Sign in

Laura Collins-Hughes

@collinshughes.bsky.social
1.9K followers 665 following 1.1K posts

Journalist writing about theater, mostly. • Posting about theater, culture, journalism, NYC. • Skepticism yes, cynicism no. • Banner: detail, David Hockney’s “Dancers with Audience and Orchestra, August 2025.” • Freelance. • laura.collinshughes@gmail.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 51m
“Kramer/Fauci,” now at St. Ann’s Warehouse, again with Thomas Jay Ryan as Larry Kramer and Will Brill as Anthony Fauci, is high on the list of best pieces of NYC theater in 2026. Just superb. Go. 📸 Maria Baranova
Will Brill as Anthony Fauci, left foreground, and Thomas Jay Ryan as Larry Kramer, center, in a sea of bubbles in front of a wall of white lights in “Kramer/Fauci.”
031
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
bah, humbug
13651
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
On Mfoniso Udofia’s new play “creation stories and all the important importants” at LCT3. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/t...
nytimes.com
In ‘Creation Stories and All the Important Importants,’ a Dream Evaporates (Gift Article)
An overachiever who had her life mapped out hits a roadblock in Mfoniso Udofia’s haunted, surreally comic new play at LCT3.
010
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Spider Stacy of the Pogues, answering the question “Was there ever a lyric where you told Shane he should probably change it?” www.theguardian.com/music/2026/o...
Stacy: No, and we never would have. The BBC asked Shane to change a line in the rereleased Fairytale of New York for Top of the Pops [in 1992] and he did. [Later, in 2020, the BBC censored the song on Radio 1.] One thing that caught my eye was a guy saying that he loved the song, but hearing drunk guys bellowing: “You cheap, lousy faggot,” every Christmas reminded him of being persecuted or beaten up for being gay. So I wasn’t going to complain to the BBC. Then Laurence Fox chimed in on Twitter, saying: “Wouldn’t it be nice if we sent the (proper) version to the top of the charts?” and I replied: “Fuck off you little herrenvolk shite” – a line from Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy – which went viral.

But we perform the original, bearing in mind that Phil Chevron was proudly gay in Ireland since 1977 and we had loads of gay friends and gay fans who had no problem with the lyric, because they understood the context. It’s two people having a vile argument, flinging whatever abuse they can at each other. It’s interesting that all the focus was on “faggot”, but “old slut on junk” gets a complete pass.
020
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
An absolute ton of shows worth knowing about are on NYC stages this month. A sampling. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/t...
nytimes.com
Andrew Scott in ‘Sea Wall’ and 27 Other Off Broadway Shows to See in October (Gift Article)
Andrew Scott stars in a “Sea Wall” being captured for the screen, and “In the Heights” gets a gala revival as New York City stages approach their autumn peak.
041
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm always surprised when a publicist tries to sit in on an interview, as if of course a journalist would be chaperoned. It makes me wonder: Do other journalists not say no?
030
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Oh my GOD, that "Shuffle Along" concert! Stunning stunning stunning. Brilliant of Great Performances to film it. What a document that will be. (Also: Billy got his whole voice back. Wowwow.)
280
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Most delightful intel so far today in a press release, announcing a December show: “For the first time in 99 years The Cape Playhouse is now heated.”
020
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
At least five people in this A train car are reading physical books. 🩷
051
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I just got an e-blast for an upcoming regional production of a play I reviewed that slaps the NYT Critics’ Pick badge below the title. None of my business, but: It’s not a transferable thing. The Broadway production was a critic’s pick — the whole production, not the standalone script.
040
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The constant thrumming rage is something I don’t think comes through nearly enough in recountings of and art about the relevant chapters of history.
030
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
On a plaza, I just heard a woman introduce her husband to a guy from work they'd run into, and their collective laughter was so instantly forced-convivial that I turned around to see how hot the co-worker was. Quite hot, actually.
020
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Any other group would come up with a different 100-best list, that's just how groups work, in which case that cool-women show would not be right next to (just below! *below*) the show by that creepy guy I stood next to on a street corner once, waiting for the light, which wrecked that corner for me.
