David Roberts

Broadway Mini Review: “Becky Shaw” at Second Stage’s Helen Hayes Theatre (Through Sunday, June 14, 2026)

April 6, 2026 | Broadway > | Alden Ehrenreich, Becky Shaw, costume designer Kaye Voyce, David Roberts, Gina Gionfriddo, Helen Hayes Theatre, Lauren Patten, lighting designer Stacey Derosier, Linda Emond, Madeline Brewer, Marc J. Franklin, New York Theatre Reviews, Patrick Ball, scenic designer David Zinn, sound designer M.L. Dogg, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Trip Cullman

For six scenes, “Becky Shaw” unfolds in shadows – David Zinn’s dark grays, Stacey Derosier’s moody shafts of light illuminating secrets and lies. Then, in scene seven, everything floods with brightness: whites, creams, merciless clarity. It’s a design choice that mirrors Gina Gionfriddo’s thematic strategy – dragging uncomfortable truths into the light. “Unless you’re Gandhi or Jesus, you have a…

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Broadway Mini-Review: “Dog Day Afternoon” at the August Wilson Theatre (Through Sunday, July 12, 2026)

April 1, 2026 | Broadway, LGBTQ+, Queer > | "Dog Day Afternoon", Alex J. Gould, Andrea Syglowski, as well as Michael Kostroff, August Wilson Theatre, Barclay Stiff, Brian D. Coats, Carmen Zilles, Christopher Sears, costume design by Brenda Abbandandolo, Danny Johnson, David Roberts, Dom Martello, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Elizabeth Canavan, Esteban Andres Cruz, hair and wig design by Leah J. Loukas, Jeff Still, Jessica Hecht and Spencer Garrett, John Ortiz, Jon Bernthal, lighting design by Isabella Byrd, makeup design by Katie Gell, Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman, Michael Puzzo, Michael Shayan, New York Theatre Reviews, Paola Lázaro, Rupert Goold, scenic design by David Korins, sound design by Cody Spencer, Stephen Adly Guirgis, The Telsey Office, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Wilemina Olivia-Garcia

Eleven shows. Eleven days. Welcome to April’s theatrical marathon. What follows are compressed reviews – 300 words each, five shows per roundup – covering everything we’ve seen for Outer Critics Circle nominating and voting purposes. The format is leaner, but the critical standards remain unchanged: what works, what doesn’t, and why it matters. “ATTICA! ATTICA!” Sonny Amato’s battle cry turned…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Public Charge” at the Public’s Newman Theater (Through Sunday, April 12, 2026)

March 28, 2026 | Off-Broadway > | "Public Charge", Al Rodrigo, Armando Riesco, costume design by Haydee Zelideth, Dan Domingues, David Roberts, Deirdre Madigan, dialect coaching by Rosie Berrido, Doug Hughes, dramaturgy by Jack Phillips Moore, hair and wigs design by Earon Chew Nealey, Joan Marcus, John J. Concado, Julissa Reynoso, lighting design by Ben Stanton, Maggie Bofill, Marinda Anderson, Molly Foy, Nairoby Otero, Nate Betancourt, New York Theatre Reviews, original music by Carlos Henriquez, Paco Lozano, prop management by Samantha Llanes Gordon, Roxana Khan, scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado, sound design and original music by David Van Tieghem, The Newman Theater, The Public Theater, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, video design by Lucy MacKinnon, Yesenia Iglesias, Zabryna Guevara

At the center of Julissa Reynoso and Michael J. Chepiga’s “Public Charge,” now at the Public Theater, are two marginalized women who understood something the State Department establishment did not: that fifty years of failed policy toward Cuba needed to change. Julissa Reynoso (Zabryna Guevara), a Dominican immigrant and Obama campaign veteran, and Cheryl Mills (Marinda Anderson), Hillary Clinton’s Chief…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Cold War Choir Practice” at MCC Theater (Through Sunday, April 5, 2026)

