Stanford Friedman
@broadwaycrit.bsky.social
Head research librarian at Conde Nast, theater critic for TheFrontRowCenter and OffOffOnline.
Drama Desk member. Stan stans welcomed.
http://sites.google.com/site/stanthology
Drama Desk member. Stan stans welcomed.
http://sites.google.com/site/stanthology
Faith in media restored. www.nytco.com/press/helen-...
Helen Shaw Joins Culture | The New York Times Company
www.nytco.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Faith in media restored. www.nytco.com/press/helen-...
Review: Gruesome Playground Injuries: a slice-of-life one-act with the emphasis on slice www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Gruesome Playground Injuries — Off Off Online
Put two single beds side by side, and the stage is set for a romantic comedy. But what if they are hospital beds? Could a depressing drama be on tap? Not to worry. Rajiv Joseph’s 2009 oddity, Gruesom...
www.offoffonline.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Review: Gruesome Playground Injuries: a slice-of-life one-act with the emphasis on slice www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Review: The Seat of Our Pants. Like an optometrist switching between lenses, Wilder/Lipton, test the audience’s vision by continually widening and narrowing the play’s apocalyptic focus. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
The Seat of Our Pants — Off Off Online
Adapting a Thornton Wilder play into a musical has notable historical precedents. His 1954 comedy, The Matchmaker , was, of course, the basis for Hello, Dolly! And in 1955, Our Town was transform...
www.offoffonline.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Review: The Seat of Our Pants. Like an optometrist switching between lenses, Wilder/Lipton, test the audience’s vision by continually widening and narrowing the play’s apocalyptic focus. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Review: The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire. Can a solid cast hold together a play which is built to come apart? thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/11/the-...
The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire - The Front Row Center
THE BURNING CALDRON OF FIERY FIRE - Can a solid cast hold together a play which is built to come apart? The answer, happily, is yes.
thefrontrowcenter.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Review: The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire. Can a solid cast hold together a play which is built to come apart? thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/11/the-...
Review: Confident productions succeed by taking risks. BEAU: THE MUSICAL, an energetic, often touching one-act is a case in point. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/10/beau...
Beau: The Musical - The Front Row Center
BEAU THE MUSICAL - While coming-of-age stories are tried-and-true audience pleasers, rare is the tale that features a gay youth finding himself with the help of both a sexually confused bully and a gr...
thefrontrowcenter.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Review: Confident productions succeed by taking risks. BEAU: THE MUSICAL, an energetic, often touching one-act is a case in point. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/10/beau...
Review: Not Ready For Prime Time - He's Chevy Chase and you're not. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Not Ready for Prime Time — Off Off Online
The flirtation between theater and television has turned serious in recent seasons. Small-screen favorites Stranger Things and Smash were adapted for Broadway, and Schmigadoon! is on tap for nex...
www.offoffonline.com
October 21, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Review: Not Ready For Prime Time - He's Chevy Chase and you're not. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Review: In THE GLITCH a cynical Siri manipulates her human underlings for the greater good. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
The Glitch — Off Off Online
Mad scientists and power-hungry robots have for generations warned about the perils of new technology and the consequences of messing with Mother Nature. The Glitch follows suit, though in a decided...
www.offoffonline.com
October 5, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Review: In THE GLITCH a cynical Siri manipulates her human underlings for the greater good. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Reposted by Stanford Friedman
September 23, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Review: Exorcistic: The Rock Musical. At its entertainment peak when it's at its moral nadir. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Exorcistic: The Rock Musical — Off Off Online
Any number of things can go wrong when attempting a musical parody of The Exorcist . After all, William Friedkin’s 1973 classic horror movie was itself rumored to be cursed, having experienced more t...
www.offoffonline.com
September 8, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Review: Exorcistic: The Rock Musical. At its entertainment peak when it's at its moral nadir. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Review: Rolling Thunder - A solid jukebox musical deployed against a Vietnam War docudrama. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Rolling Thunder — Off Off Online
Rolling Thunder , a hybrid jukebox musical and Vietnam War docudrama, has, in fact, been on a roll. After opening in Brisbane in 2014, it toured Australia twice, in 2016 and 2023. Now, marking the fif...
www.offoffonline.com
July 25, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Review: Rolling Thunder - A solid jukebox musical deployed against a Vietnam War docudrama. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Review: THE WEIR features the three pillars of any good Irish play: loss, regret, and loneliness. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/07/the-...
The Weir - The Front Row Center
The WEIR - An engaging interpretation of a piece that, if structurally curious, at least features the three pillars of any good Irish play: loss, regret, and loneliness.
thefrontrowcenter.com
July 18, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Review: THE WEIR features the three pillars of any good Irish play: loss, regret, and loneliness. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/07/the-...
Review: Heathers: The Musical. They learned the truth at 17. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/07/heat...
Heathers: The Musical - The Front Row Center
HEATHERS - a powerhouse sextet of women are on hand, blissfully belting their way through the madness, in a captivating show of strength.
thefrontrowcenter.com
July 11, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Review: Heathers: The Musical. They learned the truth at 17. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/07/heat...
