Raven Snook

If you’re the kind of person who has always dreamed of seeing your name in lights, you’re in the right place. It’s time to follow your dreams and enroll in one of the best acting classes in NYC. And look, even if you can’t afford to quit your day job to attend one of New York's acting schools (would be nice though, right?), there are plenty of part-time acting classes with flexible schedules and affordable prices. There are quite a lot of different classes on offer, too. So, if belting out the best Broadway songs of all time is your thing, or you just want to see whether being called a “character” all your life means you have any actual talent, these workshops for beginners are the perfect place to start. And who knows? Maybe one day you’ll land your breakout role in one of the best Broadway shows on the Great White Way. Or how about a starring gig in the hottest new television show? Or maybe even Hollywood? All you need is a bit of ambition ... and maybe an acting class or two. But you know that—that’s why you’re here! Smart. Very smart.  Recommended: Find more classes in NYC This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, click here.

After you finish Life and Trust, the new immersive, three-hour epic from the producers of Sleep No More, you may want to start over. With more than two dozen characters to follow around six floors of gorgeously crafted environments in a former bank building, this choose-your-own-theatrical adventure demands multiple viewings to see—and make sense—of it all. “I’ve now been seven times and there’s a million things that I still haven’t seen,” admits Jon Ronson, the seasoned British journalist and author making his playwriting debut with Life and Trust. “I think the best lesson is, don’t get FOMO. Each character has a full, rich arc. Some are bigger than others in terms of action, but the nice thing about following one character is they’ll take you to several different parts of the world, so you’re always experiencing something new.” Unlike Sleep No More, which uses Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a framework, Life and Trust is an original story inspired by a variety of sources, primarily different interpretations of the Faust legend, including The Red Shoes and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The narrative revolves around J.G. Conwell, the CEO of the fictional Life and Trust Bank, who made a mint peddling an ominous green elixir. When we meet him, he’s a regretful old man poised to lose everything in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. He sells his soul for a chance to time-warp back to his New York City Gilded Age youth for one last drama-packed day. The audience is invited to tag along—provid

There’s nothing quite like seeing a legendary show tune performed live in a great Broadway musical, but you can always satisfy your craving for emotion-filled performance by cranking up a cast recording or binge-watching clips on YouTube. But which are the very best Broadway songs—the ones that endure through the years because they not only stick in our heads but also capture some essense of the genre? It’s nearly impossible to create a list of something so subjective, but we’re here to try. With that in mind, we've come up with these 50 Broadway bangers: a mix of classic musical-theater numbers from 1927 through today. Many of these come from the best Broadway musicals the Great White Way has ever known; to narrow the field a bit, we've limited ourselves to a single song per show. (And sorry, jukebox musicals and movie adaptations: Only songs written for the stage are eigible.) You may not be familiar with all the entries on this list, but trust us: You’ll love them. Maybe they’ll introduce you to a new Broadway show to put on your list of must-sees. Maybe you’ll find one to add to your karaoke rotation. Either way, you’ll get an earful of tunes that are sure to stir your heart. RECOMMENDED: Full listing of Broadway musicals

Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada crackle with chemistry, even from on opposite coasts of the country. The two will soon share a Broadway stage in The Great Gatsby, a new musical based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel about obsession and indulgence in Jazz Age New York; he’s playing eternal striver Jay Gatsby, and she’s the unattainable Daisy Buchanan. But Jordan recently had to take a work trip to San Francisco while his co-star continued rehearsing in NYC, and as they reunite on Zoom for this interview, Noblezada is excited to share what he was missing. “We’re making so many changes. In the first scene, you come in on a camel!” she jokes. “Great,” Jordan deadpans back. “I approve of that.” Fitzgerald’s masterpiece entered the public domain in 2021, and many have rushed to theatricalize it since. Multiple musical versions are dancing around; one debuted in Massachusetts last year and another, Gatsby, will be at the American Repertory Theater this summer. But Jordan and Nobelzada’s version—directed by Marc Bruni, with a book by Kait Kerrigan and songs by Nathan Tysen and Jason Howland—is the first to make it to Broadway. After a buzzy run last fall at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, the production begins previews at the Broadway Theatre on March 29 and opens on April 25 (on the last day of Tony eligibility).  Jordan and Noblezada are Time Out New York’s cover stars for March and our spring preview of the Broadway season. Their photoshoot took place at The Plaza’s Palm Cou

"They're all going to laugh at you," cries Carrie's religious nut of a mother in Brian De Palma's intense 1976 film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Carrie. But if the creators of the musical get their way, no one will ever laugh at Carrie again—at least not in their revamped version for MCC Theater, which opens at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on March 1. A coming-of-rage story about a bullied teenager with an overbearing mother, who discovers she has telekinetic powers and wreaks havoc on her small town, Carrie probably seemed like strange source material for a Broadway tuner when it was originally produced in 1988. Indeed, the $8 million show was panned by most critics; audiences reportedly jeered and cackled; and it inspired Ken Mandelbaum's encyclopedia of flops, Not Since Carrie. But a quarter century later, when dark, gory flicks like The Silence of the Lambs and Evil Dead have been musicalized, Carrie seems ripe for revival. There's just one problem: Unlike those other shows, the creators refuse to go camp. For them, Carrie is deadly serious. A full-on camp production would have been the easier route, especially since the original was so (unintentionally) kitschy, what with leather-pants--clad bullies squealing like pigs and students in gym class wearing togas. But that's not what composer Michael Gore, lyricist Dean Pitchford and book writer Lawrence D. Cohen had in mind. "We got hundreds of requests a year to do [the original] Carrie in regional theaters, high school

