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Helen Shaw

@helenshaw.bsky.social

6.6K followers 780 following 110 posts

Writing about theater for the New Yorker. Tell me if you’ve seen something good!

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Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · 5d

I've been thinking about Keanu Reeves & double-acts, and I got overwhelmed all over again at the loss of River Phoenix. My Own Private Idaho is so similar to Godot, though there Reeves plays the knowing Didi-type and Phoenix's narcoleptic ingenue is Gogo...I can see their version in my mind's eye

In a void, two tiny figures, both wearing bowler hats, sit on the edge of a giant tube, made from varied shades of plywood that looks like marble

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · 15d

I bet there’s a waitlist! No show is ever truly full!

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · 15d

The ending wobbles, but all else is superb... lovely performances—Arielle Goldman & Molly Carden as bickering sisters are particularly good—in a drama that is studiously about this world: its mystery, its types of harm, and the excitement of those who read and discuss it deeply, making it new (4/4)

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · 15d

Cespedes plays the most questioning and querulous of them, badgering her invisible mom (Botchan, offstage) for answers, even as she grows elusive about what help she'll provide. Is help coming? The girls call the voice "Mrs. H" and, after a bit, I remembered what letter "Hashem" starts with. (3/4)

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · 15d

Vaynberg writes about a group of orthodox Jewish girls who grow into women. As 13-year-olds, they study Torah (& laugh & eat snacks), instructed by an (offstage) mother in Talmudic categories of damage. In the 2nd act, they reunite as adults, and we see patterns of ego & learning & hurt repeat (2/4)

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · 15d

Liba Vaynberg's vividly drawn play "The Matriarchs" (directed by Dina Vovsi) features a rogue's gallery of wonderful downtown actors. Helen Cespedes from Fefu! Rachel Botchan from the Pearl! All doing funny, wise, detailed work in tight quarters @ TheaterLab...(1/4) theaterlabnyc.com/theaterlab-p...

The Matriarchs | Sep 10-28, ’25 | Theaterlab

theaterlabnyc.com

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · 16d

In which Jason Zinoman tells Fallon he is becoming a Kremlin star... www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/a...

Being a High-Profile Comedian Right Now Is No Joke

www.nytimes.com

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · 29d

The tremendous Morgan Bassichis show "Can I Be Frank?" at Soho Playhouse has added a show tomorrow at 9pm! Everything else is sold out out OUT
Bassichis is the funniest and most entrancing comic performer out there; if you don't take that last ticket, I'm gonna www.sohoplayhouse.com/see-a-show/m...

A tall, dark haired performer in a black tshirt gestures magnificently while speaking into a microphone.

Reposted by Helen Shaw

James Sims @simsjames.bsky.social · Aug 30

“I am heartbroken to report that after thirty-five proud years, the program I currently direct at USC, the MFA in Dramatic Writing, is being sunsetted…I feel the acute message being sent here; four of its five professors are people of color.” — @luisalfaro.bsky.social #TheaterSKY

Sign of the Times

I am heartbroken to report that after thirty-five proud years, the program I currently direct at USC, the MFA in Dramatic Writing, is being sunsetted.

open.substack.com

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Aug 26

Not sure what happened there, but I stand by it

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Aug 26

Of course the

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Aug 26

...and the tiny space ensures that Mia Sinclair Jenness's stunning performance makes a lethal impact. Good Apples collective & McIntosh are exciting voices in the body-horror/youth-disaffection space; if you want your theatre with A24 vibes, this is your show. www.goodapplescollective.com/road-kills

Road Kills, a new play — Good Apples Collective

Good Apples Collective and ryan duncan-ayala present Road Kills, a new play by Sophie McIntosh, directed by Nina Goodheart. Road Kills features Mia Sinclair Jenness, Michael Lepore, and D.B. Milliken.

www.goodapplescollective.com

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Aug 26

McIntosh knows how to orchestrate her shocks to seem funny, so we're often laughing. But of course the real crash is coming, or rather has been in the process of happening, for much of the girl's life. Nina Goodheart's guignol production does wonders in a space smaller than a passenger seat ... 2/3

