Public Theater

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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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: “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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Off-Broadway Review: “Hell’s Kitchen” at the Public’s Newman Theater (Closed Sunday, January 7, 2024 and Opens on Broadway Saturday, April 20, 2024)

December 26, 2023 | book review, hell's kitchen, Off-Broadway, the ally, the seven year > | "Hell's Kitchen", Aaron Nicholas Patterson, Alicia Keys, Badia Farha, Brandon Victor Dixon, Camille A. Brown, Chad Carstarphen, Chloe Davis, Chris Lee, Crystal Monee Hall, Danny Maly (Production Stage Manager), David Guzman, Dede Ayite (Costume Design), Desmond Sean Ellington, Donna Vivino, Foresight Theatrical (General Management), Gareth Owen (Sound Design), Gianna Harris, Jackie Leon, Jade Milan, Jakeim Hart, Joan Marcus, Joseph Verlezza, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Kristoffer Diaz, Lamont Walker II, Maleah Joi Moon, Mariand Torres, Mia Neal (hair and wig design), Michael Greif, Natasha Katz (Lighting Design), Newman Theater, Nico DeJesus, Niki Saludez, Onyxx Noel, Oscar Whitney Jr., Peter Nigrini (Projection Design), Public Theater, Raechelle Manalo, Reid Clarke, Robert Brill (Scenic Design), Sarah Parker, Shoshana Bean, Susan Oliveras, Theatre Reviews, Theatre Reviews Limited, Timothy L. Edwards, Vanessa Ferguson, William Roberson

Immediately after the first number in the new musical “Hell’s Kitchen” which is a loosely based auto biographical story about musician Alicia Keys growing up and coming of age during the late nineties in the New York City neighborhood which the show is named after, you get the feeling this might be headed to Broadway. That assumption would be right…

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Off-Broadway Review: “A Raisin in the Sun” at the Public Theater’s Newman Theater (Closed on Sunday, November 20, 2022)

November 14, 2022 | a man of, back the future, black no, Off-Broadway, on that day, public theater, purpose, the old man > | "A Raisin in the Sun", Almeria Campbell, Andie Burns, Bjorn Dupaty, Calvin Dutton, Camden McKinnon, Christopher Marquis Lindsay, Clarissa Marie Ligon, costume design by Karen Perry, David Roberts, fight and intimacy direction by Teniece Divya Johnson, Francois Battiste, hair and wig design by Nikiya Mathis, Jesse Pennington, Joan Marcus, John Clay III, lighting design by Alex Jainchill, Lorraine Hansberry, Mandi Masden, Mister Fitzgerald, movement direction by Rickey Tripp, N’yomi Stewart, Paige Gilbert, Perri Gaffney, Prop management by Claire M. Kavanah, Public Theater, Robert O'Hara, scenic design by Clint Ramos, Skyler Gallun, sound design by Elisheba Ittoop, sound system design by Will Pickens, The Newman Theater, Theatre Reviews Limited, Tonya Pinkins, Toussaint Battiste, Vann Dukes, video design by Brittany Bland

Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” debuted on Broadway in 1959 and appeared in London’s West End five months later. The musical adaptation “Raisin” won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1973 and the play had two Broadway revivals in 2004 and 2014. This powerful and ground-breaking story of a financially strapped Chicago South Side Black extended family’s…

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Off-Broadway Review: The Public Theater and National Black Theatre (NBT) Production of “Fat Ham” at the Public’s Anspacher Theater (Closed Sunday, July 31, 2022)

June 29, 2022 | a christmas carol, black no, hamlet, LGBTQ+, Off-Broadway, public, public theater, the lonely few > | "Fat Ham", Adrianna Mitchell, Alexandria Brienne Lewis, Anspacher Theater, Benja Kay Thomas, Billy Eugene Jones, Calvin Leon Smith, Choreography by Darrell Moultrie, Chris Herbie Holland, Costume design by Dominique Fawn Hill, David Roberts, Fight direction by Lisa Kopitsky, Hair and wig design by Earon Nealey, Illusions design by Skylar Fox, James iJames, Jereme Kyle serves as the Production Stage Manager, Joan Marcus, Lighting design by Stacey Derosier, Marcel Spears, Marquis D. Gibson, Matthew Elijah Webb, National Black Theatre, NBT, Nikki Crawford, Prop management by Claire M. Kavanah, Public Theater, RJ Foster, Ryan Kane serves as the Stage Manager, Saheem Ali, Scenic design by Maruti Evans, Sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman, Tanesha Gary, Theatre Reviews Limited

Things are going as well as they can as Juicy (a pensive, smart, and gay Marcel Spears who is thicc, beautiful, and lonely) and his cousin and oldest friend Tio (a relaxed and clever Chris Herbie Holland who is a stoner) set up for what appears to be his mother’s wedding reception at her house in North Carolina. Earlier in…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Mlima’s Tale” at the Public’s Martinson Hall

April 20, 2018 | Off-Broadway, public > | Africa, Chris Walker, Cookie Jordan, Darron L. West, Ito Aghayere, Ivory, Jennifer Moeller, Jo Bonney, Joan Marcus, Jojo Gonzalez, Justin Hicks, Kenya, Kevin Mambo, Lap Chi Chu, Lynn Nottage, Mlima's Tale, Public Theater, Riccardo Hernandez, Sahr Ngaujah, The Public Theater, Thomas Schall

“I’m Mlima of the Great Plains. Eldest of my clan. I was tracked for many days, taken by a poison arrow. Why are there so many of you?! Mumbi? Koko? Do you hear me?” Mighty Mlima, “Kenya’s most famous elephant,” – the old, large elephant “with extraordinary tusks” – is murdered for those tusks by the Somali poachers Raman and…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Miss You Like Hell” Redefines Redemption at the Public’s Newman Theater

After seeing her estranged daughter’s “veiled suicide threat” on her “anonymous” blog, Beatriz (the irrepressible Daphne Rubin-Vega) drives her truck “like a bat out of hell” from California to Philadelphia to take her daughter Olivia (the deeply reflective Gizel Jiménez) on a seven-day road trip. After some mild mid-adolescent protestations, Olivia – sixteen – agrees to the trip hoping, perhaps,…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Kings” at the Public Theater’s LuEsther Hall

March 12, 2018 | Off-Broadway, public, public theater, the florida man broadway, the nap > | "Kings", Anna Louizos, Aya Cash, CJ LaRoche, Eisa Davis, Gillian Jacobs, Jason Lyons, Joan Marcus, Lindsay Jones, LuEsther Hall, Paul Tazewell, Public Theater, Sarah Burgess, The Public Theater, Thomas Kail, Zach Grenier

If there was any doubt about the monumental influence of lobbyists on Members of Congress in Washington, D.C., that uncertainty was dispelled quickly after the tragic murder of seventeen students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday February 14, 2018. Barely had the nations bereavement process begun before the NRA and the massive “I…

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