John Proctor is the Villain
Written by Kimberly Belflower
Directed by Danya Taymor
Booth Theatre
May 18, 2025
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

John Proctor is the Villain tells the story of a high school English classroom in the spring semester of the junior year in 2018 in a one-stoplight town in northeast Georgia.  Mr. Smith, a very attractive, popular English teacher is quickly and awkwardly working his way through the state required sex-ed curriculum so that he can get to the highly anticipated study of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.  It is when this study of the characters and themes of the Crucible collides with the realities of the classroom and the world of the 2018 (the height of the #MeToo movement) that this play erupts into one of the most explosive and oddly cathartic dramas currently on Broadway.

Floyd Collins
Book, Additional Lyrics & Direction by Tina Landau
Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel
Lincoln Center Theatre
May 17, 2025
Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.

Floyd Collins is a musical inspired by the true life experience of Floyd Collins who in 1925, while chasing fame and fortune by turning a Kentucky cave into a tourist attraction became the attraction himself as he became trapped 200 feet underground. The haunting and glorious folk and bluegrass-inspired music of Floyd Collins is exceptionally beautiful.  Jeremy Jordan and Lizzy McAlpine sing some of the most beautiful music that I can remember on the musical theatre stage in a good long time.  Plus, the orchestrations that move us from moment to moment in the story are truly magical.  I would have been so happy if evening had just been a concert version of the musical.