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Nicole Serratore

I write about K-dramas, US and UK theater and my travels to and fro.

Nicole Serratore (she/her) is a New York City-based freelance journalist and critic.

She has written opinion pieces, reviews, and features for outlets such as the New York Times, American Theatre magazine, Variety, BAMbill, The Stage (UK), Time Out New York, the Village Voice, Exeunt magazine, TDF Stages, TheaterJones.com, Flavorpill, and The Craptacular.

She is the former Managing Editor of Exeunt NYC Inc., a longform theater criticism website. She is a current member of the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle.

She was a co-host and co-producer of the Maxamoo theater podcast. She was a Fellow at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Critics Institute in 2015.

She has written about travel and world adventures for Shermans Travel and Frommers.com.

She has a B.F.A. in Film and Television from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She has a J.D. from Fordham University. She is a former film executive and producer. She once had a prize-winning cow.

The Stage •

Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions review at Hayes Theater, New York, with Jessica Lange

Dancing cockroaches, a PFLAG field trip to a disco, and a lot of martinis illustrate the landscape of Paula Vogel’s semi-autobiographical drama, making its debut on Broadway. Directed by Tina Landau with colourful panache, the play addresses familial homophobia, gendered expectations and the withholding of a mother’s love. While Jessica Lange gobbles up the meaty role of Mother and tragic experiences befall the family, the play resolves with eye-rolling sentimentalism.
Exeunt Magazine NYC •

Review: Stereophonic at Golden Theatre

David Adjmi’s epic play reminds us art is not easy and it is the blood, sweat, and tears of people who make it happen. Nicole Serratore reviews.

David Adjmi’s extraordinary new play, Stereophonic, does not take the obvious path and that is what makes it one of the best plays of the decade. Art is not easy and this play painstakingly reveals how so much time, labor, love, loss, and literal tape it can take to make that art happen.

Set in a recording studio between 1976 and 1977, a band on the c
Mildly Bitter's Musings •

March 2024: Depressingly Bad at Consent

Maybe I was just on a road to be disappointed by all my shows this month. It's not unusual for a K-drama to start strong and then completely collapse. But some real bummers this month and some bad takes on consent and homosexuality.

Reuniting stars of fan fave The Heirs, this series about career setbacks, mental illness, and living a different path in Korea's competitive society should have been a slam dunk. And it was for about 10 episodes. But it could not deliver on its second half. Yeo Jeon
Exeunt Magazine NYC •

An Enemy of the People at Circle in the Square

Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People always feels timely, if blunt. It is a play about community pressure, capitalism, and politically inconvenient truths. It can hold a mirror up to society and reflect our times because individualism, self-interest, and mob mentality never go out of style. With strong performances, Amy Herzog’s adaptation and Sam Gold’s production make this a more vibrant offering than past ones but ultimately the play’s plot machinations have their limits.

Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Jer
Exeunt Magazine NYC •

Review: Munich Medea: Happy Family at WP Theater

A chilling story of childhood sexual assault is given a retrospective gloss by two women and suffers from some structural detachment. Nicole Serratore reviews.

Watching a man pick at his toes on stage is a bit disgusting. But it is not the worst thing this man has done, by a long shot.

In Corinne Jaber’s play, Father (Kurt Rhoads) is a pontificating ass of an actor in Munich. He is starring as Jason in Medea. He is preening, narcissistic, always quoting German plays and poets, and putting on h
Mildly Bitter's Musings •

January 2024: Creatures from the Past

In January, New York City broke it's 700-day no-snow streak and I encountered some real stellar dramas.

Gyeongseong Creature sets an incredible stage for how the Japanese occupation, Japanese military violence, and the people of Korea survived such atrocities. It then kind of sells out its own nuanced and careful character development for a "second season." I'm reserving some judgment on this until I see this future second season, but I didn't love the way the final episodes wrap-up. On the who
Mildly Bitter's Musings •

December 2023: Korean Sojourn

I spent three weeks in Korea this December. While it was cold and we got snow (a white Christmas!), I was glad to see the country at this time of year. Winter light festivals brightened the frigid nights. There were an incredible number of concerts to attend. And I went to see some theater (which I wrote about here). Some places I went had few tourists (which I love) and I got to drink my favorite Korean warm beverage, Omija tea.

I went to Gwangju for a few days to see some of the historic site
Mildly Bitter's Musings •

November 2023: Destiny

I'm deep in Korea travel planning but here are some interesting shows from November.

In Destined With You, Rowoon plays a rude, standoffish lawyer, Jang Shin-yu, who is haunted by a hand covered in blood. Totes normal. In a new job at city hall, he encounters and immediately dislikes civil servant, Lee Hong-jo (Jo Bo-ah). Meanwhile, Hong-jo has a crush on Kwon Jae-kyung (Ha Jun) another lawyer who works at city hall. Jae-kyung rejects her confession which sets the stage for her casting a love s
Exeunt Magazine NYC •

Review: Monty Python's Spamalot at St. James Theatre

It should not be surprising that at some point in the middle of Monty Python’s Spamalot an audience member shouted out the next line while the actor took a pause.

Monty Python aficionados love to recite these famous routines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (with a Life of Brian song thrown in for good measure). It underlines that the musical is built on a lot of audience familiarity and pre-existing goodwill. But this projection heavy production from director-choreographer Josh Rhodes show
Exeunt Magazine NYC •

Review: To the Ends of the Earth 땅끝까지 at JACK

Exeunt sent two critics–Nicole Serratore, who has some expertise in the Korean language and culture, and Loren Noveck, does not–to review the bilingual play To the Ends of the Earth / 땅끝까지 at Brooklyn’s JACK. Here’s what they thought:

Loren: Sometimes I really enjoy a piece of theater that challenges my position as an informed audience member. (For example, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, where the laugh lines clearly fell quite differently for anyone in the audience who’d spent time in a braidin
Exeunt Magazine NYC •

Review: Salesman 之死 at Connelly Theater

Cross-cultural confusion abounds in this funny but introspective look at a unique moment in theater history and in the lives of a group of Chinese artists. Nicole Serratore reviews.

Knowing a language can put you on the road to understanding a culture, but it is not automatic or instant. Culture is such a tricky and complex thing. It is so tantalizing to get glimpses of it. For me, it is what drives me to travel.

Conveniently, you only have to go as far as the East Village for a taste of this.
Exeunt Magazine NYC •

Review: Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch

Light and weather stream through the gaps in the slats of the shack where Purlie Victorious Judson was born.

Late in Ossie Davis’s play Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch, Derek McLane’s set transforms from this forlorn shack into the community church, Big Bethel. Purlie has been fighting the whole play to buy back this barn where generations have worshipped together.

When the literal roof rises on Big Bethal on stage, you will not notice the shabby walls any lo
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