Transitions in criticism at The New York Times and The New Yorker

Transitions in criticism at The New York Times and The New Yorker

[Excerpt from full post at American Theatre on line dated December 9, 2025.]

“NEW YORK CITY: There’s good news for theatre criticism at two of the nation’s most important outlets, The New York Times and The New Yorker. After holding the job of theatre critic and staff writer post at the latter weekly magazine since 2022, Helen Shaw will join The Times’s culture desk as chief theatre critic in mid-January 2026. She will be the first woman to hold the top spot in the newspaper’s history. Meanwhile, Pulitzer-winning TV critic Emily Nussbaum has been announced as The New Yorker’s new theatre critic.” See Amerian Theatre article on line for full discussion.

Helen Shaw was the 2022 Perspectives in Criticism presenter (in conversation with ATCA member Martha Wade Steketee) during the 2022 ATCA New York City conference, the first in-person convening for the Association since November 2019 and the covid lockdown which forced the cancellation of a planned San Diego conference in April 2020.

Shaw was thrilling for our 2022 conference attendees, and her career has been a marvel to observe in the years since. Nussbaum has yet to be invited to our convenings but let’s hope that is in our immediate future.

It appears that the next era of theater criticism for these two intrepid and essential cultural outlets will be exciting to support and to observe.

— submitted by Martha Wade Steketee