Joan Marcus

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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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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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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Off-Broadway Review: “Oh Happy Day!” at the Public’s Martinson Hall (Closed Sunday, November 2, 2025)

October 21, 2025 | LGBTQ+, Off-Broadway, Queer > | "Oh Happy Day", Brian D. Coats (Lewis), choreography by Eboni Nichols, Cole Taylor (Understudy), Costume Design by Qween Jean, David Roberts, Donovan Louis Bazemore (Kevin), dramaturgy by Jack Phillips Moore, hair and wig design by Mia Neal, Jakob W. Plummer, Jayna Elise (Understudy), Joan Marcus, Jordan E. Cooper, Jordan E. Cooper (Keyshawn), Latrice Pace (Glory Divine), lighting design by Adam Honoré, makeup design by Kirk Cambridge Del-Pesche, Martinson Hall, Monét Thibou, music contracting by Sara Jacovino and Kristy Norter, music direction/supervision/orchestration/additional music by Daniel Rudin, New York Theatre Reviews, prop management by Samantha Llanes Gordon, Public Theater, scenic design by Luciana Stecconi, Sheléa Melody McDonald (Mighty Divine), sound design by Taylor J. Williams, Stevie Walker-Webb, Tamika Lawrence (Niecy), Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Tiffany Mann (Holy Divine)

Jordan E. Cooper’s “Oh Happy Day!” at The Public Theater promises to explore whether a queer man rejected and abused by the church can choose his own happiness on his own terms. It’s a radical question that deserves a radical answer. But Cooper delivers a morality tale about earning God’s love through forgiveness and obedience instead. His protagonist Keyshawn (played…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Other Americans” at the Public’s Anspacher Theater (Closed Sunday, October 19, 2025)

Actor and comedian John Leguizamo makes his playwrighting debut at The Public Theater with “The Other Americans”, which may certainly be billed as a new American Tragedy. Although it may draw some similarities to “Death of a Salesman”, featuring a dominant patriarch and the disintegration of the American Dream, the comparison ends there. The head of the Latino family that…

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Off-Broadway Review: “JOY: A New True Musical” at the Laura Pels Theatre (Closed Sunday, August 17, 2025)

August 5, 2025 | Uncategorized > | “JOY: A New True Musical”, Adam Grupper, Alan Wiggins, Allysa Shorte, Anna Louizos (Scenic Design), AnnMarie Milazzo, Betsy Wolfe, Brandon Espinoza, Brian Shepard, Briana Brooks, Charl Brown, Dana Costello, Daniel Lundberg (Sound Designer), David Bengali (Projection and Video Design), Gabriela Carrillo, Gaelen Gilliland, Gary Mickelson (Production Stage Manager), Honor Blue Savage, Jaygee Macapugay, Jerome Vivona, Jill Abramovitz, Jillian Zack (Music Director), Joan Marcus, Joseph Verlezza, Ken Davenport, Lael Van Keuren, Laura Pels Theatre, Liz Printz (Hair and Wig Design), Manuel Santos, Michał Kołaczkowski, New York Theatre Reviews, Nora Mae Dixon, Paul Whitty, Ryan Duncan, ShowTown Theatricals, Sydni Moon, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Tina McCartney (Costume Design), Yael Lubetzky (Lighting Designer)

The only effort Betsy Wolfe has to put forth to sell a new musical is to use those incredible vocal cords to mesmerize an audience, but in the “new true musical”, “Joy”, with a book by Ken Davenport and music and lyrics by Annmarie Milazzo, she has her work cut out for her. The show is based on the life…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Liberation” Misses the Mark at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (Closed Sunday, March 30, 2025)

There is nothing about liberation, nor is there anything liberating in Bess Wohl’s “Liberation” currently running at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. There is gratuitous and unnecessary nudity on stage that requires patrons to relinquish their phones before entering the theater. That nudity is completely unnecessary: the questions raised about the characters’…

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Broadway Review: “Cult of Love” at the Helen Hayes (Closed Sunday, February 2, 2025)

The title of Leslye Headland’s “Cult of Love” at the Helen Hayes demands attention. The Dahl family cult began in childhood: Diana (Shailene Woodley), Evie (Rebecca Henderson), Johnny (Christopher Sears), and Mark (Zachary Quinto) attended church faithfully with conservative Christian parents Ginny (Mare Cunningham) and Bill (David Rasche), vacationed annually at Big Meadows Lodge in Shenandoah National Park, never slept…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Deep History” at the Public Theater’s Shiva Theater (Closed Sunday, November 10, 2024)

October 25, 2024 | Off-Broadway > | "Deep History", Annette Mees, Buzz Cohen, David Finnigan, Joan Marcus, Joseph Verlezza, music by Reuben Ingall, New York Theatre Reviews, Public Theater, Shiva Theater, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, video design by Hayley Egan

The Public Theatre is currently offering the North American Premiere of “Deep History,” written and performed by David Finnigan, which addresses the critical subject of global warming and climate change. The playwright hales from Ngunnawal country in Australia and works with climate and earth scientists, to create theatre and games that may shed some light on the current situation the…

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Broadway Review: “Yellow Face” at the Todd Haimes Theatre (Closed on Sunday, November 24, 2024)

Something old becomes new again with the current production of “Yellow Face” by Roundabout Theatre, which has been produced nationally, and internationally since it opened off-Broadway at the Public Theatre in 2007. That premiere production was directed by Leigh Silverman, who takes the helm in this current incarnation on Broadway. Penned by David Henry Hwang, it is difficult to decide…

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