urban excavations

My year in theater involved viewing and vetting hundreds of shows, playscripts, designs, and performances; deliberating on awards committees; interviewing prospective students for Harvard, my undergraduate alma mater; dramaturing for several playwrights on new work. It was another year of collaboration, attendance, counting, and coalition building.

This is my FOURTEENTH annual “what Martha has seen” marathon record of theater/event/film adventuring, inaugurated after my first full season living the Manhattan life almost 15 years ago. A look back through my prior annual reviews: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. 

Theater by the Numbers. This year’s number of productions (not readings, not screenings, not conference sessions) tells me that our pandemic recovery is still in process. In calendar year 2024 I saw 244 staged productions, slightly up from 239 in 2023. (in 2022 my total just exceeded 200 performances, up significantly from the approximately 80 productions in the just emerging partial year of 2021, and 59 in the three months of 2020 before all theaters went dark.) We have almost returned to the pre-pandemic rates of theater productions — calendar year 2019 as reported that December, I saw 300 ticketed and staged theatrical productions, 20 or so cabaret performances or panel discussions, and selected film screenings.

Travel. My travels this year included visits to cities I have called home in the past — Chicago in early April; Washington, DC in late July; Pittsburgh and northern Ohio in mid September. Husband and I also wandered, for work and pleasure, around various New York State locations, traveling by train or ferry or both — Governor’s Island (by ferry), Louis Armstrong House Museum and Center in Astoria (by train), Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (by ferry), and Albany Capitol building, office buildings, and Albany Institute of History and Art (by train).

Board and Committee Service. I continue as webmaster for the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association — managing posts and layout, connecting members to discussion forums coordinated on the site, and generally developing and coordinating the public and member-only content there. I serve on several ATCA grant-conveying committees, including Helbing Mentorship Program and the Steinberg/ATCA and Osborn playwrighting awards.

I again served on the hardworking conference planning committee that assembled and delivered the November ATCANY2024 convening, at which I coordinated a screening of the multi-camera pro-shoot video recording of the world premiere 2023-2024 Shed production of Here We Are at the NYPL for the Performing Arts Theatre on Film and Tape Archive; arranged for the participation of Adam Feldman as this year’s Perspectives in Criticism speaker (interviewed by the terrific Raven Snook); moderated a conversation between Charles Busch and Cole Escola about their art and recent creations (Ibsen’s Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasy for Busch and Oh, Mary! for Escola), maintained the conference webpage, and thrilled to the conference content including a tour of the newly re-opened and refurbished Palace Theater.

I continued as a member of the Henry Hewes Design Awards committee, deliberating upon and celebrating the awardees on the October 21, 2024 luncheon ceremony. And I worked almost daily and all season (May 2023-April 2024) as chair of the Drama Desk nominating committee, developing the nominees for the Drama Desk awards which were voted upon by the entire Drama Desk membership and awarded during a ceremony on June 10, 2024.

New Play Development. I worked with several playwrights on new play projects during the year resulting in workshop productions and readings. I continued as committee member and judge for ATCA’s Steinberg-ATCA and Osborn Awards and as a member of the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Artistic Council. I also celebrated (privately) this year my 20 years of membership in the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (and enjoyed LMDA’s Digital conference in February from my own computer screen).

Women Count. The seventh edition in the Women Count report series was published in June 2024, with an Women Count VII executive summary and Women Count VII full report. Women Count VII includes the five most recent complete theatrical seasons — pre shutdown (2018/19 and 2019/20) and post shutdown (2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24). As always, the report examines whose plays are put on Off Broadway and the designers and backstage professionals who work on them.

All reports from the past decade are available on the Women Count reports series home page, with all reports authored by me with data collection assistance provided by Judith Binus. The reports series joined forces with several consortia of theater-related data projects, including Counting Together, and RISE Network Partners.

Publicity related to the 2024 report was in the form of spoken and written word this year. August 5, 2024 Broadway News summarized the report. I also engaged in two podcast conversations in the fall to discuss the report series — First on Line with Fran with Frances McGarry published October 6, 2024, and the December 20, 2024 Episode 11 of Women & Theatre’s podcast series with the podcast hosts Amy Andrews and Hayley Goldenberg recorded at the Inaugural RISE Summit in September 2024.