Considering his vocation, it’s not surprising that David Hirson is a stickler for words. Yet even more than other playwrights, he expresses himself with painstaking care, correcting himself (and, politely, others) if he thinks the wrong verbiage has been used. Hirson’s love for language is evident in his farce La Bête, which opened and quickly closed on the Main Stem in 1991 after being trounced by most major critics, in particular The New York Times’ Frank Rich, who glibly dismissed it as a show “for anyone who confuses high-mindedness with high art.” But unlike most flops, the play, which is set in 17th-century France and written entirely in rhyming couplets, enjoyed an auspicious afterlife: It won the 1992 Olivier Award in London for best comedy, and went on to become a staple of regional and college theaters. Earlier this year, Tony-winning director Matthew Warchus (God of Carnage) helmed a star-studded West End revival featuring Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce, Absolutely Fabulous’s Joanna Lumley and stage legend Mark Rylance. Now, that production is headed across the pond to give La Bte a much-deserved second shot at Broadway success. Fresh from England where he caught the show’s final bow at the Comedy Theater, Hirson admits that the play isn’t the usual commercial stage fare. “It’s never compared to other things,” he notes. “It doesn’t resemble other plays. People have very extreme reactions to it. It’s...weird.” That adjective could also be used to describe Hirson’s care

Patrick Page and Amber Gray have been on the road to Hadestown for years. Anaïs Mitchell's bluesy folk opera, inspired by the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, had its first professional theatrical iteration in 2016, when director Rachel Chavkin staged it at New York Theatre Workshop with Page and Gray as the tempestuous gods Hades and Persephone. Three years and four productions later, Hadestown's Broadway version has earned 14 Tony Award nominations, including nods for both actors. The only cast members who've been with the show throughout its journey, they play been-there, done-that, seen-it-all spouses—while he builds a soulless underworld empire, she indulges in spirits and springtime above ground—who rediscover their lost passion through the story of the ill-fated central lovers. We chatted with Page and Gray about what it's been like to incarnate these dueling deities. Amber, you've worked with Rachel Chavkin on several projects, notably Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. But Patrick, how did you get involved with the show? PAGE: To my shame, I had been working uptown mostly. I hadn't worked downtown in a long time. I was looking for jobs for my acting students when I saw this ad and it said they wanted a bass. I thought, Nobody ever wants a bass: What the hell is this? And then I saw that it was directed by Rachel Chavkin, one of the best directors working today—I hadn't seen a director like her since Julie Taymor. So I downloaded the two Hades songs from

The last week of Pride month offers something new for the LGBTQ community to celebrate: a milestone in transgender representation on Broadway. Starting this week, three trans-identified performers will be on the Main Stem: The jukebox musical Head Over Heels stars RuPaul’s Drag Race favorite Peppermint, and Young Jean Lee’s play Straight White Men features nonbinary pioneer Kate Bornstein and rising interdisciplinary artist Ty Defoe. “Broadway was a dream I thought was impossible,” says Bornstein, a prominent activist, author and performance artist. In Straight White Men, she and Defoe play the Persons in Charge, who interact with the audience and provide a striking counterpoint to the titular characters. “I’m impressed that Second Stage Theater is choosing to do a show that talks about all these intersections,” says Defoe, a Native American performer who identifies as two-spirit. “It’s a play that speaks truth to power, and entertains while opening the perspective of how gender is seen.”  “We’re being cast specifically for our trans-ness within shows that need it,” Bornstein says. “That says a lot about where we are.” Peppermint, who stars as the oracle Pythio in Head Over Heels, agrees. “This role would not have existed even 10 years ago,” she says. A quirky Elizabethan romantic romp written in rhyming verse and built around hit pop songs by the Go-Go’s, the musical allows Peppermint to show off the skills she acquired at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy: “I’m a tr

Even though Kris Kringle won't fly into town until tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day parade, the elves at Macy's are already getting Santaland ready for its seasonal debut on Friday. We caught a sneak peek last week, and the fantastical toy-, train- and fake snow-filled world is as magical as ever. And it's a good thing too, since families often wait up to 90 minutes to see the big guy in red. After your visit, be sure to check out the store's 30-minute Miracle on 34th Street puppet show, presented by Park Slope theater Puppetworks (admission is $5 per person). And of course, be sure to check out Macy's Yes, Virginia-themed windows . (Seeing them in person definitely beats watching them in a slide show !)

Circus Arts at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center248 W 60th St between Amsterdam and West End Aves (212-787-1178, manhattanmovement.com). $585 for 13 weeks (semester signup only).Got a kid who loves clowning around? Help her channel that energy with this introduction to the circus arts. Instructors guide tykes through warm-up stretches and cardio exercises before showing them big-top basics, like aerial silks, plate spinning, juggling and stilt walking. But the class teaches more than just showy acrobatics—it helps little ones build trust in each other and conquer their fears in a noncompetitive setting. Ages 5 to 12.CircusYogaKarma Kids Yoga, 104 W 14th St between Sixth and Seventh Aves (646-638-1444, circusyoga.com). $25, children under 13 $10.Kevin O'Keefe, the multitalented performer behind the one-man act Circus Minimus, and his wife, Erin Maile O'Keefe, founded this traveling education program, which uses the West Village Karma Kids studio as its NYC home base. In mixed-age sessions, students practice traditional yoga techniques as well as acrobatics, juggling, slapstick and tightrope walking. Ages 7 and up.Juggling ClassesSat 3--4pm, 4-5pm. Theaterlab Studio, 137 W 14th St between Sixth and Seventh Aves, third floor (347-987-1311, jugglingclasses.com).Tue 6--7pm. Big Sky Works, 29 Wythe Ave at North 14th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (347-987-1311, jugglingclasses.com). $20.Founded by Rod Kimball (a.k.a. the really cute Flying Karamazov Brother), these one-off sessions ar

