The Rise and Fall of ‘KPOP’
Why is this groundbreaking Broadway musical closing so soon? The tale of its creation, evolution, marketing, and critical reception offers plenty of clues—and some glimmers of hope.
Category Archives: Critic’s Notebook
In Louisville There Once Was a Festival
Every April for decades, producers, theatre mavens, and critics would gather to binge new plays at the Festival of New American Plays. But not this April.
What ‘Help’ Sees, and Who It Misses
A new theatre piece based on a Claudia Rankine essay may be educational for white audiences, but for Black audiences it’s merely relatable.
Kaddish for Steve: On the Jewishness of Sondheim
Sondheim’s work is elusive, ambivalent, internally conflicted, and deeply concerned with how stories are told. What could be more Jewish?
Gender and Sexuality on Broadway: You Oughta Know Better
Clocking the missed opportunities, missteps, and outright transphobic tropes in 3 currently running musicals.
A Statement With a Gun: Why ‘Assassins’ Doesn’t Need the Firepower
Classic Stage Company’s understated new production shows how Sondheim and Weidman’s triggering musical can play in an age of mass shootings and the Capitol insurrection.
Contagion, Soap, Immersion: London Theatre Unmasked
The city’s theatres are stumbling back to their feet, with mixed results and a seemingly cavalier attitude toward COVID.
Broadway May Be Back, But Who Is It For?
The proliferation of plays by Black creators on the Great White Way is cause for celebration, even as it raises some familiar questions about risk and representation.
Derek DelGaudio’s Biggest Trick: To Claim He’s Not Doing Magic
The creator of ‘In & Of Itself’ and new memoir, ‘Amoralman,’ has made a career of artful deception in the pursuit of a kind of theatrical truth.
‘Disclaimer’ Turns the Spotlight on Its Audience
Can a culturally appropriative murder mystery in the guise of a cooking class prevent war with Iran? Piehole’s interactive new Zoom play aims to find out.
