Floyd Collins (Broadway) (2025)

Floyd Collins is a bizarre show. It's not about a particularly exciting subject. Collins was a real life cave explorer in 1920s Kentucky who got pinned under a rock in a narrow section of the cave. His predicament became a news bonanza, attracting people from all over the country with ideas on how to get Collins out. It was a media circus that became a real  above ground carnival. Spoiler alert, he eventually dies there. Very oddly, in this production Collins remains on stage basically the whole way through, sitting on a chaise lounge, not especially stuck-looking. It's an odd-choice, and there isn't a whole lot to make you feel like you're in a cave. The stage design leaves much to be desired. 

The bluegrass music is kind of nice. The yodeling and echoes looping/harmonizing with itself are interesting. I think the best part actually is the score.  The piano and harmonica parts are playful, quite complex. Adam Guettel is the composer, and for being one of his earliest works I'm impressed by the complexity. Also, I just learned that Guettel is Richard Rodgers's grandson. 

Andor (2022-25)

Andor is the best show on TV. It is the most important show of our authoritarian times. Don't be turned off by the Star Wars universe of it all. It has nothing to do with Jedi or the Force. It has everything to do with rebellion. It's about the spirit of revolution, about what pushes ordinary people to finally awaken to oppression and to do something to combat injustice. There are small actions and large, but everyone pays a sacrifice. An iconic quote from Luthen: "I burn my life for a sunrise that I know I'll never see." It's at once devastating and inspiring. It may take place in a galaxy far far away but the emotion is genuinely rousing nonetheless because we can sympathize. We're living through our own empire; it's not hard to see echoes of Ghorman in Los Angeles, Narkina 5 in our prison-industrial complex, Mina-Rau in our farms populated by Central American immigrants for the harvest.

It's a political thriller--a series of heist movies organized in 3-episode arcs (save for a 4-2 combo at the end of season 1). This gives the show a truly cinematic quality. It's like watching a series of Star Wars movies in which time passes between arcs but you're able to fill in the gaps anyways quite deftly. The action and cinematography and production/costume design look as expensive as the show cost. Knowing where this all ends (Rogue One) does not detract in the least from the suspense inherent in Andor. I also like that the show does not solely focus on Cassian. We get the Empire's side too, from the bureaucracy of the ISB. We see both the banality of evil and even hints of how a bureaucrat like Syril could eventually come to see the light. We see the face of the rebellion, and the shadows, the money and the power, the nice and the mean. Mon Mothma's crusade in the senate 

Season 2 Episodes 8, 9 and 10 are three of the most breathtaking episodes in quick succession.  Season 1 Episodes 6, 10 and 12 are also stellar. I'll say other moments that stand out emotionally: Nemik's manifesto and Maarva's last conversation with Cassian, inspired by Aldhani without knowing Cassian's role there, and Bix's final scene. 

Gypsy (Broadway) (2025)

The little I knew about Gypsy going into the latest revival was limited to a couple songs and an overbearing mother. Rose certainly is overbearing. No one else can barely get a word in. She's the original Dance Mom. It's sometimes painful to watch. As far as I know, Audra McDonald is the first black Rose on Broadway. And it adds a different dimension to the character, dreaming a delusional dream in the 1920s, dooming her children every time she denies them an opportunity to go to school. That both daughters eventually found success is a testament to their resilience. They humor their mother at their own cost. It's a tragedy, dressed (or undressed) in glitz at the end with a tinge of hope at reconciliation, but really tragic nonetheless. 

Audra McDonald is a treasure. She is capital-A acting in those book scenes, heavy accent, emphasizing words, throwing around her stage presence like no one else matters. I'm used to hearing her beautiful singing voice but here she strains her voice. It's not effortless. It's not pretty. It's pained. Her Rose's Turn and Everything's Coming Up Roses hit a register of her voice that's very uncomfortable. It's a tour de force. That's what musical theater is about--it's not just singing, it's acting singing. It's not about sounding good, it's about sounding a character. The power comes from her vision of who Rose is and her embodiment of the tragedy of her life.