For NYC residents and visitors, these are my Top Theater Recommendations for Summer 2018. If you can somehow snag an impossibly hard to get ticket to Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child or Springsteen on Broadway, by all means go! I loved each of them:
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I have created a list of my recent favorite plays and musicals that will still be running at least into August. A link to the original blog is provided for more information. At the end, a list of the upcoming plays and musicals I will be blogging about soon. If you would like to receive an automated email with each new posting, please sign up for free.
Plays
Conflict (Mint Theater Company)
A revival of a 1925 forgotten masterpiece. “The ending lines of Conflict are urgently important to be heard in today’s America.”
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The Play That Goes Wrong
“The audience with whom I saw this play laughed hard and very, very often.”
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Puffs, Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic
“Does the idea of sticking a Land O’Lakes label on a brown beer bottle make you laugh?” Get your Hogwarts fun at off-Broadway prices.
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Musicals
Dear Evan Hansen and Come From Away are both outstanding musicals and highly recommended. Other favorites from this blog which are still running:
The Band’s Visit
2018 Tony Award winner for Best Musical. “This is a slow, quiet, funny, sad, realistic, magical, musical tour of a very ordinary town awakened by visitors.”
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Carmen Jones (Classic Stage Company)
“The level of excellence is staggering …. the first revival in New York since its premiere 75 years ago.”
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Carousel
“Hands down the finest choreography in years.”
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
“It’s intimate, a little claustrophobic, in your face and abundantly entertaining.”
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SpongeBob SquarePants
“What’s the best part of this aquatic dreamscape? I’d have to see it again to figure that out, there are so many choices to consider.”
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Mean Girls
“Rare is the musical where this many different characters have finely executed moments in the spotlight.”
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Events
The Lost Supper (McKittrick Hotel)
“Think surrealistic dinner party interspersed with period songs or creatively executed performance pieces.”
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What am I planning to see and blog about this summer?
New York Musical Festival (NYMF). An incubator for new musicals with 12 full productions and 9 readings over four weeks.
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (Irish Repertory Company). The 2011 Broadway revival was worse than dreadful with Harry Connick Jr. painfully uncomfortable on stage. Let’s let Irish Rep have a crack at staging this show with its excellent score.
The Damned (Park Avenue Armory). The North American premiere of Ivo Van Hove’s adaptation of Luchino Visconti’s desperately dark drama.
This Ain’t No Disco (Atlantic Theater Company). Drifters and dreamers searching for their place in the night world of Studio 54 and Mudd Club.
Fairview (Soho Rep). Twice extended due to rave reviews, I managed to grab a ticket and look forward to checking this one out.
Straight White Men (Second Stage). This company’s second Broadway outing with two major last minute casting changes (of the same role) signals trouble.
Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope (Encores! Off-Center). In 1972, this musical revue was the first on Broadway to be staged by an African-American woman.
Head Over Heels. The next Broadway jukebox musical with tunes from The Go-Go’s.
The Boys in the Band. A starry cast Broadway revival for the 50th anniversary of this groundbreaking off-Broadway play.