January

• (1/5) The Whole of Time (Torn Page)
• (1/5) Bacon (Soho Playhouse)
• (1/12) Prayer for the French Republic (MTC Samuel J. Friedman)
• (1/13) Beverly Johnson: In Vogue (59E59)
• (1/14) Terce: A Practical Breviary (Prototype | The Space at Irondale)
• (1/19) Aristocrats (Irish Repertory Theatre)
• (1/20) The Greatest Hits Down Route 66 (New Light Theater Project at 59e59)
• (1/20) Our Class (BAM Fisher)
• (1/24) Days of Wine and Roses (Studio 54)
• (1/27) Jonah (Roundabout | Laura Pels Theatre)
• (1/28) White Rose: The Musical (Theatre Row)

February

• (2/1) Public Obscenities (Theatre for a New Audience)
• (2/2-2/3) LMDA Digital Conference
• (2/4) The Connector (MCC Theater)
• (2/9) I Love You So Much I Could Die (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (2/10) The Apiary (Second Stage | Tony Kiser Theater)
• (2/11) The Christine Jorgensen Show (59E59)
• (2/12) On Set with Theda Bara (The Brick)
• (2/13) Russian Troll Farm (Vineyard)
• (2/15) Hotel Happy (Houses on the Moon | 122CC)
• (2/16) Sunset Baby (Signature Theatre)
• (2/17) Deadly Stages (Emerging Artists Theatre | Theatre Row)
• (2/17) Munich Medea: Happy Family (Playco + WP | WP Theater)
• (2/18) Warrior Sisters of Wu (Pan Asian Rep | A.R.T./New York Theaters)
• (2/18) Five: The Parody Musical (Theater 555)
• (2/19) A Sign of the Times (New World Stages)
• (2/20) Oh, Mary! (Lucille Lortel)
• (2/21) The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers (New World Stages)
• (2/22) The Hunt (Almeida Theatre | St. Ann’s Warehouse)
• (2/23) Brooklyn Laundry (New York City Center Stage 1)
• (2/24) Between Two Knees (PAC NYC)
• (2/24) The Ally (Public Theater)
• (2/25) Pericles (Classic Stage Company)
• (2/26) Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance (Rattlestick Theater)
• (2/27) The Seven Year Disappear (New Group | Pershing Square Signature Center)

March

• (3/1) Remember This Trick (Target Margin | Doxsee Theater)
• (3/2) Doubt (Roundabout | Todd Haimes Theater)
• (3/8) Ibsen’s Ghost (Primary Stages | 59E59)
• (3/9) Illinois (Park Avenue Armory)
• (3/10) The Notebook (Gerald Shoenfeld Theatre)
• (3/12) Dead Outlaw (Minetta Lane Theatre)
• (3/13) The Effect (The Shed)
• (3/14) The Assassination of Julius Caesar (Bedlam | West End Theater)
• (3/15) An Enemy of the People (Circle in the Square)
• (3/16) American Rot (La MaMa | Ellen Stewart Theatre)
• (3/17) Corruption (Lincoln Center Theater)
• (3/19) Like They Do in the Movies (PAC NYC)
• (3/20) Water for Elephants (Imperial Theatre)
• (3/21) Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Irish Repertory Theatre)
• (3/22) BATHHOUSE.PPTX (The Flea Theater)
• (3/23) The Who’s Tommy (Nederlander Theatre)
• (3/24) Medea (Gene Frankel Theatre)
• (3/26) Hamlet (Orpheum Theatre)
• (3/27) Stalker (New World Stages)
• (3/28) Fish (Keen Company + Working Theater | Theatre Row)
• (3/29) The Seven Year Disappear (live stream)
• (3/30) Travels (Ars Nova)
• (3/31) Teeth (Playwrights Horizons)