020
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Once upon a time, I lived in a city where the university art museums were full of famous works. Admission was free, but a colleague of mine never went inside. He was sure he wasn’t genuinely welcome. A move like this says, “Come in, come in, we’re happy to have you.” A sense of welcome is huge.
0110
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
Judy Berman @judyberman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is going to change lives. People forget that democratizing access to the arts does that, but it really really does.
0358
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
Adam Sternbergh @sternbergh.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
no three words can drain the excitement from an upcoming event like the addendum "it's on zoom"
271
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
On Max Wolf Friedlich’s new comedy “The Holes.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/t...
nytimes.com
‘The Holes’ Review: Benediction in the Back Room (Gift Article)
The men’s wellness niche, and men-only spaces, come in for a skewering in Max Wolf Friedlich’s gleefully weird follow-up to “Job.”
010
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
Viet Thanh Nguyen @vietthanhnguyen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
One reason why the National Book Awards didn’t have a lot of nonwhite nominees in the mid century was because immigration law kept out most nonwhite people until 1965, and Black people were under segregation. What we see now is at least partly the result of greater competition.
951295
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
You read that right: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar will, thanks to the approval of Trump's FCC, own 49.5% of Paramount Warner Brothers, and CBS, and CNN. One of many things to keep in mind when you cast your vote in the next six weeks.
12738355
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
On Sarah Jones’s new solo show, “America, Who Hurt You?” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/t...
nytimes.com
‘America, Who Hurt You?’ Review: Sarah Jones Plays the Melting Pot (Gift Article)
The writer-performer takes the country and its fractious multitudes to therapy in her new multicharacter solo show in Brooklyn.
042
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“Teatre Raval …was told ‘any mention of civil rights, feminism or social reform [topics that are central to Woolf’s work] are usually classified as “social topics” by our automatic system’ and are filtered out.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Meta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play in Spain because they relate to feminism
Theatre told that Facebook and Instagram filter out ads mentioning ‘social topics’ such as civil rights or feminism
010
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Such a breath of fresh air, this press release about “Seven Guitars.” An actual reason for an actor’s departure stated right up top.
New York, NY (September 21, 2026) – Lincoln Center Theater announced today that Tony Award nominee Daniel J. Watts (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) will join the cast in the role of ‘Canewell’ in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65th Street). The previously announced Jason Dirden departs the production due to a TV opportunity.
150
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
Gremliny Nussboo @emilynussbaum.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
What if Emily Dickinson came back like Fruma Sarah to attack ChatGPT for appropriating the em-dash
415927
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
The Guardian @theguardian.com · 20/09/2026
Pizza dough and prison TV dramas: how Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe survived jail in Iran
theguardian.com
Pizza dough and prison TV dramas: how Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe survived jail in Iran
Former charity worker tells Big Brue festival in Somerset of the strange comforts that helped her during imprisonment It is a TV show about women confined to prison in the US, but Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe found watching Orange is the New Black with her fellow inmates a strange comfort after smuggling episodes into her Iranian jail cell, downloaded on to an illegal USB stick. The British-Iranian former charity worker was detained in 2016 for more than five years and kept in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. Continue reading...
1217
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Always perplexed to see coverage of Upper Manhattan that suggests it’s a really long slog from the rest of the island. At the top of Manhattan, we’re 20 minutes from Columbus Circle on the A train. Thus all the theater people who live up here.
043
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
“Now President Trump is out to destroy the Kennedy Center, and the magnitude of my rage startles me.” By Robin Givhan. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Kennedy Center Is Trump’s Most Grotesque Obsession (Gift Article)
Nothing has so thoroughly highlighted his indefatigable petulance.
010
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Ferocity and joy, wildness and adorability, righteous anger and hopeful communion: "Return of the Buffalo" — a project of such crazy-beautiful fast-track ambition that it might well have been impossible — held all of these. And they pulled it off, so movingly. I will be thinking about it for years.
001
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
First Amendment rights are very use it or lose it, turns out.
031
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Oh my god, the buffalo puppets are *thrilling*.
210
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
My summer obsession: the creation of a 40-strong herd of life-size puppet buffalo, and their imminent unleashing on the streets of New York. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/t...
nytimes.com
Conjuring a Herd of Buffalo From Steel, Wood and Burlap (Gift Article)
Over the summer, 40 life-size bison puppets were handmade at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. This weekend, they’ll stampede through New York.
