#1
Posted: 12/3/25 at 10:34am
Helen Shaw is the new Times theater critic
#2
Posted: 12/3/25 at 10:37am
Per the press release, Shaw begins in mid-January.
For what it's worth, this is a GREAT get for the New York Times, she really is one of our best active critics right now.
“I am furious, but I am sailing.”
Updated On: 12/3/25 at 10:37 AM
#3
Posted: 12/3/25 at 10:48am
Shaw is excellent. It's the Times itself I have qualms about. I hope they give her the space to excel.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#4
Posted: 12/3/25 at 10:52am
Hallelujah. Say goodbye to Critics' Picks for the likes of Redwood and Queen of Versailles.
#5
Posted: 12/3/25 at 10:56am
I think this is perfect and hopefully a real reset for what a NY Times review means for a show. I think she adds a real legitimacy that’s been absent for quite a while now, so it’ll be nice to be excited for a Times review again.
#6
Posted: 12/3/25 at 10:57am
Wow. I love her...but always remember that Green was great when he was at NY Mag too. Will hope she is able to maintain her greatness and whatever being at the Times did to Green doesn't happen to her.
#7
Posted: 12/3/25 at 11:04am
Green was good at NYMag but there were certainly indicators of what he would become (I will never get over his bizarre offense over Great Comet in his review there).
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#8
Posted: 12/3/25 at 11:19am
Why did Green get the boot?
#9
Posted: 12/3/25 at 11:37am
Kad said: "Green was good at NYMag but there were certainly indicators of what he would become (I will never get over his bizarre offense over Great Comet in his review there)."
This! I adore Helen Shaw's criticism, but I was also a fan of Green when he was at NY/Vulture. I hope she maintains her critical excellence but fear whether she too could devolve when entering the NYT machine. We shall see!
#10
Posted: 12/3/25 at 12:00pm
She was one of my absolute favorite critics when she was working at New York magazine! So excited! Hopefully they fired that awful Hughes woman!
#11
Posted: 12/3/25 at 12:39pm
Shaw is one of the best critics in the game. Thrilled to finally have elevated taste at the times.
#12
Posted: 12/3/25 at 1:06pm
Is she the first female chief theater critic at the NYT?
#13
Posted: 12/3/25 at 1:09pm
MadsonMelo said: "Is she the first female chief theater critic at the NYT?"
Sure is!!
#14
Posted: 12/3/25 at 1:50pm
MadsonMelo said: "Is she the first female chief theater critic at the NYT?"
For my money, the best 2 theatre critics in the US are both women- Shaw and Sara Holdren. Even when I don't agree, I find their writing to be extremely worthwhile.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
Updated On: 12/3/25 at 01:50 PM
#15
Posted: 12/3/25 at 5:08pm
How right you are, Kad!
SO THRILLED about this news. Shaw is so brilliant. Just thrilled. It feels like this position will have an air of credibility and authority again. Like it or not, I think it's very important to the industry to have a cultural bellwether like this --- with such a good writer with such good and thoughtful taste as Shaw, we are in very good hands. Wonderful!!
"I feel safe with you, and complete with you / I'm always finding money in the street with you."
-Sheldon Harnick
#16
Posted: 12/3/25 at 5:21pm
Kad said: "Green was good at NYMag but there were certainly indicators of what he would become (I will never get over his bizarre offense over Great Comet in his review there)."
I happened upon that review recently, and Green’s outrage over the musical’s mere existence was so strange.
#17
Posted: 12/3/25 at 10:40pm
This is great news! I look forward to her incisive reviews.
#18
Posted: 12/3/25 at 11:34pm
Pleasantly shocked that they went with the best person for the job. Rooting for her success.
#19
Posted: 12/4/25 at 12:29am
I am so pleasantly surprised that I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
While I don’t think Shaw will restore the Times’ clout, as those days are gone, I do think there is value in having a quality theater critic at the New York Times. Mostly, I’m just glad they made a good hire.
#20
Posted: 12/4/25 at 12:35am
Like most who have posted, I feel very good about this and I think she'll be great. They took an extraordinary amount of time coming to this deal, and I have a strong feeling they have vetted each other to an extraordinary degree. It is well to realize that the Times is much different today than it was on the day Green was hired, and unlike much of what had happened at the Gray Lady in the years previous. The concept now is closer to the technicolor lady. Fingers crossed it works. What I've seen so far makes me optimistic.
#21
Posted: 12/4/25 at 1:23pm
As she should be, finally the NYT has one of the best critics!
"Anything you do, let it it come from you--then it will be new."
Sunday in the Park with George
#22
Posted: 12/4/25 at 5:53pm
I have no real opinion on Helen Shaw, as not familiar with her reviews, as I mainly just scan them on ‘Did They Like It’ and I don’t see her name appearing on there. I thought Green was axed because he is Pale, Stale and Male and the NYT wanted someone who is more generation Tik Tok and Snapchat? Anyway Green was recruited from a publication because he appeared the best in the field at the time?
#23
Posted: 12/9/25 at 6:58pm
double post
Updated On: 12/10/25 at 06:58 PM
#24
Posted: 12/9/25 at 6:58pm
Emily Nussbaum is Shaw's replacement as theater critic at the New Yorker
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/emily-nussbaum-theatre-critic-the-new-yorker-1236445623/
#25
Posted: 12/10/25 at 8:00pm
I love Nussbaum's writing--I can't think of any tv critic who topped her tv writing. I know from Twitter that she loves theatre, although she doesn't seem to know much about theatre history, again judging on those Tweets but maybe that isn't an issue when reviewing.
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