A Few Good Men Broadway Review When “A Few Good Men” debuted on Broadway in 1989, this courtroom drama about the defense of two Marines charged with murdering a fellow soldier, was viewed as the latest in a long line of similarly conventional genre plays and movies; one critic labeled it a “yuppie version of ‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.’” But this was the breakthrough show for its author, Aaron Sorkin, who has become a one-man brand. So now it’s seen as the very first in a long line of Aaron Sorkin Productions, which include “The West Wing” on TV, “The Social Network” on film, and his adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” on stage. Sorkin’s brand prominence is surely the truest explanation for why this play, although often portentous and glib, and long overshadowed by the later blockbuster movie version, is getting a monumentally staged, occasionally riveting, but ultimately unmemorable Broadway revival. It opened tonight at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, starring Tom Blyth as the reluctant crusading lawyer, Krysta Rodriguez as his relentless goad, and Bradley Whitford as his nemesis. A legend has grown around Sorkin and his big break. He was working as a bartender in the Palace Theater during its run of “La Cage Aux Folles” when he had a telephone conversation with his sister Deborah, a lawyer with the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, about her latest case, the defense of a Marine who was a part of a group charged with hazing a fellow soldier on orders of a superior officer at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He started writing up the story on cocktail napkins at the theater bar, and then typing up his scrawls on an early Apple Computer, the Macintosh 512k, when he got back to his cramped studio apartment, which he shared in a complicated arrangement with two roommates. The resulting play, his Broadway playwriting debut at age 28, ran for a respectable 14 months, and led to the 1992 movie, his Hollywood screenwriting debut. Directed by Rob Reiner, the movie featured indelible performances by Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, and Jack Nicholson, who immortalized the line: “You can’t handle the truth.” It was nominated for four Academy Awards, and made $243 million on a budget of $40 million. Aaron Sorkin never had to bartend again. The problem with the legendary success of the movie (which is currently available on various streaming platforms), as well as Sorkin’s many subsequent successes, is that they set up expectations for a stage revival of this early work. There can be pleasure in Sorkin’s signature rapid-fire witty exchanges, but some of the dialogue is problematic, the worst of it at the expense of the female character. There is a visual majesty to the staging, but its massive cast in starched military uniforms sometimes feel swallowed up in Dane Laffrey’s imposing, tower-high set on the cavernous stage of the Vivian Beaumont, flanked by industrial-sized flags of the United States of America and the United States Marine Corps. They are apparently going for patriotic here, but it was hard to take in the overwhelming scale, the stark pillars and the harsh lighting and not think of fascist architecture. Like any courtroom drama or procedural, the story is easy to get caught up in, but there are problems here too. Tom Blyth, a screen actor best known for his starring role in the fifth Hunger Games movie, is making his Broadway debut as Lieutenant Junior Grade Daniel Kaffee, a Harvard Law School graduate who has served in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps for only nine months, and would rather be playing softball. Easy-going and popular, he is admired for the speed with which he turns all his cases into plea bargains. He is assigned the defense of the two marines who beat up another soldier, resulting in his death, with the expectation that this will be just another plea bargain. Instead, he pursues it through the ups and downs of the case. In the process, we’re meant to see that he first admits his i (he had a successful father who died young, who he fears he can’t measure up to) and then finally takes his job seriously. He accomplishes this at the urging of Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway (portrayed by Krysta Rodriguez), who feels passionate from the start that the two young marines were not acting on their own. She suspects they were following orders to commit a “Code Red,” an informal disciplinary action for marines who fail to measure up. Pfc William Santiago’s infractions included an inability to complete a run without collapsing; he also went outside the chain of command to write letters requesting that he be transferred. Joanne pushed unsuccessfully to be assigned to defend the men with the officer who does the assigning, Capt. Isaac Whitaker (Billy Eugene Jones), in one of the most cringe-worthy exchanges of the play, if not of Sorkin’s career. “Do you always talk as if your dialogue was written by someone who’s not very good at it?” Whitaker asks her a few lines in. “I’m