New York Theatre Reviews

Off-Broadway News/Preview: PLAYWRIGHT JOHN J. CASWELL RETURNS TO PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS WITH “JEROME,’ A HAUNTING STORY OF GAY LOVE IN THE ARIZONA DESERT

May 29, 2026 | LGBTQ+, Off-Broadway, Queer > | "Jerome", "Wet Brain", Artistic Director Adam Greenfield, David Roberts, Dustin Wells, HIV/AIDS, John J. Caswell, Ken Barnett, New York Theatre Reviews, Playwrights Horizons, Stephen Spinella, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Tyrone Mitchell Henderson

John J. Caswell Jr.’s “Jerome” arrives at Playwrights Horizons this May as both a homecoming and a reckoning. The acclaimed playwright returns to the theater where his previous work “Wet Brain” earned critical acclaim, this time bringing a deeply personal story rooted in his own Arizona childhood—a play about two aging gay men living in isolation in a ghost town,…

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Off-Broadway Review: Bedlam’s “Othello” at the West End Theatre (Through Sunday, May 31, 2026)

“Othello,” for the most part, is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s best works, and there have been many attempts at all levels of theatre development to present the lengthy tragedy. Few succeed, many are just plain mediocre, and some miserably fail to convey the complexity of the characters, that are simply embodied by the intriguing script and poetic language….

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Off-Broadway Review: “Animal Wisdom” at The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (Through Sunday, June 14, 2026)

Currently playing at the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at Pershing Square Signature Center, Heather Christian’s “Animal Wisdom” is a self-described “requiem within a requiem” that got terribly lost at the Mass’s Introit and never found its way back to the spiritual center it promised to disclose to the audience. Christian bills the piece as multiple things simultaneously: her life story,…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Indian Princesses” at The Atlantic Theater (Through Sunday, June 7, 2026)

The YMCA’s “Indian Princesses” program—rebranded in recent years as “Adventure Princesses”—bills itself as wholesome father-daughter bonding through Native-inspired activities. Playwright Eliana Theologides Rodriguez knows better. Her grandmother and great-grandmother were forced through assimilation schools designed to sever Indigenous families from their heritage, language, and identity. What the YMCA packages as “family fun” is cultural appropriation built on the machinery of…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Receptionist” at The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center (Through Sunday, June 7, 2026)

May 19, 2026 | Off-Broadway > | "The Receptionist", Adam Bock, costume design by Enver Chakartash, David Roberts, Irene Diamond Stage, Joan Marcus, Katie Finneran (Beverly Wilkins), Lighting design by Stacey Derosier, Mallori Johnson (Lorraine Taylor), Nael Nacer (Edward Raymond), New York Theatre Reviews, Pershing Square Signature Center, Sarah Benson, Scenic Design by dots, sound design by Bray Poor, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Will Pullen (Martin Dart)

Adam Bock’s “The Receptionist” arrived in 2007 as a searing response to the Bush administration’s torture memos and the Abu Ghraib revelations. The play asked audiences to consider Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil”—how ordinary people enable extraordinary harm through the simple machinery of their daily work. Beverly answers phones, brews coffee, and gossips with her colleague Lorraine…

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Off-Broadway Review: “KENREX” at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (Through Sunday, June 27, 2026)

May 3, 2026 | Off-Broadway, Thriller > | "KENREX", David Roberts, Ed Stambollouian, Jack Holden, John Patrick Elliott, lighting and video design by Joshua Pharo, Lucille Lortel Theatre, Manuel Harlan, New York Theatre Reviews, set and costume design by Anisha Fields, sound design by Giles Thomas, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, with movement direction by Sarah Golding

Situational ethics and moral ambiguity take center stage in “KENREX,” the true crime thriller currently running at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. On July 10, 1981, in Skidmore, Missouri (population 400), a town bully was shot to death in broad daylight. Sixty witnesses watched it happen. Not one would identify the killer. Jack Holden’s astonishing solo performance—playing prosecutor David Baird, Ken…