Review: LOWCOUNTRY - a twisted tale of good will and bad romance. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Lowcountry — Off Off Online
Abby Rosebrock’s 2018 dark comedy, Dido of Idaho , featured an act of extreme violence carried out with a household object. Her 2019 follow-up, Blue Ridge , focused on addicts trying to form relatio...
www.offoffonline.com
June 28, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Review: LOWCOUNTRY - a twisted tale of good will and bad romance. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Review: BEAR GREASE asks the musical question: What if the hot boys and cool girls of high school also happen to be Enoch Cree and Huichol? www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Bear Grease — Off Off Online
LightningCloud, a portmanteau of the wife-and-husband writing team Crystle Lightning and Henry Cloud Andrade, have rumbled into town with their touring production of Bear Grease . Inspired by a certa...
www.offoffonline.com
June 19, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Review: BEAR GREASE asks the musical question: What if the hot boys and cool girls of high school also happen to be Enoch Cree and Huichol? www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Review: The Imaginary Invalid - One cannot overstate the amount of enema humor packed into this tight, 80 minute romp. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
The Imaginary Invalid — Off Off Online
The Imaginary Invalid is of interest to historians not just because it is Molière’s last play and not just because Molière himself performed the lead role of Monsieur Argan. It is also due to the fac...
www.offoffonline.com
June 3, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Review: The Imaginary Invalid - One cannot overstate the amount of enema humor packed into this tight, 80 minute romp. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Review: BUS STOP - Grace’s Diner serves homemade pies, but the customers are hungry for much more than dessert. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/05/bus-...
Bus Stop - The Front Row Center
Grace’s Diner, the setting for William Inge’s classic, slice of life drama, Bus Stop, serves homemade pies and cakes. But the customers and wait staff who find themselves stranded overnight at this Ka...
thefrontrowcenter.com
May 19, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Review: BUS STOP - Grace’s Diner serves homemade pies, but the customers are hungry for much more than dessert. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/05/bus-...
Julianna Margulies:solar eclipse::Donald Margulies:lunar eclipse.
May 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Julianna Margulies:solar eclipse::Donald Margulies:lunar eclipse.
Review: "The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse" buries its timely lessons on Internet culture under a deluge of scattered, low-stakes twists and turns. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse — Off Off Online
The New Group, celebrating its 30th anniversary this spring, may not be so new anymore, but that doesn’t mean they have forgotten how to rock. Indeed, their latest production, a pop musical called Th...
www.offoffonline.com
May 14, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Review: "The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse" buries its timely lessons on Internet culture under a deluge of scattered, low-stakes twists and turns. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Review: Five Models in Ruins, 1981. All alike in their ambitions yet each unhappy in her own way. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Five Models in Ruins, 1981 — Off Off Online
The October 1981 issue of Vogue magazine features Nastassia Kinski on the cover and includes the infamous Richard Avedon two-page photo spread of the actress wearing nothing but a huge, writhing boa...
www.offoffonline.com
May 8, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Review: Five Models in Ruins, 1981. All alike in their ambitions yet each unhappy in her own way. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
DVR alert - Coming Friday to PBS: 2023 Donmar Warehouse revival of "Next to Normal," starring Caissie Levy. www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/n...
Next to Normal ~ About | Great Performances | PBS
Experience this Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical from London's Donmar Warehouse.
www.pbs.org
May 7, 2025 at 5:56 PM
DVR alert - Coming Friday to PBS: 2023 Donmar Warehouse revival of "Next to Normal," starring Caissie Levy. www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/n...
Review: MYSTIC CONVERSATIONS. A play about seeing dead people struggles to find a pulse. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/05/myst...
Mystic Conversations - The Front Row Center
MYSTIC CONVERSATIONS -- Every mother thinks her child is special, but rare is the mom who believes her son is gifted to the point that he can communicate with the dead.
thefrontrowcenter.com
May 1, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Review: MYSTIC CONVERSATIONS. A play about seeing dead people struggles to find a pulse. thefrontrowcenter.com/2025/05/myst...
Review: Norm Lewis, not as the demon barber, but as a barber demeaned, in CEREMONIES IN DARK OLD MEN. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men — Off Off Online
In 1969 the two-year-old Negro Ensemble Company mounted the off-Broadway premiere of Lonne Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark Old Men . “A remarkable play,” raved Clive Barnes in the New York Times. No...
www.offoffonline.com
April 29, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Review: Norm Lewis, not as the demon barber, but as a barber demeaned, in CEREMONIES IN DARK OLD MEN. www.offoffonline.com/offoffonline...
Wondering how much of Stranger Things: The First Shadow I missed because of handheld flashlights constantly blinding me. #SoManyFlashlights
April 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Wondering how much of Stranger Things: The First Shadow I missed because of handheld flashlights constantly blinding me. #SoManyFlashlights
Good Night and Good Luck will break your American heart.
March 29, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Good Night and Good Luck will break your American heart.