Tim Teeman

“But Bug doesn’t find a way to deepen this journey to hell, merely to repeat it—or find a useful purpose for the characters of R.C. and Jerry; both become under-utilized foils.”

“Her Marjories (real and Prime) are measured, funny, vulnerable, and tough—two colorful, intriguing human portraits.”

“Whatever, the cases look imposingly ugly, and act as a creative handcuffs on the show.”

“It is, like many spectacles, good, bad, needily insistent, and unapologetically exhausting.”

“The palatial final vista feels as cold and empty, and as cheap-feeling and gaudily underwhelming, as the show itself.”

“On this small stage the real delight are the performances, and Hunter’s expertly crafted lines that Metcalf and Stock devour.”

“This fizzingly vibrant ideas’ play seeks and elicits that level of interaction from the audience—particularly the women watching.”

“The melodically thunderous presence of Henry and this phenomenal company—they meld so beautifully as a collective—are the spellbinding reasons to book a ticket pronto.”

“Reeves and Winter make you feel it when the men embrace—as if one is holding on to the life raft embodied by the other—and when they quietly care for each other, strange day after strange day. If this is stunt casting, then it is stunt casting with a sweetened depth.”

“It says something about Reza’s skills as a playwright and Cannavale, Harris, and Corden’s lovely, off-kilter chemistry that we really do care when a felt-tip pen is produced near the end to deface the painting.”

“Bar a few numbers and its get-up-and-dance finale, the show almost does ABBA down.”

“Perhaps encapsulating its central point about art and its creation and funding, Prosperous Fools is itself a hit-and-miss affair.”

“An extreme story told, acted, and sung brilliantly in Dead Outlaw.”

“The show is sung and performed with sincerity and heart, and its humor—particularly in family interactions and the fledgling romance of Ana and nerdy boyfriend Henry (Mason Reeves)—is tangy and sharp.”

“Groff makes clear the intention of Just in Time, indeed any show, at its end. “Doing this was when he (Darin) felt the most alive,” he says. “Honestly? Same. This can only happen in this room, right now, with you, and it’ll never happen quite the same way again.”

“Hyde Pierce’s presence mints the entire enterprise.”

“Simultaneously, both his plight and the show disappear from view.”

“The cast and director Danya Taymor craft a simmering stage of very teenage drama, humor, friendships, alliances, gossip, resentments, and ultimately collective power.”

“As its title suggests, this is a classy, comfortable pair of slippers—or the warmest, most luxurious musical bubble bath a Sondheim fan could wish for.”

“You will likely have more fun at Boop! than in many other theaters this spring; this is an old-fashioned stage-frolic filled show, with big songs and bigger dancing.”

“Jonas and Warren try as hard as they can to animate Jamie and Cathy, but they are more plausible as solo, self-explaining units than as a two-person relationship in formation and freefall.”

“All three actors are excellent, especially Chan as the newly introduced fulcrum in the men’s relationship.”

“Beamed into 2025—via the enduring cultural imprint of the 1992 movie starring Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin—this revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, starring Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr, and Michael McKean, lands with a puzzling, bitter thud.”

“This is Othello made easy-breezy, bright and slick, without much to say, tragic or otherwise.”

“The show's focus skis all over the place, slaloming from hilarity to dense plot explanation to deeper meditations on patriotism, sexism, and loss.”

“Thanks to its supreme ensemble of musicians and singers, we can all be grateful that, as de Marcos’ character says to the audience at the end, “a sound like this…tends to travel.””

“Played for laughs, and played dead-serious, Purpose manages such shifts well, even if the tonal whiplash is extreme. The anchor of the evening becomes Naz’s addresses to the audience, and Hill’s masterful shepherding of those moments of confidence- and intelligence-sharing are both brilliant and vital.”

“As Norma and as herself, Scherzinger ignites multiple blazes of originality, mischief, wit and drama in the stupendous revival of the classic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.”

“Book a ticket right now—an exquisitely written, beautifully acted and mounted one hour and forty-five minutes of theater awaits.”

“All four actors sit on chairs facing the audience, playing a gallery of different characters featured in each story, such as the little boy in “The Big Nap” imagining himself as the put-upon Chandler-esque gumshoe, surveying dark shadows and malign intent everywhere, while Rich makes clear to the audience it’s the little boy’s grandma just takin...”

