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January 28, 2026 
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Dear Theater Fans,
It’s a Sondheim Wednesday, thanks to the latest iteration of the theater desk’s 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love series. Stephen Sondheim’s music is the focus this time around, and stars like Mandy Patinkin, Renée Fleming and Michael R. Jackson, as well as contributors from The New York Times, have picked 14 songs that would win over any Sondheim neophyte. These are the works that make us feel “most joyous or bereft, most stunned or stung,” Jesse Green wrote.
I’ve certainly felt all of those feelings (and shed quite a few tears) while watching Sondheim’s musicals — a visceral response to a particularly piercing or poetic lyric. So go ahead and take a listen to our playlist, with songs you should have a tissue handy for, like “Losing My Mind.” But there’s plenty of uplift too, with ditties like “Comedy Tonight.”
This week, Helen Shaw delivered a dispatch from some of New York’s experimental theater festivals. “Art always responds to previous art in some way, but I can’t remember a time when so many theatermakers explicitly revisited their sector’s creative past,” she wrote of shows like Anne Gridley’s “Watch Me Walk,” Elevator Repair Service’s “Ulysses” and Goat Exchange’s “Time Passes.” And Tim Teeman reviewed “Data,” Matthew Libby’s timely Off Broadway play that raises ethical issues about the tech world’s expanding role in aiding immigration crackdowns.
Michael Paulson reported that “The Outsiders” has become profitable — making it the first new musical since 2022 to do so. As you know, the news has been pretty grim for new shows. Matthew Rego, one of “The Outsiders” producers, acknowledged that “it’s always going to be hard.” But, he said, his show’s recoupment proves that “it’s still possible.”
Speaking of musicals, the composer and lyricist Marc Shaiman has had his fair share of them, including the megahit “Hairspray.” Now he’s revisiting the highs and lows of his life and career in a new memoir, “Never Mind the Happy.” Shaiman may have a tendency to focus on his failures, but “any five of the hundreds of tunes in his catalog,” Jesse noted in his interview, “should be enough to put him in at least a junior pantheon.” Listen to them for yourself here.
Please reach out to me at theaterfeedback@nytimes.com with suggestions for articles 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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