Adam Feldman is the National Theater and Dance Editor and chief theater critic at Time Out New York, where he has been on staff since 2003.

He covers Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway theater, as well as cabaret and dance shows and other events of interest in New York City. He is the President of the New York Drama Critics' Circle, a position he has held since 2005. He was a regular cohost of the public-television show Theater Talk, and served as the contributing Broadway editor for the Theatre World book series. A graduate of Harvard University, he lives in Greenwich Village, where he dabbles in piano-bar singing on a more-than-regular basis.

Reach him at adam.feldman@timeout.com or connect with him on social at Twitter: @feldmanadam and Instagram: @adfeldman

Adam Feldman

Adam Feldman

Theater and Dance Editor, Time Out USA

Articles (164)

Off Broadway shows, reviews, tickets and listings

Off Broadway shows, reviews, tickets and listings

New York theater ranges far beyond the 41 large midtown houses that we call Broadway. Many of the city's most innovative and engaging new plays and musicals can be found Off Broadway, usually in venues that seat between 100 and 499 people. These more intimate spaces present work in a wide range of styles, from new pieces by major artists at the Public Theater or Playwrights Horizons to crowd-pleasing commercial fare at New World Stages. And even the top Off Broadway shows usually cost less than the best Broadway shows (even if you score cheap tickets to them). Use our comprehensive listings—current shows are at the top, upcoming shows are farther down the page—to find reviews, prices, ticket links, curtain times and more for current and upcoming Off Broadway shows. RECOMMENDED: Off-Off Broadway shows in NYC
The 2026 TONY* Nominations

The 2026 TONY* Nominations

[Note: These are Time Out New York's choices, not the actual Tony Award nominations. A complete list of official 2026 Tony nominations can now be found here.] Today we are proud to announce the annual TONY* nominations, which honor the best work on Broadway in the 2025–26 season. The very last thing we want is to confuse, so let us be super clear: TONY is an acronym for Time Out New York, and the list below is what we at TONY (i.e. Time Out New York) would nominate for the Tony Awards (i.e. the Antoinette Perry Awards) if we were the Tony Award nominating committee, which we are not. Note also, please, that we are choosing what we think should be nominated for Tonys, not predicting what we think will be nominated when the official nominations are announced at 9am on Tuesday, May 5. Several of the races are chock full of deserving candidates, and choosing among them has been hard. Heroically, however, we have forced ourselves to do it, using the eligibility decisions of the actual Tony Awards as guidelines. (A few five-slot categories have expanded to six to reflect ties in our process.) Congratulations to the 2026 TONY* nominees!  * Time Out New YorkRELATED: Buy tickets to Broadway showsRECOMMENDED: Complete guide to the Tony Awards  Best Play The Balusters by David Lindsay-AbaireGiant by Mark RosenblattLiberation by Bess WohlLittle Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter Photograph: Courtesy Little FangLiberation Best Musical The Lost BoysSchmigadoonTitaníqueTwo Strangers (C
The best Broadway shows to see right now

The best Broadway shows to see right now

The best Broadway shows represent the pinnacle of live entertainment in New York City. Every year, millions of people flock to the Times Square district to see large-scale theater at its finest, and every season brings a crop of new productions, from glitzy musicals to provocative plays. Some Broadway shows are strictly limited runs, which others might stick around for years or even decades. Choosing among them can be dizzying. You can't see them all, and you probably shouldn't anyhow: For every Tony Award–worthy hit, there's a swing and a miss. But we have seen them all, and we're happy to help guide you to the ones we think are more deserving of your money and your time. (Cheap tickets can be hard to find.) Here are our theater critic's top choices among the shows that are currently on Broadway.   RECOMMENDED: Complete A–Z listings of all Broadway Shows in NYCRECOMMENDED: Current and upcoming Off Broadway shows
New and upcoming Broadway shows headed to NYC in 2026

New and upcoming Broadway shows headed to NYC in 2026

What do Rose Byrne, Ayo Edebiri, Don Cheadle, Nathan Lane, Luke Evans and Ebon Moss-Bachrach have in common? They're just some the many stars that will be coming to Broadway in the opening months of 2026. Seeing a broadway show can require quite a lot of planning—and sometimes a leap of faith. You can wait try to see only the very best Broadway shows by waiting until everything opens and gets reviewed, but by then it is harder to get tickets and good seats. So it's smart to keep an eye on upcoming productions—whether they're original musicals and plays or revivals of time-tested classics—and pick out some promising options in advance. Here, in order of their first performances, are all the productions that are set to begin their Broadway runs in the opening months of 2026. (Other shows may be added if they are announced.) Recommended: Current and Upcoming Off Broadway Shows
The best Broadway shows for kids right now

The best Broadway shows for kids right now

Theater is a big part of what makes New York shine. This city is bursting with talent that even the youngest among us can appreciate, and at the best Broadway shows for kids, everyone in your crew will be captivated. The Lion King, with its dancing wildlife and catchy songs, is a perennial favorite, but Disney aficionados will also get a kick out of the magical tale of Aladdin. At Wicked, you can visit the land of Oz and its conflicted green-skinned protagonist; at Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, you can enter an entirely different world of witches and strange creatures. These long-running hits are joined by newer offerings like Six and & Juliet and Back to the Future. RECOMMENDED: More theater for kids in NYC If you've already caught these shows or are looking for something a little different, you won't have to go far: Be sure to explore our favorite Off Broadway shows for kids, too, where the stories can be just as memorable as their Broadway counterparts and the talent equally impressive. Make the day more memorable by hitting up one of our favorite fun restaurants for kids before or after the show. And as always, keep abreast of the what is on Broadway with our A-Z list.
New York Broadway show reviews

