Sara Holdren Author Archive
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Sara Holdren

Theater Critic
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@swholdren
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Sara Holdren is a theater director and a critic at New York magazine and Vulture.

  1. theater review
    Covenant Is Best When It’s At Its PulpiestWhy aren’t there more plays that lean into being genre horror?
  2. theater review
    Make Like a Tree: Renae Simone Jarrett’s DaphneOvid’s telling of the myth, reimagined.
  3. theater review
    The Last Midnight: Sondheim and Ives’s ‘Here We Are’A strange, dark, fragmented, and compelling final message from the master.
  4. theater review
    Language As Engine: Helen. and MahineratorA feminist Trojan War parable and a monologue that leaps right over the desk to grab you.
  5. theater review
    How It Went Down, Revised: Salesman之死 and Room, Room, Room …Two plays that find power in strange historical corners.
  6. theater review
    A Full, Fierce Day in Sean O’Casey’s DublinA six-hour, three-play DruidO’Casey marathon where the ’20s rhyme with ours, unsettlingly.
  7. theater review
    Gutenberg! The Musical!’s Broadway Dreams Mostly Come TrueBook of Mormon dynamos Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad reunite on Broadway with a new mission: to elevate a delightful yet padded-out show.
  8. theater review
    Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Where the Stories Intertwine TooAnd the wigs deserve an award all their own.
  9. theater review
    Slapstick and Plague, in Mary Gets HersWacky fun with medieval horrors.
  10. theater review
    Did a Bot Write This Review of Prometheus Firebringer? No, and Here’s Why Not.A script written and performed by AI in real time has unexpected effects on an audience.
  11. theater review
    Job Pays Off and Clocks Out“Like a good TV crime drama, it’s manipulative in a value-neutral sense: It knows the position it wants to put you in, and it puts you there.”
  12. theater review
    The Mortal Truths of Annie Baker’s Infinite Life“This is part of Baker’s brilliance: to ruffle feathers with the calmest of breezes.”
  13. theater review
    Shadows and Seams, Both Visible: No Good Things Dwell in the FleshIn Christina Masciotti’s play about a Queens tailor facing her career’s end, the principal characters are everything.
  14. theater review
    A Tempest in the Park That’s (Mostly) No Thoughts, Just VibesIn tone and temperament, this production owes much more to Disney than it does to Shakespeare.
  15. fall preview 2023
    29 Plays and Musicals We Can’t Wait to See This FallOur two new drama critics share and compare their enthusiasms.
  16. theater review
    Improv on the Roof, Catharsis in Aisle 5What Else Is True? and Joan of Arc in a Supermarket in California leave our critic saying, “Yes, and …?”
  17. theater review
    Theater Review: Deep in Red America with Heroes of the Fourth Turning“Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning is so frighteningly well written, it’s hard to write about.”
  18. theater review
    Theater Review: Slave Play Nearly Demands a Conversation. So We Had One.As Jeremy O. Harris’s play transfers to Broadway.
  19. theater review
    Theater Review: Freestyle Love Supreme May Not Be Theater, But It’s a BlastA loose, fun hip-hop-comedy-improv night with Lin-Manuel and friends.
  20. theater review
    Theater Review: The Great-Man Theory of The Great SocietyThe sequel to All the Way goes waist-deep into the big muddy, and then some.
  21. theater review
    Theater Review: At the Armory, a Mesmerizingly Japanese AntigoneSatoshi Miyagi strips away the usual chest-beating from Sophocles’ ancient play.
  22. theater review
    Theater Review: Mothers, Where the Apocalypse Feels FamiliarAnna Moench’s play does racial strife with a twist.
  23. theater review
    Theater Review: Slight Drama and Great Performances in The Height of the StormEileen Atkins: whoa.
  24. theater review
    Theater Review: The Moral Downshift of Our Dear Dead Drug LordA troubling play with an even more troubling message.
  25. theater review
    Reviews: Unmagical Realism in Runboyrun, In Old Age, and SundayThree new plays that stay in familiar rooms.
