New York Stage Review publishes up-to-date reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway plays and musicals from veteran theater critics.
CRITICS
Elysa Gardner
Jesse Oxfeld
Melissa Rose Bernardo
David Finkle
Sandy MacDonald
Michael Sommers
Steven Suskin
Frank Scheck
Roma Torre
Bob Verini
PUBLISHER
Steven Suskin
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Jesse Oxfeld
★
MISSION
With the continual changes in the media world, the number of outlets for theater criticism has dwindled to the point that even major New York daily newspapers have been forced to cut back on coverage. As an unofficial band of professional drama critics—long-time members of the New York Drama Critics Circle, each with former newspaper affiliations—we bemoan the diminishing coverage of the so-called legitimate theater.
It is our experience that informed dramatic criticism plays an important part in guiding readers to productions that they might not otherwise attend; not merely heralding the latest blockbusters, but offering readers a sense of whether they might find a specific production rewarding. With that goal in view, we have banded together to form New York Stage Review.
We are pleased and honored to continue to offer first-night theater criticism to those long familiar with our bylines and to new readers as well.
—Steven Suskin, Publisher
★
BIOGRAPHIES
Melissa Rose Bernardo has been covering theater for more than 20 years, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly and contributing to such outlets as Broadway.com, Playbill, and the gone (but not forgotten) InTheater and TheaterWeek magazines. She is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan.
David Finkle is a freelance journalist specializing in the arts and politics. He has reviewed theater for several decades, for publications including The Village Voice and Theatermania.com, where for 12 years he was chief drama critic. He is also currently chief drama critic at The Clyde Fitch Report. Based in New York City and much less than 45 minutes from Broadway, he’s the author of People Tell Me Things, a story collection, The Man With the Overcoat, a novel, and the forthcoming Humpty Trumpty Hit a Brick Wall, a chronicle in verse of Donald J. Trump’s first year in office.
Will Friedwald writes about music and popular culture for The Wall Street Journal and is the author of ten books, including Sinatra! The Song Is You, A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, Stardust Melodies, and the new Straighten Up and Fly Right: The Life and Music of Nat King Cole.
Elysa Gardner covered theater and music at USA Today until 2016, and has since written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, Town & Country, Entertainment Weekly, Entertainment Tonight, Out, American Theatre, Broadway Direct, and the BBC. She has also been a contributor to The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, and VH1. She served on the Pulitzer Prize drama jury in 2015 and chaired it in 2017.
Sandy MacDonald started as an editor and translator (French, Spanish, Italian) at TDR: The Drama Review in 1969 and went on to help launch the journals Performance and Scripts for Joe Papp at the Public Theater. In 2003, after three decades working in Boston as an editor at New Age magazine and Houghton Mifflin, she began covering New England theater for The Boston Globe and TheaterMania. In 2007, she returned to New York, where she has written for The New York Times, TDF Stages, Time Out New York, and other publications and has served four terms as a Drama Desk nominator.
Jesse Oxfeld was the theater critic of The New York Observer from 2009 to 2014. He has also written about theater for Entertainment Weekly, New York magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Forward, The Times of London, and other publications. His first Broadway show was Peter Pan, starring Sandy Duncan, on the occasion of his fourth birthday, and he is the recipient of two coveted Joey Awards, presented by the staff of Joe Allen, the theater district standby.
Frank Scheck has been covering film, theater and music for more than 30 years. He is currently a New York correspondent and arts writer for The Hollywood Reporter. He was previously the editor of Stages Magazine, the chief theater critic for the Christian Science Monitor, and a theater critic and culture writer for the New York Post. His writing has appeared in such publications as the New York Daily News, Playbill, Backstage, and various national and international newspapers. He has provided on-air commentary for the BBC, MSNBC, and Fox Business Channel, and has served as vice-president of the New York Drama Critics Circle, of which he is a longtime member.
Michael Sommers has written about the New York and regional theater scenes since 1981. He served two terms as president of the New York Drama Critics Circle and was the longtime chief reviewer for The Star-Ledger and the Newhouse News Service. He was an editor and writer for Theatre Crafts, Back Stage, and the Best Plays series. He has contributed to The Sunday New York Times, The Village Voice, Variety, Equity News, and other publications. He is a consultant for the Howard Gilman Foundation.
Steven Suskin has been reviewing theater and music since 1999 for Variety, Playbill, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere. He has written 17 books, along with liner notes for numerous cast recordings. His books include Offstage Observations, Second Act Trouble, The Sound of Broadway Music, Show Tunes (now in its fourth updated edition), Opening Night on Broadway, and More Opening Nights on Broadway. He has also long been productively engaged in the theater as a general manager and producer.
Roma Torre’s dual career as a theater critic and television news anchor and reporter spans more than 30 years. A two-time Emmy winner, she’s been reviewing stage and film productions since 1987, starting at News 12 Long Island. In 1992, she moved to NY1, serving as both a news anchor and chief theater critic, winning numerous awards for her reviews. She has amassed a collection of some 3,000 Playbills from her many years on the aisle.
Bob Verini covers the Massachusetts theater scene for Variety. From 2006 to 2015 he covered Southern California theater for Variety, serving as president of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and producing five of the LADCC’s annual awards ceremonies. He has written for American Theatre, ArtsInLA.com, StageRaw.com, and Script. He holds an MFA in directing from Indiana University, and has acted and directed professionally. His daily “Play-a-Day” capsules appear on Facebook and are collected at ArtsInLA.com.