre World Award Honorees
For Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance
during the 2025-2026 theatrical season

Ben Ahlers, Death of a Salesman
LJ Benet, The Lost Boys
Madeline Brewer, Becky Shaw
Adrien Brody, The Fear of 13
Ayo Edebiri, Proof
Alden Ehrenreich, Becky Shaw
Luke Evans, The Rocky Horror Show
Will Harrison, Punch
River Lipe-Smith, Caroline
Lesley Manville, Oedipus
Robert "Silk" Mason, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Sam Tutty, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

The Theatre World Award honorees are chosen by the Theatre World Awards Committee which is comprised of Linda Armstrong (Amsterdam News), David Cote (The Observer), Joe Dziemianowicz (New York Daily News, Emeritus), Peter Filichia (The Newark Star-Ledger, Emeritus), David Finkle (New York Stage Review), Elysa Gardner (USA Today, Emeritus), Cary Wong (Freelance), and Frank Scheck (The Hollywood Reporter).