David Roberts

Off-Broadway Review: “Chinese Republicans” at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre (Through Sunday, April 5, 2026)

A Theatrical Rorschach Test: CHINESE REPUBLICANS at Roundabout Alex Lin’s “Chinese Republicans” arrives at Roundabout Theatre Company with considerable ambition: a world premiere examining Asian-American identity through the lens of corporate culture, intergenerational trauma, sexual harassment, immigration policy, economic justice, and political ideology. Director Chay Yew stages the action primarily at Golden Unicorn, a Chinatown dim sum restaurant where four…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Reservoir” at Atlantic Theater’s Linda Gross Theater (Through Sunday, March 15, 2026)

“We’re Here. Right Now: THE RESERVOIR’s Hard-Won Grace” Jake Brasch’s “The Reservoir,” now playing at Atlantic Theater Company, operates through counterpoint: addiction and dementia, comedy and grief, the impulse to fix and the necessity of letting go. Josh (Noah Galvin), a 20-something alcoholic fresh from a Florida rehab disaster, returns to Denver convinced he can save his four aging grandparents…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Ulysses” at the Public Theater’s Martinson Hall (Through Sunday, March 1, 2026)

“Parsing Joyce: ERS’s ULYSSES Demonstrates Without Embodying” Good readers create images as they navigate dense text, constructing a personal vision of the world on the page. Elevator Repair Service’s production of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” currently playing at the Public Theater’s Martinson Hall, offers the company’s own kaleidoscopic image of Joyce’s epic novel—a playful, fragmented encounter with one of modernism’s most…

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Off Broadway Review: “The Other Place” at The Shed (Through Sunday, March 1, 2026)

Don’t Look at Me: “The Other Place” and the Tragedy Critics Missed When Alexander Zeldin’s “The Other Place” premiered at London’s National Theatre in 2024, critics hailed it as “the outstanding play of the year” and praised its “taut, riveting naturalism.” That same production, now transferred to The Shed with most of its original cast, has met a decidedly cooler…

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Broadway Bound Theatre Festival Submissions Now Open

January 29, 2026 | Uncategorized > | AMT Theater, BBTF, Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, David Roberts, Lenore Skomal, New York Theatre Reviews, Rick Sayers, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited

Calling all playwrights! We are excited to announce an open call for submissions for the 2026 Broadway Bound Theatre Festival . Showcase your new play in the heart of NYC Get support from page to stage with our expert team Don’t miss out as we celebrate 10 years of premiering new plays and new musicals from emerging and established playwrights. We…

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Broadway Review: “Bug” at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (Currently On)

Twenty-nine years after its London premiere, Tracy Letts’ “Bug” has finally crawled onto Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, and the question that matters most isn’t whether this David Cromer-directed production succeeds or fails—it’s whether Cromer understood what play he was directing. “Bug” is a psychiatric horror about folie à deux, the clinical term for shared psychotic…

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Broadway Review: Second Stage’s “Marjorie Prime” at the Helen Hayes Theatre (Currently On)

December 12, 2025 | Broadway > | "Marjorie Prime", Anne Kauffman, Christopher Lowell, costume design by Márion Tálan de la Rosa, Cynthia Nixon, Danny Burstein, David Roberts, Joan Marcus, Jordan Harrison, June Squibb, lighting design by Ben Stanton, New York Theatre Reviews, scenic design by Lee Jellinek, sound design and original music by Daniel Kluger, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited

Where do our memories go when we die? Jordan Harrison’s “Marjorie Prime,” now receiving its Broadway premiere at the Helen Hayes Theatre, asks this question with stunning simplicity and devastating honesty. In Harrison’s near-future, holographic AI companions called “Primes” serve as repositories for family stories, programmed by the living to remember what we tell them—and only what we tell them….

