Research Guides: Dramaturgy: Production History and Critical/Audience Responses

Finding Play Reviews Online

Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Full text of 300+ U.S. and international news sources. Includes coverage of 150+ major U.S. and international newspapers such as The New York Times and the Times of London, plus hundreds of other news sources and news wires. To Find Reviews: enter show name (or author) and select Reviews from Document Type
Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Search the PDF full text and image archives of more than 100 major U.S. and African American newspapers.

Highlights include: Atlanta Constitution (1868-1945), Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Tribune (1849-1986), Christian Science Monitor (1908-2004), Los Angeles Times (1881-1995), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002), The Chicago Defender (1910 - 1975), The New York Times (1851-2014), The New York Tribune (1841-1922), The New York Tribune (1900-1910), San Francisco Chronicle (1869-1922), The Wall Street Journal (1889-2000), The Washington Post (1877-2001), St. Petersburg Times / Tampa Bay Times (1901-2009), Korea Times (1956-2016)
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Central is a large, multidisciplinary database with over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. It serves as the central resource for researchers at all levels in all markets. Over 160 subjects areas are covered extensively in this product including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Performing Arts Periodicals Database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 210 international journals in the performing arts dating from 1864 to the near present.
New York Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new window
Access New York Newspaper Archives and discover stories of the past with NewspaperArchive.com. The archive covers New York history from 1753-2023, with lots of content from smaller, local newspapers. Articles have been scanned as PDFs and include images and advertisements, and are full text searchable.
International Bibliography of Theater & Dance with Full Text This link opens in a new window
The International Index to Performing Arts Indexes journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, and monographs in theatre and the performing arts and covers 1984 to present.
OmniFile Full Text Mega This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary database providing the complete content - indexing, abstracts, and full text - from six of Wilson's full-text databases: Education Full Text, General Science Full Text, Humanities Full Text, Readers' Guide Full Text, Social Sciences Full Text, and Wilson Business Full Text. Dates of coverage: 1982 to present.
To Search: in FIND enter name of play and then select DOCUMENT TYPE : THEATER REVIEW
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to current and retrospective bibliographic information and cited references found in nearly 1,130 of the world's leading arts & humanities journals.
To Search: Select Advanced option, select Field Tag, Restrict to Theatre Review.
Readers' Guide Full Text Mega This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracting of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and Canada, plus the full text of selected periodicals. Dates of coverage: 1983 to present.
Readers' Guide Retrospective (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America.Dates of coverage: 1890-1982. Use the Readers' Guide Full Text for 1983 forward.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
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Nexis Uni (Formerly LexisNexis Academic Universe) provides access to full-text newspapers (U.S. and some international), news wires, transcripts, and trade journals.
Please clear your browser's cache and cookies before attempting to access this resource.
Gale Newspaper Sources This link opens in a new window
The Gale NewsVault is a portal to several historical collections of British newspapers and periodicals. It enables full-text searching across several titles simultaneously, including the Times of London, Financial Times, and Times Literary Supplement, along with aggregate newspaper and periodical collections covering the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

How to locate reviews of plays and films : a bibliography of criticism from the beginnings to the present by Samples, Gordon
A guide for locating theater and film criticism in books, newspapers, magazines and other sources.
American literary and drama reviews : an index to late 19th century periodicals by Marks, Patricia
Part 1 indexes reviews of American and foreign plays performed in the U.S. from 1880 through 1900. The reviews were published in general interest periodicals, rather than newspapers.
International Index to Periodicals 1907-1965
Index to scholarly and general interest publications beginning in the year 1907. Consult each annual volume under Dramas -- Criticism, Plots to retrieve a list of reviews. Continued by Humanities Index and Humanities Full Text v
Aisle Say "The Internet Magazine of Stage Reviews and Opinions."
CurtainUp "The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings."

Popular Newspapers

Databases A - Z: News & Newspapers

Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Search the PDF full text and image archives of more than 100 major U.S. and African American newspapers.

