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Helen Shaw

Theater Critic
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@helen_e_shaw

Helen Shaw has written about theater in New York since 2005, and for New York since 2019.

  1. theater review
    Sanctuary City Isn’t Always a RefugeAn undocumented-immigration story that takes a sharp turn.
  2. movie review
    Dear Evan Hansen Walks Through the Uncanny Valley, Ascends AnywayWhen the movie Dear Evan Hansen works, it’s working against the original musical’s platitudes and giving weight to its inherent brutality.
  3. opera review
    Review: In Sun & Sea, Econihilism Goes to the BeachIt’s all fun and games till someone loses a climate.
  4. profile
    Hearing Things With Ruth OzekiHer latest novel teems with voices — most of them belonging to what she might call “nonhuman persons.”
  5. theater review
    Twelfth Night: Richard Nelson’s Rhinebeck Cycle Comes to a CloseIn the twelfth and final play in the series, the extended Michael family gathers overseas.
  6. fall preview 2021
    24 New and Returning Theater Performances to See This FallCompany revival, Letters of Suresh, SIX: The Musical, and more.
  7. fall preview 2021
    What Theater Learned on Its 18-Month VacationA traumatic time that’s yielding some good for both the art and the people who make it.
  8. fall preview 2021
    Emily Davis Doesn’t Do ImpressionsPlaying Reality Winner without stunts in Is This a Room.
  9. fall preview 2021
    40 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This FallIncluding Sally Rooney, Colson Whitehead, Tiphanie Yanique, and, yes, Jonathan Franzen.
  10. theater review
    Ni Mi Madre Is a Stellar One-Man, One-Mom Show“Is he making fun? Is he paying homage? Yes and yes.”
  11. theater review
    In Islander, a Toxic Man Faces Off With HimselfDrama built from verbatim transcripts of an NHL star.
  12. theater review
    Theater Review: Pass Over Reaches for the Promised LandAn ambitious play (with a rewrite to suit the changed national mood) marks Broadway’s return.
  13. theater review
    In Merry Wives in the Park, the Real Housewives of Windsor Take ChargeFalstaff falls back as the women step up.
  14. theater reviews
    Haunted Houses: Samuel and Definition Make Emptiness the PointNot quite installation art, not quite full-on theater, but something in between that I’ll miss when it’s gone.
  15. theater reviews
    Light-Touch Theater: 3 Shows That Welcome Us Back, TentativelyThe one to see is Liminal Archive, at the New Ohio.
  16. theater
    In Marcus Garvey Park, Seize the King Reimagines Richard IIIThis summer, Classical Theatre of Harlem puts up Will Power’s contemporary verse play built on very old bones.
  17. theater review
    Enemy of the People Wants You to Choose Your Own MisadventureThe flashiest theater event since the shutdown is an interactive mixed bag.
  18. theater review
    Sex and Window-Shopping: Seven Plays for Seven Deadly SinsA septet of ten-minute dramas, under glass, in the Meatpacking District.
  19. theater review
    What to Send Up When It Goes Down Makes Its Audience Do the WorkThe show does not need to shock you to affect you.
  20. movie review
    Hulu’s False Positive Isn’t Quite Horror, But It Will Freak You OutIlana Glazer and John Lee’s fertility thriller needs to gestate a little more.
  21. unpacking genius
    Two Documentaries About Legendary Performers Touch the Surface of Their TalentA pair of films explore the artistic legacy of Alvin Ailey and Rita Moreno, but both demonstrate the limitations of trying to explicate genius.
  22. theater review
    The Shed Artwashes Hudson Yards. Who Artwashes the Shed?Open Call strives for drama in the long shadow of a luxury mall.
  23. streaming theater reviews
    Two Digital Theater Projects Pretend to Put 20-Somethings’ Lives on the LineTheater Reviews: ’The Kill One Race’ and ‘Capricorn 29’
  24. reviews
    Plan B Flips the Teen Sex Comedy on Its HeadSociety’s Plan A should be a world where this sort of desperate, pedal-to-the-metal quest isn’t necessary.
  25. streaming theater review
    This American Wife Gives the Real Housewives the Fake Friends TreatmentI’m saying it to your face!