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Broadway Review: “The Queen of Versailles” at the St. James Theatre (Through Sunday, January 4, 2026)

December 8, 2025 | Broadway > | "The Queen of Versailles", ” Melody Butiu, Andrew Kober, Anne Fraser Thomas, Baseline Theatrical, C12 Casting, Cassondra James, casting by Stephen Kopel CSA & Carrie Gardner, Christopher Cree Grant, Christopher Gurr, Clarissa Marie Ligon, costume design by Christian Cowan, David Aron Damane, David Roberts, Drew Elhamalawy, F. Murray Abraham, Grace Slear, Greg Hildreth, hair & wig design by Cookie Jordan, Isabel Keating, Jake Bentley Young, Jesse Kovarsky, KJ Hippensteel, Kristin Chenoweth, Lauren Yalango-Grant, lighting design by Natasha Katz, Lindsey Ferrentino, Michael Arden, Michael McCorry Rose, New York Theatre Reviews, Nina White, orchestrations by John Clancy, Pablo David Laucerica, Ryah Nixon, scenic & video design by Dane Laffrey, Shea Renne, Sherie Rene Scott, sound design by Peter Hylenski, St. James Theatre, Stephen DeRosa, Stephen Schwartz, Tatum Grace Hopkins, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Travis Murad Leland, Yeman Brown

In late 2025, as wealth inequality reaches historic levels and millions struggle with housing costs, “The Queen of Versailles” arrives on Broadway at the St. James Theatre to ask: wouldn’t it be fun to watch billionaires build a 90,000-square-foot mansion? The musical, based on Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary about timeshare mogul David Siegel and his wife Jackie constructing their own…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Initiative” at the Public’s LuEsther Hall (Closed Sunday, December 7, 2025)

December 2, 2025 | LGBTQ+, Off-Broadway, Queer > | "Initiative", "Spring Awakening", Andrea Lopez Alvarez (Kendall), Brandon Burk (Offstage Voice/Understudy Em/Lo/Tony), Carson Higgins (Lo), Christopher Dylan White (Em), costume design by Kindall Almond, costume design dramaturgy by Susan Hilferty, David Roberts, dramaturgy by Sarah Lunnie, Else Went, Emma Rosa Went, fight direction by Dan Renkin, Greg Cuellar (Riley), Harrison Densmore (Ty), intimacy direction by Laura Hackman, Jamie Sanders (Tony), Janelle Caso is the production stage manager, Jose Useche (Understudy Riley/Ty), lighting design by Christopher Akerlind, LuEsther Hall, Marisa Brau-Reyes (Understudy Clara/Kendall), Molly Foy is the stage manager., New York Theatre Reviews, Olivia Rose Barresi (Clara), projection design by S Katy Tucker, prop management by Aisha Hamida, Public Theater, scenic design by Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams, sound design by Angela Baughman, Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited

Most coming-of-age plays invite us to relate to individual characters as they navigate adolescent turmoil. We watch from outside, recognizing ourselves in their struggles. Else Went’s “Initiative,” receiving its world premiere at The Public Theater, does something far more ambitious and profound: it draws us inside the collective unconscious of seven teenagers coming to terms with trauma, sexuality, violence, and…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Seat of Our Pants” at the Public’s Newman Theater (Closed Sunday, December 7, 2025)

November 24, 2025 | Off-Broadway > | "Seat of Our Pants", "The Skin of Our Teeth", Alex Luong, Allison Ann Kelly, Ally Bonino, Amina Faye, Andy Grotelueschen, Angela Travino, Ben Beckley, Bill Buell, Caroline Englander, Cole Burden, costume design by Kaye Voyce, Damon Daunno, Daniel Kluger, David Roberts, David Ryan Smith, Ethan Lipton, fight direction by Jordan Laroya, Geena Quintos, Joan Marcus, Kelly Belarmino, Leigh Silverman, León Ramos Tak, lighting design by Lap Chi Chu, Micaela Diamond, Michael Lepore, Nat Lopez, Nathan Koci, New York Theatre Reviews, Newman Theater, Prop management by Claire M. Kavanah, Public Theater, Ruth E. Sternberg, Ruthie Ann Miles, Sarah Lunnie, scenic design by Lee Jellinek, Shelley Miles serves as stage manager, Shuler Hensley, sound design by Drew Levy, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Thornton Wilder, Tomoko Akaboshi

Thornton Wilder wrote “The Skin of Our Teeth” in 1942 as the world burned. Ethan Lipton’s musical adaptation “The Seat of Our Pants,” now at the Public Theater, arrives as history repeats itself with eerie precision. The Announcer’s opening number catalogs our contemporary disasters—”We made it through the recession-pandemic-wildfire-oligarchy by the seat of our pants”—and suddenly Wilder’s absurdist chronicle of…

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