All stories by Maya Phillips on BroadwayStars

Monday, February 7, 2022

Review: In 'Tambo & Bones,' a Minstrel's Guide to Making Money by Maya Phillips

Dave Harris's hip-hop triptych exploring racism and capitalism is meant to be a biting satire, but it has little force behind it.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:48PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 31, 2022

Review: In Clare Barron's 'Shhhh,' Staging a Memoir of the Body by Maya Phillips

The playwright directs and stars in her new play for Atlantic Theater Company's Stage 2. It's less a traditional narrative and more of a series of flirtations with discomfort.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:06PM[SHARE]
Sunday, January 30, 2022

'The Collision' and 'The Martyrdom' Review: A Nun Ahead of Her Time by Maya Phillips

A classic text by the 10th-century Saxon nun Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim inspires two new plays being performed as a double bill at 59E59 Theaters.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:24PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Love, Trust and Heartbreak on Two Stages by Maya Phillips

The musical "Hadestown" and the opera "Eurydice" aim to offer new twists on a Greek myth. But when it comes to their heroine, they only go so far.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Welcoming Back Live Theater Doesn't Mean Agreeing About All of It by Jesse Green and Maya Phillips

Two critics on the joys (and pains) of a tentatively hopeful fall season.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:06AM[SHARE]
Thursday, December 23, 2021

In Washington, a Princess Party and a Carnival of Self-Loathing by Maya Phillips

Two shows with Broadway aspirations, "Once Upon a One More Time" and "A Strange Loop," represent opposite extremes of what a big, mainstream production can be.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 8, 2021

10 Ways I Fed My Fandom(s) by Maya Phillips

No apologies from our critic-at-large, who found plenty of movies, plays and TV series to nourish the culture nerd within.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:12AM[SHARE]
Sunday, December 5, 2021

'Mrs. Doubtfire' Review: Nanny Doesn't Know Best by Maya Phillips

The new family-friendly musical, adapted from the hit movie, ends up cowering in the original film's shadow.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:33PM[SHARE]
Friday, December 3, 2021

Best Theater of 2021 by Jesse Green, Maya Phillips, Laura Collins-Hughes, Scott Heller, Alexis Soloski and Elisabeth Vincentelli

Digital innovation continued this year, but experiencing plays in isolation grew tiring. Then came an in-person season as exciting as a child's first fireworks.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:48AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, November 16, 2021

'Medicine' Review: One Dose Reality, Two Doses Absurdity by Maya Phillips

Domhnall Gleeson is surrounded by an eccentric cast of characters in Enda Walsh's surreal play at St. Ann's Warehouse.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:32PM[SHARE]
Sunday, November 7, 2021

Review: 'Gnit' Seeks Itself in a Mist of Magic and Mischief by Maya Phillips

Will Eno's inward-looking incarnation of "Peer Gynt" steps out of Ibsen's shadow just as Ibsen shrugged off elements of the original fairy tale.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:18PM[SHARE]
Thursday, November 4, 2021

Review: 'The Visitor' Lags Behind the Times by Maya Phillips

The new musical, based on the 2008 film and delayed by the pandemic, debuts at the Public Theater. But its story of a white professor helping immigrants feels out of step with the moment.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:18PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Alice Childress Finally Gets to Make 'Trouble' on Broadway by Maya Phillips

Her prescient 1955 play about racism in the theater world is reaching the big stage. And it's anything but a period piece.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:18AM[SHARE]
Saturday, October 30, 2021

Raging Prince and Simpering King: A Tale of Two Shakespeares by Maya Phillips

Livestreamed productions of "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" from London reflect the vital role directors have in redefining these classic characters.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:18AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Review: 'Thoughts of a Colored Man' Preaches to the Choir by Maya Phillips

Keenan Scott II's play, incorporating slam poetry, prose and songs, aspires to be a lyrical reckoning with Black life in America.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:54PM[SHARE]