April

• (4/1) Grief Hotel (Clubbed Thumb + New Georges | Public Theater)
• (4/2-4/5) trip to Chicago, IL
• (4/6) The Outsiders (Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre)
• (4/6) Symphony of Rats (Wooster Group | Performing Garage)
• (4/7) Las Borinquenas (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
• (4/8) Tuesdays with Morrie (St. George’s Episcopal Church)
• (4/9) Macbeth (an undoing) (Royal Lyceum Theatre of Edinburgh | Theatre for a New Audience)
• (4/10) Appropriate (Belasco Theatre)
• (4/10) The Wiz (Marquis Theatre)
• (4/11) Scarlett Dreams (Greenwich House Theatre)
• (4/12) Sally & Tom (Public Theater)
• (4/13) House of Telescopes (A.R.T./New York Theatres)
• (4/13) Suffs (Music Box Theatre)
• (4/14) Orlando (Signature Theatre Company)
• (4/14) Still (Colt Coeur | DR2 Theatre)
• (4/15) Hell’s Kitchen (Shubert Theatre)
• (4/16) Stereophonic (John Golden Theatre)
• (4/17) Mary Jane (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
• (4/18) Cabaret (August Wilson Theatre)
• (4/19) Jordans (Pubic Theater)
• (4/20) Uncle Vanya (Lincoln Center Theater | Vivian Beaumont)
• (4/20) The Heart of Rock and Roll (James Earl Jones Theatre)
• (4/21) Mother Play (Hayes Theater)
• (4/22) Stargazers (Connelly Theater)
• (4/23) The Great Gatsby (Broadway Theatre)
• (4/24) Patriots (Barrymore Theatre)
• (4/24) Grenfell (St. Ann’s Warehouse)
• (4/25) Illinoise (St. James Theatre)
• (4/26) Lempicka (Longacre Theatre)
• (4/28) Staff Meal (Playwrights Horizons)
• (4/30) The Miser (Moliere in the Park | LeFrak Center at Lakeside)

May

• (5/1) The Actors (Plays of Wilton | Theatre Row)
• (5/1) Lorenzo (SoHo Theatre + Barrow Street Theatricals | 59E59)
• (5/3) Fingers & Spoons: The Ins and Outs of an Open Marriage (SoHo Playhouse)
• (5/4) Small Acts of Daring Invention (Mason Holdings | HERE)
• (5/5) Agreement (Irish Arts Center)
• (5/7) I Ought to be in Pictures (Theater Breaking Through Barriers | Theatre Row)
• (5/8) All of Me (New Group | Pershing Square Signature Center)
• (5/9) October 7 (The Actors’ Temple)
• (5/10) Here There Are Blueberries (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (5/11) Third Law (Culture Lab LIC)
• (5/12) Just Another Day (Theater 555)
• (5/14) Dungeons & Dragons: the Twenty-Sided Tavern (Stage 42)
• (5/16) Blood of the Lamb (reading) (59E59)
• (5/16) The Lonely Few (MCC Theater)
• (5/17) Fabulation (The Billy Holiday Theater)
• (5/17) Julia Masli: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (SoHo Playhouse)
• (5/18) Three Houses (Signature Theatre)
• (5/18) The Hours Are Feminine (Intar Theatre)
• (5/22) Molly Sweeney (Irish Repertory Theatre)
• (5/22) Winesday: The Wine Tasting Musical (Jerry Orbach Theater | Theater Center)
• (5/23) Jimmy Tingle (SoHo Playhouse)
• (5/24) My True Love (Players Theatre)
• (5/25) The Brief Life and Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria (Brits Off Broadway | 59E59)
• (5/26) La Llamada (Repertorio Español)
• (5/30) What Became of Us (Atlantic Theater Company Stage 2)
• (5/31) How to Eat an Orange (La MaMa)

June

• (6/1) Home (Roundabout | Todd Haimes Theatre)
• (6/1) Breaking the Story (Second Stage | Tony Kiser Theater)
• (6/2) The World According to Micki Grant (New Federal Theater | WP Theater)
• (6/8) Simpatico (Chain Theatre)
• (6/10) Drama Desk Awards ceremony (Skirball Center for the Performing Arts)
• (6/11) The Fires (Soho Repertory Theater)
• (6/12) Dark Noon (St. Ann’s Warehouse)
• (6/13) Henry IV (NY Classical | Central Park West and 103rd Street)
• (6/14) The Welkin (Atlantic Theater Company | Linda Gross Theater)
• (6/17) Isabel (NAATCO | Abrons Arts Center)
• (6/19) Cats: The Jellicle Ball (PAC NYC)
• (6/23) Much Ado About Nothing (Gene Frankel Theatre)
• (6/24) On the RISE: How Maestra Music is Changing the Theatre Industry (livestream)
• (6/25) N/A (Mitzi Newhouse | Lincoln Center Theater)
• (6/27) From Here (Renaissance Theatre Company | Pershing Square Signature Center)
• (6/29) Clowns Like Me (DR2 Theatre)