sorry if my over-eagerness is grating,” she replies. “It’s not, it’s endearing. You could have a career as a cartoon squirrel.” Joanne as annoying is a constant motif in the play (far more than in the movie), making her the butt of many jokes.. Nick Blaemire as Lt. Sam Weinberg is the third lawyer on the team, Danny’s buddy, a good sounding board and a wit, if comically hapless. The three go up against Lieutenant Colonel Nathan R. Jessep, the commander whom Joanne suspects of ordering the Code Red and then covering it up. Danny surmises that the hard-nosed officer sees his team as “ the pushy broad, the smart Jew, and the Harvard mouth.” It strikes me as difficult for the audience to see them as much more complex than that either, in part because of the way the characters are written, but also (with the exception of Blaemire) the way they are performed. Colonel Jessep, the villain of the story, is portrayed by Bradley Whitford. Thirty-six years ago, in his Broadway debut, Whitford portrayed Danny (understudy and then replacement) in the original production. He seems better suited for a drily witty regular guy than a fearsome, humorless martinet, but it’s possible my view is colored by the seven seasons I spent watching him as Josh Lyman in “The West Wing.a” Michael Arden, the Tony-winning director who has had Broadway success with such disparate shows as “Parade,” “Happy Ending,” and “The Lost Boys,” has told interviewers that he wanted to mount “A Few Good Men” because it speaks to the present day. He cited the video made by Six Democratic lawmakers, all veterans of the military and the intelligence services, telling current members of the military that they can and should refuse illegal orders. There is one passage in the play that brings up the Nazis in Nuremberg in passing. But I just don’t see the play as effectively addressing this issue — it’s too bogged down in the details of the specific case. If anything, it’s Colonel Jessep who makes the most direct and persuasive argument – that there is no such thing as an illegal order, when lives are at stake. “We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline.” A Few Good Men Vivian Beaumont Theater through January 10, 2027 Running time: 2 hours and 35 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission. Tickets: $114 – $421 Written by Aaron Sorkin Directed by Michael Arden Scenic design by Dane Laffrey; costume design by Alejo Vietti; lighting design by Japhy Weideman; sound design by Joshua D. Reid; hair and wig design by Cookie Jordan; make-up design by Kirk Cambridge-Del Pesche Cast: Bradley Whitford as LtCol Nathan R. Jessep, Tom Blyth as LTJG Daniel Kaffee, Krysta Rodriguez as LCDR Joanne Galloway, Stephanie Berry as ‘Judge Randolph,’ Nick Blaemire as ‘Lt. Sam Weinberg,’ Michael Braugher as ‘Cpl. Jeffrey Howard,’ Christopher Gurr as ‘Dr. Stone,’ Billy Eugene Jones as ‘Capt. Isaac Whitaker,’ Collin Kelly-Sordelet as ‘Pfc. Louden Downey,’ Shunté Lofton as ‘Sentry/Orderly,’ Michael Oberholtzer as ‘Capt. Jack Ross,’ Lavel Schley as ‘Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson,’ Thom Sesma as ‘Capt. Matthew Markinson,’ Daniel Velez as ‘Pfc William Santiago,’ John Zdrojeski as ‘Lt. Jonathan Kendrick,’ with Brendan Evan Behm, Alex Ekker, Drew Elhamalawy, Miles Fowler, Quentin Nguyen-duy, and Stephen Michael Spencer as ‘Marine/Military Personnel,’ Understudies: Peter Bradbury, Tim Creavin, Mahira Kakkar, and Austin Phillips https://newyorktheater.me/2026/10/29/a-few-good-men-broadway-review/ #fewgood #goodmen #aaronsorkin #sorkinproductions #vivianbeaumont #cainemutiny #socialnetwork #westwing #beaumonttheater #tomblyth #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Theater Blog Roundup: Theater artists fighting for Democracy The Midterm Elections are upon us, and theater artists are urging us to vote (see Hamilton remix in video below.) But they have been fighting for democracy in many ways, not least on stage. Paula Cizmar writes about Women+ On the Edge of Democracy, 36 short plays being performed in theaters throughout the nation that together form a “collective portrait of a nation in doubt and transformation.” In “While Powerful Institutions Play It Safe, Off-Broadway Gets Political,” published in The Hat, Tim Teeman provides an awe-inspiring list of such shows, and talks to Lynn Nottage, Heidi Schreck, Oskar Eustis and others about “democracy, authoritarianism, resistance—and what a play can actually accomplish.” Offstage, the National Queer Theater updates its lawsuit against the Trump administration, while others talk about their public protests or urge readers to think about the performing arts in a different way. Also below are links to some of the stalwart theater bloggers The Vote dance above at Grand Central Terminal is by Pilobolus Don Shewey writes about his week in resistance: “The most satisfying way to manage living with the daily outrages perpetrated by a government run by corrupt, incompetent fascists is collective action. Rise and Resist conducts both ad hoc political demonstrations and regular weekly protests that have become part of my ongoing spiritual