New York Broadway show reviews

If you're looking to find the best Broadway shows, or are curious about what's happening Off Broadway or Off-Off Broadway, we can help. Time Out New York's theater critics are constantly on the lookout to guide you to the most exciting, original and moving shows in the city—and to steer you away from the ones that might not be worth your time. Here is a complete list of our reviews of productions that are currently playing in New York City. RECOMMENDED: Where to find cheap Broadway tickets
Current Broadway Shows in NYC: The Complete A-Z List

Current Broadway Shows in NYC: The Complete A-Z List

Broadway shows are central to the experience of New York City. The word Broadway is sometimes used as shorthand for theater itself, but it officially refers to the set of 41 large theaters near Times Square, nearly all of which were built before 1930 and most of which seat more than 1,000 people. The most popular Broadway shows tend to be musicals, from long-running favorites like The Lion King and Hamilton to more recent hits like Hadestown and Moulin Rouge!—but new plays and revivals also represent an important part of the Broadway experience. There’s a wide variety of Broadway shows out there, as our complete A–Z listing attests. (For a full list of shows that are coming soon, check out our list of upcoming Broadway shows.) RECOMMENDED: Find the best Broadway showsRECOMMENDED: Current and upcoming Off Broadway shows
The 35 best Off Broadway shows to see in Spring 2026

The 35 best Off Broadway shows to see in Spring 2026

As usual, it will be a busy spring on Broadway, especially in April. But also as usual, many of the season's best productions will open Off Broadway, especially in February and March. The 2026 Off Broadway season provides a wide range of options. There are new works by playwrights including Wallace Shawn, Aya Ogawa and Lauren Yee, and intimate original musicals by the Bengsons, the Lazours and the venerable team of Maltby and Shire. There are revivals of classics ranging from the ancient Greek tragedy Antigone through 2014's You Got Older. And there are many happy returns: acclaimed 2025 shows—such as Cold War Choir Practice, Rheology and Burnout Paradise—that are coming back for second runs. (Not included on this list, but very much worth checking out, are the Encores! series's star-packed concert revivals of the musicals High Spirits and The Wild Party.) We've sorted through the dozens of upcoming Off Broadway shows to choose 35 that seem especially exciting. Here, in chronological order, are the Off Broadway shows we're most looking forward to seeing in the next three months.  RECOMMENDED: Complete list of current Broadway shows  
The best magic shows in New York City

The best magic shows in New York City

We all need magic in our lives, and New York offers an awful lot of it—and we don't just mean Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Some of the city's best magic shows are proudly in the old presentational tradition of men in tuxedos with tricks up their sleeves; others are more like Off Broadway shows or immersive theater experiences. Performed by some of the world's top magic artists, they welcome you to suspend disbelief in a special zone where astonishing skill meets showmanship and wonder. Sure, it's all a bunch of tricks. But why not allow yourself a few illusions?
Time Out discount theater tickets

Time Out discount theater tickets

Human beings have been creating theater for millennia, and for probably just as long they have been looking for ways to pay less for seats. There are many strategies for finding cheap Broadway tickets and Off Broadway tickets, but the easiest involves discount codes, which allow you to buy in advance and choose your seats so you don't have to scramble for last-minute tickets. We here at Time Out have partnered with a number of Off Broadway productions to set up deals to cut your costs.
The 40 greatest Halloween songs for the ultimate spooky party

The 40 greatest Halloween songs for the ultimate spooky party

As the nights draw in and the chill sets through the air, there’s no denying it: spooky season has officially arrived. The pumpkins are carved, the costume’s nailed and now there’s just one thing left to summon
 a Halloween playlist wicked enough to get even the undead on their feet. Sure, the classic Halloween songs still reign supreme – we’re talking ‘Thriller’, ‘Ghostbusters’ and all the usual heavy-hitters. But lately, a new wave of pop phantoms has emerged to soundtrack your October nights. From Olivia Rodrigo’s ex-boyfriend bleeding her dry, to the enchanting spellwork of Lady Gaga a.k.a Mother Monster herself, with a detour through the slick, otherworldly beats of K-Pop’s most stylish demons – Halloween playlists have, quite literally, come back to life. Our favourite Halloween playlist songs for 2025 at a glance: Most iconic Halloween track: ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson Best new Halloween anthem: ‘Abracadabra’ by Lady Gaga Most dramatic Halloween song: ‘There Will Be Blood’ by Kim Petras Best Halloween anthem with a K-Pop twist: ‘Your Idol’ by Saja Boys Best Halloween track to dance to: ‘Monster Mash’ by Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers RECOMMENDED: đŸ‘» The best Halloween movies of all time đŸŽ€ The best karaoke songs đŸŽ” The best songs of 2025 so far đŸ•ș The best albums of 2025 so far
The Nutcracker is back in NYC for 2025 and here's where to see it

The Nutcracker is back in NYC for 2025 and here's where to see it

There's more than one way to crack a nut! December in New York abounds with opportunities to see The Nutcracker ballet, which for dance fans is always among the best Christmas shows around. The most famous Nutcracker options are all returning in 2025, including New York City Ballet’s iconic Balanchine production and the the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (which includes a number devoted to the Nutcracker story). Some are aimed predominantly at kids; some others are very much not. Here are this year's ways to get your sugarplum fix. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to Christmas in NYC

Listings and reviews (610)