Highlights include: Atlanta Constitution (1868-1945), Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Tribune (1849-1986), Christian Science Monitor (1908-2004), Los Angeles Times (1881-1995), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002), The Chicago Defender (1910 - 1975), The New York Times (1851-2014), The New York Tribune (1841-1922), The New York Tribune (1900-1910), San Francisco Chronicle (1869-1922), The Wall Street Journal (1889-2000), The Washington Post (1877-2001), St. Petersburg Times / Tampa Bay Times (1901-2009), Korea Times (1956-2016)
New York Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new window
Access New York Newspaper Archives and discover stories of the past with NewspaperArchive.com. The archive covers New York history from 1753-2023, with lots of content from smaller, local newspapers. Articles have been scanned as PDFs and include images and advertisements, and are full text searchable.
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Contains digital copies of articles from about 1,000 American newspapers from all the current 50 states and the District of Columbia printed between 1690 and 1900, with strongest coverage of the first half of the 19th century.
American Periodicals Series Online This link opens in a new window
includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century, 1740-1940.
Times Digital Archive (London) This link opens in a new window
Provides the full text of The Times of London newspaper from 1785-1985.
For current articles (1985-present) from The Times of London see Academic (Lexis-Nexis).
C19: The 19th Century Index This link opens in a new window
C19: The 19th Century Index provides bibliographic coverage of nineteenth-century books, periodicals, official documents, newspapers and archives from the English-speaking world. This database includes the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals (1824-1900), Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, Palmer's Index to The Times, the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, and more.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 This link opens in a new window
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 provides access to searchable digitized copies of newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries for a Hispanic readership. It features hundreds of monolingual and bilingual newspapers in Spanish and English, including many obscure titles from the 19th century.
Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Full text of 300+ U.S. and international news sources. Includes coverage of 150+ major U.S. and international newspapers such as The New York Times and the Times of London, plus hundreds of other news sources and news wires.
Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new window
Contains archives for the study of Social History in the modern era. Mass Observation was a pioneering social research organisation whose papers provide insights into the cultural and social history of Britain. The material at the Mass Observation Archive, and now on Mass Observation Online, offers insight into everyday life in the 1930s and 1940s including abortion, old age, crime, eating habits, shopping, fashion, dance, popular music, sex, sport, reading, ethnic minorities, and the decline of Empire.

Theater Review Resources

These resources are in print located in the reference room on the 1st floor of Bobst Library.

A Guide to Critical Reviews, by James M. Salem. New York, Scarecrow Press, 1966-71. 4 parts in 5 vols.
"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 Contents: pt. 1. American drama from O'Neill to Albee.--pt. 2. The musical from Rodgers and Hart to Lerner and Loewe.--pt. 3. British & continental drama from Ibsen to Pinter.--pt. 4. The screenplay, from The jazz singer to Dr. Strangelove (2 v.)
2nd edition. 1973-76.
Contents: pt. 1. American drama, 1909-1969.--pt. 2. The musical, 1909-1974.--pt. 3. Foreign drama, 1909-1977
3rd edition. 1984-1991.
Contents: pt. 1. American drama, 1909-1982 -- pt. 2. The musical. 1909-1989.
Z5782 .S34 1984 Non-circulating and online via HathiTrust
Theatre Record (formerly London Theatre Record)
Reprints published reviews of theatrical performances in London and elsewhere in the UK. Includes production credits and dates of performance. Review sources include The Spectator, The Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Independent, Time Out, Guardian, The Times and other UK publications. Annual Index.
Main Collection PN2596.L6 L66 and online via HathiTrust
New York Times Theater Reviews.
Facsimile reprints of the reviews of theater productions as they appeared in the New York Times. Arranged chronologically, the set also includes appendices of awards and prizes and of productions and runs by season as well as indexes by title, production company, and personal name. The first 21 volumes cover the years 1870-1970. Since then volumes have been published biannually. [NOTE: these reviews can also be found online through Proquest Historical Newspapers]
Main Collection Offsite (PN1581 .N42n )
Summary Holdings: 1971/1972-1993/1994, 1997/1998-1999/2000
Samples, Gordon. How to Locate Reviews of Plays and Films: a Bibliography of Criticism from the Beginnings to the Present.
Lists resources for finding theatrical reviews, including indexing services, theatre periodicals, reference guides, etc. Somewhat dated, but still useful for historical research.
Main Collection Offsite Z5781 .S19 online via HathiTrust