practice.” View this post on Instagram In Inside Higher Ed, Charlotte M. Canning and Michael Sy Uy write that The Performing Arts Are the New Civics: The performing arts can complement civics education by cultivating the practices of participatory deliberation, empathy and public engagement. In OnStage Blog, Chris Peterson writes about how “Trump’s New College Loan Rule Puts Theatre Degrees at Risk Every Labor Day, Jan Simpson’in her Broadway & Me blog, has celebrated the labor of a different category of theater worker. These have included ushers, union leaders, stage managers, set designers, producers, drama teachers, composers, casting directors, actors and back office workers from the folks who clean the theaters and order the supplies to the ones who work in the box office or manage the marketing campaigns. This year, she saluted (and listed) a half dozen theater podcasters. In another post, she offers A Sampling of My Fall Preview Wish List (eight shows in all) In Broadway Journal, Philip Boroff details “Hell’s Kitchen’s Broadway Buyout,” n unusual deal, in which “an intellectual-property investment company has acquired the rights to revenue from the Broadway production of the Alicia Keys musical Hell’s Kitchen, which closed in February at a loss.” Call Me Adam interviews Nick Blaemire, a songwriter and actor who is currently in the cast of “A Few Good Men” on Broadway., though Adam focuses on the revival of Nick’s musical “Soon.” What is the hardest thing you’ve had to do in your career or life thus far? Wait. I am not a patient person, and I’ve had years without work. But every time I’ve thought about quitting or doing something else an amazing opportunity has arisen to pull me back in… To celebrate his 19 years of writing what he calls his newsletter, producer Ken Davenport lists and links to his 19 most-popular posts (out of the more than 6,000 he’s put together) #1: 100 QUOTES EVERY THEATER PRODUCER, PLAYWRIGHT, DIRECTOR, ACTOR, ETC. MUST READ. #4: TOP 100 THEATER BOOKS EVERY THEATERMAKER SHOULD READ; #14: 10 QUESTIONS FOR A BROADWAY PRO: A FEW NOTES FROM LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA (This was 2011. Before Hamilton. I knew he was something special.) https://newyorktheater.me/2026/10/28/theater-blog-roundup-theater-artists-fighting-for-democracy/ #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Review: Memoriam, Southwark Playhouse L-R Rachel Barry, Ben Wiggins and Beverley Klein in Memoriam, Southwark Playhouse. Photo: Charlie Flint If scientists could extract memories and replay them through virtual reality headsets for others to experience, whose memories would be worth preserving and who benefits? That’s the premise of Noga Flaishon’s play Memoriam at the Southwark Playhouse. Rachel (Rachel Barry) works at the company that preserves memories and then puts an edited version up for rent for people to experience. It’s an expensive process, and the company needs its next big hit, which is when Rachel’s boss Chris (Ben Wiggins) finds out that her grandma Rivka (Beverley Klein) is now the last living holocaust survivor. Rachel’s desire to preserve important memories is mixed with a desire to do well at work, but her brother David (Ashley Margolis) is dead set against it. While such an idea of commercialisation might seem like sci-fi (currently), it isn’t that different to how social media companies make money out of users posting ‘records ‘ of ‘memories’ of what they have been up to. But Memoriam is about more than the moral debate; it’s about a family and passing on the stories that have shaped it. The arguments about whether Rivka should or shouldn’t allow her memories to be extracted ignite rivalry between the siblings. The family scenes and moral debates about commercialising the memories are where the play really flies. Beverley Klein is particularly joyful to watch as the warm but firm Rivka. There are some witty lines peppered throughout the play, balancing the tension with humour. But while there is a naturalness to the family and their interactions – particularly the siblings’ ability to press each other’s buttons – Rachel’s boss Chris feels more problematic. The character veers towards a stereotypical corporate villain; it is almost cartoonish, where a gentler manipulator would have likely had more of a punch. A separate storyline about a mother selling a memory of childbirth is also clunky. It seems to be a device to explain the process of the extraction and sanitising of memories rather than adding anything material to the story. Final thoughts Memoriam presents an interesting debate about the role of memories in history and who has the right to them. It doesn’t all quite work, but I’m giving it 3 and a half stars. Memoriam, Southwark Playhouse Written by Noga Flaishon Directed by Daniel Goldman Cast includes: Rachel Barry and Beverley Klein Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes with no interval. Booking until 21 November, 2026 You might also like Review: Ilford Boy, Donmar Warehouse, booking until 29 November Off West End: Theatre on a budget without compromising the view Review: Some