""Dead as a Dodo," a virtuosic puppet show by the theatre company Wakka Wakka, about a dancing-skeleton boy and his extinct-bird friend, was clearly born out of environmental grief, yet I still think of that show in the Under the Radar festival as my last contact with a certain type of pleasure. Ambiguity? Mystification? The leisure to dream? Those expansive delights have all been smashed into our current trash compactor of Political Relevance All the Time."
"Broadway became a place for challenging, thoughtful, wordy work again, like Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's " Purpose" (which won both the Tony and the Pulitzer), and Off Broadway seemed flush with adventure, too: the A24 revitalization of the Cherry Lane opened with Natalie Palamides's deranged clown show "Weer"; Hugh Jackman and Sonia Friedman produced provocative relationship dramas at the Minetta Lane; and Jerry Lieblich's enchantingly bizarre "The Barbarians," at La MaMa, included my favorite conversation of the year . . . between a dog turd and a cigarette butt."
2025 showcased a wide range of theatre, from intimate scratch-venue experiments to wordy, challenging Broadway works. Wakka Wakka's Dead as a Dodo, a virtuosic puppet show about a dancing-skeleton boy and his extinct-bird friend, emerged from environmental grief and offered ambiguity, mystification, and leisure to dream. Artists doubled down on urgency, producing thoughtful work such as Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's Purpose, which won both the Tony and the Pulitzer. Off Broadway saw adventurous openings, including A24's Cherry Lane revival and Natalie Palamides's Weer. Apartment and walkup stagings proliferated, with Billy McEntee's Slanted Floors and Little Engine's The Wasp standing out.
Read at The New Yorker
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