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
    Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee in Cabaret.
    Dancing on the Surface in Cabaret and OrlandoAtmosphere is all in the loose hustle and bustle of a pre-show, but in a play proper, it can only carry you so far.
  2. theater review
    Living Is Harder: Suffs and GrenfellSuffrage and outrage make for rich stage experiences.
  3. theater review
    Writing Down the Bones: Sally & TomA curiously muted Hemings-and-Jefferson meta-story by Suzan-Lori Parks.
  4. theater review
    Look, I Made a Woman: LempickaThe musical somehow turns a radical bisexual painter, living and loving in Paris between the wars, a little bit boring.
  5. theater review
    St. Ronnie the Oblivious: Richard Foreman’s Symphony of RatsThe Wooster Group brings back a Reagan-era yawp of discontinuity.
  6. theater review
    Not Without Ambition, But … Macbeth (an undoing)A reimagining of Shakespeare, centering Lady Macbeth, asks the wrong questions about her.
  7. theater review
    Always Gets a Replay: The Who’s TommyYes, it’s a show from another time and culture. But the tension that disconnect brings is fascinating.
  8. theater review
    Grief Hotel, Where You Check In to YourselfLiza Birkenmeier’s discontinuous, fragmented play imagines a quasi-spa marketed to anyone experiencing loss.
  9. theater review
    A.J. Shively and David McElwee in Irish Rep's 2024 production of PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME!
    Becoming Brian Friel: Philadelphia, Here I Come!At the Irish Rep, early work by a future master.
  10. theater review
    Water for Elephants Is Best When It’s Behind the TimesDazzling circus arts and great puppetry are almost enough.
  11. theater review
    In Teeth, Purity Culture Leaves Bite MarksMichael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs are out for blood.
  12. theater review
    Ibsen, Translated Into American: An Enemy of the PeopleWith Jeremy Strong, Michael Imperioli, and drinks on the house.
  13. theater review
    Love and Brains, Dull and Sharp: The Notebook and The EffectA musical adaptation that’s generic to the point of inanity, and a play that asks and examines real questions about what a person is.
  14. theater review
    Corruption’s Heroes Are Not Serious PeopleMurdoch’s phone-hacking scandal, recounted by thinly drawn archetypes.
  15. theater review
    The Old-Weird-America Pleasures of Dead OutlawFrom the team behind The Band’s Visit, another musical that is more than meets the eye.
  16. theater review
    Doubt Returns in a Traditionalist ProductionJohn Patrick Shanley’s dialogue still packs heat, but the fire’s been turned down this time.
  17. theater review
    In The Ally, Impossible Conversations We’re All HavingItamar Moses’s drama about a lefty Israeli American caught up in the complexity of pro-Palestine academia is confident and eloquent in its humility.
  18. theater review
    Fiasco’s Smooth-Sailing PericlesAn affable, legible take that intermittently sings.
  19. theater review
    Tobias Menzies and Aerina DeBoer in The Hunt.
    Through a Glass, Familiarly: The HuntIn this adaptation of a Danish thriller, almost all the characters conform to movie-trope behavior and movie-trope actions.
  20. theater review
    Sunset Baby’s Troubled Children of the RevolutionDominique Morisseau’s play looks at the time after revolutionary fire is reduced to a simmer.
  21. theater review
    Alone in the Dark: I Love You So Much I Could Die and On Set With Theda BaraTwo solo shows, looking to make the most of limited resources—and one, at least, soars.
  22. theater review
    Two Queens (and Some Dancing): The ApiaryVirtuosic performances in a play that can’t quite get airborne.
  23. theater review
    Too Too Solid: Eddie Izzard’s HamletThe British comedian, so deft on a standup stage, has a go at Shakespeare—and tightens up.
  24. theater review
    The Trouble With Trolls, in Russian Troll FarmSarah Gancher’s play takes us to the bunker where disinformation begins its journey.