July

• (7/2) Pre-Existing Condition (Connelly Theater Upstairs)
• (7/7) Empire: The Musical (New World Stages)
• (7/10) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Uptown Shakespeare in the Park | Richard Rodgers Amphitheater)
• (7/12) Ain’t Done Bad (Signature Theatre Company)
• (7/13) Bill’s 44th (Official Puppet Business + A Dream Music | HERE)
• (7/14) Inspired by True Events (Out of the Box Theatrics | 154 Christopher Street)
• (7/16) The Rosenberg/Strange Fruit Project (59E59)
• (7/17) The Journals of Adam and Eve (Sheen Center for Thought & Culture)
• (7/24-7/26) trip to Washington, DC
• (7/27) Job (Hayes Theater)
• (7/27) someone spectacular (Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre | Pershing Square Signature Center)
• (7/28) Sabbath Girl (Penguin Rep Theatre | 59E59)
• (7/31) Life and Trust (Conwell Tower)

August

• (8/3) The Meeting: The Interpreter (Theatre at St Clements)
• (8/4) Cellino V. Barnes (Asylum NYC)
• (8/5) An Atlas of Es Devlin (exhibit) (Cooper-Hewitt museum)
• (8/8) Once Upon a Mattress (Hudson Theatre)
• (8/9) Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm (exhibit) (Brooklyn Museum)
• (8/10) Oh, Mary! (Lyceum Theatre)
• (8/11) Odd Man Out (Sheen Center for Thought & Culture)
• (8/14) The Bleeding Class (59E59 Theaters)
• (8/15) Vivian Maier: Unseen Work (exhibit) (Fotografiska New York)
• (8/16) (multiple exhibits) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
• (8/17) Governor’s Island Ferry adventure
• (8/21) Pretty Perfect Lives (Flea Theater)
• (8/22) Louis Armstrong House Museum + Louis Armstrong Center (Corona, Queens)
• (8/24) Bessie’s Big Shot (puppet show) (Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, Central Park)
• (8/28) Unentitled (59E59 Theaters)
• (8/31) Lifeline (Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre | Pershing Square Signature Center)

September

• (9/3) Table 17 (MCC Theater)
• (9/4) Changing the Face of Democracy (exhibit) (Museum of the City of New York)
• (9/6) Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (exhibits and adventures)
• (9/8) That Parenting Musical (Theatre Row)
• (9/8) Counting and Cracking (Public Theater | Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
• (9/10) The Roommate (Booth Theatre)
• (9/11) The Ask (Wild Project)
• (9/12) See What I Wanna See (Out of the Box Theatrics | 154 Christopher Street)
• (9/13) Tracks (59E59)
• (9/15-9/20) trip to Pittsburgh, PA, Yellow Springs, OH, and Springfield, OH
• (9/21) Medea: Re-Versed (Red Bull Theater + Bedlam | Sheen Center for Thought & Culture)
• (9/21) Blood of the Lamb (59E59)
• (9/22) The Witness Room (AMT Theater)
• (9/22) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Conversation with Cecily Strong: True Gretch (Kaufman Concert Hall | 92NY)
• (9/23) The Voices in Your Head (Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective | St. Lydia’s)
• (9/24) Redeemed (59E59 Theaters)
• (9/25) Fatherland (New York City Center Stage II)
• (9/25) Our Class (Arlekin in Residence | Classic Stage Company)
• (9/26) Twelfth Night (Axis Theatre Company)
• (9/27) The Beacon (Irish Repertory Theatre)
• (9/28) The Hills of California (Broadhurst Theatre)
• (9/28) Yellow Face (Roundabout | Todd Haimes Theatre)
• (9/29) McNeal (Lincoln Center Theater | Vivian Beaumont)
• (9/30) Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song (Theater 555)