In the theater world, it’s rare to get a second crack at a show. But that’s exactly what happened to Mark Thompson. The set-and-costume designer for Broadway’s latest bet, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, won an Olivier Award (London’s equivalent of a Tony) for his work on the original West End production. Despite the staging of Roald Dahl’s classic 1964 children’s novel, about an impoverished boy and the eccentric chocolatier who befriends him, doing well enough to run for almost four years, the consensus was it couldn’t travel across the pond without some major reworking. Thompson, along with songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (of Hairspray and Smash fame) and book writer David Greig, stayed on. Everyone else—including Oscar- and Tony-winning director Sam Mendes—cycled off. A new cast, choreographer and director—three-time Tony winner Jack O’Brien—convened to take a fresh approach. On a recent Friday morning during rehearsal, Thompson chats in the back of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, as the cast—headlined by Christian Borle as Willy Wonka in that iconic purple tailcoat and black top hat—goes through a group number that’s set just outside the chocolate factory. “It’s playful and full of mischief,” says Thompson of the set in front of us. A red carpet is unfurled, welcoming the lucky golden-ticket winners who get to tour the candy mecca, and the eye-popping costumes brilliantly capture each kid’s personality: There’s Violet Beauregarde, in her plush purple sweat suit

Unlike Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, New Year's Eve is a tricky holiday for parents. Do you hire a sitter and head out for the night? (If so, be sure to read our tips for hiring a sitter on December 31!) Or do you change into your jammies and watch the ball drop on TV with the whole family? Fortunately, there's a third option: Ring in 2010 with the brood in tow at one of these kid-friendly New Year's Eve events. Nighttime celebrations The Big Apple Circus: Dance On!Fri Dec 31 at 9:30pm. Lincoln Center, Damrosch Park, Amsterdam Ave at 62nd St (212-962-5471, bigapplecircus.org). Subway: 1 to 66th St--Lincoln Ctr. $25--$175. We loved this year's dance-heavy edition of the Big Apple Circus and we know your kids will too. Catch the show on December 31 and get an extra bang for your buck at the postshow party, during which ringmaster Kevin Venardos invites guests into the ring to count down to midnight. All ages. Black, White and Pink New Year's Eve at the PlazaDec 31; dinner seating at 5:30 or 6:30pm. The Palm Court, Fifth Ave at Central Park South (212-546-5300, theplaza.com/dining/palmcourt). Subway: N, R to Fifth Ave. $120, children under 13 $85.Overnight packages are also offered for an additional fee. Plaza-dwelling kid-lit character Eloise may be the most pampered tyke in town, but tonight your kids can get a taste of her lavish lifestyle at this swanky family fete. Guests join Eloise, her pets and her nanny for a three-course dinner in the Palm Court, followed by f

What does A stand for? That question hangs over the protagonist—referred to only as A in the script—of Marin Ireland's deeply personal play Pre-Existing Condition. Her ex-boyfriend hit her so hard that she ended up on the floor, and although she didn't seek medical attention, the incident left her with emotional and psychological scars and split her life into before and after. Everyone wants to know what A wants now: Money? Justice? Revenge on her abuser? The problem is, she’s not sure she knows. If A’s intense, halting, often uncomfortable exchanges with the people in her life—a dismissive lawyer, her no-nonsense therapist, her support-group facilitators, her dates, her friends, her self-involved mother—sound unsettlingly authentic, that's because Ireland, a highly acclaimed stage actor, is writing from firsthand experience. But Pre-Existing Condition isn’t just a memoir à clef. Delicately directed by Maria Dizzia, the play offers a deep dive into the messy aftermath of domestic violence. Unlike many stories about abuse, it’s not about escaping or standing up; it's about navigating an inadequate system while trying to process what happened. (The difficulty of doing so is reflected by the fact that Ireland has been working on this play for 14 years.) Pre-Existing Condition | Photograph: Courtesy Jessica Kourkounis In a poignant illustration of how abuse can happen to anyone—A’s group leader says that one in three women is battered in her lifetime—six different actors are sch

Theater review by Raven Snook A summer beach read of a musical, A Walk on the Moon delivers Jewish nostalgia with a smattering of schmaltz. Based on the 1999 movie of the same name—written by Pamela Gray and loosely inspired by her vacation experiences in the Catskills as a teenager—the show centers on the blue-collar Kantrowitz family as the societal upheavals of the late '60s shake up their world. What begins as just another season at their insular bungalow community is unsettled by the cultural rumblings of second-wave feminism, Woodstock and the moon landing. A Walk on the Moon | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus Pearl (Talia Suskauer), a housewife in her early thirties, wrangles her kids with help from their bubbe (the invaluable Andréa Burns) and weekend visits from her menschy but unexciting husband, Marty (Max Chernin), a TV repairman. But the arrival of Walker (Sam Gravitte), a sexy hippie goy toy who sells blouses out of his camper, jolts Pearl out of her routine; soon she's slipping into more than his shirts and devouring his dog-eared copy of On the Road. Meanwhile, her rebellious 15-year-old daughter, Alison (Sophie Pollono), embarks on her own romance with Ross (Oscar Williams), an adorkable, guitar-playing adolescent who fancies himself a Jewish Hendrix. A Walk on the Moon | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus  Considering the musical's rocky road to Off Broadway, which began in 2018 in San Francisco with a different songwriter and cast, A Walk on the Moon is in

