Finding Theater Reviews  Tags: theater plays reviews  

New York Times

The New York Times is an important source for reviews of play productions in the U.S., and occasionally abroad.

New York Times Historical (1855-2003)

New York Times (2004-current)

These databases are preferable to Lexis-Nexis because they contain PDFs of the articles as they appeared in the paper, complete with photographs.

London Times

Times Digital Archive (1785-1985)

Other Newspapers and Magazines Full-text Online

Chicago Tribune (1985-current)

Los Angeles Times (1996-current)

Lexis-Nexis

Lexis-Nexis contains the full-text of many contemporary magazines and newspapers in the US and abroad. Coverage dates vary, but generally begin in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Ethnic NewsWatch (1990-current)

Ethnic NewsWatch: A History (1960-1989)

Full-text of newspapers of the U.S. ethnic and minority press in both English and Spanish.

GenderWatch (1998-current)

Contains full-text of magazines, newspapers and some scholarly journals that focus on gender, women's culture and issues, and GLBT culture and issues.

Alternative PressWatch (1995-current)

Full-text newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press.

Indexes to Magazines, Newspapers and Journals

FIAF (1972-current)

Published by the International Federation of Film Archives, contains records from the International Index to Film Periodicals and the International Index to Television Periodicals.

Readers Guide (1983-current) and Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1992)

Indexes articles from the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States. Some of these magazines are held in print by the Vassar Library.

British Humanities Index (1962-current)

Indexes arts and humanities journals and magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK.

There are several print indexes that can help you find production records for plays, and in some cases will provide citations for reviews in other publications:

Drama Criticism Ref PN 1601 .D59

Use the cumulative title index at the back of the last volume in this multi-volume set to identify which volume(s) to consult.

New York Theatre Critics' Reviews Ref PN 2000 .N76

"Theatre Reviews is a complete guide and record of the New York stage, reprinted from New York Sun, New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, New York Post, New York Daily News, New York World Telegram" (1940-); reprinted from the New York Daily News, Wall Street Journal, Time, New York Post, Women's Wear Daily, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, NBC (1976).

American Theatre Ref PN 2277 .N5

These chronologically arranged volumes put plays into the context of the theater of their time.

A Guide to Critical Reviews Ref PN 2266 .S24

The first volume of this series lists press revies of major American productions that took place between 1909 and 1982.