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March 12, 2025 
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Dear Theater Fans,
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” has become a beloved late-night cult classic. But, in March 1975, the Broadway production of “The Rocky Horror Show” landed with a thud. Laura Collins-Hughes recently spoke with the show’s star, Tim Curry; its director, Jim Sharman; and others about that failed production and how they view it today.
One of this season’s hot tickets is Rebecca Frecknall’s revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire” at BAM. In his review, Jesse Green commended the great cast (Paul Mescal, Patsy Ferran and Anjana Vasan), but took issue with the excessive brutality and needless directorial interventions. “This is a ‘Streetcar’ as if staged by Stanley,” Jesse wrote. Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of “Ghosts” is imperfect in a different way. “In favoring the play’s (iffy) logic over its (haunting) poetry,” Jesse wrote, Mark O’Rowe’s new translation “creates an imbalance” that its actors, including Billy Crudup and a “riveting” Lily Rabe, “can only finesse.”
It’s been a very busy week, with Michael Paulson’s reports on Jean Smart returning to Broadway in a one-woman show, Roundabout’s Broadway revivals of “Rocky Horror” and “Oedipus” and striking stage crews reaching a settlement with Atlantic Theater Company; Sarah Lyall’s fascinating look at how “Operation Mincemeat,” the hit British musical comedy about an outrageous World War II spy mission, is working to adjust to the particular sensibilities of its New York audience; Emmanuel Morgan’s cool visual-driven feature on what it took for the actors in “Sumo” to play convincing sumo wrestlers; and Jonathan Abrams’s report on a play about the civil rights movement in Tampa, Fla.
And then this weekend the revered South African playwright Athol Fugard died at the age of 92. Roslyn Sulcas reflected on meeting and interviewing him, and how his works sought to illustrate the value of every human life, not just in apartheid South Africa. After reading our coverage, stream this six-part docuseries on the playwright and the brief life of the Fugard Theater.
Please reach out to me at theaterfeedback@nytimes.com with suggestions for stories or to offer your thoughts about our coverage. And urge your friends to subscribe to this newsletter.
Have a wonderful week,
Nicole Herrington
Theater Editor
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