Special Reports

Our Critics Pick the Week's Top 5 Shows

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jake Gyllenhaal, and George Salazar all figure into this week’s choice theater selections.

Broadway Off-Broadway

With so much great theater in New York City, you might need a little help deciding what to see this week. We've got you covered!

Here you'll find a list of standout shows that our TM critics consider especially worth your time. They're all top productions that you definitely won't want to miss.

Click on the title of a show to learn more and purchase tickets.

Be More Chill

"Like Little Shop of Horrors before it, Be More Chill is that rarest of wonders: a successful sci-fi musical. Its combination of humor, social commentary, catchy music, and spectacular staging is everything a Broadway musical should be." Read critic Zachary Stewart's full review here.

The cast of Be More Chill, now playing at the Lyceum Theatre.
The cast of Be More Chill, now playing at the Lyceum Theatre.
(© Maria Baranova)

Fleabag

"Undoubtedly, some viewers will recoil from the darker confessions in Fleabag, if only out of a recognition of having similar, unspoken thoughts. Like an intense cross between Lena Dunham and David Sedaris, [Phoebe] Waller-Bridge mines the unglamorous truth of urban living and turns it into comedy gold." Read critic Zachary Stewart's full review here.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the writer and star of Fleabag, currently running at Soho Playhouse.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the writer and star of Fleabag, currently running at Soho Playhouse.
(© Joan Marcus)

If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhf*cka

"Everyone has to go on a journey to discover what their beauty is, and as Beyoncé says in her song that partially inspired the play's title, 'You can't fix what you can't see / it's the soul that needs the surgery.' [Tori] Sampson's play lives by that dictum, and…it's nice to be reminded every now and then that sometimes you're perfect just the way you are." Read critic David Gordon's full review here.

Mirirai Sithole, Phumzile Sitole, Níkẹ Uche Kadri, and Antoinette Crowe-Legacy in If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhf*cka at Playwrights Horizons.
Mirirai Sithole, Phumzile Sitole, Níkẹ Uche Kadri, and Antoinette Crowe-Legacy in If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhf*cka at Playwrights Horizons.
(© Joan Marcus)

The Play That Goes Wrong

"This is two hours of unapologetic, stupid fun, buoyed along by a cast of ultra-committed performers. It's a fitting key ingredient for this affectionate sendup of the thespian ethos of going on with the show, no matter what." Read critic Zachary Stewart's full review from its Broadway run here.

The cast of the off-Broadway transfer of The Play That Goes Wrong, now running at New World Stages.
The cast of the off-Broadway transfer of The Play That Goes Wrong, now running at New World Stages.
(© Jeremy Daniel)

Sea Wall / A Life

"Aptly named, A Life brims with vitality: the anxieties, joys, and surprises for which you're never quite prepared as you go about existing. [Jake] Gyllenhaal manages to convey it all with unexpected intimacy in the largest of the Public's theaters." Read critic Zachary Stewart's full review here.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in Nick Payne's solo play A Life, part of Sea Wall / A Life at the Public Theater.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in Nick Payne's solo play A Life, part of Sea Wall / A Life at the Public Theater.
(© Joan Marcus)

For more suggestions, visit our Broadway listings page here and our off-Broadway listings page here.