Theater review by Raven Snook Is there anything more dispiriting than a séance where the ghosts don't show up? That's how I felt watching the Signature Theatre Company resurrection of Heather Christian's breakthrough opus, Animal Wisdom, a musical-memoir-requiem that introduced audiences to this sui generis composer-performer-pianist. The piece's 2017 world premiere at the Bushwick Starr heralded the arrival of a bold and ambitious artist descended from a "matrilineal line [of] New Orleans Catholics who are also musicians who suffer migraines and talk to dead people." Thankfully, Christian's conjuring of her own origin story was filmed in 2021. (You can watch excerpts from it on PBS.) Animal Wisdom | Photograph: Courtesy Ben Arons The Signature’s version of Animal Wisdom marks the first time that someone other than Christian has performed the work, which is delivered directly to the audience with no fourth wall in sight. Kenita R. Miller acknowledges from the outset that these are Christian's stories, not hers, but that she'll be "stepping into them." With her warm, welcoming presence and powerful, throaty vocals, Miller seems well-chosen to make the material sing in a different voice. But instead of transcending into the divine, much of the evening remains stubbornly earthbound. Animal Wisdom | Photograph: Courtesy Ben Arons That isn't for lack of vision. Director Keenan Tyler Oliphant has gathered impressive collaborators: Emmie Finckel's in-the-round scenic design transf

Theater review by Raven SnookThink your job is torture? The Receptionist is a reminder that it could be worse. At first, title character Beverly—played by the comedy crackerjack Katie Finneran, who can get laughs with just a judgy glance or awkward cackle—seems to have a pretty sweet gig overseeing a spartan waiting room: kicking off her shoes under her desk, dumping sugar packets into her coffee, nattering on the phone, lecturing her younger colleague Lorraine (Mallori Johnson) about her romantic choices and transferring most work calls to voicemail, since her boss Mr. Raymond (Nael Nacer) is nowhere to be found.  The Receptionist | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus The atmosphere starts to become more ominous, however, when a handsome and charming emissary from "the central office,” Mr. Dart (Will Pullen, sharp in a black suit and bright red socks), shows up looking for the head honcho. What does this company actually do? Where is Mr. Raymond? And in a world gone paranoid, how much power do any of us have? The Receptionist | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus Beverly's Rolodex, fax machine and clunky computer indicate we're in the aughts, but Adam Bock's slight yet sly 2007 play is a disturbingly timely work that speaks to our current culture of surveillance as well as to the ways we compartmentalize our lives in order to get through the day. Beverly is quick to tut-tut others for their moral failings—she's particularly upset at even the hint of infidelity—but she barely bat

Theater review by Raven SnookTypically, a theater director lets the work speak for itself. But when the endearing Alexander Molochnikov stands on stage to introduce Seagull: True Story, playwright Eli Rarey's loopy expansion of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, the gesture is appropriately meta. After all, this work is effectively speaking for him: It's inspired by Molochnikov's own experiences. Seagull: True Story | Photograph: Courtesy Kir Simakov A second introduction, this one by an oily MC (Andrey Burkovskiy, in Brechtian mode), sets the scene. Wunderkind Kon (Eric Tabach, idealistic yet high-strung) is directing an outré interpretation of Chekhov's breakthrough play for the venerable Moscow Art Theatre in February 2022. But when Russia launches its invasion of Ukraine, political chaos ensues. Kon and his poet pal Anton (a zen Elan Zafir) want to speak out; others, like producer Yuri (Burkovskiy again) and Kon's mother, Olga (Zuzanna Szadkowski, oozing tough love), the celebrated actress playing Arkadina, urge everyone to pledge their support—and to tone down the production. Kon refuses to comply, and one viral social media video later, he's fleeing to New York, where he hopes to find freedom as an artist and an individual. But he soon learns that commercial theatre in America comes with oppressive demands and restrictions of its own. Seagull: True Story | Photograph: Courtesy Kir Simakov Produced by the internationally minded MART Foundation and first seen at La MaMa last

Theater review by Raven SnookLibby Carr's achingly humane Calf Scramble is set in a sweltering barn where the cattle aren’t the only ones feeling penned in. Five teenage girls in Huntsville, Texas, are competing to win prize money by raising calves for their Future Farmers of America projects in 2007. The confident Vivvy (Marvelyn Ramirez), bred on a ranch, is the group’s de facto leader; her happy acolytes include the sassy preacher's daughter Anna Lee (Ferin Bergen), the ultra-devout Maren (Maaike Laanstra-Corn) and the accommodating El (Gabriela Veciana). But El's ambitious and overcommitted bestie, Sofi (Elisa Tarquinio), isn't so easily corralled. Calf Scramble | Photograph: Courtesy James Leynse On Cate McCrae's woodchip-strewn set, cooled by four industrial fans, the girls bond and bicker (sometimes over liquor) as they tend to their heifers and haltingly discuss their faith, relationships and futures. Religion and prison rule their insular and conservative community, where everyone seems connected to an inmate or a corrections officer. The headstrong Sofi hopes that winning the calf contest could be her ticket out, but her cohorts have more domestic dreams, even the ones who are too scared to reveal their authentic selves for fear of the town's wrath. In a powerful piece of double casting, the five performers also play the calves. Guided by Caitlin Sullivan's assured direction and Hannah Garner's expressive movement, they fluidly transform from wranglers to livestock