Woman, National Theatre, booking until 21 November Review: The Hungry Ghost, Bush Theatre, booking until 31 October Review: Golden Boy, Almeida Theatre, booking until 31 October Rev. Stan’s theatre likes and dislikes https://revstanstheatreblog.co.uk/2026/10/27/review-memoriam-southwark-playhouse/ #southwarkplayhouse #review #beverleyklein #rachelbarry #memoriam #benwiggins #novemberreview #octoberreview #nogaflaishon #rivka #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Review: The Lives of Others, Adelphi Theatre VIDEO TRANSCRIPT It feels a while since I saw a play in which the staging had the wow factor. Did the play of The Lives of Others based on the film have a similar impact? With this cast, Keira Knightley, Luke Thompson, Stephen Dillane, and director Robert Ike, I went in with very high expectations, and pleased to say that those expectations were definitely met. What I loved about the film is that it’s so tense. This is the story of covert surveillance of citizens. It’s set in East Berlin after the Second World War. A playwright and his actor girlfriend have had their apartment bugged. They’re being watched by the authorities to see if they’re enemies of the state. And there were times when I just wanted to shout at them, tell them not to speak because they are being watched and listened to in every aspect of their life. Stephen Dillane plays the surveillance operator. The way that his presence is added into the action – he’s supposed to be in a room off in the attic of the apartment where they live – and he’s injected into the action it’s very imaginative. The staging is fantastic. The set rotates at times. It’s almost the entire apartment. You can see into certain rooms. It’s split apart at other times to create space for different locations. It is really imaginatively done, and it definitely has the wow factor. The acting is is superb. All of them are at the top of their game. And this has an absolutely massive cast. A lot of extras on stage playing in the crowd scenes. It’s quite incredible when you see them all line up at the end. I loved this. I thought it was an absolutely superb production, a fantastic adaptation of a really good film, and I’m giving it a big fat five stars . Review: The Lives of Others, Adelphi Theatre Adapted from Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck’s film by Robert Icke Directed by Robert Icke Starring: Keira Knightley, Luke Thompson and Stephen Dillane Running time: 2 hours and 10 minutes with no interval Booking until 9 January, 2027 You might also like Review: Memoriam, Southwark Playhouse, booking until 21 November Review: Ilford Boy, Donmar Warehouse, booking until 29 November Off West End: Theatre on a budget without compromising the view Review: Some Woman, National Theatre, booking until 21 November Review: The Hungry Ghost, Bush Theatre, booking until 31 October Review: Golden Boy, Almeida Theatre, booking until 31 October Rev. Stan’s theatre likes and dislikes https://revstanstheatreblog.co.uk/2026/10/27/review-the-lives-of-others-adelphi-theatre/ #review #adelphitheatre #novemberreview #octoberreview #lives #stephendillane #keiraknightley #lukethompson #roberticke #bushtheatre #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Rent 30th anniversary concert Among the stills below taken from the Rent 30th anniversary concert: Aaron Tveit and Rachel Zegler as Roger and Mimi sing “Without You,” then Tveit and Neil Patrick Harris as Mark sing “You’re living in America at the end of the millennium.” But wait: Aaron Tveit was 12 years old when “Rent” opened on Broadway on April 29, 1996, and Rachel Zegler was seven years old when it ended its Broadway run on September 7, 2008; she wasn’t living in America at the end of the millennium at all, and never performed in “Rent” anywhere before the concert last night at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theater. But she was the only one of the 67 members of the cast who had not performed in “Rent” somewhere, sometime at least once. Tveit performed as Roger for three days in 2010 at a star-studded production at the Hollywood Bowl, directed by Neil Patrick Harris, who had performed as Mark, among other places, in the second national tour of “Rent” in 1997. Jordan Fisher and Kiersey Clemons, who were among the several pairs to duet in “Tango Maureen” as Mark and Joanne, never performed the roles on Broadway (Clemons has never been on Broadway) but they did play those roles at “Rent: Live!,” the Fox TV broadcast on January 27, 2019. Nicholas Christopher , who made his Off-Broadway debut portraying Tom Collins in the 2011 production of Rent at New World Stages, sang “I’ll Cover You” last night in a duet with Wilson Cruz, who was the second of 15 performers to portray Angel Schunard on Broadway. Twelve of the fifteen original Broadway cast members did perform at the concert. It happened to be Anthony Rapp’s 55th birthday last night, which seems fitting. The entire event felt like a birthday party, a chance to celebrate (and raise money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS), rather than a revival that could allow for any