Giant

Giant

4 out of 5 stars
Broadway review by Adam Feldman  Mark Rosenblatt’s Giant hits the current historical moment like a targeted strike. The play unfolds on a single afternoon, interrupted only by intermission, at the English country home of Roald Dahl. It is the summer of 1983, and the beloved children’s author has come under fire for his review of a book about Israel’s siege of West Beirut, in which Dahl opined of the Jews that “never before has a race of people generated so much sympathy around the world and then, in the space of a lifetime, succeeded in turning that sympathy into hatred and revulsion.” Rosenblatt began writing his play in 2018, five years before the October 7 attacks that would prompt both a wave of Israeli military action and a spike in anti-Zionism that has often blurred with—or overtly embraced—antisemitism. Giant couldn’t be timelier: It arrives on Broadway in the same month as a new Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon.  The play’s topicality is only partially anesthetized by the historical distance that separates us from its story. Back at the Dahl house, the creator of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach—played superbly by master thespian John Lithgow—is examining the proofs of his latest project, The Witches, as those in his orbit try to convince him to apologize for his comments about the Jews or at least walk them back a bit. These include his flinty but gracious fiancĂ©e, Liccy (Rachael Stirling), and his accommodating British publisher, To
Antigone (this play i read in high school)

Antigone (this play i read in high school)

Theater review by Adam Feldman  In Anna Ziegler’s Antigone (this play i read in high school), the Chorus has an uncanny encounter with a teenage girl on an airplane. This Chorus is nicknamed Dicey, and is played with perforated steeliness by Celia Keenan-Bolger; the girl, a student played by Susannah Perkins, is reading Antigone, Sophocles’s tragedy of protest and punishment in ancient Thebes. Antigone’s behavior in the face of punishment has haunted Dicey throughout her life: an implicit spirit of reproach to her own lack of courage. She finds herself explaining, she says, “how literary characters can stalk you sometimes.”  Antigone (this play i read in high school) | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus The sense of being shadowed by Antigone may feel familiar to New York theatergoers. Variations on her story are everywhere now. She was a side character in Robert Icke’s Oedipus on Broadway; Alexander Zeldin's modern British take on her, The Other Place, just closed at the Shed, but Jean Anouilh’s 1944 version is at the Flea and Barbara Barclay’s Antigone in Analysis begins next week at La MaMa. The challenge resides in finding ways to adapt a 2,500–year-old tragedy—in which Antigone’s cause relates to the burial of her disgraced brother—to modern purposes. The girl on the plane, for one, is unimpressed with the Sophocles original. “Is it even about her?” she complains with with insouciant directness. “It seems like it’s all about her brother’s body. A man’s body.” Dicey, who i
Cold War Choir Practice

Cold War Choir Practice

4 out of 5 stars
Theater review by Adam Feldman  Christmas is just around the corner, and Meek (Alana Raquel Bowers), a 10-year-old Black girl in 1987, has a modest wish list for Santa: “I want a Pound Puppy, a Speak + Spell, and a nuclear radiation detector.” None of these is likely to be provided by her financially strapped single father, Smooch (Will Cobbs), a former Black Panther who owns a roller rink in the south side of Syracuse, New York. But through her participation in a children’s choir called the Seedlings of Peace, Meek has started writing to a Soviet stranger. (“War is imminent. How are you today? Did you know the voice of a child has the power to stop a nuclear attack?”) And her pen pal in the Urals soon sends Meek a very special Speak + Spell: one that not only teaches her the Russian translations of useful terms like “revolution” and “armageddon” and “government official,” but also recruits her into a scheme that may affect upcoming disarmament talks between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Spasibo, comrade!  Cold War Choir Practice | Photograph: Courtesy Maria Baranova That’s just a taste of the mayhem wrought by the playwright and composer Ro Reddick in Cold War Choir Practice, an offbeat dark comedy that may be set in the 1980s but whose genre-fluid blend of surrealist humor, satirical songs and looming menace recalls the 1970s plays of John Guare. Reddick’s brand of ridiculous, though, adds a current of racial conflict, as reflected in the tense relationship between
Petite Rouge

Petite Rouge

4 out of 5 stars
Theater review by Adam Feldman  The titular heroine of Petite Rouge dances with wolves aplenty in Company XIV’s latest neoburlesque spectacle, but don’t worry for her safety: She’s as voracious a predator as any of them. Director-choreographer Austin McCormick and his Brooklyn company have a penchant for twisting classic children’s stories into naughty ones for adults, fashioning baroque extravaganzas out of such tales as the Nutcracker, Cinderella, Snow White and Alice in Wonderland. This latest pageant gives a decadent spin to the adventures of Little Red Riding Hood through a decadent mĂ©lange of slinky dance, explosive live singing and suggestive circus acts. This little lady knows her way around a basket. Petite Rouge | Photograph: Courtesy Deneka Peniston Like all Company XIV shows, Petite Rouge unfolds as a series of vignettes performed by a troupe of versatile performers in outrageous costumes by Zane Pihlström, who has also designed the louche, ruched set in a panhistorically rococo spirit. The aesthetic is femme-forward and playfully queer-flavored; the men may have lupine masks on their heads, but they are also often dolled out in corsets and heels (and, in one case, tasseled pasties on each buttock). Among the attractions provided by the men are a triple aerial act, a toe dance and a comical turn by PhillVonAwesome, in mask, as Petite Rouge’s grandma.  Related: See more photos from Petite Rouge. Petite Rouge | Photograph: Courtesy Deneka Peniston But while most
The Monsters

