Criticism

Jonathan Mandell looks at the new production of Runaways, thirty-eight years after the first, and asks: Should a work of theatre allow us to escape from, or force us to engage in, the world?

Trevor Boffone and Roxanne Schroeder-Arce on the Cara Mía Theatre Company and Dallas Theater Center coproduction of the new play Deferred Action in Dallas, Texas.

Manuel Betancourt on the Young Vic’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Haydee Canovas on Carlos-Manuel’s Joto!: Confessions of a Mexican Outcast, directed by Jimmy A. Noriega, in Wooster, Ohio.

verity healey discusses Charlene James’ new play Cuttin’ It at the Young Vic in London, England.

Sara Zweig on The Robber Bridegroom with book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry, and music by Robert Waldman at The Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City.

Amy Schwabauer on Death of a Man by Jairo Cuesta in Akron, Ohio.

Jonathan Mandell on the recent spate of sung through musicals, including Hadestown, The Total Bent, Evening 1910, and Hamilton.

Shari Caplan on Sans Everything by Strange Attractor Theatre at the Charlestown Working Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Sarah Matusek on the New York City production of This Time by Sevan K. Greene, adapted from the memoir Not So Long Ago by Amal Meguid, directed by Kareem Fahmy.

Chicagoan Aaron Hunt visits Philadelphia and reflects on some of its theatrical offerings, including He Who Gets Slapped, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Nether, An Octoroon, and Sex With Strangers.

Josh Platt reflects on Boston-based director Summer Williams’ interpretation of Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara, in light of her recent direction of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Jonathan Mandell explores the gender politics of Broadway offerings such as American Psycho, Waitress, Eclipsed, The Color Purple, and more.

Patricia Davis on Ambassador Theater’s production of They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! by Dario Fo in Washington, DC.

Marcina Zaccaria speaks with Fiddler on the Roof lyricist Sheldon Harnick as he approaches his ninety-second birthday.

Anchuli Felicia King on the Second Stage production of Lydia R. Diamond’s Smart People in New York.

Ellen Mareneck on David Lindsay-Abaire’s Ripcord, directed by David Hyde Pierce at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York. 

Have jokey depictions of elections on stage and screen helped cause a joke of a real-life presidential campaign?  Jonathan Mandell visits two experimental theatre projects that are tackling this year’s presidential election in serious and intriguing ways.

Rhiannon D’Averc on The Father by Florian Zeller, playing in London’s West End.

Manuel Betancourt on The Royale by Marco Ramírez at Lincoln Center Theater in New York City.

Playwright Matt Bardot responds to Michael Sommers’ Ropes review, while reflecting on his experience with race and identity in both the classroom and professional realm.

Roxanne Schroeder-Arce interviews her ten-year-old daughter Genevieve to get her thoughts on a recent theatre for young audiences show in Austin, Texas.

Megan Patterson on the New York production of David Harrower’s Blackbird, starring Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams.

The Latinx Theatre Commons Steering Committee responds to a recent New York Times review containing a cultural microaggression.

Playwright Lauren Gunderson and Director Sean Daniels discuss Gunderson’s body of work including I and You, a play about two stumbling teenagers and a nineteenth-century poet.