October

• (10/2) Good Bones (Public Theater)
• (10/3) Dirty Laundry (WP Theater)
• (10/4) The Ghost of John McCain (SoHo Playhouse)
• (10/5) The Counter (Roundabout | Laura Pels Theatre)
• (10/6) The Spirits’ Speakeasy (Sincerely, Ophelia)
• (10/7) People of the Book (Urban Stages)
• (10/8) Distant Thunder (Mezzanine Theatre | A.R.T./New York Theatres)
• (10/9) Our Town (Barrymore Theatre)
• (10/9) Sump’n Like Wings (Mint Theater Company | Theatre Row)
• (10/11) Vladimir (Manhattan Theatre Club | New York City Center Stage I)
• (10/12) The Wind and the Rain (En Garde Arts + The Vineyard | Waterfront Museum)
• (10/13) Deep History (Public Theater | Shiva)
• (10/13) Franklinland (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
• (10/15) What Doesn’t Kill You (59E59)
• (10/16) Sunset Boulevard (St. James Theatre)
• (10/17) A Woman Among Women (The Bushwick Starr)
• (10/18) Left on Tenth (James Earl Jones Theatre)
• (10/19) Hannah Gadsby’s Woof! (Abrons Arts Center)
• (10/19) Safety Not Guaranteed (BAM Harvey Theater)
• (10/20) Hold On To Me Darling (Lucille Lortel Theatre)
• (10/20) Kafkaesque! (154 Christopher Street)
• (10/21) The Bestiary (Ars Nova | Greenwich House Theater)
• (10/22) Little House on the Ferry: The Musical (Ferry’s Landing | The Duplex)
• (10/23) Romeo + Juliet (Circle in the Square)
• (10/24) We Live in Cairo (New York Theatre Workshop)
• (10/25) Another Shot (Romulus Linney Courtyard Theater | Pershing Square Signature Center)
• (10/26) Bad Kreyòl (Signature Theatre + Manhattan Theatre Club | Signature Theatre)
• (10/26) In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons)
• (10/27) The Big Gay Jamboree (Orpheum Theatre)
• (10/28) Teeth (New World Stages)
• (10/29) Hothouse (Malaprop | Irish Arts Center)
• (10/30) The Christine Jorgensen Show (HERE)
• (10/30) The Devil’s Disciple (Gingold Theatrical Group | Theatre Row)
• (10/31) Drag: The Musical (New World Stages)

November

• (11/2) Gatz (Newman Theater | Public Theater)
• (11/3) Loneliness Was a Pandemic (Theaterlab)
• (11/3) Walden (Second Stage | Tony Kiser Theater)
• (11/6) Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library (Luna Stage | 59E59 Theaters)
• (11/7) A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical (Studio 54)
• (11/8) Strategic Love Play (Minetta Lane Theatre)
• (11/9) Maybe Happy Ending (Belasco Theatre)
• (11/9) Communion (Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre)
• (11/10) King Lear (The Shed)
• (11/11) Mama, I’m A Big Girl Now! (New World Stages)
• (11/12) Orson’s Shadow (Axial Theatre + Oberon Theatre Ensemble + Strindberg Rep | Theater for the New city)
• (11/13) The Light and the Dark (Primary Stages | 59E59)
• (11/14) Elf The Musical (Marquis Theatre)
• (11/15) Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! (Soho Rep)
• (11/16) Music City (Bedlam | West End Theatre)
• (11/16) Death Becomes Her (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre)
• (11/17) Swept Away (Longacre Theatre)
• (11/19) Tammy Faye (Palace Theatre)
• (11/20) 300 Paintings (Vineyard Theatre)
• (11/21) shit. meet. fan. (MCC Theater)
• (11/21) We Are Your Robots (Theatre for a New Audience)
• (11/22) Blood Quilt (Lincoln Center Theater | Mitzi E. New house Theater)
• (11/23) Welcome to the Big Dipper (York Theatre Company | Theater at St. Jean)
• (11/23) Okuni: the Woman Who Created Kabuki (Theatre Row)
• (11/24) The Merchant of Venice (Classic Stage Company)
• (11/25) Babe (The New Group | Pershing Square Signature Company)
• (11/27) Room 1214 (New Light Theater Project | 59E59)
• (11/29) Yuletide Factory (Cirque Mechanics | New Victory Theater)

December

• (12/1) This is My Favorite Song (Playwrights Horizons)
• (12/5) Hard Truths (screening) (AMC Lincoln Square 13)
• (12/7) The Beautiful Land I Seek (Puerto Rican Traveling Theater)
• (12/8) A Guide for the Homesick (DR2 Theatre)
• (12/11) Cult of Love (Hayes Theatre)
• (12/12) day trip to Albany, NY
• (12/14) Cabaret at the Kit Kat Klub (August Wilson Theatre) (return visit for replacement stars)
• (12/15) Gypsy (Majestic Theatre)
• (12/17) Duality (New American Drama | A.R.T./New York Theatres)
• (12/18) Eureka Day (Manhattan Theatre Club | Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
• (12/19) Pen Pals (Theatre at St Clements)
• (12/21) Breakin’ NYC (Theater 555)
• (12/23) Annie (The Theater at Madison Square Garden)
• (12/27) Brooklyn Museum + Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

© Martha Wade Steketee (January 5, 2025)