The Monsters

4 out of 5 stars
Theater review by Adam Feldman  When people talk about physical theater, they usually mean the kind of shows that prioritize movement over text, with elements of mime and dance. The Monsters is physical in a different way. Its two characters are mixed up in the world of mixed martial arts: Big (Okieriete Onaodowan) is a champion MMA combatant who, pushing 40, is nearing his professional expiration date; Lil (Aigner Mizzelle) is his estranged half-sister, a decade or so younger, whom he finds himself training for a career of her own. When they work out together or act out matches, the actors throw their whole bodies into action, and in the intimate confines of Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage II, everyone gets a cageside seat. The Monsters| Photograph: Courtesy T. Charles Erickson Writer-director Ngozi Anyanwu stages these sequences with thrilling immediacy, aided by choreographer Rickey Tripp and fight director Gerry Rodriguez. (Veteran bantamweight competitor Sijara Eubanks is the production’s MMA consultant.) But Big and Lil’s sparring outside the ring is, in a quieter way, just as compelling. He is stoic and intensely guarded, but she keeps jabbing at him until she can get through his defenses. In flashbacks, they play younger versions of themselves: The adolescent Lil is spoiling for battle, but gives up high-school wrestling because boys keep trying to pin her in the wrong ways; obversely, Big is gentler than he will become, but people pick fights with him so often—he has
Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood

Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood

Theater review by Adam Feldman  Putting the word shitshow in the title of your play seems almost like a dare to the writer of an unenthusiastic review. I will resist the easy jab, though, because writer-director Aya Ogawa’s carnivalesque pageant—which explores and explodes different facets of motherhood through satirical vignettes, musical numbers and bouffon body horror—is audacious in more than its name. The show is intent on airing ugly and troubling aspects of maternity, and Ogawa delivers them cesarean style: with a few deep cuts and a lot of mess.  Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus Meat Suit is being produced by Second Stage, and it has aptly created a secondary space for itself at the Signature Center’s Irene Diamond Stage. The venue’s usual seats are cordoned off, and the audience is guided instead to a womblike playing area that scenic designer Jian Jung has festooned with lumpy, pendulous blobs that suggest internal organs as drawn by Dr. Seuss. In a similar spirit, Jung attires the cast’s five actresses—Marina Celander, Cindy Cheung, Robyn Kerr, Maureen Sebastian and Liz Wisan, proven talents all—in bodysuits bursting with grotesque stuffed appendages that evoke internal and sexual organs. (They also recall Jill Keys’s fetus costumes in Lightning Rod Special’s The Appointment.)  Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus Unfortunately, the show’s goop is not just of the visceral variety. A
You Got Older

You Got Older

5 out of 5 stars
Theater review by Adam Feldman  The talk in Clare Barron’s icky, tender, gorgeous You Got Older is sometimes so small it nearly vanishes completely. Alia Shawkat plays Mae, a youngish lawyer whose life is in ruins—she has lost her job, her apartment and her boyfriend in one fell swoop—and who has moved back to rural Washington to spend time with her father (Peter Friedman). Between awkward pauses in the play’s opening scene, they discuss gardening, toothbrushes, sleeping arrangements; what they don’t discuss is his recent cancer diagnosis. You Got Older is less about disease than about the unease that surrounds it, and it beautifully captures elusive things about avoidance: It’s about the denial of death, but also the denial of living. You Got Older | Photograph: Courtesy Marc J. Franklin You Got Older mostly unfolds as well-observed comedy that often ventures into morbid territory. When Mae and her siblings—blunt older sister Hannah (a hilarious Nadine Malouf), amorphous middle brother Matthew (Misha Brooks) and excitable youngest sister Jenny (Nina White)—gather around their dad’s hospital bed, they spend their visit bickering, teasing and commiserating about the off-putting family odor they share: “Mold. Mildew. Musty. BO. And egg.” A similar sense of bodily dysfunction informs the flirtation between Mae and Mac (Caleb Joshua Eberhardt), a former schoolmate she encounters at a local bar; she shares details of her painful rash, and he reveals that he is into that sort of t
Marcel on the Train

Marcel on the Train

Theater review by Adam Feldman  An interesting fact: In the early 1940s, before he became the world’s most celebrated mime, a young Marcel Marceau was part of the clandestine French Jewish Resistance, which helped smuggle kids out of Nazi-dominated France. ''Marceau started miming to keep children quiet as they were escaping,” a fellow FJR member would later say. “It had nothing to do with show business. He was miming for his life.'' That certainly sounds dramatic, but—as illustrated by Marcel on the Train, a fictionalized biodrama by actor Ethan Slater and director Marshall Pailet—what makes a great footnote does not always make a great play.  Marcel on the Train | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid As he proved in SpongeBob SquarePants and more recently in the Wicked movies, Slater has a real gift for movement. Marcel on the Train gives him ample opportunity to showcase it as Marceau tries with varying success to entertain his 12-year-old charges, Life Is Beautifully, and distract them from the dangers outside. The adolescents, all played by adult actors, include the virtuous Adolphe (Max Gordon Moore), the mischievous Henri (an amusing Alex Wyse), the sour and pessimistic Berthe (Tedra Millan) and the cowering Etiennette (Maddie Corman), who—perhaps in response to unspeakable trauma—never says a word.  Marcel on the Train | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid Most of the play unfolds in a single train car, but director Pailet makes the most of a claustrophobic situation w
Little Island