The most devastating moment in Ro Reddick’s “Cold War Choir Practice” is not a Soviet missile strike. It is an American bomb, planted by an American cult, detonating on South Salina Street in Syracuse, New York. As flames consume Davis’s Candy Emporium and Atomic Fireballs rain down like radioactive fallout, 10-year-old Meek (Alana Raquel Bowers) watches her nightmare made literal…

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Off-Broadway Review: “You Got Older” at the Cherry Lane Theatre (Extended through Sunday, April 26, 2026)

In her program notes for “You Got Older,” playwright Clare Barron shares her “optimistic belief that there is profound comfort in just living privately together. Life and desire can persist even if all we can muster up is the courage and time to sit together with something unspeakable between us.” It’s a beautiful articulation of what this 2014 play—now receiving…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)” at the Public Theater’s Barbaralee Theater (Extended through Saturday, April 4, 2026)

March 22, 2026 | Off-Broadway > | "Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)", Anna Ziegler, Barbaralee Theater, Calvin Leon Smith (Haemon), Caroline Englander, Celia Keenan-Bolger (Chorus), costume design by Enver Chakartash, Dave Quay (Cop 2/Palace Guard), David Roberts, hair wigs and makeup design by Robert Pickens and Katie Gell, Haley Wong (Ismene), includes Ethan Dubin (Cop 3/Achilles), Joan Marcus, Julie Congress and Andrew Wade, Katie Kreisler (Cop 1/Proprietor), Katie Young, Kelsey Rainwater, lighting design by Jen Schriever, Lillis Meeh, New York Theatre Reviews, Patrick Mulryan, Prop management by Claire M. Kavanah, scenic design by David Zinn, sound design and composition by Daniel Kluger, Susannah Perkins (Antigone), The Public Theater, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Tony Shalhoub (Creon), Tyne Rafaeli

Anna Ziegler’s “Antigone (This Play I Read in High School),” currently at the Public Theater’s Barbaralee Theater, is not the Sophocles tragedy I taught in high school—but then again, neither is James Ijames’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Fat Ham” the Hamlet Shakespeare wrote. The difference is that Ijames trusts his reimagining enough to tell his story without constantly stopping to explain it….

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Off-Broadway Review: “My Joy is Heavy” at the New York Theatre Workshop (Extended through Sunday, April 12, 2026)

March 17, 2026 | Off-Broadway > | "My Joy is Heavy", Aaron Bahr on Trumpet/Voice, Abigail and Shaun Bengson, Ashley Baier on Drums/SPD/Voice, David Roberts, Marc J. Franklin, Matt Deitchman on Keyboard/Accordion/Voice, New York Theatre Reviews, New York Theatre Workshop, Nicole DeMaio on Tenor Sax/Baritone Sax/Flute/Clarinet/Voice, Noga Cabo on Guitar/Bass/Voice, NYTW, Rachel Chavkin, Reginald Chapman on Trombone/Tuba/Voice, The Bengsons, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited

Abigail and Shaun Bengson welcome the audience to New York Theatre Workshop for “My Joy is Heavy.” They introduce themselves, the band, the crew. They explain this is a relaxed house performance—you can do whatever is good for your body and nervous system, there are access tables in the back, and if you have to get up and pee, they…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Unknown” at Studio Seaview (Through Sunday, April 12, 2026)

March 13, 2026 | LGBTQ+, Off-Broadway, Queer > | "The Unknown", David Cale, David Roberts, Emilio Madrid, Jason Hindelang, Leigh Silverman, LGBTQ, New York Theatre Reviews, Scenic Design by Studio Bent Lighting Design by Cha See, Sean Hayes, Sound Design by Caroline Eng, Studio Seaview, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited

“Did You Write This Scene or Did I?” THE UNKNOWN at Studio Seaview When critics dismissed David Cale’s “The Unknown” as a solo thriller with a “tired twist,” they revealed more about their own jadedness than about the play’s achievement. At Studio Seaview, in a production directed by Leigh Silverman, Sean Hayes delivers a performance of such psychological precision and…

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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 (Closed 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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