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MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

Sara Holdren

Theater Critic
See all their articles from across New York Magazine
@swholdren
sara.holdren@nymag.com
  1. theater review
    Alone in the Dark: I Love You So Much I Could Die and On Set With Theda BaraTwo solo shows, looking to make the most of limited resources—and one, at least, soars.
  2. theater review
    Two Queens (and Some Dancing): The ApiaryVirtuosic performances in a play that can’t quite get airborne.
  3. theater review
    Too Too Solid: Eddie Izzard’s HamletThe British comedian, so deft on a standup stage, has a go at Shakespeare—and tightens up.
  4. theater review
    The Trouble With Trolls, in Russian Troll FarmSarah Gancher’s play takes us to the bunker where disinformation begins its journey.
  5. theater review
    We’re in This Together: Bark of Millions and The Following EveningA maximalist performance and a quiet, inward-looking play—both, somehow, about creative legacy and earthly mystery.
  6. theater review
    Quiet Obsessions, Unplugged: Aberdeen and The Animal KingdomA verse play about Kurt, and a therapy play about hurt.
  7. theater review
    Soaring Voices and Plastic Plants in Days of Wine and RosesKelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James at peak vocal power.
  8. theater review
    Diary of an Overbooked Theater-Festival Surfer: Week ThreeJack! Rose! Jack! Rose! And Eugene Onegin.
  9. theater review
    The Long Zoom of Public ObscenitiesA story of bringing a partner home to Kolkata is steeped in naturalism.
  10. theater review
    Diary of an Overbooked Theater-Festival Surfer: Week TwoPuppets, worms, toilets, and a really aggressive Shakespeare take.
  11. theater reviews
    Diary of an Overbooked Theater-Festival Surfer: Week OneOn finding eccentric Miranda July commentary and gonzo race commentary during January’s experimental-theater blitz.
  12. theater review
    Can You Put Your Faith in Prayer for the French Republic?It’s a timely and engaged play, but that engagement is glib.
  13. 2024 preview
    14 Plays and Musicals We Can’t Wait to See in 2024Izzard in Shakespeare, Strong in Ibsen, Carell in Chekhov, and a freaky Michael R. Jackson musical.
  14. theater review
    An Estate That Divides: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s AppropriateSarah Paulson is furious and fearsome.
  15. theater review
    When the Play’s Not the ThingToo often, great performances and stagecraft are let down by the script behind them.
  16. best of 2023
    The Best Theater of 2023A play that’s not not about Fleetwood Mac, the return of Merrily and Purlie, and the agony of high-school test prep.
  17. best of 2023
    Exhilarating Reactions to a Troubled WorldPlus Sondheim old and (for the final time) new.
  18. theater review
    Reflections on Lost Lands: Manahatta and Life & Times of Michael KOnstage, the commoditization of Lenape land and the reclamation of a South African farm.
  19. theater review
    The Echo From the Days of ’39: Jen Silverman’s SpainA cool treatment of a once-hot civil war.
  20. theater review
    At Playwrights Horizons, a Tinge of the FringeAmusements, School Pictures, and Sad Boys in Harpy Land are running in repertory.
  21. theater review
    Hell’s Kitchen: A Familiar Diary of Alicia KeysConventional musical-theater turf, made fresh by killer performances.
  22. theater review
    Who Thought Stoppard Needs More Sex?Bedlam’s Arcadia falls into an easy trap.
  23. theater review
    Spamalot Returns, and It’s Not Dead YetSay no more!
  24. theater review
    Is Anything Real in Scene Partners? Is Everything?John J. Caswell Jr.’s script is like an Escher drawing, endlessly spiraling in on itself.
  25. theater review
    That’s the Idea, Let’s Amuse Each Other! Shannon and Sparks in Waiting for GodotMichael Shannon and Paul Sparks foreground the funny in Beckett.