“Eureka Day is extremely funny for sure, but in choosing to ridicule liberals’ overzealousness it also feels antiquated—its 2018 target a comparatively unthreatening sheep when viewed in light of what may soon come to the fore in the public arena.”

“The performers are so good—and Cullman such a great conjuror-of-activity as a director—it would be more effective for Cult of Love to stay true to its best, most uncompromising scenes, and deliver an unhappy ending.”

“The relentless, deliciously played, perfectly directed hilarity of Death Becomes Her distinguishes this skillfully executed riot of a Broadway musical.”

“Elf: The Musical passes an important test of a seasonal Broadway show. It passes the wide smile/slightly moistened eyes/ridiculous amount of falling snow test, and—more significantly—passes the far more difficult actually-not-annoying-for-kids-and-adults test.”

“But have we gotten to know Armstrong as a musician, husband, cultural force, his politics, his passion for music, his strengths and frailties?”

“Visually, theatrically, and musically, Maybe Happy Ending, directed by Michael Arden with a nuanced delicacy and lightness of touch, is the most original and innovative show on New York’s main theatrical drag this autumn—and it dazzles with subtlety rather than bombast.”

“Good Bones features meditations on wealth, class, identity, and belonging, accompanied by the sound of an unquiet spirit.”

“Despite its faultless performances, the play suffers from too much subtlety and too much unsaid.”

“It’s too bad LuPone’s Robyn is a just a dramatic device to free Farrow’s inner devil—a fuller account of Robyn trying to make good as Sharon turns ever more bad would make The Roommate a better, more intriguing play.”

“Once Upon a Mattress suffers vastly by comparison.”

“The delights of Oh, Mary! are many, varied, and all-winning.”

“But mostly, Mother Play feels a cold, airless, and puzzling tundra to orienteer—despite the can-this-be-happening electricity of watching Jessica Lange perform on stage.”

“If you do drink away at this Cabaret, prepare for a mean hangover.”

“Once you ease into its singular, almost fly-on-the-wall dramatic world, you’re mesmerized.”

“This brilliant Enemy of the People is notably funny in both its smarts and pacing, and even its later gathering darkness—when Stockmann is viciously trounced and isolated by his townsfolk—is studded with light, and the certainty of his self-preservation.”

“Two-time Pulitzer finalist Jacobs-Jenkins really knows how to craft cutting zingers, wincingly comic and dramatic set-pieces, and lacerating verbal battles.”

“The song is not a plea for understanding and acceptance of any kind.”

“Spamalot’s expertly written and performed silliness is endless, beguiling, and winning, and so well-done that—despite the gay and Jewish clunkers of songs—the musical remains a daffy, rollicking night out.”

“The unevenly staged Harmony is a shakily constructed set of misfiring elements, whose most compelling beats around Nazism, antisemitism, and bigotry—all points resoundingly and rightly made—feel imposed and didactic rather than flowing naturally from the source material.”

“The play is as muddled as Sam’s home, with characters not really speaking to each other.”

“If you feel the need to laugh and let go, you can trust Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, formerly stars of The Book of Mormon, to be your expert facilitators.”

“The lyrics and music are Sondheim at his most waspish and wise; days later, the songs are still buzzing in my mind, insisting on being hummed.”

“In Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Bioh has done them all proud.”

“This wonderful cast does precisely that, playing the laughs for every ounce of hilarity to be gleaned from them, and then in a sudden turn confronting racism and white supremacy head-on.”

“Ian Shaw has co-written a clever, generous play with three terrific performances.”

“Back to the Future is a night of winning froth—of striking visuals, a few very good performances, and perfectly fine songs—which, just as it emphatically resists examining its more complex contours, also does its dazzling best to ensure those watching do the same.”

“Sadly, it is not as funny as it thinks it is, or intends to be.”

“The musical sings and dances up a storm, while not making much of a case there is anything to sing and dance about.”

“His delivery and narrative control—even his ad-libbing—are peerless.”

“But even for them, one sensed—given the audience responses—the musical hit big at some moments, but did not hit big throughout.”

“The actors work admirably hard in its quirkily baffling folds, but the story sticks and stops and starts and eventually disappears into itself.”

“Very little feels original in New York, New York; instead, this musical, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, feels like a reheated casserole of so many other romanticized New York narratives, stereotypes, and well-worn signifiers.”

