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Sara Holdren

Theater Critic

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theater review Oct. 7, 2019

Theater Review: Deep in Red America with Heroes of the Fourth Turning“Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning is so frighteningly well written, it’s hard to write about.”
theater review Oct. 6, 2019

Theater Review: Slave Play Nearly Demands a Conversation. So We Had One.As Jeremy O. Harris’s play transfers to Broadway.
theater review Oct. 2, 2019

Theater Review: Freestyle Love Supreme May Not Be Theater, But It’s a BlastA loose, fun hip-hop-comedy-improv night with Lin-Manuel and friends.
theater review Oct. 1, 2019

Theater Review: The Great-Man Theory of The Great SocietyThe sequel to All the Way goes waist-deep into the big muddy, and then some.
theater review Sept. 26, 2019

Theater Review: At the Armory, a Mesmerizingly Japanese AntigoneSatoshi Miyagi strips away the usual chest-beating from Sophocles’ ancient play.
theater review Sept. 25, 2019

Theater Review: Mothers, Where the Apocalypse Feels FamiliarAnna Moench’s play does racial strife with a twist.
theater review Sept. 24, 2019

Theater Review: Slight Drama and Great Performances in The Height of the StormEileen Atkins: whoa.
theater review Sept. 24, 2019

Theater Review: The Moral Downshift of Our Dear Dead Drug LordA troubling play with an even more troubling message.
theater review Sept. 23, 2019

Reviews: Unmagical Realism in Runboyrun, In Old Age, and SundayThree new plays that stay in familiar rooms.
theater review Sept. 16, 2019

Theater Review: Wives, in Four Exuberant Feminist ConversationsImagined talk between queens and mistresses, Martha Gellhorn and Mary Hemingway, and more.
fall preview 2019 Sept. 6, 2019

Ivo van Hove on Bringing West Side Story to Broadway“It’s an amazing story about contemporary life, about young people who get stuck in a cycle of violence.”
fall preview 2019 Sept. 6, 2019

The Best and Biggest Theater Performances to See This FallThe Inheritance, Jagged Little Pill, Freestyle Love Supreme, and more.
theater review Sept. 5, 2019

Theater Review: A Tight New BetrayalTom Hiddleston stars [long pause] in the Pinter revival.
theater review Sept. 3, 2019

Theater Review: The Strengths and Weaknesses of a Free Public HerculesThe Disney movie musical is onstage for a one-week run in the park.
theater review Aug. 15, 2019

Theater Review: The Unreal Land of Make BelieveBess Wohl’s play about childhood and its ripple effects.
theater review Aug. 6, 2019

Theater Review: A Coriolanus Amid the WreckageAfter the apocalypse in Central Park.
theater review July 25, 2019

Theater Review: Moulin Rouge! Is Broadway’s Biggest Karaoke Night“It commits single-mindedly to stuffing in as many additional hit tracks as possible.”
theater review July 18, 2019

Theater Review: Halley Feiffer’s Moscow Moscow Is, Like, LOL, Whatevs, ChekhovHalley Feiffer’s reinterpretation of Three Sisters in modern-day
theater review July 16, 2019

Theater Review: The Rolling Stone Goes for Big Feelings Over RigorIntensity of emotion can’t quite mask the weaknesses.
theater reviews June 27, 2019

In the Green and We’re Only Alive… Are Two More Bursts of Musical-Theater EnergyTwo more from this summer’s group of invigorating new musicals.
theater review June 17, 2019

Theater Review: The Influence of Anxiety in A Strange LoopMichael R. Jackson’s new musical is inspired, in part, by the experience of sharing the name of a very famous person.
theater review June 13, 2019

Theater Review: The Secret Life of Bees Becomes Its Platonic SelfSue Monk Kidd’s novel becomes a musical, beautifully.
theater review June 11, 2019

Theater Review: In the Park, the Warring Wits of Much Ado About NothingShakespeare in the Park’s latest production.
theater reviews June 4, 2019

Theater Reviews: Limited Young Lives in Nomad Motel and an Adapted Little WomenA pair of plays (one all new, one adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s novel) about young people finding their way in the world.
theater review May 30, 2019