kind of critical reassessment. There were moments that were undeniably thrilling, but with so many performers crowding the stage — three or more portraying the same character during a number, often taking over for one another mid-song – the event served less as a coherent work of theater than an exercise in nostalgia and spot-the-star. (There was Norbert Leo Butz, who made his Broadway debut as one of the 27 performers to portray Roger Davis on Broadway, in the sort-of-death scene (“Your Eyes”) with Tamyra Gray, who made her Broadway debut one of the 23 to portray Mimi Marquez. Was that Telly Leung; was he in “Rent”? Yes as Angel replacement on Broadway 2006) What the “Rent” 30th anniversary concert demonstrated was the continuing affection for the show, at least among the many performers who were cast in it over the years, and among the audience who attended, either in person or for the live stream. The “pre-show” in the live stream was a largely haphazard affair, with Jay Armstrong Johnson and Troy Iwata, current stars of “Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody,” sounding at times like hosts at a telethon, plugging “Rent” merch and announcing new donors to Broadway Cares, and the interviews they and Ricki Lake conducted soliciting encomiums that felt cult-like. “Were you a Renthead?” Lake asked Neil Patrick Harris. “I was a Renthead in theory but I lived in LA, so I didn’t have much interest in sitting for 11 hours to grab a lottery ticket.” “But you loved the material,” she prompted. “It spoke to you. You wanted to play Mark.” “Yeah, all of the above,” he agreed, and waxed eloquent. “It was a crisis musical that was just wrought with love and the anthemic lyrics that Jonathan came up with that still live on today.” “Yeah, that stand the test of time.” “’No day but today’ Hello?” But then he offered a little perspective on that “no day but today” when Lake asked him about his two children, who are sixteen years old. “I asked Harper if she wanted the link to the live feed. And she said ‘oh my gosh, that sounds like so fun, but I have homework and other things’.” Anthony Rapp as Mark Jordan Fisher and Kiersey Clemons in “Tango Maureen” Daphne Rubin-Vega and Adam Pascal in Light My Candle Idina Menzel in “Over the Moon” Aaron Tveit and Rachel Zegler in “Without You” Neil Patrick Harris and Aaron Tveit in “What You Own” Nicholas Christopher and Wilson Cruz in “I’ll Cover You” Tamyra Gray and Norbert Leo Butz in “Your Eyes” https://newyorktheater.me/2026/10/27/rent-30th-anniversary-concert/ #broadway #rent #anniversaryconcert #aarontveit #rachelzegler #neilpatrick #patrickharris #mark #roger #richardrodgers #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Back on Broadway: Jonathan Groff, Tom Hanks and Kelli O’Hara. Billy Crystal, Benjamin Button, Bill Irwin Reviewed. Stageworthy News of the Week. This coming week promises horror and politics (with some overlap), and two grand concerts of beloved Broadway shows: The 30th anniversary of “Rent” tonight only, and the New York City Center revival of “In The Heights” which begins Wednesday for a two-week run that is nearly sold out, with remaining tickets bracingly expensive. “Rent” in person is completely sold out, but available as digital theater for $30. Also coming this week, the Broadway opening of “A Few Good Men.” (Watch Bradley Whitford below talk about his returning to the same play in which he made his Broadway debut more than three decades ago.) This week past week saw the opening of three other Broadway shows, and much beyond Broadway. Excerpts from my five reviews, below. The Week in New York Theater Reviews 860 The title of Billy Crystal’s solo show is the address of his house on Chautauqua Boulevard in the L.A. neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, which burned to the ground along with thousands of others in the Palisades Fire of January, 2025. He had lived there with his family for 46 years. Only about a third of “860” is directly about the fire and its aftermath…Most of “860” is a memoir, primarily highlights from Crystal’s career as an actor and comedian. It is studded with stars…there is a reason Crystal became a celebrity; he is good at what he does; a practiced storyteller, a funny man. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button In this musical about a man who is born old and grows younger with each passing year, a company of 15 actor-musicians seemed to be having a stomping good time playing the lively Celtic-flavored folk-rock score and singing the clever lyrics – but in an accent coached to be a challenge for Americans to decipher….if New York theatergoers might not be able to make sense of every line and lyric, it’s easy to get into the spirit of the show. The Imaginary Invalid “Health is laughter,” a character says in Moliere’s 353-year-old comedy, which America’s foremost stage clown Bill Irwin has brought back to Broadway for the first time in six decades, in a starry, gorgeously designed production… If Irwin’s adaptation of “The Imaginary Invalid,” directed by Brandon J. Dirden, is too stylized for many of the laughs to have