Helen Shaw Joins The New York Times as Chief Theater Critic

The New York Times has revealed that Helen Shaw has joined The New York Times' Culture desk as chief theater critic. She will begin in mid-January. 

Helen was previously the theater critic and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Prior to that she was the chief theater critic at New York magazine.

Shaw has also written for Time Out New York, 4Columns, Artforum and The Village Voice. She was the winner of the 2025 Grace Dudley Prize for Arts Writing, and was a co-winner of the 2017-18 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.

Shaw stated, “Long before I came to New York in 2002, I developed a lot of strong opinions about shows I hadn’t encountered yet, largely thanks to reviews in The Times: In Kansas, I could read Mel Gussow on Edward Albee; in Massachusetts, I could read Frank Rich on Stephen Sondheim. I also developed a serious passion in the ’90s, in college, for the cut and thrust of Walter Kerr, reading him on shows that had been closed, at that point, for almost 20 years. Those reviews were my education and invited me into the long conversation about the theater. My hope at The Times is to continue that conversation, with as many people as possible.”

Earlier this year it was announced that Chief Theatre Critic Jesse Green would be reassigned to a new role in the Times newsroom.