Theater: Imperfection and Sincerity in Frankie & Johnny Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon bring emotional intelligence and hopeful silliness to a far-from-perfect play.
theater review May 29, 2019

Theater Review: The Well-Scrubbed Drama of Something CleanThe evening’s strength lies in the interplay between Kathryn Erbe and Christopher Livingston.
theater review May 21, 2019

Theater Review: Continuity, Where Little Hollywood Crises Face Big Global OnesDiva behavior and props that shatter, on the set of a film about climate change.
theater review May 20, 2019

Theater: Octet, by Dave Malloy, Takes Flight on 8-Bit WingsThe Great Comet writer returns.
theater review May 19, 2019

Theater Review: Mac Beth Has a Gap at Its CenterReinterpreted Shakespeare that doesn’t quite connect.
theater review May 16, 2019

Theater Review: Happy Talk Is a Satire Full of Empty CaloriesJesse Eisenberg’s play is a maudlin mess until it turns into a horrific one.
theater review May 13, 2019

Theater Review: Blood Without Guts in Curse of the Starving ClassThe play goes all out; this production pulls it back.
theater review May 9, 2019

Theater Review: BLKS Would Be Better in 23-Minute EpisodesIt’s part of a trend: plays that try to do the things that make TV great, instead of the things that make theater great.
theater review May 6, 2019

Theater Review: Passage, a Reimagination of E.M. Forster, Goes ThereFinding the despair beneath A Passage to India.
theater review Apr. 28, 2019

Theater Review: The Volcano at the Center of Grief Is the Thing With FeathersCillian Murphy is afire for nearly 90 minutes.
theater review Apr. 25, 2019

Theater Review: Beetlejuice Is Best When It’s at Its Most AnticAlex Brightman has what it takes to fill this high-energy emcee’s role.
theater review Apr. 24, 2019

Theater Review: In Ink, What’s Black and White and Rupert All OverThe making of a tabloid mogul.
theater review Apr. 24, 2019

Theater Review: Can Tootsie Work When It’s Not 1982?Bubbly, clever lyrics can’t save a fundamentally flawed project.
theater review Apr. 22, 2019

Theater Review: An Affair Gone Toxic in The Pain of My BelligerenceHalley Feiffer wrote and stars in a play about a bad date that, over the years, gets worse and worse.
theater review Apr. 22, 2019

Theater Review: All About the Men in All My SonsAnnette Bening squeezes every bit of power out of a too-slight part.
theater review Apr. 21, 2019

Theater Review: Shakespeare, Riffed On Relentlessly, in GaryWith Nathan Lane as the titular clown.
theater review Apr. 18, 2019

Theater Review: A Transitory Journey to the Recent Past in Hillary and ClintonLaurie Metcalf and John Lithgow as the couple we all think we know.
theater review Apr. 17, 2019

Theater Review: The Songwriting and Storytelling Tours de Force of HadestownAncient myths, made absolutely fresh.
theater reviews Apr. 16, 2019

Theater Review: Men Behaving Bigly, in Burn This and SocratesAdam Driver looks giant up there onstage.
theater review Apr. 15, 2019

Theater Review: Counting One’s Way Through 17 Border CrossingsVisual ingenuity but the sketchlike structure sags.
theater review Apr. 13, 2019

Theater Review: The Dizzying Whirl of a Messy Texas Family in Plano“If you live in this world, time flies when you’re having the opposite of fun.”
theater review Apr. 8, 2019

Theater Review: Focus-Group Friction in Mrs. Murray’s MenagerieWithout vague distancing language like “problematic.”
theater review Apr. 7, 2019

The Brightness (and Badonkadonk) Amid the Menace: Re-Reviewing Oklahoma!This groundbreakingly dark production also contains a lot of joy, not to mention sex appeal.
theater review Apr. 4, 2019

Theater Review: Once More Into the Storm With King LearWith Glenda Jackson as the king.
theater review Apr. 3, 2019

Theater Review: John Doyle Strips The Cradle Will Rock Down to the Bare WoodJohn Doyle applies his tool kit to the 1937 agitprop play.
theater review Apr. 2, 2019

Theater Review: The Loopy, Barbed Office Satire of Do You Feel Anger?An empathy expert comes to a collections firm.