Charles Isherwood

United States

Theater Critic at The Wall Street Journal

Theater critic, NYC.

Articles

‘Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes’ Review: Hugh Jackman’s Flawed Human

1 week ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

Ella Beatty and Hugh Jackman in ‘Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes.’
‘Just in Time’ Review: Jonathan Groff’s Playful Portrait of Bobby Darin

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

The actor portrays the midcentury crooner—and serves as emcee—in this nimbly entertaining Broadway musical. An early death is tragic, but it has been mordantly—or morbidly—observed that it can spur enduring interest in a show-business career. Bobby Darin has been remembered as much for his early demise as for his work, which may in part explain the arrival on Broadway of “Just in Time,” a glossy and vibrantly performed musical about the 1960s star, who died at just 37 years old in 1973.
‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ Review: A Streaming Series Takes the Broadway Stage

3 weeks ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

April 22, 2025 11:59 pm ETNew YorkWatching “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” the stage spinoff of the popular Netflix series, feels uncannily like viewing a few episodes of the TV show. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
‘Floyd Collins’ Review: Musical Highs From a Cave’s Depths

3 weeks ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

Jeremy Jordan and Lizzy McAlpine star in the first Broadway production of Adam Guettel and Tina Landau’s stirring, beautifully scored 1996 show about a man who gets trapped underground and becomes a national sensation. The magical elixir of celebrity proves unhelpful, and maybe even fatal, to the title character in “Floyd Collins,” the 1996 musical being produced on Broadway for the first time by Lincoln Center Theater. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
‘Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp.’ Review: Caryl Churchill’s Enigmatic Imagination

4 weeks ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

New YorkFor sheer fertility of imagination, there may be no dramatist writing today to match Caryl Churchill. Across a distinguished career spanning more than five decades, the British playwright has written about a vast array of subjects, from the evils of colonialism to the global financial system to the morality of human cloning. And with each work she seems, astonishingly, to find a fresh form, a newly minted theatrical vessel for her ideas.
‘John Proctor Is the Villain’ Review: Reconceiving ‘The Crucible’ on Broadway

4 weeks ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

New YorkDespite the seeming spoiler of a title, John Proctor is not the malefactor in “John Proctor Is the Villain,” a clever and potently entertaining drama by Kimberly Belflower at the Booth Theatre on Broadway. That will probably be obvious to many theatergoers, who will recall the titular character is actually the central figure in Arthur Miller’s 1953 play “The Crucible.” Even if you have never seen the play staged, you may have read this canonical American classic in high school.
‘Smash’ Review: An Inside-Broadway Musical

1 month ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

New YorkSamuel Johnson once called a second marriage the triumph of hope over experience. The new Broadway musical “Smash” adapts that aspirational adage for show business. It’s based on a TV series of the same name that dribbled along for two seasons more than 10 years ago without becoming a solid hit, let alone a smash.
‘Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends’ Review: A Lot of Night Music

1 month ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga lead Cameron Mackintosh’s song-stuffed revue of the Broadway composer’s legendary career, stretching from ‘Gypsy’ to ‘Sweeney Todd’ to ‘Passion.’Before Stephen Sondheim’s death in 2021, tribute concerts recurred so regularly that it sometimes seemed his birthday came around at least twice a year.
‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ Review: George Clooney’s Broadway Retread

1 month ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

The actor stars in an adaptation of his own film about the McCarthy-era broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in director David Cromer’s slick production. Good night, good luck, and the nearest Starbucks is two blocks south on Broadway. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ Review: Kieran Culkin, Back on Broadway

1 month ago | wsj.com | Charles Isherwood

New YorkLife is a zero-sum game for the sweaty strivers in David Mamet’s enduringly popular 1983 play “Glengarry Glen Ross.” You wonder how the principal characters, real-estate salesmen, unload any properties at all, so busy are they scheming and selling each other out, with as much enthusiasm—and ruthlessness—as they bring to their jobs. If they can’t make the numbers the management requires, they’ll be tossed aside, the human equivalent of a piece of Florida swampland.