Theater review by Raven Snook If you feel stressed and overworked, the members of the Australian performance collective Pony Cam can relate. Burnout Paradise is their way of transforming the Sisyphean hamster wheel of modern life into exhilarating entertainment. As an onstage clock ticks down, four athletic actors—some of them noticeably injured—attempt to complete a series of tasks while running on treadmills. Their assignments range from the everyday (shaving, waxing, shampooing) to the much more ambitious (performing Shakespeare, filling out a grant application, cooking a three-course meal). Straining to do it all, they depend on audience volunteers to help out by retrieving stray tomatoes, playing bingo, shooting hoops, even dancing at an impromptu rave. Burnout Paradise | Photograph: Courtesy Austin Ruffer On paper, Burnout Paradise may seem like a show that, as though on a treadmill itself, is fated to go nowhere. But in practice, it is both an amusing indictment of our soul-crushing go-go-go ethos and a gleeful conjuring of community. Those who choose to take part in the challenges seem to have a blast; even just watching, you find yourself surprisingly invested in the ever-mounting chaos. Organized into four 12-minute rounds, the show has the electric suspense of a sporting event: Will the performers complete their assignments and beat their record mileage before the buzzer sounds? If they don't, you can ask for a full refund, though it’s hard to imagine you’ll want

Theater review by Raven Snook The Irish writer-performer Mary Kate O Flanagan calls storytelling her religion, and her life-affirming solo performance Making a Show of Myself is sure to win her some acolytes. A screenwriter and script editor by trade, O Flanagan was inspired to spin her own yarns by the storytelling group the Moth, under whose auspices she has become the only person to win GrandSLAM Moth championships on two continents. On a bare stage against a dark curtain, clothed in a casual black ensemble that offsets her unruly red curls, O Flanagan recounts true tales from her life with an openness and intimacy that invites the audience to lean in and listen. Making a Show of Myself | Photograph: Courtesy Carol Rosegg The six smartly chosen anecdotes that make up the show vary in length, tone and subject matter: dating, coming of age, human connection, death. Together they conjure an amusing and moving portrait of the artist and her tight-knit family. The sections about how her mother and, later, O Flanagan herself helped strangers in need are especially poignant; they serve as uplifting reminders of the power of compassion in times of oppression and violence. In deference to the oral tradition, and to keep her tales flexible and fresh, O Flanagan has not made her stories into a set script, which surely presented a challenge for Will O'Connell, her director and dramaturg. O’Connell has given O Flanagan a bit of blocking, especially during brief interstitial sequences

Theater review by Raven SnookElse Went's expansive five-hour saga Initiative follows seven teenagers in a sleepy coastal California town as they navigate worldview-shaping dramas of adolescence at the turn of the 21st century. Terrorism, war, societal instability and the advent of instant messaging mark the specific backdrop of their coming of age. But their explorations of love, sexuality and identity—and struggles with bullying, drugs and disappointing adults—will resonate with any generation.Loosely inspired by the lives of the playwright and her wife, director Emma Rosa Went, the play opens under a shooting-star sky as two pals on the cusp of high school—the sporty Lo (Carson Higgins) and the sensitive Riley (Greg Cuellar, captivating)—ruminate on questions big (like the nature of existence) and small (like the size of their dicks). In one impulsive instant, though, their relationship is wrecked, and they go on separate but intertwined paths in search of their purpose and their people. Initiative | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus Epic Dungeons & Dragons campaigns make up a significant portion of the production. Riley, a sparkling storyteller, plays dungeon master to a group that also includes the anxious overachiever Clara (a moving Olivia Rose Barresi), the caustic but needy Kendall (Andrea Lopez Alvarez), the gender-questioning NYC transplant Ty (Harrison Densmore) and Lo's sweet younger brother Em (Christopher Dylan White). During these fantastical sequences, the tee

Theater review by Raven SnookIn a moment of gaping political wounds and sores, a high-spirited musical comedy about Barack Obama may sound like a balm. Sadly, the overlong and tonally befuddled 44—written, directed and produced by TV writer Eli Bauman, who campaigned for Obama in Las Vegas as a young man—is often as much of a slog as the partisan idiocy it mocks. Joe Biden (a broad Chad Doreck, milking every possible laugh) intermittently narrates this unsharp satire, which traces the ups and downs of the first Black first family from Obama's inspiring speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention to his second inauguration. As Barack and Michelle, T.J. Wilkins and the mononymous Shanice smartly avoid impersonation and instead raise the spoof with powerhouse pipes, belting the hell out of Bauman's pastiche R&B score. Most of the songs sound so familiar that you can essentially hum along, but a few are bangers; there's a reason "M.F.O." (short for "Mutherfukin' Obama") is reprised so frequently. 44—The Musical | Photograph: Jenny Anderson Considering Obama's enemies were obsessed with his race, perhaps it's fitting that, as a parody, 44 is only skin deep; "How Black Is Too Black?" is about as profound as the show’s questions get. Most of the humor is of the lazily outrageous variety: Obama's nemeses, in cahoots with a cabal called W.H.A.M.—an acronym for White Hetero Affluent Men—include a villainous Mitch McConnell (Larry Cedar, making the most of his rap song), an obseq

[Note: The main review below is for the 2022 production of Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova. The update is for the show's 2025 encore run at the Signature Theatre.] Update:  I was nervous about revisiting Oratorio for Living Things, Heather Christian's singular and sonorous exploration of existence. What if Signature Theatre Company's remounting of Ars Nova's 2022 sensation didn't match my memories? I needn't have worried: This musical masterwork by the newly minted MacArthur genius is designed for repeated viewings. In sequences of meticulously curated cacophony that give way to glorious, enthralling harmonies, it offers a multitude of wonders and interpretations. You could see it again and again and again and come away with a different understanding at each performance. Aside from a few new singers and musicians, little beyond the venue has changed. A significant portion of the text is in Latin, and librettos are no longer handed out—audiences were absconding with them—so you can no longer follow along. But that's just as well, because Christian's creation demands full engagement. The more you let go of trying to make sense of it all, the more you'll be rewarded as the show grapples with unanswerable questions about how we spend our all-too-short time in the universe. Oratorio for Living Things remains a magnificent use of 90 minutes of that time. Original review:  Heather Christian's divine Oratorio for Living Things welcomes you to worship. To call this genre-nonco