  26. theater review
    Navigating the Expanses of Danny and the Deep Blue SeaChristopher Abbott and Aubrey Plaza star in the 1983 John Patrick Shanley play that’s beloved of young actors.
  27. theater review
    Tragic Losses, of Life and Language, in Watch Night and TranslationsThe destruction wrought by colonialism and racism, rendered onstage in very different ways.
  28. theater review
    What’ll It Be? At FOOD, the End of the World As We Know It.A farcical, funny, and haunting commentary on the industrialized, globalized diet.
  29. theater review
    I Need That Does Not Spark JoyDanny and Lucy DeVito, as an almost-hoarder and his daughter, are trapped in a play full of junk.
  30. theater review
    Bring a Bucket and a Mop for This Snatch & TaintyA juicy, joyful, bodily-function-obsessed trip below the belt.
  31. theater review
    The ‘Yes, We Can’ Spirit of Poor Yella RednecksQui Nguyen’s optimistic, funny immigration tale.
  32. theater review
    The Box-Checking Work Begins: Merry MeA self-described lesbian sex comedy leans on its Angels in America references.
  33. theater review
    Covenant Is Best When It’s At Its PulpiestWhy aren’t there more plays that lean into being genre horror?
  34. theater review
    Make Like a Tree: Renae Simone Jarrett’s DaphneOvid’s telling of the myth, reimagined.
  35. theater review
    The Last Midnight: Sondheim and Ives’s ‘Here We Are’A strange, dark, fragmented, and compelling final message from the master.
  36. theater review
    Language As Engine: Helen. and MahineratorA feminist Trojan War parable and a monologue that leaps right over the desk to grab you.
  37. theater review
    How It Went Down, Revised: Salesman之死 and Room, Room, Room …Two plays that find power in strange historical corners.
  38. theater review
    A Full, Fierce Day in Sean O’Casey’s DublinA six-hour, three-play DruidO’Casey marathon where the ’20s rhyme with ours, unsettlingly.
  39. theater review
    Gutenberg! The Musical!’s Broadway Dreams Mostly Come TrueBook of Mormon dynamos Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad reunite on Broadway with a new mission: to elevate a delightful yet padded-out show.
  40. theater review
    Here’s to Them. Who’s Like Them? Damn Few.Turns out what Merrily We Roll Along needs most is three actors who can really bring it home, and here they are.
  41. theater review
    Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Where the Stories Intertwine TooAnd the wigs deserve an award all their own.
  42. theater review
    A Vintage Satire That Still Has Sting: Purlie Victorious ReturnsOssie Davis’s plantation farce retains its wit and snap.
  43. theater review
    Slapstick and Plague, in Mary Gets HersWacky fun with medieval horrors.
  44. theater review
    Did a Bot Write This Review of Prometheus Firebringer? No, and Here’s Why Not.A script written and performed by AI in real time has unexpected effects on an audience.
  45. theater review
    Job Pays Off and Clocks Out“Like a good TV crime drama, it’s manipulative in a value-neutral sense: It knows the position it wants to put you in, and it puts you there.”
  46. theater review
    The Mortal Truths of Annie Baker’s Infinite Life“This is part of Baker’s brilliance: to ruffle feathers with the calmest of breezes.”
  47. theater review
    Shadows and Seams, Both Visible: No Good Things Dwell in the FleshIn Christina Masciotti’s play about a Queens tailor facing her career’s end, the principal characters are everything.
  48. theater review
    A Tempest in the Park That’s (Mostly) No Thoughts, Just VibesIn tone and temperament, this production owes much more to Disney than it does to Shakespeare.
  49. fall preview 2023
    29 Plays and Musicals We Can’t Wait to See This FallOur two new drama critics share and compare their enthusiasms.
  50. theater review
    Improv on the Roof, Catharsis in Aisle 5What Else Is True? and Joan of Arc in a Supermarket in California leave our critic saying, “Yes, and …?”
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