Sara Holdren/Jackson McHenry — Theater Critic

Oh God, we don’t need the backstory! I don’t need to know that he was a sad little boy whose mom abandoned him to creepy carnies. (As much as I like creepy carnies.) I think this is where the sentimentality of our own era runs up against the gothic, which is actually so much more hard core. We’re desperate to provide psychological explanations for our Phantoms, our Heathcliffs and Cathys. “Hurt people hurt people.” Yeah, okay. Just tell me a good ghost story.