Theater review by Raven SnookA modernized, female-forward reinvention of a 200-year-old protofeminist classic may sound like a bonnet on a bonnet. But Emily Breeze's Are the Bennet Girls Ok?, an irreverent riff on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is a delight. Many of Austen’s plot points are more or less preserved, but the novel’s sense and sensibility are reframed: Using period dress and patriarchal rules but contemporary, profanity-laden dialogue, Breeze’s perceptive version celebrates sisterly, not romantic, love.The play kicks off with a blazing monologue by Mrs. Bennet (a hilariously high-strung Zuzanna Szadkowski), who is desperate to marry off at least some of her five daughters to save the family from financial ruin. The nubile and obedient Jane (Shayvawn Webster) seems like her best bet, but the blunt and headstrong Lizzie (Elyse Steingold) racks up unexpected proposals. Underage flirt Lydia (Caroline Grogan) is the likeliest to get in trouble; sensitive, botany-loving wallflower Mary (standout Masha Breeze, the playwright's sister) and horse girl Kitty (Violeta Picayo) seem like spinsters in waiting. Are the Bennet Girls Ok? | Photograph: Courtesy Ari Espay Though much of the girls’ alternately empathetic and uproarious chatter is sparked by the men in their lives, we encounter those men only rarely. All are played by a single actor, Edoardo Benzoni, who brilliantly delineates each character: four suitors—deer-in-headlights Darcy, awkward Collins, douchey Bingle

NYC is constantly changing. So how do you capture its essence onstage at this particular moment? That's what an ambitious new performance called Public Record starring 100 everyday New Yorkers aims to do, and you can see it for free at Central Park's Delacorte Theater this Labor Day weekend. Produced by Public Works, a civic-minded initiative of the Public Theater that builds community through art, Public Record is markedly different from the program's previous productions, which were mostly musical adaptations of classics. For Public Record, participants plucked from Public Works' community partners around the five boroughs will not only be performing, they'll also be sharing their own personal stories in front of 1,800 of their NYC neighbors. Conceived by UK-based multidisciplinary artists Emily Lim and Dan Canham, this is the second iteration of Public Record after its inaugural edition last year in Sunderland, England. For that version, they collaborated with locals and a handful of professional musicians to create a live 12-track album onstage in real time that reflected the spirit of that city. Of course, Sunderland has a population of about 300,000, a fraction of NYC's. Lim says expanding this grand endeavor to the Big Apple is "pushing the boundaries of what community-centered devised work can be." Photograph: Courtesy Marc J. FranklinPublic Works' Public Record "Public Record is a riff on the idea of what it is to own and document and record your identity as a comm

Broadway review by Raven SnookRating: ★★★★ (four stars)Ticketing: Buy tickets to Paranormal Activity Levi Holloway's Paranormal Activity is a cleverly executed variation on the popular horror franchise: an original feary tale that replaces the found-footage approach of the films with the immediacy of live theater. The play centers on an attractive but troubled married couple, Lou (Cher Álvarez) and James (Travis A. Knight), who have moved from Chicago to London to make a fresh start. She's on meds but seems plagued by more than just depression; he's an atheist and skeptic—despite a deeply religious upbringing—who believes that having a baby might cure their problems. Holloway's slow-burn story ramps up the suspense by allowing us to spend time with Lou and Cher in their coziest and most intimate moments (even in the bathroom!) before plunging them into a supernatural hellscape. You don't need to be familiar with any of the seven Paranormal Activity movies to predict their final destination, but it's the journey that proves haunting. Photograph: Courtesy Matthew MurphyParanormal Activity   If you’re in it strictly for jolts, be warned: This show is all about the vibe. From the moment you walk in, the production aims to get in your head. The gothed-out ushers have red flashlights; the pointed preshow playlist, loaded with Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden, is cranked up to 13. Throughout, Holloway and director Felix Barrett are more interested in the psychology of fe

The Festival, a starry new three-day August concert event in upstate New York, has been billed as "Coachella for Broadway." But for die-hard musical-theater mavens, it's even cooler than that. "It's different from Coachella because it's actually creating new material for these artists who are coming together to perform," says the Tony-winning director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell, a key member of the creative team. Along with director DB Bonds and choreographer Jon Rua, Mitchell is overseeing seven high-energy, Stephen Sondheim–heavy production numbers performed by an ensemble of singers and dancers. "There are Coachella elements to it," Mitchell says. "But the new stuff is what's exciting and amazing: production numbers like you would see in the opening of a show on television or on Broadway." The Festival will offer four stages of Broadway-themed programming every day from Friday, August 14, to Sunday, August 16, at the stunning riverfront escape Hutton Brickyards in Kingston, New York. The centerpiece of each evening will be The Big Show, an eclectic two-hour concert featuring the headliners—such as Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christopher Jackson, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Alex Newell, Norbert Leo Butz and most of the original cast of Rent—and those splashy new medleys Mitchell has been working on. In addition, there will be previews of in-development musicals; themed concerts; a showcase of up-and-coming performers; and concert sets by original Anni

