Joey Sims

New York

Contributing Writer at Theatrely

oh, it's a donkey. he/him. writing about theater. senior critic, @Theatrely

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Articles

A Charming OLD FRIENDS Brings Nostalgia To Broadway - Review

2 weeks ago | theatrely.com | Joey Sims

We are gathered at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre to remember the late, great Stephen Sondheim. The Bard of musical theater, he was a writer of boundless intellectual curiosity and tender emotional ambivalence; his work captured both the heartfelt joy and overwhelming despair that define our fleeting, shared human experience. But not to worry—we won’t make you think about death.
An Ambitious LAST FIVE YEARS On Broadway - Review

2 weeks ago | theatrely.com | Joey Sims

Kindly forgive the musical theater nerds in their chorus of gasps when, early in the new Broadway staging of Jason Robert Brown’s two-hander musical The Last Five Years, one character does the unthinkable simply by…well, by appearing on stage. It is not normally done this way. Brown’s unconventional musical, a 2002 flop Off-Broadway that quickly gained a huge following, typically keeps its central couple apart until the mid-way point of their doomed love story.
A Powerhouse Sarah Snook Takes On THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY - Review

4 weeks ago | theatrely.com | Joey Sims

Back in 2021, a shutdown-era digital adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray skilfullytransplanted Oscar Wilde’s classic into our present-day maelstrom of internet virality and social media fame.
THE JONATHAN LARSON PROJECT Soars Off-Broadway - Review

1 month ago | theatrely.com | Joey Sims

“Try writing what you know,” is the sage advice delivered by Jonathan Larson’s agent (a glorious Judith Light) in a pivotal scene from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film adaptation of Tick, Tick…Boom!, based on Larson’s semi-autobiographical show. But really, the poor guy just wanted to write about spaceships. I kid—sort of. But the wondrous new revue The Jonathan Larson Project is a moving, essential reminder of Larson’s diverse thematic interests and astonishing musical versatility.
Abubakr Ali on Character Transformation During Previews in DAKAR 2000

1 month ago | theatrely.com | Joey Sims

During previews, it is typical for a new play to undergo some cuts or revisions. But how often does a show’s narrator—and in this case, one half of a two-character work—completely transform following a show’s second performance? That’s the surprising challenge that faced Abubakr Ali on Dakar 2000, a gripping world premiere thriller from Manhattan Theatre Club. It sounds, perhaps, like an actor’s nightmare. But for breakout star Ali, rethinking his whole character overnight was, actually, a thrill.
CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS Is As Timely As Ever - Review

1 month ago | theatrely.com | Joey Sims

Curse of the Starving Class is a perfect play for our moment. Now if only someone else were directing it. Sam Shepard’s surreal tale of family dysfunction and lower middle-class desperation is, perhaps, a play just perennially “of the moment.” First written in 1977 amidst a post-Vietnam economic slump, Starving Class captures a diminished, fractured United States, robbed of shared purpose and increasingly carved to pieces by corporate goliaths. So, pretty familiar.
Critic Roundup: SLAMDANCE GARAGE, 300 PAINTINGS, WHERE WE'RE BORN, NINA, THE BARBARIANS - Review

2 months ago | theatrely.com | Joey Sims

SLAMDANCE GARAGEDon’t you just want to scream? Ian Andrew Askew figures you might. The versatile writer, performer and sound designer’s thundering new work SLAMDANCE Garage is—in part—a punk rock howl of anger. Askew even invites the audience to join together, at one point, in a collective wail. Not that Garage is not solely defined by rage. Askew’s tightly structured solo piece begins from a place of anger, but soon moves into melancholy reflection ahead of a rousing finish.
Jennifer Haley’s ‘Froggy’: Cutscenes and In-Game Action

2 months ago | americantheatre.org | Joey Sims

“I have a soft spot, in my core,” confessed multimedia theatre artist Jared Mezzocchi, “for any script that has been said to be ‘impossible.’”By the time Mezzocchi came aboard Froggy, a pulpy thriller set partly inside a violent underground video game, Jennifer Haley’s form-blending new work had been in development for a decade. But the team had yet to quite crack it.
Technology As A Prison: Festival Works Play With Tech (and Sadly, Artificial Intelligence)

Jan 17, 2025 | theatrely.com | Joey Sims

A husband and wife stand beside each other on a vast, empty stage. They are close enough to touch. Yet an impassable gulf separates the two. Blind Runner, a gently moving new piece now at St. Ann’s Warehouse through January 24 (as part of Under the Radar), uses live video elements to drive that distance home. Intense close-ups of the two performers’ faces are projected onto the back wall, looming large over their small bodies in the Warehouse space.
Daniel and Patrick Lazour Are Under Construction at Lincoln Center

Jan 17, 2025 | theatrely.com | Joey Sims

For the 20th consecutive year, experimental theater festival Under the Radar is presenting an array of challenging, imaginative work across New York City. The UTR slate includes developmental series “Under Construction,” where work-in-progress pieces invite audiences in to help figure out what’s working—and what’s not. For composing duo The Lazours, “Under Construction” is a welcome step along the journey of new show Night Side Songs.