Theater

Highlights

At ‘Slave Play’ in London, a ‘Black Out’ Night Emerges From Controversy
Critics slammed the idea of “restricting audiences on the basis of race,” but at a recent performance, Black spectators praised producers for creating a safe space.
By Derrick Bryson Taylor
CreditHelen Murray
With a Killer Onstage and a Body Part in a Bag, the Show Went On
The creators of “Inspired by True Events” wanted their new immersive theater piece to convey ominousness, not a haunted-house riff on “Noises Off.”
By Erik Piepenburg
CreditVincent Tullo for The New York Times
1. Kennedy Center Honorees Include Francis Ford Coppola and the Apollo
  The renowned Harlem theater will be the first institution to receive the honor. Artists being recognized are Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval and the Grateful Dead.
  By Annie Aguiar
  CreditSebastien Nogier/EPA, via Shutterstock
2. Swing Shift
  The Broadway Actor Who Designs Dressing Rooms Inspired by Her Characters
  Krysta Rodriguez has found an avid audience for her new side business: creating dramatic interiors.
  By Juan A. Ramírez
  CreditBlaine Davis

In ‘Life and Trust,’ the Details Are in the Devil
A new immersive piece of theater from the producers of “Sleep No More” transports visitors to the Gilded Age through a retrofitted skyscraper in Manhattan.
By Alexis Soloski and Hiroko Masuike
Credit
For This Drama, Some Actors Returned to Prison by Choice
Alongside Colman Domingo and Paul Raci, ex-inmates shot “Sing Sing” in a decommissioned correctional facility. Then came the screening in the actual prison.
By Rachel Sherman
CreditGeordie Wood for The New York Times
Review: What Makes ‘Oh, Mary!’ One of the Best Summer Comedies in Years
Cole Escola’s dragtastic White House farce asks the immortal question: Besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
By Jesse Green
CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times
Critic’s Pick
Review: ‘Ain’t Done Bad’ Tells a Familiar Gay Story in Dance
Jakob Karr, from “So You Think You Can Dance?,” has conceived and choreographed a show set to songs by the country musician Orville Peck.
By Brian Seibert
CreditMatthew Murphy
Ford and Mellon Foundations Name 2024 Disability Futures Fellows
The 20 recipients, including a Broadway composer, a Marvel video game voice actress and a three-time Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, are the initiative’s final cohort.
By Sarah Bahr
CreditClockwise from top left: Steve Rogers Photography/Getty Images, via SXSW; Birdie Thompson; via Kay Ulanday Barrett; Roy Cox Photography

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Critic’s Pick
‘Hello, Dolly!’ Review: Imelda Staunton Has the Wow, Wow, Wow Factor
The veteran British actress shines in a new revival that is the musical theater highlight of the West End summer.
By Matt Wolf
Do You Know These Movies Based on Shakespeare’s Plays?
Try this short quiz on modern films that drew their inspiration from classic works written for the stage hundreds of years ago.
By J. D. Biersdorfer
Melding 3 Ancient Versions of the Ultimate Greek Tragedy
At the Salzburg Festival, a new adaptation of “The Oresteia” will put a classic story of war, democracy and revenge into a modern context.
By David Belcher
Critic’s Pick
‘Sing Sing’ Review: Divine Interventions
A deep-tissue turn by Colman Domingo and a breakout performance by Clarence Maclin lift this moving drama about a prison theater program.
By Lisa Kennedy
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Review: Sprinkling Magic Under a Night Sky
Fun is the main point of Carl Cofield’s stylish outdoor staging of Shakespeare’s comic fantasy for the Classical Theater of Harlem.
By Laura Collins-Hughes
A Queer Mountain Lion Leaps From the Page to the Little Island Stage
Henry Hoke’s 2023 novel, “Open Throat,” narrated by an animal in peril in the Hollywood Hills, is adapted for a staged reading.
By Juan A. Ramírez
A Red-Carpet Star Is Born
Cole Escola is dressing the part of fashion plate after achieving a new level of fame with the play “Oh, Mary!”
By Christopher Barnard
Critic’s Notebook
At Avignon Festival, Theater’s World Gets Wider
Under its new director, the event is shining a spotlight on countries and performers rarely represented on the biggest European stages.
By Laura Cappelle
The Five Women Who Started a Secret Theater Society
Years before they ascended to influential leadership roles, they worked at the Public Theater and became cheerleaders for each other’s professional dreams.
By Peter Marks
Critic’s Notebook
Resisting the Far Right at a Festival of French Theater
Tiago Rodrigues said the Avignon Festival, which he leads, would become “a festival of resistance,” juggling activism with the premiere of a new play.
By Laura Cappelle