Little Island

5 out of 5 stars
In the years since it opened its gates in May 2021, Little Island has become one of New York's primo warm-weather destinations. Open from 6am daily, the “floating” greenspace is an elevated oasis of trees and knolls and winding paths that rises—as though suspended on a bed of coupe cocktail glasses—above Pier 55 in the Hudson, just west of the Meatpacking District. In the same brief period, it has established itself as one of the city's most vital sources of low-cost high culture in the summer. Concerts, plays, dance shows, operas: These and more can be found on Little Island all summer long, whether at its 687-seat open-air amphitheater (the Amph), its smaller performance stage (the Glade) or at pop-up locations throughout the space.
The Dinosaurs

The Dinosaurs

4 out of 5 stars
Theater review by Adam Feldman  In his program note for The Dinosaurs, playwright Jacob Perkins describes how a support group for alcoholics helped him deal with traumatic memories—including that of being surrounded by a group of men to be “exorcised,” at the age of 8, from a homosexuality that had already become legible to others. In the weekly sessions he attended in a church basement, which have now inspired his elegantly elliptical and tender new play, Perkins also found a community of people wrestling with demons: drawing on one another’s strength to stay cleansed of the spirits, whether liquid or figurative, that once controlled them and which still threaten, at any moment, to slip into their weakest places.  The Dinosaurs | Photograph: Courtesy Julieta Cervantes This theme becomes explicit only once in The Dinosaurs: When Joan (Elizabeth Marvel), speaking of the mysterious maladies she suffered as a child, compares herself to “that little girl in The Exorcist after she gets possessed by the devil.” Her illnesses were harbingers of her future alcoholism, she later realized, but at that time “my disease was manifesting as restlessness, irritability, discontentedness”—problems that later, frustrated by her inability to control them, she would turn to drinking to escape. Perkins approaches alcoholism not as a physical ailment but a spiritual one. “I didn’t believe that God saw me, that God could ever wanna take care of a person like me,” Joan says, but the community of wo
The Unknown

The Unknown

3 out of 5 stars
Broadway review by Adam Feldman  How well do you know Sean Hayes? You probably think of him as a master of broad comedy, as he demonstrated in 11 seasons as Jack on Will & Grace (and as Jerry in Martin and Lewis and Larry in The Three Stooges). Maybe you enjoy his good-natured enthusiasm on the podcast Smartless. Maybe you saw him quip, scowl and play classical piano in his Tony-winning portrayal of Oscar Levant in Broadway’s Good Night, Oscar. Even so, you might still be surprised by how well he plays a basically regular guy in The Unknown: Elliott, a somewhat isolated, somewhat depressed, mostly sober middle-aged writer who has been having a hard time devising a screenplay, perhaps because his own life has so little drama.   David Cale’s one-man play whips some up for him. While clearing his head at a rural retreat, Elliott hears someone singing a love song about romantic disappointment—a song that Elliott wrote years earlier for a musical. When he returns to the city, a seemingly chance encounter with a handsome Texan at a West Village gay bar leads to a growing fear that he is being shadowed by a marginal figure from his past—and/or, perhaps, by that man’s identical twin. On Hayes’s old sitcom, this scenario might have been played for laughs: Jack and the Bein’ Stalked. Instead, it spirals into a dark-hued exploration of obsession and the porous line that separates life from art.  The Unknown | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid Elliott's journey, however, doesn’t travel
The Other Place

The Other Place

3 out of 5 stars
Theater review by Adam Feldman  In times of tyranny, there can also be resistance, and in times of resistance, there is always Antigone. The title character of Sophocles’s ancient tragedy refuses to accept a decree by her uncle Creon, the king of Thebes, that the corpse of her rebellious brother should be left unburied for beasts to devour; and the unbending Creon, who thinks the young lady protests too much, confines her to die in a cave. This mythic tale continues to resonate, and it has now inspired two concurrent Off Broadway adaptations. The first of them, imported by the Shed after premiering at London's National Theatre, is Alexander Zeldin's The Other Place; the other play is Anna Ziegler’s Antigone (This Play I Read in High School), which hits the Public later this month.  Like Robert Icke in Oedipus and Simon Stone in Medea, writer-director Zeldin squeezes the old story into a mold of contemporary psychodrama. Creon is now Chris (Tobias Menzies), who has been working with his new wife, Erica (Lorna Brown), to renovate his late brother’s house; they have opened up the living room by knocking down one wall and installing sliding glass doors in another, filling a symbolically dark and secretive space with equally symbolic sunlight. He also plans to disperse his brother’s crematory ashes outdoors—a plan that does not sit well with his niece Annie (House of the Dragon’s Emma D’Arcy), a bisexual drifter who has gone off the grid and, apparently, her meds. Although Annie’s

News (465)

A massive spring theater sale is happening now, with tickets from just $36

A massive spring theater sale is happening now, with tickets from just $36

It's spring! Or as that unforgettable lyric in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers puts it: "Spring, spring, spring." Among other things, that brings us a host of attractive new theater productions, on Broadway and off. An obstacle: Ticket prices, as everyone knows, have been rising. But cheap Broadway tickets abound in New York City, and one great place to find them right is now is through TodayTix, which is celebrating the season with a big old Spring Theatre Sale for tickets purchased from now through May 17. You can access those Spring Theatre Sale discounts right here. Photograph: Courtesy Evan ZimmermanDog Day Afternoon  Dozens of shows, including many top Broadway and Off Broadway productions, are offering significants discounts through this Spring Theatre Sale. As a bonus, the discount list also includes comedy shows, concerts and even the Metropolitan Opera's latest mounting of Verdi's La Triviata. Ticket prices begin at just $36, and the discounts go as high as 55%.  Here are a few suggestions as you navigate the more than 40 shows on offer: 1. Tony! Tony! Tony! The sale list includes several shows that are nominated for Tony Awards this year: the five-star dramedy Becky Shaw (with Alden Ehrenreich and Madeline Brewer), the wacky musical spoof Titaníque (Jim Parsons, Deborah Cox and Marla Mindelle as Celine Dion), the heist-gone-wrong play Dog Day Afternoon (with The Bear's Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach). A handful of tickets are available for the Noël Coward s
The 2026 Tony Awards nominations have just been announced