landed for me, Moliere’s excoriating satire about doctors and the medical profession still resonates. Aftermath In this play about a freelance journalist who has survived a kidnapping by the Taliban in Afghanistan, David Zax, a former freelance journalist making his Off-Broadway playwriting debut, uses this shockingly common practice by the Taliban as background for a family drama that attempts to address some of the same moral issues that Arthur Miller explored in his 1947 Broadway play “All My Sons.” But “Aftermath,” opening tonight at A.R.T./NY, is too flawed a play for the issues to hit home anywhere near as effectively. The Dog Show If your dog knew English, according to “The Dog Show,” they would have some choice words for you about playing fetch (“if you want the ball so much, why do you keep throwing it?”)… They would explain to you why they peed on your carpet (“I had a very good reason, which was that I had to pee and happened to be on the carpet at the time.”)In “The Dog Show,” four human performers read monologues from music stands written by David Javerbaum (writer for “The Daily Show,” “Act of God” on Broadway) that purport to give the perspective of a wide variety of canines, with wildly uneven results – some funny, some sweet, some cloying. The Week in New York Theater News Tom Hanks and Kelli O’Hara will star on Broadway in“This World of Tomorrow” in Fall 2027. My review when it was at The Shed: Hanks co-wrote this quaint, unremarkable time-traveling play adapted from his book of short stories, and stars as Bert Allenberry, a tech entrepreneur from the year 2089, who travels back to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, where he spots Carmen Perry (Kelli O’Hara) and becomes besotted with her, returning again and again to June 8, 1939 to spend time with her. Jonathan Groff will portray an entire community on Broadway in Jessica Dickey’s The Amish Project, beginning February 10 at the Broadhurst Theater (no opening date yet.) The play is an intimate portrait of a place and a community channeled through a single performer, inspired by the true story of a mass shooting in a one room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2006. The play was first produced at the (late, lamented) New York International Fringe Festival almost two decades ago, and since has been produced in regional theaters around the country. This is yet another new turn for a versatile actor who just finished playing Bobby Darin in Just In Time, and is currently performing as Rosalind in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of As You Like It.” “Triumph” by Caryl Churchill has been extended through Nov. 3 (appropriately Election Day.) See it! It’s brief. It’s free. It’s funny. It compares Trump — convincingly! — to Nero and Caligula “Small Mouth Sounds” casts — in 2016 (above) and 2026 (below) The impossibly starry production of Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds will begin performances on Wednesday, February 10, 2027, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, with opening night set for Thursday, March 11. My review of the 2016 Ars Nova production about six characters who are attending a silent retreat , which contains almost no dialogue. I called it a remarkable work of theater. Zoom conversation: October 27 3 pm ET. Click here to register for free. Broadway contributed $21 billion to New York City economy last season even as production costs soared, according to new Broadway League report. The greater share of that, $12 billion, was from tourists. (Broadway League, Deadline) 4 Objects That Measure the Life of ‘Rent’ from the Jonathan Larson Archives. (NYTimes) The Week’s Theater Video Bradley Whitford: “It’s a very strange time machine” to be performing in “A Few Good Men” more than three decades after making his Broadway debut in the original production of Aaron Sorkin’s play. “It was a huge break. My dressing room was larger than my apartment.” Sherri Shepherd on being the first Black female Genie in “Aladdin” https://newyorktheater.me/2026/10/26/stageworthy-news-of-the-week-56/ #billirwin #benjaminbutton #newyork #broadway #billycrystal #imaginaryinvalid #back #rent #good #citycenter #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Review: Ilford Boy, Donmar Warehouse VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Sometimes theatre can feel like it’s trying to smash you over the head with a sledgehammer when talking about particular issues. And one of the things I particularly liked about Ilford Boy at the Darmar Warehouse is that yes, it does cover really big issues like homophobia and racism, but it does it in a far more subtle way. The story is the story, and there is this underlying theme that threads through it. It’s in the little comments that people make just the way it would be in real life, and it’s all the more powerful for it, I felt. Now, this is a play that is a coming-of-age drama. It’s a family drama, and I really enjoyed it, as you can probably tell It’s very witty. The characters are all really well drawn, and I can highly recommend it. I think it’s a brilliant piece of theatre and a brilliant piece of writing. Postscript addition: I’m giving it five stars Ilford Boy, Donmar Warehouse Written by Danny Lee Wynter Directed by Tim Sheader Cast includes: Leo Whitfield Harris, Ria Zmitrowicz, Craig Stein and Lindsey Coulson. Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes, including an interval Booking until 28 November, 2026. You might also like… Off West End: Theatre on a budget without compromising the view Video review: Some Woman, National Theatre, booking until 21 November Review: The Hungry Ghost, Bush Theatre, booking until 31 October Review: Golden Boy, Almeida Theatre, booking until 31 October Rev. Stan’s theatre likes and dislikes https://revstanstheatreblog.co.uk/2026/10/25/review-ilford-boy-donmar-warehouse/ #donmarwarehouse #ilfordboy #review #novemberreview #octoberreview #goldenboy #almeidatheatre #bushtheatre #nationaltheatre #riazmitrowicz #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

The Dog Show Review If your dog knew English, according to “The Dog Show,” they would have some choice words for you about playing fetch (“if you want the ball so much, why do you keep throwing it?”), and about taking baths (“I would think after like 20 times of watching me desperately trying to leap out of the sink while you rub some kind of bizarro lavender cream all over me, at some point you would take the hint.”) They would explain to you why they peed on your carpet (“I had a very good reason, which was that I had to pee and happened to be on the carpet at the time.”) In “The Dog Show,” four human performers read monologues from music stands written by David Javerbaum (writer for “The Daily Show,” “Act of God” on Broadway) that purport to give the perspective of a wide variety of canines, with wildly uneven results – some funny, some sweet, some cloying. The dogs vary by breed, personality, even by occupation and attainment: We hear from a seeing-eye dog, therapy dog, sled dog, Westminster Dog Show champion, a psychic dog that sniffs out people’s secrets (“You had a chocolate glazed donut and a large iced cafe mocha for breakfast last Wednesday.”) Lassie makes a cameo (“When I first got famous, I was a real bitch”—one of the mercifully few dog puns in the show.) Jordan Matthew Brown, who makes the most effort to act like a dog, portrays a German shepherd police dog named Rambo, addressing a group of recalcitrant youth: “I’m here to scare you straight, because I’ve seen this story before and I know how it ends. With my teeth around your legs and you spending the rest of your life in a cage, which is actually okay for a while, but then it gets old.” I wondered during “The Dog Show,” which started 15 minutes late and seemed to be giving an off performance at the one I attended, how dogs would react. Dogs do have a sense of humor – Charles Darwin believed that – but it’s different from ours, hence the differing attitude toward dressing them up in funny costumes. (“It’s not funny and drives me nuts…Dogs are nudists”) There was a dog at the Triad (a gimmick of the production is there is a pet seat for sale), but it seemed oblivious. The Dog Show Triad Theater through November 29 Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission Tickets: $49.00 – $99.00. Written by David Javerbaum Directed by Richard Israel Cast: Jordan Matthew Brown,Gizel Jimenez, Angela Reed, AJ Shively https://newyorktheater.me/2026/10/25/the-dog-show-review/ #dogshow #dailyshow #davidjaverbaum #showtriad #jordanmatthew #westminsterdog #matthewbrown #act #triadtheater #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Aftermath Review In this play about a freelance journalist who has survived a kidnapping by the Taliban in Afghanistan, David Zax, a former freelance journalist making his Off-Broadway playwriting debut, uses this shockingly common practice by the Taliban as background for a family drama that attempts to address some of the same moral issues that Arthur Miller explored in his 1947 Broadway play “All My Sons.” But “Aftermath,” opening tonight at A.R.T./NY, is too flawed a play for the issues to hit home anywhere near as effectively. It is September, 2011, and Joshua (Danny Kornfeld) has spent the last six weeks in his parents’ home in the affluent Kalorama neighborhood in Washington D.C., recovering from his ordeal. Concerned about a possible trigger to “re-traumatization,” his mother Linda (Jill Stern) is surprised and concerned that Josh has invited over Mina (Awesta Zarif), an Afghanistan-born British journalist whom he met in Kabul and who is now in Washington temporarily for work. In bits and pieces, we learn that Josh was kidnapped while deliberately venturing way beyond the relative safety of Kabul into a dangerous region; that Mina’s cousin, who was acting as Josh’s interpreter, was killed; and that Josh was able to escape. What the play eventually reveals is that that’s not the whole story. The central conflict in “Aftermath” turns out to be between Josh and his father Allan (Steven Skybell.) Josh wants to return as soon as possible to Afghanistan, to continue to report stories “that make a difference.” Allan wants