It's been a while, fanboys and fangirls—and even longer when it comes to talking about something in the realm of theatre, which was never a huge part of Fanboys Anonymous even from the start. But first, an apology.
With the way the world has worked the past few years, it's been increasingly more difficult for me to put out virtually any content, let alone the volume that I would want to be doing if I had more time and energy for. My apologies, but my priorities have had to be on other things, making it difficult for me to find the time to write up all the articles I've wanted to do and the podcasts and YouTube videos I wanted to dive into. If you could see the notes of projects started but not finished, you'd be amazed.
One of the things I've been disregarding is reviewing or otherwise commenting on the broadway shows that I've been seeing here and there. Living in New York City has presented itself the opportunity to go to a bunch of these over the years, and though I've mentioned things in passing on various podcasts, I haven't ever actually put my thoughts on them down in any editorial sense.
The same actually applies to plenty video games and television shows as well, which got me thinking about doing a little "microdose" segment here and there where you'd get a "quick fix" shorter review of some things whenever possible. However, that also meant doing a recap of other things.
I'm debuting a new segment here called NOW CONSUMING, which will essentially mean a "catching up" sort of overview. The idea in mind is to put one of these out every once in a while to just post updates on what I'm currently entertaining myself with as of late. To keep up the AA puns, you're essentially "checking in" with me to see what I'm checking out.
Before getting into the video games and the television shows, though, let's start off with the theatre side of things, as of the end of March 2026.
Thoughts on Broadway Shows & Other Theatre Performances Prior to 2026
As I said, I've never really talked about any of the shows I've seen over the past few years, which is a shame, as I would have had a lot to say about most of them—especially if I would have recorded the discussions I had with my wife, who was with me for all of them. Podcast in the future, if anyone is interested? Let me know.
Nevertheless, here is a speed round of thoughts of what I can remember.
The Book of Mormon was the first broadway show I can talk about here (January 30, 2022 to be exact), which was phenomenal. It remains one of my favorite shows I've seen on this entire list. I was in stitches.
Phantom of the Opera was somewhere in the mix, but I don't remember exactly when. What I do remember, though, was that this was also tremendous. I had long loved the music from it, having never watched the play itself, so I already knew that going in. This was such a fantastic show and I'm so glad I got to see it before it went away.
I don't remember when I had seen Beetlejuice, but as a fan of it when I was a kid, I was super disappointed with this. Part of it was the cast, but part of it was also just the overall plot and the execution of the concept. I don't think they pulled it off.
In 2023, at some point, we had seen a performance of Drunk Shakespeare doing Macbeth, which was hilarious. We went back on Halloween the next year (October 31, 2024) for their performance of Drunk Dracula, which was also a great time. If we get the opportunity, I'm sure we'll go see more performances in the future.
Back to 2023, two other off-broadway theatre shows that we checked off were The Grey House (May 27) and Covenant (December 10). To be honest, I don't remember all that much about The Grey House. If I remember correctly, I was disappointed and just thought it was okay. Covenant was a very tiny show, but it was very well acted.
I don't remember when we had seen Aladdin, but I loved that. The Genie and Iago were the best parts who stole the show, for sure. When you do the movie that is tied for my #1 favorite Disney film with music that I love, it's hard not to love it.
I also don't remember when we had seen Moulin Rouge, but that was really good. It doesn't stand up there in my top 5 from this entire list, but it's close. We also saw a Dita Von Teese show somewhere in the mix of 2023 and 2024, which doesn't super appeal to me, but it was something to do and a fun enough date night.
There were three shows we saw in 2025, starting with Hades Town (February 6). I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as my wife, who is still obsessed with some of the songs, but I did like it. I wasn't the biggest fan of the performance of the female lead that night, and I felt like it just overall pales in comparison to some other shows.
Glengarry Glen Ross (April 24) was pretty awesome. I still prefer the movie, easily, but I think this cast was VERY good in their respective roles. In particular, Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, and Bill Burr killed it. This wasn't my wife's thing, but she knew that it wouldn't be going into it, and she still thought the performances were good even though the content itself didn't resonate with her.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow (June 29) was another one of my more favorite experiences, even though I don't think the overall play as a standalone was particularly great. The visuals were stunning and it was fun to dive more into that series before the final season (which I seemed to like more than most people, it seems). I don't know if it would really mean anything to see it now that the show is over.
Death Becomes Her - January 22, 2026
We had heard good things about this and decided on a whim to just give it a shot. Neither of us could remember too much of the movie from when we were younger. I'm not sure if that was a good or a bad thing going into this, as it means I can't really draw any comparisons to the original, but it also meant the story was entirely fresh for me. All I could remember was the poster and VHS tape box art.
This was fun, but it wasn't my favorite. It actually took a little while for me to warm up to it, and there were times where it came across a little too loud, in the sense that it was a lot of shrieking and over-the-top yelling and performances that felt like they were trying to be more grandiose. I'm not a big fan of that performative style of boisterous being necessary, as it usually takes me out of the setting and reminds me I'm watching a play.
Still, I chuckled, and I'm glad we went. I just wouldn't really recommend it over a lot of other things.
The Lion King - January 29, 2026
This was phenomenal. Absolutely stunning, with killer music and some great performances. Everyone is extremely talented and it's no surprise why this is THE show on broadway and has been for so long, while still having every room packed.
This is the other movie tied with Aladdin for my top Disney spot, for anyone curious. Between the two shows, this is better, and I think if you're ever going to NYC for a show, it should arguably be this one above all others.
Oedipus - February 5, 2026
Obviously, this was a big difference in scale compared to The Lion King, but that allowed for more intimacy, which was appreciated in this particular show's atmosphere.
