In the Heights (City Center) (2026)

I love In the Heights. Even a stripped down concert staging is phenomenal. My only criticism is I wish there was a bit more set. But the choreography is high energy and exquisite. Everyone is off book. The music is so good. The wordplay is so clever. And the overlapping melodies are brilliant. On this twentieth anniversary, In the Heights remains relevant as ever. The first act is so strong, even if the second act maybe doesn't quite live up to the first. It's just a fuller show than the movie is. There isn't so much plot in act two; but they quickly tie in a bow everyone's storyline. Everyone gets their song and they're all bangers. And they're all emotionally evocative. I've always loved Nina's storyline-- Breathe always gets me. And When You're Home is so good. And the big ensemble numbers! Yes, in 96000 they change the lyric to Tiger Woods. Oh and Abuela Claudia is played by Natalie Venetia Belcon fresh off a Tony win for Buena Vista Social Club, another show celebrating the Latino experience, and now on hiatus to do a 2.5 week stint at City Center. She nails Paciencia y Fe! The fireworks lighting effects light up the beautiful City Center. Very loud engaged crowd, maybe the most vigorous cheering I've ever heard at City Center.

Schmigadoon! (Broadway)

Though I haven't seen the TV show, I understand the stage play very closely mirrors Season 1. And it's a lot of fun! The book is full of jokes that are genuinely funny. The songs are a little more difficult to understand the exact lyrics. But they do a pretty accurate send-up of classic Rodgers and Hammerstein. Some of the songs come verbatim from Carousel, most obviously and again and again. But also Oklahoma and South Pacific and Sound of Music and Music Man. I think the satire works. Jennifer Simard plays Mildred Layton; every line out of her mouth is hilarious. I think her song Tribulation is probably the high point of the show. Alex Brightman plays the anti-musical boyfriend, so it's an almost non-singing role ironically. The target audience will very much enjoy this. If you're not as steeped in musical theater history I think you can still appreciate the absurdist comedy even if you miss the satire.

School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play (Broadway) (2026)

Following the successful run of Jaja's African Hair Braiding on Broadway last year, Manhattan Theatre Company revived another Jocelyn Bioh play. Pleasant surprise, there was a discussion after the show with the playwright and director, now in their second collaboration. You know I love a Q&A. And I especially loved hearing about how the reception has changed over time, ten years after its original run Off-Broadway. We have different sensibilities now and so people laugh or sympathize with certain lines in new ways. The show is very funny. The girls are so mean. The accents are so good. It's especially jarring when Patina Miller arrives and she has this unplaceable accent that's not really African and nor really European or American. The show touches on colorism, racism, classism, fat-shaming and high school girls being teenagers. Remember Mean Girls features a white Lindsey Lohan from Africa? Well this play has a light-skinned black Jasmine Amy Rogers (who is extraordinary) from America recently moved to Ghana. The lead cast is stacked but the supporting cast is actually who really stood out. The supporting characters are all so quick-witted, they react to each other, and in their accents they sing-song rhythmically their one-liners. Wonderful show, go see it! 

Marina (Little Island)

Little Island trimmed down their programming this summer. I think they're looking to cut down on their expenses but in this maritime production that happened to be on a rainy night, they provided good quality disposal ponchos. This is my second outing to the Amphitheater and this was certainly the stranger production. A commission by the Whitney Biennial, Marina is a world premiere by Martine Gutierrez, who stars as the titular Marina, and Julio Torres, who wrote and directed the hour-long play. I was a little deceived because I thought Torres would be in it. There is even a role that should have been played by Julio--a character that rolls around the stage on its stomach. All the under-the-sea characters use spooky voices. Their costumes are absurd. I mean, I don't know what a sea wench is supposed to look like so the production designers ran wild. This ain't no Disney-fied little mermaid. It is funny in a Torres kind of way. It's weird, not for everyone. I don't think it's as incisive or funny as his other work. But it has its moments. Just as Ariel collects human thingamabobs from the surface, Marina comes across a smartphone and promptly creates an OKCupid profile to catfish unsuspecting human men who she slays when they realize the deception. Before we started, we were a little surprised that the play was so short but I think an hour is honestly the right length for a show that's so out there. I was also led to believe it was a musical. While it has a score by Lia Ouyang Rusli (who wrote the music or Happyend) there aren't really songs. Glad to have seen it anyway! 