  26. theater review
    Theater Review: Wives, in Four Exuberant Feminist ConversationsImagined talk between queens and mistresses, Martha Gellhorn and Mary Hemingway, and more.
  27. fall preview 2019
    Ivo van Hove on Bringing West Side Story to Broadway“It’s an amazing story about contemporary life, about young people who get stuck in a cycle of violence.”
  28. fall preview 2019
    The Best and Biggest Theater Performances to See This FallThe Inheritance, Jagged Little Pill, Freestyle Love Supreme, and more.
  29. theater review
    Theater Review: A Tight New BetrayalTom Hiddleston stars [long pause] in the Pinter revival.
  30. theater review
    Theater Review: The Strengths and Weaknesses of a Free Public HerculesThe Disney movie musical is onstage for a one-week run in the park.
  31. theater review
    Theater Review: The Unreal Land of Make BelieveBess Wohl’s play about childhood and its ripple effects.
  32. theater review
    Theater Review: A Coriolanus Amid the WreckageAfter the apocalypse in Central Park.
  33. theater review
    Theater Review: Moulin Rouge! Is Broadway’s Biggest Karaoke Night“It commits single-mindedly to stuffing in as many additional hit tracks as possible.”
  34. theater review
    Theater Review: Halley Feiffer’s Moscow Moscow Is, Like, LOL, Whatevs, ChekhovHalley Feiffer’s reinterpretation of Three Sisters in modern-day
  35. theater review
    Theater Review: The Rolling Stone Goes for Big Feelings Over RigorIntensity of emotion can’t quite mask the weaknesses.
  36. theater reviews
    In the Green and We’re Only Alive… Are Two More Bursts of Musical-Theater EnergyTwo more from this summer’s group of invigorating new musicals.
  37. theater review
    Theater Review: The Influence of Anxiety in A Strange LoopMichael R. Jackson’s new musical is inspired, in part, by the experience of sharing the name of a very famous person.
  38. theater review
    Theater Review: The Secret Life of Bees Becomes Its Platonic SelfSue Monk Kidd’s novel becomes a musical, beautifully.
  39. theater review
    Theater Review: In the Park, the Warring Wits of Much Ado About NothingShakespeare in the Park’s latest production.
  40. theater reviews
    Theater Reviews: Limited Young Lives in Nomad Motel and an Adapted Little WomenA pair of plays (one all new, one adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s novel) about young people finding their way in the world.
  41. theater review
    Theater: Imperfection and Sincerity in Frankie & Johnny Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon bring emotional intelligence and hopeful silliness to a far-from-perfect play.
  42. theater review
    Theater Review: The Well-Scrubbed Drama of Something CleanThe evening’s strength lies in the interplay between Kathryn Erbe and Christopher Livingston.
  43. theater review
    Theater Review: Continuity, Where Little Hollywood Crises Face Big Global OnesDiva behavior and props that shatter, on the set of a film about climate change.
  44. theater review
    Theater: Octet, by Dave Malloy, Takes Flight on 8-Bit WingsThe Great Comet writer returns.
  45. theater review
    Theater Review: Mac Beth Has a Gap at Its CenterReinterpreted Shakespeare that doesn’t quite connect.
  46. theater review
    Theater Review: Happy Talk Is a Satire Full of Empty CaloriesJesse Eisenberg’s play is a maudlin mess until it turns into a horrific one.
  47. theater review
    Theater Review: Blood Without Guts in Curse of the Starving ClassThe play goes all out; this production pulls it back.
  48. theater review
    Theater Review: BLKS Would Be Better in 23-Minute EpisodesIt’s part of a trend: plays that try to do the things that make TV great, instead of the things that make theater great.
  49. theater review
    Theater Review: Passage, a Reimagination of E.M. Forster, Goes ThereFinding the despair beneath A Passage to India.
  50. theater review
    Theater Review: The Volcano at the Center of Grief Is the Thing With FeathersCillian Murphy is afire for nearly 90 minutes.
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