040
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Connections today is very sweet.
011
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Ed Sheeran didn’t need to come out in favor of Palestinian rights. He just needed to come out against fat cat censorship of a fellow artist who did support Palestinian rights. How embarrassing that he couldn’t even do that.
862187325
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
Renée Graham 🏳️‍🌈 @rygraham.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Arguably, Bob Mackie's greatest creation: From "Went with the Wind," a spoof of "Gone With the Wind" on "The Carol Burnett Show.
0142
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
One thought about the “Sea Wall” film is pounding on the walls of my brain: PLEASE DON’T WRECK IT PLEASE DON’T WRECK IT PLEASE DON’T WRECK IT. Because that first, couldn’t-be-simpler screen version of the play is exquisite.
020
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Honestly always shocked when someone hasn't seen the first two Paddington movies.
251
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It is deranged, and misses the point, to demand perfection from a live performance. The imperfections are part of an artist’s humanness in the moment, just like the freedom to change things up. Being there for that is what you’re paying for. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/a...
nytimes.com
The Mic Is On. So Is Live Auto-Tune.
As audiences demand perfection from live performances, pitch correction technology has become an increasingly common way for singers to deliver.
011
Reposted by Laura Collins-Hughes
Mac It Look Like An Accident @macrogers.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Whenever a feral cat passes through our yard and pisses off my cat Murray, he sits by the window for hours afterwards, desperately hoping to be pissed off again.
171
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
So much happening on NYC stages this fall. A tiny taste here, with lots of tempting photos. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/t...
nytimes.com
Dolly Parton’s Musical, ‘Inter Alia’ and More on Broadway, and Off, This Fall (Gift Article)
On New York stages this season come the new musicals “Galileo” and “Wanted,” a “Shuffle Along” reunion with Audra McDonald, and Tom Hiddleston in “Much Ado About Nothing.”
010
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A bunch of shows in here make me want to hop on a plane. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/t...
nytimes.com
‘Liberation,’ ‘Purpose’ and 39 More Shows to See in the U.S. This Fall (Gift Article)
This season is rich with sharp productions, like Bess Wohl’s and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Pulitzer winners, Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary!” and the hip-hop musical “Mexodus.”
010
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Best Q ever in an FAQ, about the “Downstate”/“Small Mouth Sounds” two-for-$400 ticket deal.
CAN YOU MAKE AN EXCEPTION FOR ME?
040
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I finished "Furious," which took a while because I kept hitting pause *every time it really stressed me out*, but it is such prime rewatch material. And in a fantastic cast, Quincy Tyler Bernstine is an absolute marvel, even for her. Which is saying something.
050
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Seconded.
010
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
This is true.
151
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Thinking of the famous actor who, mid-interview, showed me the pale roots to his (excellent) hair, which he was growing out after dyeing it for a role. That's what actors do: different role, different hair. So — intriguing when a dye job is in the news. What change does it signify?
130
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Horrified by the Silent Appointment option at the salon where I get my hair cut. Sure, quiet can be soothing, but placing a shield of silence between you and the actual person cutting your hair shrieks entitlement in a very give-me-screens-over-humans-any-day kind of way.
130
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A-plus devastating use of a musical theater reference: “Still, he’d make a lovely Rolf in a regional production of The Sound of Music.”
030
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Saw the new Spidey movie, hadn’t realized Liza Colón-Zayas was in it. She is just such fun to watch, always. And in a movie (which I liked) that fakes New York, she unambiguously brings the real thing.
051
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Popped into MoMA for a little contemplation, then went out into the sculpture garden and *wow* do I hate the inescapable giant flashing video screens of Pierre Huyghe's "UUmwelt." Wherever you look, you see them or a reflection of them.
030
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The epigraph to Gloria Steinem’s “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions.”
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
—I Samuel 15:23
020
Laura Collins-Hughes @collinshughes.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This quiet line in today’s Provincetown Independent, about a Wellfleet local who rallied around a newcomer in trouble with the police: “She also found work as a literary publication assistant for Marge Piercy, the 90-year-old poet.” So, Marge Piercy — still out there practicing everyday rebellions.
110