New reviews

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• Billy Elliot

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• The Brit-import musical has grit, heart and spectacular dancing. Go Billy!

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• American Buffalo

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• David Mamet's petty-crooks drama from 1976 is loads of profane fun, despite unfortunate casting.

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• Road Show

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• Fans of Stephen Sondheim, brace yourselves: The latest is just not up to the master's high standards.

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• Shogun Macbeth

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• Sick of Shakespeare done traditionally? Want some exotic high concept? Be careful what you wish for.

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• Farragut North

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• For political junkies enduring postelection withdrawal, this twisty campaign drama is theatrical methadone.

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• Back Back Back

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• Itamar Moses hits a home run with this engrossing tale of ball players, steroids and team spirit.

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• Dawn

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• Thomas Bradshaw exposes the emotional fallout from a raging alcholic.

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• Mindgame

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• Perhaps the looniest stage failure of the year, this is dinner theater served with an emetic.

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• Saturn Returns

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• In Noah Haidle’s lightweight meditation on aging and memory, time doesn’t heal; it tears the flesh and leaves ugly scars.

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• Streamers

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• The Roundabout revives David Rabe's 1976 psychodrama about young soldiers bound for Vietnam.

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• Mouth to Mouth

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• Guilt drives the hero of Kevin Elyot's strange new play, presented by the New Group.

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• The Language of Trees

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• In Steven Levenson's smart, touching new drama, a young family is torn apart by the Iraq War.

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• Sleepwalk with Me

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• Mike Birbiglia tries to marry highly personal autobiography and stand-up comedy.

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• Bury the Dead

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• Irwin Shaw’s antiwar play must have already seemed timeless in 1936; it suits today quite well, too.

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• The Grand Inquisitor

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• Peter Brook directs a ruthlessly minimalist version of a Fyodor Dostoyevky's parable: It's antispectacle.

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• If You See Something Say Something

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• Politically acute monologuist Mike Daisey will make you laugh and think—often at the same time.

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• Romantic Poetry

• John Patrick Shanley (Doubt) delivers a horrific musical flop, which earns the Theater department's first zero-star review.

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• All My Sons

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• British director Simon McBurney delivers a fresh and revelatory take on  Arthur Miller's postwar drama.

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• Rock of Ages

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• The new jukebox musical Rock of Ages, which crams 30 hard-hitting ’80s hits into a self-consciously campy romantic comedy, knows its demo.

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• Equus

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• Yes, Harry Potter fans: The wizardly teen heartthrob is onstage, naked. But is there any magic happening up there?

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• 13

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• What’s the matter with kids today? A new musical illustrates the case.

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• Basic Training

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• Kahlil Ashanti’s personable but unremarkable solo show traces his journey through boot camp to success in the Air Force’s in-house entertainment corps, Tops in Blue.

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• Speed-the-Plow

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• David Mamet's 1988 satire says that Hollywood is full of hypocrites and pretentious jerks; is this still news?

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• Blasted

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• Sarah Kane's ultraviolent, terrifying 1995 debut finally reaches New York; it's still shocking, and this production is near perfect.

Recent reviews

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• A Man for All Seasons

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• Roundabout Theatre Company digs Robert Bolt’s 1960 historical drama out of the mothballs.

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• Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab

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• Rehab, schmehab: Forbidden Broadway is flying high, and taking everyone along for the trip.

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• The Seagull

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• The stars come out for Chekhov’s tragicomic daisy chain of she-loves-me-nots; do they shine?

Cultural gatekeepers: Theater

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• Causing a scene

• Can anyone save us from the aging subscribers and rank commercialism that has paralyzed our city’s stages? Theater editor David Cote comes to the rescue.

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• Q&A: André Bishop and Paige Evans

• André Bishop, artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater, talks with his newest staffer, Paige Evans of LCT3.

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• Theater curator's calendar

• A peek inside the yearly planner of St. Ann's Warehouse artistic director Susan Feldman—a globe-trotting tastemaker.

Best on Broadway

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• Gypsy

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• The Broadway revival of Gypsy, starring the astonishing Patti LuPone, has now arrived at the—wow.

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• August: Osage County

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• Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts gives us the American fucked-up-family drama at its nastiest; the must-see this season.

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• South Pacific

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• Bartlett Sher’s revival of South Pacific is faultlessly decorous; each moment whispers "masterpiece theater" into your ear.