It’s always sad to have to say goodbye to an artist whom we’ve loved, so how thrilling to welcome one into the world.

Int. Hospital Room. Night. [The screams reach a delirious crescendo. FRANCISCO MIRANDA enters. He is 7 pounds and 13 ounces.] Intermission. (📸 by @jmessinaphoto) pic.twitter.com/AMpXbvYVTx — Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) February 2, 2018

Hamilton continues to change lives (See this feature in the Seattle Times), theatergoers and theater makers alike, and become such a part of American culture that Hamiltonians have apparently become an annual tradition at the Super Bowl — last year, the original Schuyler sisters – this year Leslie Odom Jr., the original Aaron Burr, singing America The Beautiful.

Week in New York Theater Reviews

Joni’s rock star boyfriend Noah breaks up with her on stage in front of an arena full of his fans at the beginning of “Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill,” an often fun, over-the-top comedy by Steph Del Rosso at the Flea Theatre about the wincing aftermath of the breakup. The title is meant to describe what Joni tries to do after being dumped – fill the sudden holes in her life.

Fire and Air could not have looked more promising –a starry cast performing a new play by Terrence McNally about one of the most celebrated of dance companies, the Ballets Russes….At the center of the Ballets Russes was its impresario Sergei Diaghilev; its greatest dancer Vaslav Nijinksy; and the tempestuous relationship between the two.Yet, Fire and Air, though finely acted and designed, is ultimately too diffuse, imprecise and precious to allow the audience to discover Diaghilev’s greatness

The two 17-year-olds are in love. Yet Chris (Tom Pecinka) is the son of the white patriarch from his hometown in Georgia, and Kay (Juliana Canfield) is the mixed-race daughter or another white man and a 15-year-old black woman who died shortly after giving birth, having run away to Ohio. Did Kay’s mother kill herself, or was she killed? Did Kay’s father really bring her mother’s heart back in a box? These are mysteries, not just to the audience, but to the characters in “He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box,” Adrienne Kennedy’s hallucinatory, haunted and hazy romance, her first play in almost a decade.

January is typically a month when even the most adventurous New York theatregoers brace for the unexpected at the many theatre festivals that coincide with the annual convention of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. I was struck this year by how many works of theatre I saw in January that used words (if they used them at all) in unorthodox ways. I look at six — full of gibberish, or silence, or out-of-sync with the action. For every one whose wordplay left me speechless, there was one that left me intrigued

Week in New York Theater News

Second Stage’s officially reopened the Helen Hayes as a non-profit in a ceremony this week. Theater. Second Stage is one of 4 non-profits who own Broadway houses.

“Head Over Heals” featuring the songs of the GoGos, will open at Hudson Theater July 26, 2018. Cast includes Peppermint from Rupaul’s Drag Race, “the first trans-woman actress to create a principal role on Broadway.”

La Chanze, Arianade Bose & Storm Lever will reprise their roles as “Diva Donna,” “Disco Donna” and “Duckling Donna” in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical

Susan Smith Blackburn finalists for 2018, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights writing in the English language pic.twitter.com/O9BkkdICMK — New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) January 29, 2018

Jonathan Larson finished just two full musicals, including Rent, before his death at age 35 in 1996. But he left behind a vast collection of song demos, stray lyrics and unfinished ideas. Some of those rarely heard songs will be brought together in a concert called “The Jonathan Larson Project,” coming to Feinstein’s/54 Below in October.

Matthew Broderick will return to Irish Repertory Theatre and the work of playwright Conor McPherson in a new production of The Seafarer, opening April 16.

The Museum of Modern Art will showcase the early work of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (the team that brought us Hairspray and Smash) as part of its Club 57:Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983 exhibition, on February 12th.

After 13,000 reviews, Hedy Weiss had been laid off by The Chicago SunTimes. It’s unclear if she’ll be replaced.

Welcome to world, Francisco Miranda. https://t.co/OWGT4ye2Rb — New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) February 2, 2018

RIP John Mahoney, 77, Tony-winning actor for House of Blue Leaves, @SteppenwolfThtr ensemble member, curmudgeonly father on TV series Frasier.

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