Joan Marcus News

When the musical juggernaut titled “Hamilton” stormed into Kansas City’s gilded Music Hall this week, it arrives not as a relic of mid-2010s hype, but as a living, breathing re-invention of America’s founding fathers. A decade after its Broadway debut, the touring production proves that the show’s central thesis — that history is urgent, messy and deeply human — still lands with force. Somehow, the national political atmosphere cross-pollinated with the this most special 250th anniversary of the United States.

Today’s subject Bill Irwin is possibly one of the most versatile and flexible performers still working in the performing arts today. He can currently be seen at Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) in his solo show On Beckett. The show runs through March 15th at STC’s Klein Theatre space.

Rehearsals are underway for The Public Theater's world premiere of ANTIGONE (THIS PLAY I READ IN HIGH SCHOOL), a new play by 2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist Anna Ziegler and directed by Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel nominee Tyne Rafaeli. Check out photos from rehearsals here!

You can now get a first look at production photos from WP Theater’s spring production of The Waterfall, written by Phanésia Pharel and directed by Taylor Reynolds.

A star-studded new production of the musical High Spirits opens the New York City Center Encores! season. In our rounduo below, find out what the critics had to say about their visit to this rare musical offering. 

The first show of the New York City Center Encores! season is High Spirits, running through February 15, 2026. Check out photos here!

As I have twice had occasion in real life to sit, essentially, knee to knee with Ian McKellen, my encounter with his digital doppelganger at The Shed was perhaps somewhat less singular than it was for most attendees of An Ark. I have encountered Sir Ian in three palpable dimensions and in those instances he was able to shake my hand and pass me a cup of tea, rather than simply smiling benevolently from across a shallow void.

“Kimberly Akimbo” is a tiny, idiosyncratic musical with a cast of only nine actors that somehow manages to share the full Broadway experience with its opening night audience at Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. 

You can now get a first look at the Public Theater and Elevator Repair Service’s Ulysses, presented in partnership with Under the Radar festival. Check out photos here!

White Women in the United States didn’t earn the right to vote until 1920, and Black women weren’t allowed to vote until 1965.  This shocking history and the effort it took for women to secure these rights is something many of us didn’t learn in school, but thankfully the musical Suffs is here to fill in those gaps, along with some fantastic songs and affecting moments.

Kimberly Akimbo is hitting the road this season, and audiences in Saint Paul will soon get the chance to experience the Tony Award–winning musical when it arrives at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts from February 24–March 1. Among the show’s most memorable characters is Seth Weetis, an awkward, big-hearted teen whose humor and honesty bring surprising depth to the story.

Today’s subject Alex Finke is currently living her theatre life onstage at Signature Theatre in the American Premiere of In Clay where she is giving a tour de force solo performance through February 3rd. The show is performed in Signature Theatre’s ARK space.

ENext up in PNC Bank’s Broadway in Kansas City series is the 2023 winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical, Kimberly Akimbo. Kimberly Akimbo is a fascinating newer show enjoying its first North American tour. It opens at KC’s Kauffman Center For the Performing Arts on January 20 for eight performances through Sunday, January 25.

“SIX” feels like a New Year’s resolution set to a killer beat: ditch the old hierarchies, turn up the volume, and let the queens run the show. All hail, indeed.

The 2025 season will forever be marked by three historic Tony Awards, cementing Filipino artists at the pinnacle of theatrical achievement. Broadway became more vibrant, more resonant, and more alive than ever, thanks to a new wave of Filipino artists who brought not only extraordinary talent and charisma but a great, unshakable pride in their heritage.

Think of it not as a “Best of” but as a yearbook of some of the San Diego shows that lingered with me long beyond closing in 2025

Check out rehearsal photos for The Public Theater and Elevator Repair Service’s ULYSSES, presented in partnership with Under the Radar festival. ULYSSES stiches verbatim passages from Joyce’s epic masterpiece into a two-and-a-half hour tour de force. 

For the last couple of years or so, theatre nerds everywhere have been besotted with the film version of the hit musical Wicked. After the debut of the first installment, anticipation only grew for Part Two, which dropped this past November. But amid all the brouhaha and ballyhoo over the cinematic offerings, the origins of the musical itself were pushed to the background.

The J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company has announced that their rights to the musical Do I Have a Waltz? have been revoked and the company will no longer be presenting the production.

Though the revival of Merrily We Roll Along ended its limited Broadway run in 2024, the show will live on in the form of the new filmed version, now in theaters. To celebrate the release of the hit Stephen Sondheim musical, we are taking a look back at the storied careers of its three leading stars, including Tony Award-winner Lindsay Mendez.