I'm sad to say that I wasn't the biggest fan of this. I get what they were going for, and it's a show that if I thought someone would enjoy, I would recommend, but I wasn't as engaged as I wanted to be.
I feel like most of the characters are just flat and under-written, and while I was impressed by the ticking time and how they pulled off syncing that up so well, I actually found myself at times looking at the clock and hoping it would be over soon. That sounds harsh, but I just wasn't feeling it during certain scenes.
Bug - February 12, 2026
This was an even smaller venue for an even more intimate play that takes place entirely in one room. Carrie Coon was really good, but I couldn't get hooked. I was surprised that this was something that has been around for decades. It didn't resonate with me.
Entirely from Memory: The Shawshank Redemption - March 19, 2026
Back to a small show, the Entirely from Memory improv comedy troupe is something that just got on our radar, and since The Shawshank Redemption is what I consider to be the greatest film ever made (not my favorite movie, mind you, though it's certainly somewhere on that list as well), we had to go to this.
Suffice it to say, we immediately were bummed that we didn't find them sooner and had missed out on their version of Twilight, and that we wouldn't be able to see their upcoming Toy Story performance. I'm sure Twilight was awesome, and I'm sure Toy Story will be hilarious as well.
This was obviously a different type of animal compared to these grandiose broadway spectacles, but I wanted to mention it and other things like the Drunk Shakespeare crew because those are gems in their own rights. Just because they aren't as big doesn't mean they don't have just as much value packed into their tickets, if not more bang for your buck.
Go support them. These comedians were so much fun.
Updates Since Publishing
Rocky Horror Picture Show - April 9, 2026
This was admittedly something I was not at all looking forward to, if I'm being honest. I've always thought that I would hate it, and it doesn't appeal to me at all, but we'll see if I'm wrong. While I didn't hate being there, I absolutely was not sucked into it like everyone else was. I see some of what people are fond of, but I cannot connect with it, as it just has too much camp and "quirky for the sake of it" vibes for my personal tastes. Time Warp is annoying. Unpopular opinion, I know, but it's just not my thing.
Dog Day Afternoon - June 4, 2026
I was supposed to see Dog Day Afternoon on March 25th. We unfortunately missed the show due to traffic completely botching us for both the train delays for a long while and a taxi going 5 blocks in the span of 25 minutes, which was originally why I waited to publish this until that day and decided I didn't want to wait any longer.
This was fantastic. Jon Bernthal KILLS it as Sonny. Ebon Moss-Bachrach and the rest of the cast were all great, too, but Bernthal is what really holds this together. I was surprised at how funny this was, and how much audience participation happened in a natural way. That made it even better. This is toward the top for me, but I'm not sure exactly where it would rank. It wouldn't be #1 ever so far, but it's definitely in the top 10.
Ken Rex - June 11, 2026
At the start of this, I thought to myself "Oh no. This is one of those self-indulgent one man show situations where it's 2 hours of just watching this guy try to show off his acting reel, and I hate it." Eventually, I warmed up to it, but it honestly took until nearly the end of the first act. By the end of it, I left feeling like I had a good date night with my wife (we got pizza ahead of time from Emmett's on Grove, which was great), who was blown away by this, but I just thought it was okay.
The story was thin, some of the choices were odd to me, and I think a lot of the characters blended in with each other in a way that I wasn't going gaga over. Easily the best part of it was actually the musician, who stole the show for me. Some of the music was really great.
Entirely from Memory: Spider-Man - June 18, 2026
Hilarious. Killed it again. All parties. Pete McElligott, Austin Sanders, Ryan Chittaphong, Liz Leimkuhler, Michael James, Ava Wolesky, they were all hilarious top to bottom. Scott Thomas might have been the standout of the whole night.
Incorporating Paul as a villain was so good. The amount of lunacy that sparked out of Law & Order being tossed into there made the whole thing spiral in the best way.
I've never seen High School Musical, and I've never watched Ever After, but I'm even considering watching those movies specifically to go see this troupe afterward, because I know I'll have a great time.
Also, shout out to Bogota Latin Bistro. We stopped there ahead of time for dinner and it was delicious. This was a great two-punch combo of a date night with the wife.
The Lost Boys - July 5, 2026
So good! I only ever watched the movie a few years ago (as you'll see in my 2023 Fanboys Film Awards recap) which means I don't have nostalgia for this movie, but I did enjoy it when I watched it and was interested to see the musical on broadway once it was announced.
The music was so good. Great actors across the board with some amazing voices. Shout out to Maria Wirries and LJ Benet in particular, but they all have their moments to just belt it out and put on great performances. Top notch. Highly recommend.
Paranormal Activity - September 3, 2026
I haven't seen any of the films before this. Truth be told, I not only was never interested in seeing them, but I wasn't particularly interested in seeing this, either. If you've followed this site for long enough, you know that my wife (former Fanboys Anonymous contributor) is the horror nut. This was her call.
I don't think this was anything particularly amazing, but it was a fun night out. This isn't a show I would recommend to people before a myriad of other things on this list. However, the chemistry of the leads was great. For a four person show, they held it together. I just wish there was more to this than "it sucks when your boyfriend doesn't listen to you and is a piece of shit" mixed in with jump scares. Not only do I not consider jump scares effective storytelling, as they're more just gimmicks to pop a crowd like effects on a roller coaster, but I also just think this whole play could've been written in an afternoon. It's bland.
Coming Up
We've got 2:22 A Ghost Story tickets for November as the only thing on the horizon right now.
In the meantime, if you've seen any of these shows, let me know your thoughts about them in the comments below. Also, if you'd like to see more content like this or in some other format, chime in about that, too!
