Midway through “Masquerade,” the Phantom of the Opera himself suddenly grabbed hold of me, his touch light and electric, and pushed me aside. The masked musician and magician had crept up behind us to make his way through the thick fog and thin crowd to reach soprano Christine Daaé,  his protégé and obsession. Several dozen theatergoers, all also wearing masks, were making our way through the Phantom's subterranean lair beneath the Paris Opera House. This was long after we we first entered the opera house, when the ballet mistress Madame Giry taught us a few dance moves; shortly after we had been handed candles to hold while a gondola carrying the Phantom and Christine glided right past us in the mist; long before we had to scurry away from the chandelier so that it wouldn’t crash on top of us.

In the first play officially opened to the public at the Cherry Lane under the ownership of movie studio A24, Natalie Palamides portrays a man and a woman simultaneously,  an exercise in …

How do you respond to a creeping authoritarian takeover? Resistance takes many forms. This coming Saturday, people will take to the streets throughout the country for “No Kings” protests. The federal shutdown is all about the Democrats in Congress resisting the Republican refusal to negotiate as the Trump administration cuts Medicare, Medicaid, and other public programs in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires. And it’s striking how many current and forthcoming shows can be viewed as literal acts of resistance. The play that opened this week about the rise of Nazism feels like a direct response.

What’s surprising about the fight over Christopher Columbus is not that this year’s official White House proclamation about Columbus Day crudely attacks “left-wing arsonists” for trying to “destroy his name and dishonor his memory,” but that theater has been dishonoring him for ages, satirically or savagely depicting the Italian explorer on stage since long before “woke." Eugene O'Neill wrote a scorching portrait of Columbus more than a decade before 1937, the year when Columbus Day became an annual federal holiday, now celebrated on the second Monday of October (i.e. today.)  And the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature was far from the first dramatist to be less than reverent towards the current president's "true American hero."

Election Day in New York is Tuesday, November 4, 2025, for mayor of New York and other city-wide and local offices, as well as six ballot proposals. Here is what you need to know in order to vote in the General Election in New York City: Registration In order to vote in New York, you have to be registered. If you haven’t registered to vote in New York, you must do so by October 25, 2025. The board of elections must receive your registration by that date in person, online or by mail.

Diane Keaton, who died today at the age of 79, made her Broadway debut in the original company of "Hair" (above is a publicity photograph of her for the musical.) But the actress who went on to a stellar five-decade career on screen (winning an Oscar for "Annie Hall," nominated for three more) never planned to stay on stage: "She explained her aversion to theater as a lifelong pursuit on “CBS Sunday Morning” in 2010. “Night after night? Doing a play?” she said, putting an imaginary gun to her head.

What goes into the making of a musical theater production? The process, from audition to curtain call, is presented in verse and illustrations about the people involved, from director to actor to stage crew, but also the inanimate objects that the theater depends on: The script, the rehearsal piano, the stage, the costumes, the lights, the musical instruments in the orchestra (violins, brass,  woodwinds, percussion) and the curtain each gets their say in “Limelight: Curtain Up on Poetry Comics” (Charlesbridge Moves, 144 pages) with poems by Renee M. Latulippe and illustrations by Chuck Gonzales.  

After an alarming vacation in Germany, British writer Sally Carson wrote “Crooked Cross” about the rise of Nazism as told through its effect on one ordinary German family.  It was published as a novel in 1934; the following year,  she adapted it into a play. Both versions were long forgotten until now. The novel was republished five months ago to great acclaim.  The play is opening tonight for the first time anywhere since 1937, in the latest of the Mint Theater Company’s sturdy restorations on a budget. It is, as usual for Mint productions, impressively performed and well designed.

“Art” is not about art, and it’s not really about friendship. If it’s about anything at all, the Broadway revival of Yasmina Reza’s 30-year-old play is about the celebrity of Bobby Cannavale, James Corden and Neil Patrick Harris, who star as longtime friends who come to blows over an expensive all-white painting. All three actors are familiar faces on TV, each with enough fans apparently willing to pay a top ticket price upwards of $500, judging by the box office grosses in the three weeks since the production opened at Broadway’s Music Box Theater, and by the deafening entrance applause that greeted each of them one by one at the matinee I attended. 

Dylan Mulvaney has chosen an obviously ironic title for her extravagantly staged solo show about her viral life story as a targeted trans social media celebrity. But she also exudes an innate sincerity. Beneath all the campy scenes and quirky original songs, she lets us know that all she ever wanted was for everybody to like her; she certainly never meant to become so notorious.  Having gained a massive following on TikTok with her “Days of Girlhood” series, a daily chronicle of her transgender transition over the course of a year,  Mulvaney became famous enough to interview President Biden in the White House and to promote several national products as a brand ambassador.  

Last week, four new Broadway shows announced their dates and venues for Spring 2026: Dog Day Afternoon, opening March 30. Fallen Angels, April 19. Schmigadoon, April 20. The Rocky Horror Show, April 23 – which makes 22 shows in total now for the Broadway 2025-2026 season. Over the past two weeks, three solo shows opened in New York that originated at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Weather Girl, Weer, and one at Dixon Place I review below), with a fourth opening this coming week. The Fringe has become almost as palpable a presence in New York as New Yorkers are at the Fringe, the latter illustrated by my 

In her hour-long solo show, Abby Wambaugh both spoofs and nails a wide variety of comedy styles, from standup to slapstick to Moth-style storytelling to musical comedy. At various times, she wears a banana suit, portrays the number 9, and (my favorite) imitates a vacuum cleaner. She hands a mic to an audience member to produce the sounds of a dribbling basketball in a segment that, as we see on the mini marquee, is entitled “One on None,” and gives a gift of white wigs to two other theatergoers to join her in one entitled “Old Men Learn Parkour.”  …

In its thrilling opening rap, “Mexodus” gives an overview of the little-known history of Mexico as a refuge for thousands of escaping American slaves before the Civil War. Rhythmic, uncommonly melodic, densely informative, “Two Bodies” may remind you of another opening number, from a certain Broadway musical that’s also based on American history. Unlike “Hamilton,” though – or “1776” or “Suffs” or “Assassins” – “Mexodus” doesn’t keep strictly to the historical record after that. This is in part because so little of this particular history was recorded. But Brian Quijada and Nygel D.

Elizabeth Marvel has been summoned to an ominous-looking room by a uniformed official; she doesn’t know why, and the chatty official keeps her (and us) in suspense. She is the lawyer who will represent a woman who murdered her entire family, the official (Scott Shepherd) finally informs her, at the end of the first scene in Tim Blake Nelson’s play. “Find someone else,” she begs him.“We both know this must happen.” As cryptic futuristic dystopian procedurals go, “And Then We Were No More” has much to recommend it. The title is enough of a tip-off that things will not end well, but the downbeat journey is made worthwhile by a splendid cast, an impressive set,  and some provocative philosophical observations.

Below is a calendar of New York theater opening* in October, including three opening on Broadway. “Ragtime” originated at the Encores concert series, “Liberation” had a brief run Off-Broadway; both are transferring with casts intact. “Little Bear Ride Road” starring Laurie Metcalf, marks the Broadway debut of an Off-Broadway favorite, playwright Samuel D. Hunter. (There’s a fourth Broadway show that’s not opening on Broadway; for explanation, see October 8th) Ostober 16 October 28 October 30 Beyond Broadway, Andre De Shields takes on Moliere, Stephen Rea does Beckett, Bedlam adapts Jane Austen, and Jordan E.