him to stay home. “After what we went through? Now is a time to think about family, not Afghan villagers.” “Why do these people matter less?” “Than your mother and father?!” Underlying the conflict is Josh’s disapproval of his father for having given up his youthful ideals to make money as a lobbyist. He accuses Allan of being selfish. It’s certainly bracing to hear Allan talk about “what we went through,” as if he was more concerned about the effect of his son’s kidnapping on himself than on his son. But, as the story unfolds (with revelations I won’t spoil), we realize that both father and son took actions in the name of doing good that didn’t take into account the consequences for other people. They were hypocritically self-centered in a way that (I think the playwright wants us to see) reflects their privilege. Like the characters he writes about, the playwright is undeniably well-meaning. But his script reportedly began as his MFA thesis at NYU and, although he has been developing it in the decade since, it contains some tell-tale signs of an inexperienced dramatist, such as poorly motivated but dramatically convenient character exits. Much more importantly, Josh is supposed to be 28 years old, and a working journalist who reported from a war zone for such prestigious publications as Rolling Stone magazine; he had the wits and the grit to survive as a hostage.. Yet his whiny attacks on his father’s career make him sound like a rebellious teenager who hasn’t had to make his way in the world yet. And, if it might make sense for Josh to try to minimalize the traumatic experience of his kidnapping, the play does so too, which has the effect of trivializing it. (Other works of theater that involved a kidnapping have understood the importance of offering at least a sense of the visceral experience, among them “Kid Victory,”even thought it too focuses on the aftermath.) All four of the cast members of “Aftermath” are reliable stage veterans who often transcend the limitations of the script, helping the production feel at times like the modern tragedy it aspires to be. Each ultimately calls forth one of the emotions of characters in classic tragedy: Jill Stern pathos, Awesta Zarif anger, Steven Skybell resentment, and Danny Kornfeld, finally, a sniveling kind of remorse. Aftermath A.R.T./NY through November 8 Running time: 110 minutes with no intermission Tickets: $63-$83 Written by David Zax Directed by Colton Pometta. Lighting by Lucrecia Briceño, costumes by Räyya Gracy, scenic design by Chen-Wei Liao, and sound design by Stan Mathabane. Cast: Danny Kornfeld as Joshua, Steven Skybell as Allan, Jill Stern as Linda, and Awesta Zarif as Mina Photographs by Marc J. Franklin https://newyorktheater.me/2026/10/24/aftermath-review/ #josh #davidzax #arthurmiller #allan #dannykornfeld #washington #awestazarif #jillstern #afghanistan #kabul #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Review: Some Woman, National Theatre VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: There’s a scene towards the end of Some Woman at the National Theatre, where I sat there thinking, “You’re going down this road, are you? You’re really going down this road.” It had been quite an interesting play up until that point, had some interesting ideas, but it just got a little bit silly, a little bit OTT. It’s the story of an ordinary woman, played by Anne Marie Duff, who has given up a potentially big career to raise a family, and is doing less interesting work. She’s divorced, and she’s very put upon, downtrodden; everybody takes her for granted a bit. And the premise of the play is that she finds her voice after this incident that happens at her local train station. That comes rather late in the proceedings, a little bit too late for my liking. And this silliness towards the end, it just got me thinking about all the other things that just didn’t quite add up and didn’t quite make sense. So it sort of ruined it a bit for me, really – acting aside, that is; I think the acting was all great. It’s a really good cast, and I don’t think all the actors are used as well as they as well as they could be. So yeah, it’s a bit of a disappointment for me. Some Woman, National Theatre Written by Helen Edmundson Directed by Blanche McIntyre Starring: Anne-Marie Duff Running time: 1 hour and 50 minutes with no interval Booking until 21 November, 2026 You might also like: Review: Dolly, Omnibus Theatre booking until 7 November Off West End: Theatre on a budget without compromising the view Review: The Hungry Ghost, Bush Theatre, booking until 31 October Review: Darkling, Bush Theatre, booking until 24 October Review: Golden Boy, Almeida Theatre, booking until 31 October Video review: Man to Man, Royal Court Theatre, booking until 24 October Review: The Story, National Theatre, booking until 24 October Rev. Stan’s theatre likes and dislikes https://revstanstheatreblog.co.uk/2026/10/24/review-some-woman-national-theatre/ #nationaltheatre #octoberreview #woman #almeidatheatre #omnibustheatre #courttheatre #end #annemarie #bush #marieduff #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit