Laura Collins-Hughes

Nathan Lane in a long arduous marriage with Laurie Metcalf should really be its own separate play. I can imagine a totally different story for these 2.

There’s a real art to writing a fundraising letter. My favorite from today’s e-blast deluge is by Lucas Hedges, who slips the pleasing phrase “I was a tomato in the garden of Baryshnikov“ into his pitch on behalf of Baryshnikov Arts.

Sure, of course. But if “A Christmas Carol” doesn’t usually/often doesn’t have an intermission, that could explain why it’s a question for you in the first place. (Also, Warchus is arguably offering one possible answer downtown.)

I talked recently with Matthew Warchus, who said of his production: “When we first brought it to America, there were some interesting questions straightaway, just things you wouldn't expect, like, 'Are you really gonna have an intermission? Because we don't usually do it with an intermission.'”

Latest @theguardian.com cartoon
#PaddingtonTheMusical

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13 Plays (and 2 Festivals) to Invigorate Your December

Plenty of notable non-holiday-related shows happening Off Broadway and beyond this month. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/t...

‘There was rage and pain and iron in him’: Patrick Marber on the great hits – and fond smokes – he had with Tom Stoppard The director worked with theatre colossus Tom Stoppard on two smash hits. Here, he remembers their heated rehearsals, the night they stayed up watching Jaws – and the last four cigarettes they smoked ...

This essay is invaluable. www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/d...

I had to leave a beautiful thing that Tim Curry said about Stoppard on the cutting-room floor. To Curry, the payoff of properly honoring the brilliance of Stoppard’s language in performance is the joy of the audience: “You can almost see them reaching up their hands in the air to catch a sentence.”

Glenn Close, Ethan Hawke and Others Mourn Tom Stoppard

Artists remember Tom Stoppard. By Jesse Green and Michael Paulson, with one contribution from me. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/t...

GUIL: No, no, no … you’ve got it all wrong … you can’t act death. The fact of it is nothing to do with seeing it happen—it’s not gasps and blood and falling about—that isn’t what makes it death. It’s just a man failing to reappear, that’s all—now you see him, now you don’t, that’s the only thing that’s real: here one minute and gone the next and never coming back—an exit, unobtrusive and unannounced, a disappearance gathering weight as it goes on, until, finally, it is heavy with death.

“Pay attention to the patterns of power grabs, infighting, the disintegration of the rule of law. See Macbeth. And I, Claudius. And the wealth and power imbalances just before the French Revolution. And yes, read Nineteen Eighty-Four. Again.”

YouTube video by Eve Sicular Isle of Klezbos plays Jill Sobule’s “Last Candle”: Music from Yentl tribute at Joe’s Pub

“Last Candle” is a Jill Sobule original she wrote among songs for the stageplay “Yentl.” She taught us this music when Isle of Klezbos performed for the project a decade ago. We share this tribute from 6/24/2025 at Joe’s Pub, dedicated as a memorial to Jill (with her own intro)
youtu.be/SImrCOCtODg

It’s hard to set audience expectations for a biographical show when it’s non-hagiographic in the extreme but the subjects are involved in its making.

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Musicals

(gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/t...

‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ Review: Does It Hurt?

On “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” starring Kara Young and Nicholas Braun at the Lortel. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/t...

‘Two Strangers’ Review: Meeting Cute, Toting Baggage

On "Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)," on Broadway. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/t...

‘This World of Tomorrow’ Review: Tom Hanks Is Back in Town

On Tom Hanks in “This World of Tomorrow,” the time-travel romance play based on his short stories, also starring Kelli O’Hara, at the Shed. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/t...

Side effect of seeing "The Seat of Our Pants": catching yourself going around cheerfully humming "The World Is Ending."

"Quadrophenia: A Rock Ballet" is only at City Center through Sunday, but if you love that album, GO. It is so beautifully done — music, dance, design. And then there is Pete, walking on with a guitar, sitting down stage right and playing "I'm One." Exquisite.

Guy walking down the aisle pre-ballet to guy walking up the aisle: "You look so dapper, man." Then, lowering his voice, to the woman he was with: "I gotta get a stylist for the Dance Hall of Fame."

Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer

Shocked to hear of the death of Rachel Cooke at 56 — I didn’t even know she was ill. I always enjoyed reading her reviews and features: she brightened any page of the paper.

‘The Seat of Our Pants’ Review: Songs for the World’s End

On Ethan Lipton’s new musical “The Seat of Our Pants” at the Public, starring an indelible Ruthie Ann Miles in a dream-team cast. That first act? *Stunning*. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/t...

There are times when I’m really glad I can read a story in Nexis rather than add my click to the pile.

(I didn’t really buy this “Oedipus.”)

“The Baker’s Wife” at Classic Stage Company is so “Only Murders in the Building”-coded. First, there’s Scott Bakula’s really lovely and moving performance as Aimable, the baker. Then right around the corner is a Schmackary’s.

Hell of a news cycle to be playing Jocasta in Robert Icke's spin on "Oedipus."

The Public has added “Seagull: True Story” to its season, running March 22-April 26. Really good news.

‘This is fascist America’: Anish Kapoor may sue after border agents pose by his sculpture Artist says ‘military style’ raids in US are ‘beyond belief’ while discussing new Southbank show next year

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

I got this useful bon mot from a middle school teacher recently.

In response to, “I DONT UNDERSTAND,” he calmly said, “okay what steps have you taken to understand?”

And that’s when I realized that a lot of folks have no steps.

Let Men Read Books