Theater review by Raven SnookRating: ★★★★ (four stars)Ticketing: Buy tickets to Joe Turner’s Come and GoneThe legacy of slavery echoes violently in Joe Turner's Come and Gone, the second chapter of August Wilson's invaluable Century Cycle, a decade-by-decade chronicle of African-American life. Set in 1911—at the start of the Great Migration, when Black people from the Jim Crow South moved north to build better lives—the play takes place at a Pittsburgh boarding house run by Seth and Berthy Holly (Cedric “The Entertainer” and Taraji P. Henson, in an auspicious Broadway debut). He's a no-nonsense striver, proud of having been born a freeman, rigid in his morality and judgmental of his fellows. She's a warmer presence, serving laughs as well as biscuits. Together, they play host to temporary residents including keen conjure man Bynum (Ruben Santiago-Hudson, superb), guitar-playing laborer Jeremy (Tripp Taylor), lovesick domestic Mattie (Nimene Sierra Wureh) and independent beauty Molly (Maya Boyd). Photograph: Courtesy Julieta CervantesJoe Turner's Come and Gone Little happens initially beyond crackling conversation, but Wilson's extraordinary ear for the profound poetry of everyday people is entrancing. Then a haunted man named Herald Loomis shows up with his tweenage daughter, looking for a room and his long-lost wife. Joshua Boone is captivating as this laconic searcher, whose eyes betray an anguished history. The mystery of his background draws you in and casts a spell, bu

Theater review by Raven SnookElmer Rice's expressionist satire The Adding Machine, written a little over a century ago, is the disturbingly relevant tale of an unhappily married middle-aged bookkeeper named Mr. Zero (Daphne Rubin-Vega), the quintessential cog in the capitalist machine, who murders his boss after being replaced by a calculator. But even in the afterlife, post-execution, he remains a captive of a system meant to keep the common man down; he’s too scared to enjoy liberty or happiness with his also-deceased former coworker Daisy (Sarita Choudhury). The Adding Machine is at once a bleakly hilarious comedy and a devastatingly surreal tragedy, and with AI posing an existential threat to so many workers, it's clear why director Scott Elliott is mounting it. But little about the production adds up.  RELATED: Buy tickets to The Adding Machine Photograph: Courtesy Monique CarboniThe Adding Machine Despite a valiant effort, Rubin-Vega—in unconvincing drag—is less than Mr. Zero. Perhaps Elliott thought casting a Latina woman would expand the notion of the persecuted everyman, but it's at odds with the play's depiction of white male fragility. (Zero loves a slur!) As Mr. Zero's shrewish wife, Jennifer Tilly henpecks without humor; her lengthy opening monologue is particularly painful. Revisions by playwright Thomas Bradshaw add an unnecessary narrator (Michael Cyril Creighton) and cull the cast to four, forcing Creighton to play more than a dozen supporting parts, a fre

Off Broadway review by Raven SnookRating: ★★★★ (four stars) Writer-performers Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson can do many things at once, all deftly: They act, sing, rap and play instruments including guitar, harmonica, accordion, trumpet, drums and piano. Their extraordinarily edutaining two-person musical Mexodus is likewise adept at multitasking, balancing the past and the present to illuminate a little-known piece of history: how thousands of enslaved Black people in the 19th century fled to Mexico to escape bondage. Although Mexodus’s tale is fictional, it dramatizes enduring truths about solidarity as a path to freedom.  Photograph: Courtesy Curtis BrownMexodus After killing a slaveholder in self-defense in 1851 Texas, Henry (Robinson) heads south, but almost drowns while crossing the Rio Grande. He is rescued by Carlos, a haunted Mexican army medic who lets him hide out on the farm where he works. Initially, the two men struggle to connect because of  cultural and linguistic barriers. As they begin to recognize their intertwined struggles, a friendship grows; soon, they're making beautiful music together. How they make that music is thrilling to watch, thanks to the "looping system architecture" conceived by sound designer Mikhail Fiksel. Using pedals located all over Riw Rakkulchon's two-tiered shed set, Quijada and Robinson build each song by recording different elements then looping and layering them live, so the twosome aurally evokes a larger ensemble. They

Kandi Burruss has spent more than 30 years defying expectations and building opportunities. Her 14 seasons on The Real Housewives of Atlanta made her a star of reality TV and social media; prior to joining the franchise, she had already achieved a measure of fame in the 1990s R&B girl group Xscape. But as much as Burruss enjoys the spotlight, she's savvy enough to look beyond it for longevity and influence: She parlayed her early music-industry success into a career as a Grammy-winning songwriter (for acts including TLC, Destiny's Child and Pink), and she has produced a series of Real Housewives spinoffs for herself—including The Real Housewives of Atlanta: Kandi's Wedding, which chronicled her nuptials to producer Todd Tucker. Burruss has enjoyed a similar trajectory on Broadway. After making her Main Stem debut in 2018 as the amusingly corrupt prison matron Mama Morton in Chicago, she segued into producing projects that showcased Black stars and stories, including Thoughts of a Colored Man, the Samuel L. Jackson-led The Piano Lesson, which earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Revival, and the family favorite The Wiz starring Wayne Brady. This spring, she and her husband are part of the team bringing Shakespeare's racially charged Othello back to Broadway for the first time in 43 years. Denzel Washington plays the valiant but gullible main character, and Jake Gyllenhaal is the manipulative underling who goads him into jealous rage. "The only way that change can be made is

It was an unexpectedly dramatic way to return to Broadway. The night before the first preview of Patriots—which chronicles how the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky helped Vladimir Putin rise to power—the play’s star, Michael Stuhlbarg, was randomly attacked near Central Park. Fortunately, he was fine. Stuhlbarg even pursued his assailant: a fitting move, given how Berezovsky always went after his enemies.Patriots is Stuhlbarg's first Broadway performance since he earned a 2005 Tony nomination for his chilling turn in The Pillowman. Since then, he's become a sought-after character actor on television and in films, equally adept at icy villains, blustery braggarts and sympathetic victims. Berezovsky is all three at once and, like many of Stuhlbarg's most acclaimed performances—Richard Sackler in Dopesick, Arnold Rothstein in Boardwalk Empire, Edward G. Robinson in Trumbo—he's also a real-life figure.  A wunderkind mathematician who became a bully of a billionaire, Berezovsky survived political animosity (and an assassination attempt) as he used his money, influence and power to remake his homeland. Installing Putin as president was part of his plan, but the two men turned out to have very different visions for Mother Russia. Stuhlbarg says he feels "a great responsibility" to get Berezovsky right in Patriots, a 2022 work by recent history specialist Peter Morgan (The Crown). A few days before Patriots’ first performance and the assault that landed Stuhlbarg in the headlines, h