Road Kills, a new play — Good Apples Collective

Good Apples Collective and ryan duncan-ayala present Road Kills, a new play by Sophie McIntosh, directed by Nina Goodheart. Road Kills features Mia Sinclair Jenness, Michael Lepore, and D.B. Milliken.

www.goodapplescollective.com

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Aug 26

Road Kills by Sophie McIntosh at Paradise Factory is a fierce, nasty little beast...its claws are out. An angry young woman sulks through her mandated community service, picking up roadkill—between scenes, we hear each crash, right before some gnarly blob of fur and blood drops onto the roadway. 1/3

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Aug 25

Service announcement! The Segal has created its own curated listings site www.theaterlistingsnyc.com, which is now in beta. If you're looking for complete listings, I use the encyclopedic TDF (www.tdf.org/on-stage/sho...) or the Power Search option on show-score (www.show-score.com/shows/all?op...)

Home | Theater Listings NYC

www.theaterlistingsnyc.com

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Aug 25

I wrote about the Edinburgh Fringe here, but I've also been mainlining Fergus Morgan (thecrushbar.substack.com) and Natasha Tripney (natashatripney.substack.com) et al... I clearly missed so much! What a thrill to be in a city given over to culture (10/10, 5 stars) www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

A Season of Unease at the Edinburgh Festival

In this year’s offerings, the mood ranged from baffled sorrow to laughter in extremis, reflecting our unsettled times.

www.newyorker.com

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Jul 23

The same Adam Bock who has been announced for Second Stage’s upcoming season?

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Jul 23

Thank you to everyone who spoke to me for this www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

www.newyorker.com

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Jul 16

"Open" first opened at the Tank in 2019, and the terror of the present moment sharpens the play: the fear the Magician feels at expressing queerness seems all too reasonable, given the lengths so many are taking these days to make her love ... disappear. (Thru the 27th) wptheater.org/wp-space-pro...

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Jul 16

The Magician tells us about her girlfriend, and the women's love story, threaded through the cracks of the illusionist's monologue, grows dark. It's a daring tactic, to make the Magician seem like a flop-sweating try-hard, then to turn our embarrassed discomfort into dawning horror and pity (3/4)

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Jul 16

Hill can feel like a performer from another age—she is an expert in a broad, silly, wild-eyed delivery that can make her seem like a sitcom neighbor from the '80s, one who might have started out as a carnival barker. But her character is also terribly, terribly sad (2/4)

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Jul 16

Crystal Skillman's monologue "Open," starring the great Megan Hill, is a magic act with no magic in it--a woman, the Magician, boasts about the illusions she's doing in front of us (bird, rings, flowers, PRESTO!) but nothing actually appears on the empty stage (1/4)

A woman dressed as a magician in a sparkly frock coat gestures magnificently

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Jul 14

That production has been my touchstone ever since I saw the video....my father used it in his classes to teach Sophocles, heaven only knows how he got it. This was before we had a VCR, I think youtu.be/8ZyQP_zrD2U?...

The Gospel at Colonus

YouTube video by SanFrancisco Native

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Jul 14

Gospel at Colonus on Little Island is sold out except for standing room, but you can always shore up your disappointed spirit with this, Bob Telson's stunning setting of the finest of all Sophocles' choruses.
Numberless are the world's wonders/but none more wonderful than man youtu.be/TiTc8O__9Mw

Numberless Are the World's Wonders (Live)

YouTube video by Release - Topic

Helen Shaw @helenshaw.bsky.social · Jul 3

Such an odd series of season announcements—one alone wouldn't have raised eyebrows, but it certainly looks like a trend when taken together (CSC, Roundabout, Williamstown, Playwrights Horizons) www.broadwayworld.com/article/Wher...

Where Are the Women? New Theater Season Announcements Signal a Troubling Setback

I’ve been writing about the lack of female representation in creative teams for at least 15 years. When I wrote a series on female playwrights a couple of years back, there was a sense that things wer...

www.broadwayworld.com