Buried within The New York Times Style Magazine the “Men’s Fashion” March 9th, 2025 issue “The Legacy Begins – Statement-making, easy-to-wear men’s clothing for this generation…and the next” (Um…what…?) was a beguiling little article entitled, “Please Stand – What do audiences want from political theater now – and what does it want from them?”

(Why…on page 74 of this issue? How did I find it…? Luck really. I was headed to the recycling bin with the whole issue and then dropped it – like you do when you are a Mom cleaning up and carrying a million things from used tissues, to pencil toppers, to empty cups – and it fell open to this page.)

So…yeah. These are SOME CRAZY times. Yes, and “ALL THE VOCABULARY WORDS” being tossed around right now between exasperated thinking people – insane! frightening! stupid! maddening!- “complicated” or “confusing” – to say the least.

What does all this mean for the meaning of “political theatre?”

The article is interesting. If nothing else it’s a great preview of upcoming work that you might want to check out in NYC this spring and fall.

Here’s MY short take on political theatre.

NOT ALL THEATRE IS POLITICAL.

BUT ALL GOOD THEATRE IS INHERENTLY (IF NOT ALWAYS OVERTLY) POLITICAL.

ALSO NOT ALL POLITICAL THEATRE IS GOOD.

Got it? In the end make theatre in your authentic voice. And please try to say something (desperately urgent and important) with it. That means it has a higher chance of being a good piece of theatre.

And we need good theatre right now. And always. And good, profound, meaningful, provocative, catch-your-breath, tear-your-heart-out, laugh-your-eyes-out theatre is always political.

Because the big questions that matter – the ideas, nightmares, delusions, searching, seeking, yearning, loving matters of being human, and how to live and die with each other as humans – those questions are (like it or not) political.