  25. theater review
    We’re in This Together: Bark of Millions and The Following EveningA maximalist performance and a quiet, inward-looking play—both, somehow, about creative legacy and earthly mystery.
  26. theater review
    Quiet Obsessions, Unplugged: Aberdeen and The Animal KingdomA verse play about Kurt, and a therapy play about hurt.
  27. theater review
    Soaring Voices and Plastic Plants in Days of Wine and RosesKelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James at peak vocal power.
  28. theater review
    Diary of an Overbooked Theater-Festival Surfer: Week ThreeJack! Rose! Jack! Rose! And Eugene Onegin.
  29. theater review
    The Long Zoom of Public ObscenitiesA story of bringing a partner home to Kolkata is steeped in naturalism.
  30. theater review
    Diary of an Overbooked Theater-Festival Surfer: Week TwoPuppets, worms, toilets, and a really aggressive Shakespeare take.
  31. theater reviews
    Diary of an Overbooked Theater-Festival Surfer: Week OneOn finding eccentric Miranda July commentary and gonzo race commentary during January’s experimental-theater blitz.
  32. theater review
    Can You Put Your Faith in Prayer for the French Republic?It’s a timely and engaged play, but that engagement is glib.
  33. theater review
    When the Play’s Not the ThingToo often, great performances and stagecraft are let down by the script behind them.
  34. best of 2023
    The Best Theater of 2023A play that’s not not about Fleetwood Mac, the return of Merrily and Purlie, and the agony of high-school test prep.
  35. best of 2023
    Exhilarating Reactions to a Troubled WorldPlus Sondheim old and (for the final time) new.
  36. theater review
    Reflections on Lost Lands: Manahatta and Life & Times of Michael KOnstage, the commoditization of Lenape land and the reclamation of a South African farm.
  37. theater review
    The Echo From the Days of ’39: Jen Silverman’s SpainA cool treatment of a once-hot civil war.
  38. theater review
    At Playwrights Horizons, a Tinge of the FringeAmusements, School Pictures, and Sad Boys in Harpy Land are running in repertory.
  39. theater review
    Hell’s Kitchen: A Familiar Diary of Alicia KeysConventional musical-theater turf, made fresh by killer performances.
  40. theater review
    Who Thought Stoppard Needs More Sex?Bedlam’s Arcadia falls into an easy trap.
  41. theater review
    Spamalot Returns, and It’s Not Dead YetSay no more!
  42. theater review
    Is Anything Real in Scene Partners? Is Everything?John J. Caswell Jr.’s script is like an Escher drawing, endlessly spiraling in on itself.
  43. theater review
    That’s the Idea, Let’s Amuse Each Other! Shannon and Sparks in Waiting for GodotMichael Shannon and Paul Sparks foreground the funny in Beckett.
  44. theater review
    Navigating the Expanses of Danny and the Deep Blue SeaChristopher Abbott and Aubrey Plaza star in the 1983 John Patrick Shanley play that’s beloved of young actors.
  45. theater review
    Tragic Losses, of Life and Language, in Watch Night and TranslationsThe destruction wrought by colonialism and racism, rendered onstage in very different ways.
  46. theater review
    What’ll It Be? At FOOD, the End of the World As We Know It.A farcical, funny, and haunting commentary on the industrialized, globalized diet.
  47. theater review
    I Need That Does Not Spark JoyDanny and Lucy DeVito, as an almost-hoarder and his daughter, are trapped in a play full of junk.
  48. theater review
    Bring a Bucket and a Mop for This Snatch & TaintyA juicy, joyful, bodily-function-obsessed trip below the belt.
  49. theater review
    The ‘Yes, We Can’ Spirit of Poor Yella RednecksQui Nguyen’s optimistic, funny immigration tale.
  50. theater review
    The Box-Checking Work Begins: Merry MeA self-described lesbian sex comedy leans on its Angels in America references.
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