  26. theater review
    Downtown Theater Comes Back, Slowly and Then All at OnceThe current New York performance jamborees, though, aren’t catering primarily to newcomers or out-of-towners.
  27. theater review
    In Taxilandia, the Front Seat Is Stage, the Back Seat an AudienceAnd the partition is the proscenium arch.
  28. movie review
    Ben Sharrock’s Limbo Is Halfway to HeavenA deportation gives the film a seam down the middle between handsome but coy and messy but fierce.
  29. book review
    In Rachel Cusk’s ‘Second Place,’ a Search for Connection Feels ClaustrophobicIn a new novel, a writer known for her cool remove drowns the reader in her protagonist’s obsessions.
  30. the industry
    Scott Rudin, As Told by His AssistantsA portrait of a toxic workplace.
  31. tv review
    Romeo and Juliet, Horny on MainThe TV film starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley is the lust-dazed, modern-dress version of the Shakespeare tragedy you didn’t know you needed.
  32. theater review
    A Play Opens! In a Theater! And … It’s a Recording.Blindness is our one-eyed king.
  33. backstories
    What Happens to New York Theater on April 2?Governor Cuomo announced that indoor performance will be allowed to return at 33 percent capacity starting today. What, exactly, will that look like?
  34. movie review
    Shiva Baby Is a Symphony in StressStar Rachel Sennott delivers a masterclass in making an audience sweat.
  35. profile
    The Queen of Fractured Fairy TalesHelen Oyeyemi writes magical, unsettling novels in which nothing remains fixed. She has lived her life that way, too.
  36. movie review
    Six Minutes to Midnight Runs Out the ClockEddie Izzard’s new period thriller about a 1930s finishing school for the daughters of the German High Command comes up short on all fronts.
  37. ooh it’s them!
    The 32 Greatest Character Actors Working TodayWe asked critics and Hollywood creators: Which supporting players make everything better?
  38. theater
    A Theater Critic Reviews a Year Without Theater“Little did I know that night that I’d go into Manhattan only three times in the next 365 days.”
  39. book review
    In Klara and the Sun, Artificial Intelligence Meets Real SacrificeKazuo Ishiguro’s novel proposes a world where the machines never revolt.
  40. rent! rent! rent!
    The Highs and Lows of NYTW’s 25 Years of Rent BenefitA reunion special with extra new stars, as the 1996 musical reaches a milestone birthday.
  41. movie review
    The Truffle Hunters Heads for the Hills and Returns With a Feast for the SensesEscape into a modern-day past with this documentary about Italian truffle foragers.
  42. theater
    Theater Is Closed, But That Hasn’t Stopped the WoostersFor the group, theater is a religion and the process is the point. Its latest: a years-in-the-making adaptation of Brecht’s The Mother.
  43. the art of ending things
    The 101 Greatest Endings in Movies HistoryGood finales offer catharsis. The best deny us closure altogether.
  44. streaming theater review
    Performing for Ghosts: Riz Ahmed’s The Long Goodbye“The songs are like stars, supermassive, dense with rhyme and anger.”
  45. movie review
    The Main Reason to Watch I Care a Lot Is Rosamund PikeThe Netflix movie wants to race along like a caper and sting like a satire. But it just winds up fighting itself.
  46. in memoriam
    Please, Everyone, Read Christopher Plummer’s AutobiographyThese few bits will get you hooked.
  47. movie review
    To All The Boys: Always and Forever Burns Low and SlowThe Netflix movie’s attention to the way romantic comedies operate teaches us to watch it with our guard up.
  48. sundance 2021
    In Weirdo Night, the Avant-Garde Fights DirtyJibz Cameron’s Dynasty Handbag persona comes to the screen.
  49. streaming theater review
    Bollywood Kitchen, Where the Script Is Also a RecipeA streaming innovation: Instead of getting better seats when you pay more, you get closer interaction with the star.
  50. streaming theater review
    Irish Eyes, Unsmiling: Mark O’Rowe’s The Approach Is a Three-Actor ShowcaseStreaming from Dublin.
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