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Theatre News: New York City Center Announces Complete Casting for Encores! “La Cage aux Folles”

Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins joins the cast of La Cage Aux Folles (running June 17 – 28, 2026) as Jacqueline, along with Peter Francis James as Edouard, and Rachel Webb as Anne. They join previously announced Emmy Award winner Wayne Brady (Georges), Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner Billy Porter (Albin), Encores! alum Alaman Diadhiou (Jean-Michel), James Jackson Jr. (Jacob),…

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Broadway Review: “The Lost Boys” at the Palace Theatre (Currently On)

April 26, 2026 | Broadway, LGBTQ+, Music, Queer > | "The Lost Boys", aerial design by Gwyneth Larsen and Billy Mulholland, Ali Louis Bourzgui (David), Benjamin Pajak (Sam Emerson), Brian Flores (Marko), Caissie Levy (Lucy Emerson), casting by The Telsey Office's Kristian Charbonier CSA, Chris Hoch, costume design Fisher, David Hornsby, David Roberts, Dean Maupin (Paul), dramaturgy by Jenna Clark Embrey, electronic music design by Billy Jay Stein and Hiro Ida for Strange Cranium, fight direction by Rick Sordelet and Christian Sordelet, general management by Bespoke Theatricals with Mark Kaufman as Creative Consultant, hair & wig design by David Brian Brown, Jennifer Duka (Alan Frog), LGBTQ, LJ Benet (Michael Emerson), make-up design by Christina Grant, Maria Wirries (Star), Matthew Murphy, Michael Arden, Miguel Gil (Edgar Frog), Music Coordination by Kristy Norter, music direction by Julie McBride, New York Theatre Reviews, Paul Alexander Nolan (Max), production management by Juniper Street Productions, scenic design by Tony Award winner Dane Laffrey, Sean Grandillo (Dwayne), The Rescues, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited

The prologue to “The Lost Boys,” the new musical adaptation of the 1987 Warner Bros. film now at the Palace Theatre, immediately signals Michael Arden’s dark ambitions for this material. A police officer investigates the abandoned Coronado Ironworks factory by flashlight, interrupted by Ronald Reagan’s voice on a flickering television extolling “the strength and integrity of the family.” Before the…

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Broadway Review: “The Rocky Horror Show” at Studio 54 (Currently On)

“The Rocky Horror Show” featuring a book, music and lyrics by Richard O’Brien, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1973 and had its American debut in Los Angeles in 1974 where it ran for a successful nine months at several venues. It received a Broadway debut in 1975 at the Belasco Theatre but closed after three previews and forty-five…

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Broadway Review: “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at the Barrymore Theatre (Through Sunday, July 26, 2026)

April 25, 2026 | Broadway > | "Joe Turner's Come and Gone", Abigail Onwunali (Martha Loomis), associate director David Blackwel, August Wilson, Bradley Stryker (Rutherford Selig), Cedric "The Entertainer" (Seth Holly), Christopher Woodley and Jackson Edward Davis alternating (Reuben Scott), costume design by Paul Tazewell, David Roberts, Debbie Allen, hair and wig design by Mia Neal, Joshua Boone (Herald Loomis), Julieta Cervantes, Lighting design by Stacey Derosier, Maya Boyd (Molly Cunningham), New York Theatre Reviews, Nimene Sierra Wureh (Mattie Campbell), original music and music supervisor Steve Bargonetti, Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Bynum Walker), Savannah Commodore and Dominique Skye Turner alternating (Zonia Loomis), Scenic design by David Gallo, sound design by Justin Ellington, Taraji P. Henson (Bertha Holly), The Barrymore Theatre, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Tripp Taylor (Jeremy Furlow), vocal coach Dawn-Elin Fraser

Joe Turner was real. Brother of the Tennessee Governor, he would swoop down on Black men in the early 1900s – gambling, preaching, just walking down the road – and keep them enslaved on chain gangs for seven years. “They tell me Joe Turner’s come and gone / Got my man and gone” – the women sang it, a blues…

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