The 2026 Tony Awards nominations have just been announced

The actual nominations for this year's Tony Awards—not to be confused with the beloved annual TONY* nominations!—were announced this morning. This year's Tony Awards honor the best Broadway shows and artists of the 2025–26 season. The ceremony will be held at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 7, and broadcast live on CBS. Here are the contenders.RELATED: Buy tickets to Broadway showsRECOMMENDED: Complete guide to the 2026 Tony Awards  Photograph: Courtesy Little FangLiberation Best Play The Balusters by David Lindsay-AbaireGiant by Mark RosenblattLiberation by Bess WohlLittle Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter  Best Musical The Lost BoysSchmigadoonTitaníqueTwo Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) Photograph: Courtesy Matthew MurphyThe Lost Boys Best Revival of a Play Becky ShawDeath of a SalesmanEvery Brilliant ThingFallen AngelsOedipus Best Revival of a Musical Cats: The Jellicle BallRagtimeThe Rocky Horror Show Photograph: Courtesy Matthew MurphyCats: The Jellicle Ball Best Book of a Musical Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli, TitaníqueDavid Hornsby and Chris Hoch, The Lost BoysCinco Paul, Schmigadoon Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre Steve Bargonetti, Joe Turner's Come and GoneJim Barne and Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)Cinco Paul, SchmigadoonThe Rescues, The Lost BoysCaroline Shaw, Death of a Salesman  Best Performan
Broadway review: The Balusters is an amusing neighborhood watch

Broadway review: The Balusters is an amusing neighborhood watch

Broadway review by Adam FeldmanRating: ★★★★ (four stars)Ticketing: Buy tickets to The Balusters “The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low," said the Columbia professor Wallace Sayre. His quip that has been generalized into what’s known as Sayre’s law: The less consequential the issue, the more bitter the divisions about it become. Though often applied to the academe, this law is equally relevant to the insular worlds of co-op boards, planning committees and homeowners associations of the kind depicted in David Lindsay-Abaire’s entertaining and needling drawing-room comedy The Balusters. Directed by Kenny Leon for Manhattan Theatre Club, and set in a wealthy residential neighborhood called Vernon Point—think Prospect Park à clef—the play takes relish in sending up the tensions beneath placid surfaces. Photograph: Courtesy Jeremy DanielThe Balusters Not a detail is amiss in the elegant front parlor of the Victorian home that belongs to Kyra (a radiantly poised Anika Noni Rose), the Neighborhood Association’s newest member. Her decor establishes African-American identity in a context of traditional fancy taste; gorgeously appointed by set designer Derek McLane, the room is practically a character in its own right. (Among the production photos provided to the press is one of the set by itself, free of actors.) The creamy upholstery of the central couch is offset by brightly colored pillows; Rose herself, dressed by Emilio Soso in vibrant puffy
Broadway review: The Lost Boys, a musical that goes for blood

Broadway review: The Lost Boys, a musical that goes for blood

Broadway review by Adam FeldmanRating: ★★★★ (four stars)Ticketing: Buy tickets to The Lost Boys Swooping in, teeth bared, at the close of an anemic season for Broadway musicals, The Lost Boys is out for blood. Adapted from the 1987 coming-of-fangs film about teenagers fighting a vampire infestation in southern California, this show aims to set your pulse bounding; no other new tuner this season has been so ambitious in scope or anywhere near so spectacular in stagecraft. Director Michael Arden and scenic designer Dane Laffrey, whose past collaborations include Maybe Happy Ending and A Christmas Carol, have again created a world we’ve never seen onstage before: surprising, thrilling, sometimes genuinely unsettling. The good things about The Lost Boys are so good, in fact, that they make its fumbles especially frustrating; there’s a sense of lost opportunity. But to an impressive extent, the show succeeds where earlier vampire-themed musicals—the ironically short-lived Dance of the Vampires, Dracula and Lestat—have merely sucked.  Photograph: Courtesy Matthew MurphyThe Lost Boys The title refers, in part, to a pair of teenage brothers in immortal peril: the rebellious Michael (LJ Benet), who rides a motorcycle and wears a leather jacket, and the younger and dorkier Sam (Benjamin Pajak), who likes comic books and has a thing for Rob Lowe. With their newly single mother, Lucy (Shoshana Bean), they have just moved into a weird old house in Santa Carla. What they don’t know is th
Broadway review: The Rocky Horror Show is deliciously warped and timely