Photograph: Josh Lehrer   Sara Bareilles spent more than a decade in the spotlight as a platinum-selling pop pioneer before getting a taste of backstage artistry as the songwriter for Waitress, which earned her a 2016 Tony nomination for Best Score. But when original lead Jessie Mueller gave notice, Bareilles realized it was the perfect opportunity to take her star turn—after all, she’d been dreaming of performing on Broadway since childhood. On March 31, Bareilles slips into the practical shoes of Jenna, a downtrodden but dream-filled waitress with an abusive husband, a baby on the way, a talent for baking pies, and a very complicated love life.  Why did you decide to go into the show now?  The perfect confluence of circumstance. I had thought that, maybe after I did my next record, I would join the show for a short period of time. But it just kind of dawned on me: I’m as close to the show as I’ll ever be right now. It’s been really exciting and fun over the rehearsal process to see the character emerge from myself. I had such a wonderful experience discovering her from the inside out as I was writing the songs; now to get to interpret it as the storyteller onstage feels like a nice full-circle moment.  Is your take on the role very different from Mueller’s?  There are sort of natural differences that are emerging. Jessie and I are two different humans so we just kind of move through the world a little differently. Also, my scene partners are different.  That’s right: Wil

★★★☆☆Wes (Jeremy Pope)—a self-obsessed millennial aspiring fashion designer—just wants to be loved. So does this heartfelt yet disappointingly maudlin musical about the good old, bad old days of being gay in the '70s. After fleeing NYC and buying a decrepit building in his hometown of New Orleans to turn into a store, Wes is magically transported back 40-plus years when the space served as a gay bar full of colorful queer folk. There's Henri (Frenchie Davis, the best singer of the bunch), the lesbian who runs the joint. Buddy (Randy Redd), the resident pianist who passes as straight out in the streets. Willie (Nathan Lee Graham, the audience favorite), a sass master seemingly channeling Lola from Kinky Boots. Puerto Rican drag queen Freddy (Michael Longoria) and his supportive mom/stylist Inez (Nancy Ticotin). Richard (Benjamin Howes) sporting a clerical collar though he's singing with the choir, not converting them. And a pair of hustlers: the stud Patrick (Taylor Frey, crush-worthy) and the dud, Dale (Ben Mayne, making a scary guy sympathetic). That's a lot of disparate characters to pack into a one-act musical, which may be why they're painted and (mostly) played in such broad strokes under Scott Ebersold's unsubtle direction. Each one gets a big, defining song in the spotlight, but it soon starts to feel like a pride parade of gay archetypes.The story, such as it is, involves Wes getting schooled in queer history, and realizing he has it pretty good compared to the genera

★★★☆☆A dual coming-of-age tale set in ’80s suburban South Carolina, writer-director Erica Schmidt's raw one-act drama at the New Group juxtaposes the first sexual encounters of a pair of 14-year-old BFFs as they pursue their respective crushes. While this is hardly virgin territory, there's a stinging authenticity to their awkward interactions that's alternately hilarious and horrifying.You can tell by her junk-food diet and how long she stays out at night that lifelong townie Jenny (Abigail Breslin, struggling a bit) lacks a stable home life. Meanwhile relative newcomer Emily (Isabelle Fuhrman, excellent) is keen to shake up her sheltered existence. Their wildly different backgrounds inform their choices of lovers: Jenny picks Smiths-crooning senior Adam (Alex Wolff, spot-on) while Jenny takes up with Joseph, a 28-year-old man from church (Joe Tippett, letting glimmers of humanity shine through the sleaze). Organized into a series of two-person scenes, All the Fine Boys falls into a predictable rhythm, though a few necessarily stomach-churning sequences jolt. You'll probably know where these ladies are headed long before they do, but that comes from experience—and that's exactly what they go in search of, with life-changing results.Pershing Square Signature Center (Off Broadway). Written and directed by Erica Schmidt. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 40mins. No intermission. Through Mar 26. Click here for full venue and ticket information.Keep up with the latest news an

      You think your job's a nightmare? Be thankful you're not one of the four desperate corporate drones trying to save their company (and hence, themselves) over one insane night in Brian Parks's zippy and loopy romp. This quartet is so stressed out, they pee themselves when chastised by the (unseen) Chairman. This must be how Trump's staffers feel.Like Parks's previous Gemini CollisionWorks show, last year's riotous The Golfer, Enterprise values linguistic acrobatics and absurd exchanges over narrative. The story, such as it is, unfurls in brisk, wordplay-packed scenes that end in brief blackouts as Sanders (Fred Backus), Landry (Adam Files), Weaver (Derrick Peterson) and Owens (Alyssa Simon) brainstorm cockamamie ways to save the day. As befits their sports-inspired surnames, they play a lot of games, suffer from infighting and form various alliances, though even before they get to the animal sacrifice you sense the keycards are stacked against them.The success of a surreal comedy like this is all in the timing. And the performers, though impressively committed, are still finding their rhythm under the directorial hand of Parks's frequent conspirator Ian W. Hill. The blustery Backus is most consistently entertaining, though the other three have moments. From a design standpoint, it's pretty bare-bones, but Kaitlyn Day's costumes are appropriately soulless and Hill's clever music choices often provide apt buttons to the vignettes. Like an entry-level job, Enterprise may no