Review: 'By Heart' Commits Community to Memory by Maya Phillips

In Tiago Rodrigues's show, audience members learn a Shakespeare sonnet together " line by line, over and over.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:06PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 7, 2021

'Lackawanna Blues' Review: A Soulful Master Class in Storytelling by Maya Phillips

Ruben Santiago-Hudson brings his tender and vibrant autobiographical show to Broadway, honoring the woman who not only raised him but also kept a cast of misfits in line.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:32PM[SHARE]
Friday, October 1, 2021

Review: In 'Persuasion,' How to Lose Lovers and Influence People by Maya Phillips

The Bedlam theater company returns with another adaptation of Jane Austen, but the production misses all of the source material's subtle wit.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:18AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 22, 2021

A Black Theater Flourished in New York. 200 Years Ago. by Maya Phillips

The African Theater, which had its first performance on Sept. 17, 1821, is both an inspiration and a cautionary tale.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:36AM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 9, 2021

'Small Engine Repair' Review: Of Mechanics and Men by Maya Phillips

John Pollono directs and stars in an adaptation of his play that adds depth to the original text but also struggles in its translation from stage to screen.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:06AM[SHARE]

Princess Diana and Michael Jackson Anchor New Biographical Musicals by Maya Phillips

In new musicals about Princess Diana, Cary Grant and Michael Jackson actors get a chance to embody icons while spotlighting their individual talents.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:32AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 19, 2021

When Theater Installations Aim to Make Room for Drama by Maya Phillips

These worthy and adventurous lockdown experiments too often give short shrift to the relationship between a script and how an audience takes it in.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:42PM[SHARE]

'On Broadway' Review: History and Celebrity, Stages and Lights by Maya Phillips

The neon lights are bright, and so is the spirit of this brief but loving history of Broadway.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:03AM[SHARE]
Monday, July 26, 2021

Williamstown Theater Festival Tries to Weather the Storms by Maya Phillips

The annual summer festival in Massachusetts has tried to adapt amid the pandemic and calls for more diversity onstage.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:06PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 9, 2021

Review: Serving Murder in 'The Dumb Waiter' by Maya Phillips

Harold Pinter's one-act play, starring Daniel Mays and David Thewlis as hit men, is available to stream live via the Old Vic Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:06PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 6, 2021

In 'What to Send Up,' I See You, Black American Theater by Maya Phillips

Our critic reflects on the significance of Aleshea Harris's play, at BAM Fisher, for Black audiences.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:06PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 2, 2021

Review: 'The Watering Hole' Can't Quite Quench a Thirst by Maya Phillips

The collaborative project conceived by Lynn Nottage is too heterogeneous and muddled to rally around one clear theme or concept.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:54PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 29, 2021

'Seven Deadly Sins' Review: Pride and Pole Dancing Behind Glass by Maya Phillips

This array of short plays has viewers in headphones wandering the meatpacking district for stylish, but shallow, theatrical thrills.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 28, 2021

Review: Martha Washington, Hilariously Haunted by Her Slaves by Maya Phillips

James Ijames's amusingly cynical and eclectic new play, "The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington," is at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival through July 30.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:06PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 23, 2021

'In the Heights' y el colorismo: lo que se pierde cuando se borra a los afrolatinos by Maira Garcia, Sandra E. Garcia, Isabelia Herrera, Concepción De León, Maya Phillips and A.o. Scott

La película, ambientada en un barrio neoyorquino conocido como la Pequeña República Dominicana, no incluyó a latinos de piel oscura en los papeles principales. Críticos y repo…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:49PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 21, 2021

'In the Heights' and Colorism: What Is Lost When Afro-Latinos Are Erased by Maira Garcia, Sandra E. Garcia, Isabelia Herrera, Concepción De León, Maya Phillips and A.O. Scott

The film, set in a New York neighborhood known as the Little Dominican Republic, didn't cast dark-skinned Latinos in lead roles. Our writers discuss how that absence reverberates.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:26PM[SHARE]

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