Broadway review: The Rocky Horror Show is deliciously warped and timely

Broadway review by Adam FeldmanRating: ★★★★ (four stars)Ticketing: Buy tickets to The Rocky Horror Show “Give yourself over to absolute pleasure,” urges the absurdly named Dr. Frank-N-Furter as the silly, sexy cult musical The Rocky Horror Show nears its frenzied climax. Roundabout Theatre Company’s exuberant Broadway revival of the show, directed by Sam Pinkleton and featuring a killer cast led by international heartthrob Luke Evans as Frank, makes roughly the same invitation. It’s an awfully hard one to resist.  Richard O’Brien’s spoof of science-fiction and horror B movies—a delirious mix of satire, rock & roll and anything-goes queer sensibility—premiered in 1973, as glam rock was giving moralists the vapors. Frank, the story’s strutting all-purpose villain, reflects all of that: A self-proclaimed “sweet transvestite” from the planet Transsexual (in the Transylvania galaxy), he’s an alien, a mad scientist, a murderer and an all-purpose corrupter of morals, hellbent on sexual as well as interplanetary conquest. The powerfully spicy Tim Curry originated the role onstage and, more crucially, in the 1975 film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which became the ultimate midnight movie and inspired rituals of viewership—costumes, props, a practical second script of jokes to be shouted at the screen—that continue to this day. Photograph: Courtesy Joan MarcusThe Rocky Horror Show That interactivity has become an essential part of the experience of seeing the film, and s
Broadway review:  A heist and a play go wrong in Dog Day Afternoon

Broadway review: A heist and a play go wrong in Dog Day Afternoon

Broadway review by Adam Feldman Rating: Not starred BOOK TICKETS Sometimes everything just goes wrong. Friends get together to snag valuable property from a vault, but they haven’t planned the operation well enough; they make unforced errors, they panic, and soon they’re holding people hostage in a sorry and confusing situation that drags on for hours. That is the story told in Dog Day Afternoon, the classic 1975 film about a real-life 1972 Brooklyn bank heist turned tense and sweaty standoff. It is also the story of Dog Day Afternoon, Stephen Adly Guirgis’s confounding new Broadway play, in which the heat never rises past lukewarm and it’s the paying audience that winds up robbed.  Photograph: Courtesy Evan ZimmermanDog Day Afternoon What gave the original crime an extra frisson of sensationalism was that the would-be robbers, John Wojtowicz and Sal Naturile, were known in the local gay community; Wojtowicz was planning to use the money to finance a sex-change operation for his lover, whom he had married the year before. The Life magazine article that inspired the movie—titled “The Boys in the Bank,” a nod to Mart Crowley’s closet-breaking play—described Wojtowicz as “a dark, thin fellow with the broken-faced good looks of an Al Pacino.” Journalistic dream casting came true when Pacino ended up starring in director Sidney Lumet’s motion picture, playing the Wojtowicz character, Sonny, opposite the haunted-hangdog John Cazale as Sal and a raw, unstable Chris Sarandon as Son
Broadway review: Beaches be trippin’

Broadway review: Beaches be trippin’

Broadway review by Adam FeldmanRating: Not starredTicketing: Buy tickets to Beaches In Iris Rainer Dart’s 1985 novel Beaches, the unsinkable singer-actress Cee Cee Bloom—played to the hilt by Bette Midler in the 1988 movie version—begins her career as the saving grace of an otherwise hopeless musical: a performer whose voice, presence and sparkle compel praise no matter how much the show itself disappoints. A similar thing happens in Beaches’s latest incarnation as a Broadway musical. Jessica Vosk is not a newcomer; she’s been rising like cream for the past 15 years, including as Elphaba in Wicked. But her portrayal of Cee Cee marks the first time she has originated a major role on Broadway, and she’s terrific: She grabs you with her warmth and humor and holds you with her vocal power. Midler is a hard act to follow, but Vosk comes out smelling like a rose.   Photograph: Courtesy Marc J. FranklinBeaches With the exception of its Cee Cee, alas, almost everything about Beaches is C-minus at best. The musical, which covers decades in the evolving best friendship between the vulgar and showbizzy Cee Cee and the rich and pretty Bertie (Kelli Barrett), has had a troubled gestation since its 2014 world premiere in Virginia. Dart herself wrote the lyrics, but her collaborator on the book, Thom Thomas, died in 2015. The show’s original composer departed the project, to be replaced by songwriting legend Mike Stoller, now 93, who co-wrote some of pop music’s biggest hits of the 1950s
Broadway review: Schmigadoon! (★★★★) is good old-fashioned musical fun

Broadway review: Schmigadoon! (★★★★) is good old-fashioned musical fun

Broadway review by Adam FeldmanRating: ★★★★ (four stars)Ticketing: Buy tickets to Schmigadoon! Who here wants some more corn puddin’? The wholesome townsfolk of Schmigadoon, first seen on Apple TV+’s spoofy musical series, have relocated to Broadway, where they’re serving a generous second helping of their corny and sweet local specialty—and, of course, singing and dancing its praises in a delightfully pointless musical number. That sort of thing comes naturally to the denizens of this special place; they are familiar character types from musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. But it’s a bit overwhelming for modern timers Melissa (Sara Chase) and Josh (Alex Brightman), a squabbling couple of doctors who find themselves in Schmigadoon after crossing a magical bridge. Only true love can break the spell that keeps them there; meanwhile, they might as well enjoy what the town has to offer.   Photograph: Courtesy Matthew MurphySchmigadoon!   Schmigadoon!’s love for classic musical theater may not be 100% true—everything about it is in quotation marks—but good gosh, is it enjoyable. Writer-composer Cinco Paul, adapting the first season of his series for the stage, has retained most of its plot and songs: knowing and affectionate pastiches inspired mainly by The Music Man and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music. (Other shows evoked include Finian’s Rainbow, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and, of course, Brigadoon, whose premise Paul bor
Broadway review: Ayo Edebiri shows her work in Proof

