When I hear the words "musical parody" my sphincter tends to tighten, but just a few bars in watching Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody—now playing Off-Broadway at The CuIture Club—I knew there was nothing to fear, and immediately loosened up. Now, let's leave the butt references to the show...they are bountiful. With book, music,... Continue Reading →
Jinkx Monsoon shines as the iconic Judy Garland in a breathtaking performance. I remember when Jinkx Monsoon debuted as Matron "Mama" Morton in Chicago on Broadway in 2023. Reporting on the reaction to her first night on The Great White Way from this side of the pond it was clear that Monsoon’s star power far... Continue Reading →
Rocky Horror is back on Broadway for only the third time in 50 years, and it's a scream. It's also queerer than ever and horny AF. I'm sure that I haven't been alone in shivering with antici...pation, ever since last March when Roundabout Theatre Company announced that their revival of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror... Continue Reading →
Co-directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch's award-winning 2024 Off-Broadway production of Cats: The Jellicle Ball at Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), which imaginatively reinterpreted Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1981 musical theatre classic by placing it in the world of New York's Ballroom scene, blew me away. It was the talk of the town that summer... Continue Reading →
First performed at Versailles in 1664—and subsequently banned in France by the Church and the police for several years—centuries on, Molière’s Tartuffe still delights and feels bitingly relevant with its observations about human nature in Lucas Hnath's sharp and spicy rhyming verse adaptation directed by Sarah Benson, receiving its world premiere Off-Broadway at New York... Continue Reading →
Certified drag icons Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme are back on tour in the US and Canada with their eighth annual The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show bringing even more bite, irrelevance, and fiercely defiant tidings of comfort and joy than ever. Not to forget plenty of dick jokes. It's that kind of holiday show. In... Continue Reading →
Director Craig Baldwin's thrilling new adaptation of William Shakespeare's Richard II for Red Bull Theater boldly transposes the play's setting from late 14th-century England to a vibrantly realized, greed-is-good 1980s Manhattan. It is a choice that not only allows for some stunning costumes by Rodrigo Muñoz, but also conjures a period of national disunity, with... Continue Reading →
When Drew Droege, most widely known for his inspired viral Chloë Sevigny parody videos, spoke with The Queer Review in March 2020 about his one-man show Happy Birthday Doug, he mused, “I think we’re afraid as queer people to write flawed gay characters”. With his latest Off-Broadway comedy, Messy White Gays, the writer-star shows no... Continue Reading →
What seems like a safe choice—a classic play on the National Theatre’s biggest stage, the Olivier—quickly proves to be far more radical. From early on, it’s clear that Indhu Rubasingham’s first commission as Artistic Director isn’t just a play, it’s a mission statement for the National Theatre’s next era. Clare Perkins and company in National... Continue Reading →
Adapted from Damon Cardasis' 2017 film of the same name, that starred Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (a creative consultant and producer on the show), this exhilarating new musical at New York Theatre Workshop features a book and additional lyrics by Cardasis and Fat Ham's James Ijames, music and lyrics from pop icon Sia, with additional music... Continue Reading →
