Well, I’m 0-2 with these horror shows that have popped up in New York the past few weeks, having lost all the goodwill Broadway’s Paranormal Activity amassed throughout its first act after it dropped the spooky hijinks and decided to take itself seriously as a play. (About trauma, no less). The latest, A Ghost in Your Ear, seemed higher-concept but more direct in execution: the audience puts on headphones and straps in for auditory frights. Having loved Viola’s Room, last year’s sensory immersive, audio-forward experience at the Shed — and as a general fan of the genre — this promised to get me back on track. (All three of these, plus the upcoming 2:22 A Ghost Story, are UK imports, for those keeping score.)

Alas, alas…

Were this not a pre-existing transfer, I’d say A Ghost in Your Ear was a nifty scam by Audible, who runs the Minetta Lane and records each of their productions for later release: record a podcast and charge suckers to watch. But their noble project to preserve the theatrical word remains unvarnished.

The piece, written and directed by Jamie Armitage, is set at an audiobook taping overseen by sound technician Sid (Owen Campbell). The project’s voice-for-hire, Lucas (Lucas Iverson), is a few minutes late, but no worries; there’s plenty of time to record this slow-building tale about a man traveling to empty out his estranged father’s home following his death. 

It’s not so much that the story-within-the-play is a tired collection of haunted house tropes, but that the production as a whole betrays its premise in two major ways. The metatheatrical device of the recording studio, with the men’s light banter and “all in a day’s work” rapport, creates an expectation that their outside world will take some sort of precedence over the recording. It mostly does not, meaning we are simply listening to Lucas narrate the mediocre story. When it does, there is no reason to care about either of them as characters.

So the audio is the thing, then, right? Also no. Iverson has a great speaking voice, and his character has some fun with the ASMR-ness of the recording studio, which is rigged all over with microphones. But the spark wears off alarmingly fast — the concept of recorded sound not being exactly novel — and sound designers Ben and Max Ringham don’t accomplish, or really try, anything novel or exciting with the sensory medium. Even in-world, Lucas stops positioning himself in relation to the main mic, so his audio becomes tediously monophonic, and the sound effects which Sid adds are irrationally sparse.

All of the scares — and I could count them on exactly one hand — are visual. That figure is not arrived by me pretending to be above frights, but rather because they are deployed so anemically, each about 20 minutes apart in the 90-minute production, that you begin to monetize each one. That’s a losing battle: Anisha Fields’s recording studio set is lit in ghastly blue by Ben Jacobs, but the thrills are of the “lights go off, come back on and, wouldn’t you know it, something scary briefly flashes” variety. If that’s the name of the game, fine, but at least shake the coins out of our pockets with consistent, creative scares.

A Ghost in Your Ear is scheduled through December 12, 2026 at Minetta Lane Theatre on Minetta Lane in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.

Six on Broadway has had quite a journey over the last few years, and defied the odds to become a major bona fide Broadway hit. As the show approaches closing on January 3, 2027, I checked in on Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ Tony-winning musical before it departs the Lena Horne early next year. 

The musical originally opened October 3, 2021, following the shutdown, and at the time of closing will have played 2,178 performances. Now in its sixth year, it has become the 40th longest running show in Broadway history—not bad for this small but mighty show from the UK.  

Back in August, the musical celebrated its 2,000th performance on Broadway with a performance fit for royalty. The current company includes Khaila Wilcoxon as Catherine of Aragon, Chloe Tucker Caine as Anne Boleyn, Natalie Paris as Jane Seymour, Olivia Donalson as Anna of Cleves, Aimie Atkinson as Katherine Howard, and Stephanie Jae Park as Catherine Parr. The cast also features Lauryn Adams, Aryn Bohannon, Maggie Likcani, and Aiyana Smash as Alternates. Following the performance, the company traveled a block up to party in style at Sir Henry’s in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen. 

I have been extremely fortunate to catch the show multiple times over the past few years, and I am delighted to report that this company is perhaps one of my favorites I have ever seen. Wilcoxon as Aragon is as spunky and fierce as ever, Donalson is pure fun as Cleves, and Jae Park is a beautiful Parr who helps round up the show. 

True fans will be thrilled to see OG Queens Paris as Seymour and Atkinson as Howard. As the inventors of these roles, what a treat for us to see them shine, just as they did back in 2018 in the UK. If you’ve devoured the original album like I have since 2019, to hear these voices live on stage is just a pleasure. 

