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November 5, 2025 
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Dear Theater Fans,
Alissa Wilkinson, one of our movie critics, reached out to me this summer, curious about the return of Heather Christian’s “Oratorio for Living Things” and the staging this fall of a number of Off Broadway shows with church-adjacent themes. After seeing most of these productions — including “Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God” and “Oh Happy Day!” — Alissa has written about a theme these shows have in common: You can walk away from the church, but the songs stay with you.
Samuel Beckett was famously strict about how “Waiting for Godot” and his other works should be staged, but he never stipulated what Godot represented or even how the name should be pronounced. Enter Alexis Soloski, who, along with Josephine Sedgwick, delivered a fun overview of the many ways to say Godot.
While “Waiting for Godot” is getting its fourth Broadway revival, the playwright Samuel D. Hunter is making his Broadway debut with “Little Bear Ridge Road.” In her review, Laura Collins-Hughes called it a “keen-eyed, compassionate” play that marks the “glorious” return of Laurie Metcalf, who is playing “one of the funniest and most thoroughly human characters seen lately on a New York stage.”
Elisabeth Vincentelli raved about New York City Center’s revival of “Bat Boy,” starring Taylor Trensch, and wrote about three plays focused on Jewish identity. Taken individually, “Hannah Senesh,” “Jewish Plot” and “Playing Shylock” are “frustrating, sometimes perplexingly so, pieces of theater,” she wrote in her critic’s notebook. “But taken together they offer a composite look at concerns over Jewish identity and issues of stereotyping and art.”
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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