All stories by Laura Collins-Hughes on BroadwayStars

Monday, June 7, 2021

'Bill's 44th' Review: Where Are All the Party People? by Laura Collins-Hughes

This poignant, comic puppet play, by Dorothy James and Andy Manjuck, is as much about the ingenuity of the mind as it is about loneliness.

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Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Digital Be Damned! Welcome to Shows You Can Touch and Feel. by Laura Collins-Hughes

Fuzzy puppet sheep. A light cutting through the haze. Hand-designed dreamscapes. There's plenty to savor in the slow return of pixel-free theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18AM[SHARE]
Sunday, May 9, 2021

'Scott and Andy and All the Boys' Review: Ripped From the Headlines by Laura Collins-Hughes

Mike Daisey takes sluggish aim at juicy targets: the disgraced Broadway producer Scott Rudin and the New York governor, Andrew M. Cuomo.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:18PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 7, 2021

At 91, John Cullum Is Ready to Try Something New by Laura Collins-Hughes

The Tony-winning musical theater actor and TV star planned to debut a cabaret show in 2019. Illness hit, then the pandemic. But he hasn't been stopped.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:32AM[SHARE]
Friday, March 19, 2021

'Romeo y Julieta' Review: Young Love in Two Languages by Laura Collins-Hughes

Lupita Nyong'o and Juan Castano star in a podcast adaptation that delivers the poetry " in Spanish and English " but not the fire.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:36PM[SHARE]

Go or No? An Indoor Theater Invitation (at Last!) Needs an R.S.V.P. by Laura Collins-Hughes and Alexis Soloski

Two critics, hungry for live performance, weigh whether they're ready to take a health risk for "Blindness," which opens in New York next month.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:32PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Instant Artifacts of a Disconnected Time (and Lots of Hugh Dancy) by Laura Collins-Hughes

During the pandemic, writers and actors have taken on an "adrenalizing" challenge: creating video monologues, more than 400 so far, in 24 hours.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:12AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Where Is Hollywood When Broadway Needs It? by Laura Collins-Hughes

A critic writes a plea to the film and TV stars who got their starts in the theater and can do more to aid its rescue.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:06AM[SHARE]
Monday, March 8, 2021

Battered but Unbowed: How Beckett Speaks to a New Era by Laura Collins-Hughes

Adaptations of "Happy Days" and "First Love," works by the master of existential wheel-spinning, show us how to live in place.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:24PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 26, 2021

'First Love' Review: Stop and Smell the Corpses by Laura Collins-Hughes

Bill Camp stars in JoAnne Akalaitis's creepy, funny streaming production of this Samuel Beckett short story.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:42PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Douglas Turner Ward: A Lens on 'Questions That the Country Wasn't Asking' by Laura Collins-Hughes

Samuel L. Jackson, David Alan Grier, Phylicia Rashad and others remember the Negro Ensemble Company founder.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:36PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 15, 2021

Two Tales of Disconnection, With One Cicada Cameo by Laura Collins-Hughes

Recorded on a Houston stage, "The Book of Magdalene" is theatrically intimate, while "Hotel Good Luck" gets caught up in digital trickery.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:33PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 9, 2021

'He Missed Nothing': Nathan Lane, Chita Rivera and Others on Joe Allen by Laura Collins-Hughes and Jennifer Schuessler

The man was taciturn, but his Theater District restaurants were like Broadway clubhouses. Even the posters of flops were placed with affection.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:24PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 25, 2021

When Theatermakers Long for the Stage, Playfully by Laura Collins-Hughes

Two short films that find pandemic-sidelined performers grappling with Beckett are a highlight of the annual Exponential Festival.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:36PM[SHARE]
Saturday, January 23, 2021

'The Approach' Review: Three Women and the Men Who Define Them by Laura Collins-Hughes

Mark O'Rowe's intricate, beautifully acted play begs for debate. To start: Why don't its protagonists have full lives of their own?