Like many of us, I first encountered Chloe Tucker Caine on season one of Netflix’s Owning Manhattan and fell in love. It was season two where we got to see her love of Broadway play out — I caught up with Tucker Caine last year where we spoke about her dreams of making it to Broadway. Just eight months later, here she is, in peak form, slaying as Anne Boleyn eight times a week. 

If you can’t make it to New York, SIX The Musical Live! was recently released in US and Canadian movie theaters, so keep an eye on local listings for when it may be back. 

Six will continue its national tour in Baltimore on October 25, as well as in London’s West End, and across the UK and Australia. A new Spanish-language production just opened in Madrid and recently the first Korean-language studio album was released and is now streaming ahead of the show’s return to Seoul this December. Future productions in China and Luxembourg have also been announced. 

While Six may be leaving us here in New York, you still have a few more months to head to the Queendom and check out this fierce cast. Long live the wives of Henry VIII!

Recently, I had the chance to check in on two recent musicals that have impressively cleared double hurdles: they’ve managed to stay open beyond the season during which they opened—a rarity in post-Covid Broadway—and they’ve managed to transcend original casts which appeared fundamental to their success, if not outright being.

An existential threat loomed over Just in Time, the Bobby Darin biomusical which star Jonathan Groff and director Alex Timbers developed out of a one-night concert. Darin not being a musician anyone was particularly clamoring to return to, it seemed a strange proposition until the lavish production opened last April and, against all odds, became a runaway hit. Groff is a massively likable, talented performer, but no one could have predicted his charm alone could command blockbuster prices for an entire year. Another issue: Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver’s book was built upon the conceit that this was Groff, the actor, hopping in and out of Darin, the character, with a few fourth-wall breakers strewn about. How could such a passion project survive with a new lead?

Turns out Jeremy Jordan has the ardent fans and, with some slight tweaking, great ability to carry the show through. His is not the originator’s gushy GBF magnetism—Jordan has a darker appeal, deftly calibrated between skeptical side-eye and undeniably talent. It’s one of the qualities I’ve come to most admire about him, off-stage; this is a still young, still dashing industry vet who will lend his considerable all to the job then go home to his wife and kids. If that tones down some of the show’s earnest slime-tutorial atmosphere, especially in the up-up-up of the first act, it charges the second’s charting of Darin’s later years with real gravitas. Joined by a handful of solid fellow replacements—Olivia Holt as Connie Francis, Carrie St. Louis as Sandra Dee, and Debbie Gravitte as Darin’s mother, Polly—Jordan turns Just in Time from pure personality showcase to an actually reproducible play. He slips into that power blue sit just fine and, it goes without saying, sings the hell out of it.

Maybe Happy Ending was perhaps on sturdier ground—it is objectively the better musical, whose tech-heavy 2024 Broadway premiere Michael Arden directed straight into theatre history. As long as that stunning set revolved, revealed, expanded and minimized, things should be okay. But Darren Criss’ lead performance as Oliver, a slowly decaying robot, was also a staggering achievement. I remember the visceral wallop of, Oh god, is it gonna be this for 100 minutes? for the first two seconds of his robot self before realizing this was one of the most locked-in performances I’d ever see. The technical edge of his performance was beautifully balanced by co-lead Helen J. Shen; her Claire’s sweet voice and pitch-perfect tenderness.

The new Helperbots are more tart, more wise in their ways, and still excellent. As the older model, Criss’ intently robotic performance kept evident the fact that his ability to emulate humans was nowhere near Shen’s naturalistic portrayal. Though Oliver maintains he’s the sturdier make, he is clearly jealous of Claire’s capabilities, and Criss played it like a boy both resentful and vulnerable when confronted with a higher authority. Their eventual romance was innocent and pure. Zachary Noah Piser’s Oliver is more cynical, and less robotic in movement. The result is a less high-concept version of this futuristic fable, which now scans as taking place in a very plausible near-future. With Oliver no longer as developmentally far removed from Hannah Kevitt’s Claire, their attraction blossoms, not from dual fish-out-of-water encounters, but as a profound kinship against the worn-down despair of mutually recognizable obsolescence.

In short, both shows still work.

Just in Time is in performance at Circle in the Square Theatre on West 50th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.

Maybe Happy Ending is in performance at the Belasco Theatre on West 44th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.