28 Reasons Why New York Theater Is Thriving

New York theater is, improbably, thriving. Here are seven performances and 28 reason that show why.

- Jesse Green, photos by Norman Jean Roy

The theater is dying. The theater is dead. Oh, look, it’s reviving; no, it’s dead again. It’s always been that way—yet suddenly, now it isn’t. For the first time since losing its connection to pop culture on one hand and the intellectual traditions of the stage on the other, New York theater seems to be entering a Golden Age—or let’s call it a Second Mini Sorta Golden Age With Caveats. Yes, most commercial shows lose money, schlock and watery revivals wait around every corner, and tickets cost too much. And yet, and yet: Theater is a force in New York as it was not even just a few years ago. Leave aside the fact that Broadway alone took in $1.4 billion last season and is more financially stable than it has been for decades. It’s the experience of theatergoing that has changed most dramatically. We are no longer surprised to encounter an ambitious new play, richly imagined and gorgeously executed, on Broadway, or a dozen just-as-good new ones Off Broadway, or, Off–Off, a ton of promise, possibly underfed and a little undisciplined but offering riveting new ideas about how we live. Even musicals, those lumbering dinosaurs, are once again glowing with purpose. The actors you see on these pages have more than a little to do with it, every one delivering a performance of power and complexity this season; on page 54, you’ll find 28 more reasons to declare this age, at the very least, Mini Sorta Golden.

Many trends in the culture had to coalesce to make this happen. To name a familiar one,