All stories by Laura Collins-Hughes on BroadwayStars

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Review: 'Folk Wandering,' a Wistful Musical Full of Story and Searching by Laura Collins-Hughes

Jaclyn Backhaus and Andrew Neisler's new play wants to be a collection of stories about fierce women. But it's so packed with plot lines, it only partly succeeds.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Review: 'A Walk With Mr. Heifetz' Stumbles Through History by Laura Collins-Hughes

The play, inspired by real people and events in the decades leading up to the foundation of Israel, cuts to the role of music in creating a nation.

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3 Young People to Watch in Theater This Spring by Laura Collins-Hughes, Sopan Deb and Matt Trueman

Get to know the playwright Hammaad Chaudry, the 13-year-old actress Rileigh McDonald and the actor Andrew Burnap.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:22PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 19, 2018

Review: Lee Krasner Gets the Upper Hand in 'Pollock' by Laura Collins-Hughes

This bio-play about the married artists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner is a surreal sparring match, steeped in alcohol and dripping with paint.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:31PM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 15, 2018

So You Know Nothing About 'Harry Potter'? Let's Catch You Up by Laura Collins-Hughes

A primer of the books and films to get you ready for the Broadway opening of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two."

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:17PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 12, 2018

Review: 'Flight' Has No Live Actors. But Its Story of Two Afghan Boys Feels So Real. by Laura Collins-Hughes

It may not be typical theater, but this immersive show is pulse-pounding and intensely affecting.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:45PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 9, 2018

Critic's Notebook: Return Editions, with Magnetic Additions, Off Broadway by Laura Collins-Hughes

Roslyn Ruff and Jeff Hiller bring new dimensions to plays about Betty Shabazz and a chatty wedding guest.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:22AM[SHARE]
Monday, February 5, 2018

Critic's Notebook: Women's Voices Festival a Potent Reminder of Who Goes Unheard Onstage by Laura Collins-Hughes

From a historical drama to an updated Restoration comedy classic, Washington, D.C., theaters make a case for evening the playing field.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:11PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 2, 2018

Review: An 'Our Town' With Sex Offenders, in 'America Is Hard to See' by Laura Collins-Hughes

This smart, troubling piece of documentary theater spends time with men cordoned off from regular society, and those who believe they can be redeemed.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:30PM[SHARE]
Sunday, January 28, 2018

Review: An Online Chat Turns Unnerving in 'The Thing With Feathers' by Laura Collins-Hughes

Alexa Shae Nizak is uncannily persuasive as an adolescent girl who gets more than she bargained for in Scott Organ's play.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:51PM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 25, 2018

Review: In 'Jericho,' Another Spin of the Romantic Carousel by Laura Collins-Hughes

Michael Weller resets "Liliom," the play that inspired Rodgers and Hammerstein, in Coney Island. But the central romance remains problematic.

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Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Critic's Notebook: Exponential Festival: Unexpected Theater in Unfamiliar Real Estate by Laura Collins-Hughes

This New York-based showcase offers the kind of experimental plays, like "Pillowtalk," that thrive in more obscure performance spaces.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:26PM[SHARE]
Friday, January 19, 2018

Review: In 'Hindle Wakes,' Should a Fling Lead Straight to the Altar? by Laura Collins-Hughes

The Mint Theater's handsome, rough around the edges production makes a better case for this 1912 play as a curiosity than as a forgotten gem.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:39PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Fighting for Native Americans, in Court and Onstage by Laura Collins-Hughes

In her new play "Sovereignty," Mary Kathryn Nagle brings together her legal activism and her family history.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:13AM[SHARE]
Monday, January 15, 2018

Review: 'Undesirable Elements,' Documentary Theater for Uncivil Times by Laura Collins-Hughes

In this gentle, humane show by Ping Chong + Company, young New Yorkers share their real-life victories and fears.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:34PM[SHARE]
Sunday, January 14, 2018

Review: Without Singing, the Moth Hits the High Notes in 'The Echo Drift' by Laura Collins-Hughes

Stark, intricate and often exciting, the two-character chamber opera finds a prisoner tormented by the insect in her cell.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:28PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Toronto Theater Company Leader Steps Aside Amid Harassment Suits by Laura Collins-Hughes

Four women have sued the company and its artistic director, Albert Schultz, accusing him of sexual misconduct and creating a "culture of fear."

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:20PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Review: In 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,' a Monster to Love by Laura Collins-Hughes

The dancer Robert Fairchild's creature has a delicate, disarming beauty in Ensemble for the Romantic Century's ambitious but awkward production.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:12PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 25, 2017

6 More Shows to See if You Still Need Holiday Spirit by Laura Collins-Hughes

If you missed the preholiday rush, fret not. There is still time for festive theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:33AM[SHARE]
Friday, December 22, 2017

Don't Despair, Protest: Playwright Lucy Kirkwood Sees No Other Choice by Laura Collins-Hughes

In acclaimed works like "The Children," now on Broadway, the British writer argues for collective responsibility in the face of environmental and other challenges.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:18PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 18, 2017

Critic's Notebook: When Disenfranchised Lives and American Ideals Collide Onstage by Laura Collins-Hughes

Three small, powerful pieces of political theater consider those wounded by racism and xenophobia.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:04PM[SHARE]
Sunday, December 17, 2017

Review: 'Bulldozer,' a Robert Moses Musical With a Rickety Foundation by Laura Collins-Hughes

The sprawling life of a New York titan is given superficial treatment " and set to rock music " in this show.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:04PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 13, 2017

He Was a Snob About Musicals. Then He Tried Out to Play Hamilton. by Laura Collins-Hughes

Twenty-five-year-old Londoner Jamael Westman has definitely come around, now that he's starring in Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop smash.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:33AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Review: 'Counting Sheep' Has Great Songs. But They're in Ukrainian. by Laura Collins-Hughes

This multimedia show, featuring the Lemon Bucket Orkestra and set during the Maidan revolution, doesn't translate its protest anthems, which the audience is asked to join.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:06PM[SHARE]
Friday, December 1, 2017

A Theater Visionary 'Nourished by the World' by Laura Collins-Hughes

Cultural appropriation isn't a worry for the director Ariane Mnouchkine, who, at 78, isn't slowing down, but knows she won't be here forever.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:04PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Review: Good Art, Bad Men and Samuel Pepys in '17c' by Laura Collins-Hughes

Big Dance Theater's animated investigation of Samuel Pepys reads like a refraction of our recent monster parade.

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Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Review: 'What We're Up Against,' a Sexism Story More Timely Than Ever by Laura Collins-Hughes

Theresa Rebeck's furious play looks at what happens when a young architect fights back against colleagues who don't take her seriously.

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Review: Distant Storytelling Leaves 'Man to Man' Cold by Laura Collins-Hughes

The Wales Millennium Center's take on this dark, dreamy 1982 play, part of BAM's Next Wave Festival, seems to prize atmospherics over narrative.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:04PM[SHARE]
Monday, November 6, 2017

The World Really Is a Stage, Scripts and All, to Actor With Autism by Laura Collins-Hughes

Mickey Rowe is thought to be the first openly autistic actor to play Christopher, a 15-year-old with autism, in "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time."

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:54AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Review: 'Shadowlands,' a Tale of C.S. Lewis's Romance, Tackles a Different Tragedy by Laura Collins-Hughes

William Nicholson's biodrama, is directed by Christa Scott-Reed for the Fellowship for Performing Arts.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:07PM[SHARE]
Monday, October 23, 2017

Review: In 'Squeamish,' It's the Therapist Who's Troubled by Laura Collins-Hughes

As a Manhattan therapist, Alison Fraser may seem composed. But when she tells her story, Aaron Mark's ghoulish monologue earns its title.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:48PM[SHARE]

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