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MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

Jeremy McCarter

  1. Played Out?Gurney and LaBute do what they do, with less spark than ever. Plus: We need more Kaufman & Hart!
  2. A Man for All SeasonsRosebud doesn’t quite get all of Orson Welles, but then who could? Plus: A proposal for a new Tony category.
  3. Another AwakeningPassing Strange, at the Public, is this season’s third new musical that—amazing!—actually feels relevant.
  4. Over and OutOn the wordy pleasures of August Wilson’s Radio Golf. Plus: Why are such talented stage actors working in such lame plays?
  5. Bialystock and GloomThe Producers is gone; Legally Blonde is here. And maybe it’s time to slow down the Hollywood-to-Broadway conveyor. Plus:
  6. We Still Have Nixon to Kick AroundIn Frost/Nixon, Frank Langella gives a surprising dignity to Tricky Dick.
  7. No Monkeying AroundWith Christopher Plummer in the lead, Inherit the Wind evolves. Plus: Misbegotten Kevin Spacey.
  8. Cheese Ahoy!The Pirate Queen plays out like a parody of bombastic musicals, but a new Oliver Twist is devilishly dark.
  9. Too Sad for WordsJoan Didion’s one-woman show raises the problem of how to be loudly intimate.
  10. She’s a Man, Baby!A contemporary approach to Shakespeare’s original all-male casting. Plus: Curtains just hangs there.
  11. Everything Is IlluminatedThe greatest-actor-of-his-generation label is a lot to stick on a guy, but Talk Radio gives Liev Schreiber a chance to back up the hype.
  12. The Taming of King LearKevin Kline is the latest star to fail the test of Shakespeare.
  13. Somme StoryYou’d think we’ve seen every possible war-is-hell tale—yet Journey’s End still has the power to silence an audience.
  14. Arise, Ye Prisoners of Tom StoppardSomehow, the eight hours of dialogue in The Coast of Utopia leave one hungry for more talk.
  15. Something’s ComingFirst Spring Awakening, now In the Heights: Could musicals actually be adapting to a new century’s audience?
  16. Prejudicial RestraintA pair of Elizabethan plays notorious for their monstrous stereotypes get a thoughtful airing-out.
  17. The Play Really Is the ThingAnd without one, the best actors in the world can’t save you.
  18. Listen to Me, I’m IrishTranslations takes the Gaelic affection for language—and makes it the subject of a play. Can glorious words carry a whole drama?
  19. Fabergé ActingPart Two of The Coast of Utopia is a chance to see stage work—from stars and journeymen alike—at its zenith.
  20. No Show Tunes AllowedSpring Awakening may finally succeed where so many others have failed, bringing pop music people care about to Broadway.
  21. The Year in TheaterHollywood carpetbaggers couldn’t keep up with our homegirls Christine Ebersole and Julie White. Will Power’s hip-hop Aeschylus owned New York Th […]
  22. It’s the Little ThingsCompany gets the John Doyle treatment and looks great at 36. Plus: Another dispiriting celebrity turn, in The Vertical Hour.
  23. So Far, So GoodThe Coast of Utopia is a huge, eloquent piece of theater, gaudy with talent. And we’re just into Part One.
  24. Fly Away, Mary PoppinsRent the movie instead. Plus: Skip Les Mis, Part Deux, in favor of an acting tour de force.
  25. Domestic DramaSarah Ruhl’s The Clean House feels like it’s been thoroughly scrubbed of human ambiguity. And the jokes would really work better in English.
  26. The East Hampton StarGrey Gardens isn’t the revolutionary musical for today, but you won’t see the likes of its lead anywhere else.
  27. It’s Not Alright, MaAs boomer Broadway wheezes its way into irrelevance with The Times They Are A-Changin’, a fresh voice emerges downtown.
  28. Stand and Don’t DeliverAfter all the drama around My Name Is Rachel Corrie, what are we to make of the actual play?
  29. ‘House’ of Great ReputeShaw’s Heartbreak House gets a revival that shows off its talky brilliance. Plus: Cynthia Nixon, Neil LaBute, and more.
  30. Broadway Melody of 1975Yes, it’s a period piece. No, it’s not a jaw-dropping revival. But A Chorus Line still has that hard-to-define something.
  31. Anomie PlanetEric Bogosian updates subUrbia to 2006. Or tries to.
  32. The Giant BoyOrson Welles eats his biographer.
  33. Eve Ensler Has IssuesThe Treatment takes a firm stand against … torture. But does that really make it a political play?
  34. Downhearted BluesA new revival reaches for the high notes in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars.
  35. Company’s ComingJohn Doyle made waves when he gave Patti LuPone a tuba for Sweeney Todd. Will it work for “The Ladies Who Lunch”?
  36. The Courage of Their ConvictionsMeryl Streep survives a war and an ill-fitting role in Tony Kushner’s timely Brecht adaptation.
  37. A Star Is ShornYes, Martin Short’s send-up of ego-trip one-man shows is funny. But is it healthy for Broadway to depend on Britney jokes?
  38. Blackboard Jungle ’06No Child goes where theater rarely dares tread: a New York public high school.
  39. The Father and the Holy GhostThe Busy World Is Hushed finds God in other people; School of the Americas seeks Him in a Marxist martyr.
  40. Lost IslandRichard Greenberg almost captures a sepia-toned New York. Plus: Spring Awakening’s kids are all right.
  41. Free RadicalIs Shakespeare in the Park only the beginning? Oskar Eustis on his plans for the Public.
  42. Returning Royalty: Alvin EpsteinStill hard at work at 81, Alvin Epstein—one of the great classical actors of his generation—moved back to New York last year, after decades on t […]
  43. The Evil That Men Do, Yet AgainSome Girl(s) follows the Neil LaBute recipe—bad behavior with a twist, served ice cold—to a fault.
  44. Samuel Beckett, at 100, deserves better than he gets.The only truly fitting tribute would be to stage Beckett constantly. As Edward Albee once said, “I am not interested in living in a city where […]
  45. Fear and Loathing in the CafeteriaComing face-to-face with everyday evil in a genuinely terrifying drama based on the Columbine massacre.
  46. Phil Collins Can’t SwingTarzan slathers millions in razzle-dazzle on a two-cent script. Plus: Burnished performances in Shining City.
  47. Humor Me HereReal laughs make a too-rare appearance on Broadway.
  48. Landscape of the BodyJohn Guare mixed his experience of Beame-era Greenwich Village with the day’s seedier headlines to give the old moving-to-the-big-city story a d […]
  49. I Love-Hate the EightiesLestat recalls the cheeseball bombast of that decade at its worst; The Wedding Singer does better by giving the same era a c […]
  50. Three’s No CharmJulia’s not a disaster, but Three Days of Rain deserves a better production. Plus: A Threepenny dreadful.
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