Naveen Kumar
The New York Times
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Naveen:
‘… What the End Will Be’ Review: Learning to Let Go
The intergenerational comedy is a poignant reflection on sexuality, mortality and Black masculinity by the playwright Mansa Ra. → Read More
Review: Nollywood Dreams has an an irresistible vibrancy
Deft and lively performances animate Jocelyn Bioh's cross-cultural comedy about the Nigerian film industry. → Read More
Bedlam brings Jane Austen's classic Persuasion to the stage
A review of Bedlam's inventive new staging of Jane Austen's Regency novel, adapted by Sarah Rose Kearns → Read More
Reevaluating the gay bar
After a pandemic year, it felt like nothing had changed at Pride. But I had. → Read More
Dwayne Wade Says Watching "Pose" Changed His Daughter Zaya’s Life
Wade said that when Zaya saw Damon getting thrown out of the house, something big clicked. → Read More
‘Circle Jerk’s Gleeful Chaos Breaks New Ground for Streaming Theatre: REVIEW
One benefit to living in extreme times is the invention of new forms and ways of thinking. You might have easily guessed, for example, what clicking on circlejerk.live would’ve led to in any other year since the dawn of dial-up. But Circle Jerk, a livestream from the theatre and media collective Fake Friends now playing … → Read More
What to Consider Before Having Sex in a Pandemic
Like so much else, sex is more complicated than ever. Here's what to know. → Read More
In 72 Miles to Go, the U.S. border divides a family
Theater review by Naveen Kumar The title of 72 Miles to Go… measures the distance between a mother who’s been deported to Mexico and the family forging ahea → Read More
A psychosexual nightmare, in Hello Kitty pink
Theater review by Naveen KumarA craggy wooded area at the base of Japan’s Mount Fuji, the so-called Suicide Forest is a popular destination for people in pu → Read More
Broadway’s New 'West Side Story' Overstimulates as its Tragedy Runs Cold: REVIEW
There’s a sustained quality of attention intrinsic to live theatre. Generally, it’s cultivated through focusing on actors in a shared space (and please, yes, by all means put down your phone). Belgian director Ivo van Hove has conceived his new production of West Side Story, opening at the Broadway Theatre tonight, for a generation he … → Read More
Solo performer Dan Hoyle blurs cultural lines in Border People
Theater review by Naveen Kumar Dan Hoyle paints a continent-sprawling picture in Border People, a solo docutheater play dedicated “to those who cross border → Read More
In the remarkable Paris, a black woman faces white Vermont
Theater review by Naveen Kumar Set behind the employees-only doors at a big-box store, Paris is often funny in the style of a workplace sitcom. But Eboni Bo → Read More
Asian American racism is the unfunny joke the comedy world needs to reckon with
Grappling with a culture that’s still okay with making fun of people like me. → Read More
Towleroad's Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2019
The year in theatre was marked by daring artists who took big risks and stuck the landing.* For every jukebox recycling bin, there was a dark chamber musical set at the mouth of hell, or another gleefully circling the mind of its own maker. New York also welcomed back artists decades ahead of their time, … → Read More
‘Jagged Little Pill’ Is a Raw and Explosive Portrait of Suburbia on the Brink: REVIEW
Some music is so emotionally raw, it’s almost embarrassing. The vulnerability of its rage and sorrow feels too messy and explicit, detailing dark recesses of feeling many of us would just as soon keep hidden. When Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill came out in 1995, it sounded like the id of a generation of disaffected … → Read More
Fefu and Her Friends
In 1977, this bizarre, Rashomon-style work by Cuban-American playwright María Irene Fornés seemed radical; even today, her perspective-shifting piece about a → Read More
Bedlam's The Crucible (⭐⭐⭐⭐) shows what a witch hunt looks like
Theater review by Naveen Kumar There has never been an inopportune moment to stage The Crucible, but with impeachment hearings underway, Arthur Miller’s ind → Read More
History of Violence
Theater review by Naveen Kumar Adapted from Édouard Louis’s autobiographical novel, History of Violence tells a painful personal narrative, revisiting the s → Read More
On Broadway, 'The Inheritance' Sprawls but Rarely Cracks the Surface: REVIEW
A dozen men lay scattered across a blank page, wondering where to begin. They want to tell a story that will help them understand what it means to be twenty-first-century gay men. It’s a daring ambition they share with Matthew Lopez, whose two-part play The Inheritance opens on Broadway tonight, attempting to wrestle with and … → Read More
Pumpgirl (⭐⭐⭐) traces all three sides of a love triangle
Theater review by Naveen Kumar There are three sides to every story in Pumpgirl, Abbie Spallen’s play about adultery, assault and ennui in Northern Ireland → Read More