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:36AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 21, 2021

Review: One Belfast Landmark Inspires Five Irish Monologues by Laura Collins-Hughes

The excellent program of short audioplays commissioned for "Under the Albert Clock" imagines the world in 2050.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:18PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 18, 2021

How Theater Stepped Up to Meet the Trump Era by Laura Collins-Hughes

As artists saw liberties threatened and inequities exacerbated, the stage became more thrillingly urgent than it had been in decades.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:32PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 6, 2021

More Than the Girl Next Door: 8 Actors on Emily in 'Our Town' by Laura Collins-Hughes

With a history of the Thornton Wilder classic coming soon, we talk with performers who found personal inspiration in the play's beating heart.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18AM[SHARE]
Monday, January 4, 2021

Lee Breuer, Adventurous Theater Director, Dies at 83 by Laura Collins-Hughes

One of the founders of Mabou Mines, he reveled in being an outsider even when his celebrated "The Gospel at Colonus" reached Broadway.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:36PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 30, 2020

In Four Audio Plays, No Stages but Lots of New Voices by Maya Phillips, Jesse Green and Laura Collins-Hughes

A big-box store, a hotel for transgender women and a dinner party gone awry are some of the places your ears will take you to.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:48PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 28, 2020

Review: In 'Making Friends,' a Bitter Grab Bag of Grievances by Laura Collins-Hughes

Tom DeTrinis's solo show is full of rage, but in a way that's bizarrely out of touch with this overwhelmingly disastrous year.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:06PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Advocating and Agitating, Connecting and Inventing by Michael Paulson, Jesse Green, Scott Heller, Laura Collins-Hughes and Elisabeth Vincentelli

With their field rocked by unprecedented challenges in 2020, these people and groups " some notable, some new " stepped into the breach.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:12AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 16, 2020

'This Is Who I Am' Review: Cooking With Dad, Remotely by Laura Collins-Hughes

A son in New York and a father in the West Bank prepare a favorite family recipe. Longing and resentment are in the mix, too.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:32AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Holiday Cheer, Spiked or Straight by Laura Collins-Hughes

How do you like your celebration? Taylor Mac gives it to you dazzling and arch, while "Meet Me in St. Louis" is a nostalgic comfort.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:06PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Scrooge on a Screen Just Can't Be the Same by Laura Collins-Hughes

The joy of "A Christmas Carol" isn't merely the story; it's the ritual of communion and reflection with family and fans. This year that's not possible.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:24PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 7, 2020

Review: Chagall Comes to Life in Enchanting 'Flying Lovers' by Laura Collins-Hughes

Charming performers, elegant design and a smart video capture bring a bittersweet chamber play about the artist and his wife to the screen.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:36PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Best Theater of 2020 by Jesse Green, Laura Collins-Hughes, Scott Heller, Maya Phillips, Alexis Soloski and Elisabeth Vincentelli

It wasn't the year for celebration. But watching innovation flourish inspired our chief critic, while other writers found the joys of the stage in other media.

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Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Review 'Emilia': An Elizabethan Poet Takes Her Rightful Place Onstage by Laura Collins-Hughes

The life of Emilia Bassano Lanier is interwoven with Shakespeare's in a boisterous British comedy.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:48PM[SHARE]
Sunday, November 15, 2020

When the Critic Is Also the Star. And the Audience. by Laura Collins-Hughes and Alexis Soloski

Connection or isolation? Intensity or escape? This spate of shows that put the watcher to work are rewarding, but often in contrasting ways.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:06PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Strangers on a Phone, Theatrically Speaking by Laura Collins-Hughes

Social distance has left us rusty when it comes to connecting with strangers. The latest piece by 600 Highwaymen aims to help us practice " starting with a call.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Patti LuPone Was a Constant. The Other Ingredients Never Cooked. by Laura Collins-Hughes

With a marquee creative team, this romantic musical should have been a sure bet. One great song survived the out-of-town turmoil.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:06PM[SHARE]

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