The Bear (FX/Hulu) (2022-6)

At its best, The Bear was the best thing on TV. It was intense to a level TV had never seen before, like watching a Safide Brothers movie about the fine dining scene in Chicago. In an era of binge watching, you couldn't sit through multiple episodes of The Bear. You needed a break from all the yelling and cursing. And in the years since, The Pitt has adopted its style, and perhaps improved upon it by being a little more bingeable. Even when stressful TV has sort of fallen out of fashion otherwise in these stressful times when people are looking for more peaceful optimistic leisure TV like Ted Lasso. 

The heights of The Bear is season 2, namely the standout episode "Fishes" that won Emmys for Jon Bernthal and Jamie Lee Curtis fresh off Everything Everywhere All at Once. Other highlights included the love for Chicago, the supporting character-centric standalone episodes, the needle drops (Can't Hardly Wait in Pop), the spectacular guest spots, the food porn, the editing, and the star-making turns from Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Ayo Edebiri. It lost its way a little bit in Season 3 and 4--less engaging, less demanding, generally less interesting, kind of depressing. But Season 5 brought the series to a fitting, uplifting finale. It has a much smaller focus, taking place all basically in a day, focused on one stressful dinner service. And in the end we get to see these characters on the verge of suicide finally smile again and find some peace. 

The Winter's Tale (2026) (The Public Theater)

In my first return to the Delacorte since the renovation (following the blockbuster production last summer we couldn't get tickets to), the theater actually looks largely the same. After all that, they could have added a roof, because it was a rainy night. It rained on and off, light drizzle to a downpour in intermission. And you're not allowed to use an umbrella during the show. You need a good poncho. Not as fitting as when we saw the Tempest, but there is a storm scene at the end of Act I during which it did start raining. We had great seats at the back of the middle section, with no one next to us or in front of us, scared away by the rain. We actually had a little overhang shielding us from the control booth. One of the actors even slipped in the rain. The seats are still super uncomfortable. But beautiful space. 

I had no familiarity with this less frequently performed Shakespeare play. It runs way too long, at nearly 3.5 hours. There are many scenes that play out like a final scene, but then it keeps on going and going. It is neither a tragedy nor comedy nor history play. I guess it's kind of a comedy since it ends in marriage, but it's not really funny. The first act actually plays out more like a tragedy, ending in death. It's all the more jarring that the second act opens with a pastoral scene after that. It's a dialogue heavy play, with not much action or scenery to speak of. And the dialogue is not super easy to follow or understand and it's kind of boring. Act II fast forwards sixteen years but had I not read the synopsis that probably would have been lost on me. There is a small four-piece band that accompanies the cast out of sight. They're the best part. 

Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo (PAC NYC) (2026)

In my last season of eligibility for under 30 tickets, I went to the new musical by Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland. I love that there is a cool space to promote new works, even if the new plays aren't that good. The $9 fee, even at the box office, is unjustifiable though! I unfortunately didn't really like the music. It's a lot of kind of samey ballads. Some of the characters have musical inspiration clearly drawn from Hamilton, but not as catchy or clever, looking at the Governatore and to a lesser extent the Cardinal. And the lyrics and themes are kind of lame. Like "what happens next?" That just sets up more telling not showing. The plot is mostly predictable. It's a surprisingly bloodless show considering how many bodies pile up. I think it may have worked better if it leaned into that more, Sweeney Todd-style, punching up the writing with some comedy and gore (even has the icky judge-ward age gap relationship). 

I did like the set. There's a big cabinet with three double doors that are regularly opened and closed to reveal new scenery. There's a very pretty church window, apothecary shelves, and lots of other creative ways to transport the audience. There's also an imposing staircase on stage reminiscent of a dramatic opera. And I liked the choreography of the first murder scene.