Broadway review: Ayo Edebiri shows her work in Proof

Broadway review by Adam FeldmanRating: ★★★ (three stars)Ticketing: Buy tickets to Proof “Mathematicians are insane,” says Hal (Jin Ha), in what could be the tag line for David Auburn’s Proof. What Hal means is that he and his fellow geeks party too hard, but the statement resonates beyond that. His former mentor at the University of Chicago, Robert (Don Cheadle), was a math legend who revolutionized his field in his early 20s—“There’s this fear that your creativity peaks around 23 and it’s all downhill from there”—but went mad shortly thereafter. That’s very much on the troubled mind of Robert’s daughter, Catherine (Ayo Edebiri), on the night of her 25th birthday. She has inherited her father’s mathematical mind; has she also inherited his mental illness? When she discusses this concern with her dad in the haunting opening scene, he tries to be reassuring. But it’s unusual that they’re talking at all, since—as Robert reveals—he has been dead for a week. As he points out, gently: “It could be a bad sign.”   Photograph: Courtesy Matthew MurphyProof Bang! Q.E.D. And with Robert’s scene-ending line, Proof is off racing. Although its subject is advanced number theory, Auburn’s approach to mathematics is abstract. There’s an intellectual atmosphere, but this is not a Tom Stoppard play of heavy ideas; it’s an ingeniously crafted psychological thriller that continually toys with audience expectations—there are dizzying sequences of minor reversals, zigzagging within single scenes—a
Broadway review: The Fear of 13 is just fine

Broadway review: The Fear of 13 is just fine

Broadway review by Adam FeldmanRating: not recommendedTicketing: Buy tickets to The Fear of 13 When adapting one-person stage shows for other media, it is common to open them up with multiple actors and locations, whether in films such as A Bronx Tale and My Big Fat Greek Wedding or even whole TV series such as Fleabag and Baby Reindeer. Lindsey Ferrentino’s drama The Fear of 13 reverses this process. The play is closely based on David Sington’s 2015 documentary about Nick Yarris, a Pennsylvania man who spent more than 20 years on Death Row before being exonerated by DNA evidence in 2003. The film is an absorbing 95-minute monologue in which Yarris describes his long ordeal in detail; Ferrentino’s adaptation, though still anchored in narration by Yarris, builds out his stories for an onstage cast of eight. The end result is bigger but not, I fear, better.   Photograph: Courtesy Emilio MadridThe Fear of 13 It’s not that this version of The Fear of 13 is bad. It’s a respectable telling of a worthy story. Adrien Brody, who played Nick in the play’s 2024 London premiere and reprises the role on Broadway, is effective throughout Yarris’s journey from teenage criminal and meth addict to the victim of a system that is infuriatingly flawed; he also conveys enough broken charm to make us believe that he could spark with the Jacki (a quite luminous Tessa Thompson), a charitable volunteer whose prison visits blossom into more. Jacki’s part in the story has been expanded significantly
Broadway review: Paris is purring in Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Broadway review: Paris is purring in Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Broadway review by Adam FeldmanRating: ★★★★★ (five stars)Ticketing: Buy tickets to Cats: The Jellicle Ball  A revival of Cats, at least in theory, might well give you paws. After a then-record 18-year run on Broadway—with a tagline, “NOW AND FOREVER,” that began to sound a bit like a threat—Andrew Lloyd Webber's synthtastic 1980s musical finally hung up its leotards and yak-hair wigs in 2000. Its comeback efforts since then have been less than overwhelming: a taxidermic 2016 revival, a widely mocked 2019 film. It seemed as though the show had been condemned to obsolescence, humbled and disavowed like its own once-grand Grizabella the Glamour Cat. But now along comes a thrilling reconception that not only rescues Cats from the oversize junkyard but lifts it, like Grizabella herself, to unexpected heights. After an already-legendary Off Broadway debut at the Perelman Arts Center in 2024, this production—under the chosen name Cats: The Jellicle Ball–has now re-inhabited Broadway, where it remains a categorical triumph.  Photograph: Courtesy Evan ZimmermanCats: The Jellicle Ball Is Cats good or bad? That’s a question without an answer. Cats is beyond good and bad. Cats is Cats. Cats is about cats competing to be sent into the ionosphere. Cats is about cats who sing light verse from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, an exercise in high silliness that sits at the classy end of an anthropomorphic-cat comedy genre that includes, at lower stations, New Yorker cartoon
Broadway review: Death of a Salesman, to die for

Broadway review: Death of a Salesman, to die for

Broadway review by Adam FeldmanRating: ★★★★★ (five stars)Ticketing: Buy tickets to Death of a Salesman A boxy old car drives onstage at the beginning of Death of a Salesman, its headlights glaring out at the audience, and sad-sack schlepper Willy Loman gets out of it, defeated, a heavy briefcase in each hand. At first, this may seem like the wrong kind of omen: When yet another revival of Arthur Miller’s 1949 drama pulls up on Broadway, beat up and weighed down by 75 years’ worth of travel and baggage, it is fair to wonder whether this vehicle has any tread left on the tires, any gas left in the tank. You might even be inclined to walk right by the Winter Garden Theatre—where this version has parked itself, directed by Joe Mantello and starring Nathan Lane—without a second thought. But that would be a grave mistake: This shattering new production cannot be overlooked. Attention, as Willy’s wife famously declares, must be paid.  Photograph: Courtesy Emilio MadridDeath of a Salesman Linda Loman (Laurie Metcalf) says that line as a call of duty to her sons, Biff (Christopher Abbott) and Happy (Ben Ahlers), who have neglected their father's slide into depression and dementia. Miller never tells us what Willy has been selling on his long road trips for 36 years, but it’s clear he has no business doing it anymore, if indeed he ever did. “I don’t say he’s a great man,” she allows. “But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.” This c