“Linney and Hecht are excellent and generous scene partners, and though Summer, 1976 has none of the explosive bells and whistles of some of its Broadway compadres, it has its own gentle, unassuming power.”

“In Good Night, Oscar, Levant is a harbinger of pop-culture, for good and ill, to come—and the demons of all kinds that have shaped it.”

“Comer’s performance and Martin’s staging deepens the text into a one of the most electrifying pieces of theater on Broadway this season.”

“In the climate of now, these jokes are just adding to a depressingly destructive chorus.”

“At almost three hours on a spartan stage, it grinds into a numbingly boring show.”

“Change is possible; we just must want to do it.”

“In Shucked (Nederlander Theatre, booking to Sept 3), they are deliciously relentless.”

“Whatever is or isn’t true about what happened to Pi, what resonates is an act of colorful imagining—and Richard Parker’s menacing roar.”

“In that closing moment—like much of the show, thrilling and arch all at once—an exquisite production outdid itself.”

“Bad Cinderella isn't a radical reworking of Cinderella; it isn't a reimagining, feminist or otherwise, of the prisons of femininity, social convention, and power.”

“Dancin' is mostly spectacular, until it suddenly isn't—before ramping itself up again for the finale.”

“Parade feels less sure of drawing its dark parallels.”

“It is, right now anyway, the best ending of any show on Broadway.”

“But the set-up feels so long and labored this stark denouement is blunted by the far-too-meandering thesis that precedes it.”

“The urgency of the second act, and the energetic peaks in the men’s performances—particularly Pope’s—give The Collaboration some much-needed electricity, but the stilted staging of the play leaks power and focus from a show which determinedly keeps its protagonists a mystery.”

“Here is the perfect play, and one of the last Broadway openings of the year.”

“Whatever puzzles there are in story and character in the Broadway show are swept along by the wonderful dancing and music that keeps the show rattling along.”

“McDonald’s truly mesmerizing performance holds so much emotion, so many cadences, and is also a barely suppressed scream.”

“However, O’Connell is such a good, transporting actor that even as the drama on stage barrels into cuckoo-land, she grounds it and the audience with Becky’s quirkiness, passion, fierceness, and laughter.”

“In contrast, its attempt at drama feels like meager filler, and unconvincingly glued on to the more music-y musical the production seems to be straining to be.”

“Snack as heartily as you want on the poppy fun of & Juliet—but also be prepared to leave feeling like you haven’t really dented your appetite.”

“Somehow, Birbiglia makes the business of death, the business of illness, the business of staying alive, the funniest thing.”

“Under Jessica Stone's assured direction, and clever, layered music by Jeanine Tesori, it's a delight, the standout new Broadway musical of the season so far.”

“The result, on stage, is wince-inducing—a leaping, sing-songy, wishy-washy, toothless, sanitized, and humorless version of what that era of rock ‘n’ roll was.”

“Because of his skills as an actor and writer, they sometimes rise to the level of poetry.”

“For all the male sound and fury, this Death of a Salesman feels really, and rightly, all about her.”

“While the show ranges in its woolly late-1960s way, its ending is elegantly simple, as we see the real-life signatures of the men in a cascade of projected graphics.”

“Cost of Living is a beautiful and thrilling piece of theater about the various tendernesses of simply being human, as well as a bracing challenge to all kinds of cultural forms and genres to follow its example.”

“Here, Stoppard writes with moving power about finding out the truth about oneself while understanding why that truth was obscured for so long.”

“This is a theatrical event to see and to savor.”

“These opening and final vistas are not as written by Shakespeare, and the closing one in particular feels bizarre and hokey considering what has just preceded it.”

“If you love Billy Crystal, book a ticket. He's funny, charming, not grandstanding.”

“This second half loses the zany drive of the first.”

“In being crafted so individually, Usher emerges as the most bruised and honest Broadway hero on stage right now, taking a Broadway audience on an equally honest and bruising journey.”

“This play is a blizzard of words and images, and as Sabina tells us throughout, understand or don’t understand of it what you will.”

“Sadly like a lot in Funny Girl 2022—rings hollow.”

“The women’s exuberance, their togetherness, their loyalty to each other, their love for each other, is sustaining for them and a bracing, life-imparting thing to watch for us.”

“If you are reading this, you may be about to break this critic’s other recommendation—that you go see it (really, go see it!), without knowing anything about it.”