ATLANTA — Republicans plan to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation’s voting procedures, seeing an opportunity with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to push through long-sought changes that include voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements.
They say the measures are needed to restore public confidence in elections, an erosion of trust that Democrats note has been fueled by false claims from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In the new year, Republicans will be under pressure to address Trump’s desires to change how elections are run in the U.S., something he continues to promote despite his win in November.
The main legislation that Republicans expect to push will be versions of the American Confidence in Elections Act and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, said GOP Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, chair of the Committee on House Administration, which handles election-related legislation. The proposals are known as the ACE and SAVE acts, respectively.
“As we look to the new year with unified Republican government, we have a real opportunity to move these pieces of legislation not only out of committee, but across the House floor and into law,” Steil said in an interview. “We need to improve Americans’ confidence in elections.”
Republicans are likely to face opposition from Democrats and have little wiggle room with their narrow majorities in both the House and Senate. Steil said he expects there will be “some reforms and tweaks” to the original proposals and hopes Democrats will work with Republicans to refine and ultimately support them.
Democrats want to make it easier, not harder, to vote
New York Rep. Joe Morelle, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said there was an opportunity for bipartisan agreement on some issues but said the two previous GOP bills go too far.
“Our view and the Republicans’ view is very different on this point,” Morelle said. “They have spent most of the time in the last two years and beyond really restricting the rights of people to get to ballots – and that’s at the state level and the federal level. And the SAVE Act and the ACE Act both do that – make it harder for people to vote.”
Morelle said he wants to see both parties support dedicated federal funding for election offices. He sees other bipartisan opportunities around limiting foreign money in U.S. elections and possibly imposing a voter ID requirement if certain safeguards are in place to protect voters.
Democrats say some state laws are too restrictive in limiting the types of IDs that are acceptable for voting, making it harder for college students or those who lack a permanent address.
Morelle said he was disappointed by the GOP’s claims in this year’s campaigns about widespread voting by noncitizens, which is extremely rare, and noted how those claims all but evaporated once Trump won. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal and and can result in felony charges and deportation.
“You haven’t heard a word about this since Election Day,” Morelle said. “It’s an Election Day miracle that suddenly the thing that they had spent an inordinate amount of time describing as a rampant problem, epidemic problem, didn’t exist at all.”
GOP: Current voter registration relies on an ‘honor system’
Before the November election, House Republicans pushed the SAVE Act, which passed the House in July but stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. It requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and includes potential penalties for election officials who fail to confirm eligibility.
Republicans say the current process relies on an what they call an honor system with loopholes that have allowed noncitizens to register and vote in past elections. While voting by noncitizens has occurred, research and reviews of state cases have shown it to be rare and typically a mistake rather than an intentional effort to sway an election.
Under the current system, those seeking to register are asked to provide either a state driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. A few states require a full Social Security number.
Republicans say the voter registration process is not tight enough because in many states people can be added to voter rolls even if they do not provide this information and that some noncitizens can receive Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. They believe the current requirement that anyone completing a voter registration form sign under oath that they are a U.S. citizen is not enough.
They want to force states to reject any voter registration application for which proof of citizenship is not provided. Republicans say that could include a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, a passport or a birth certificate.
One state flags noncitizens with regular audits
In Georgia, a perennial presidential battleground state, election officials said they have not encountered any hiccups verifying the citizenship status of its nearly 7.3 million registered voters. They conducted an audit in 2022 that identified 1,634 people who had attempted to register but were not able to be verified as U.S. citizens by a federal database.
A second audit this year used local court records to identify people who said they could not serve as a juror because they were not a U.S. citizen. Of the 20 people identified, six were investigated for illegal voting, though one of those cases was closed because the person had since died.
“What we’ve done by doing those audits is give voters confidence that we do not have noncitizens voting here in Georgia,” said Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state. “And when society is highly polarized, you have to look at building trust. Trust is the gold standard.”
Raffensperger, a Republican who supports both voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements, credits the state’s early adoption of REAL ID and use of automatic voter registration for ensuring voter lists are accurate. The latter is something he hopes more Republicans will consider, as he argued it has allowed Georgia election officials to use the motor vehicle agency’s process to verify citizenship and track people moving in and around the state.
“You have to get it right because you’re talking about people’s priceless franchise to vote,” Raffensperger said.
Look to states as laboratories for voting reforms
If Congress does pass any changes, it would fall to election officials across the country to implement them.
Raffensperger and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said it would be a mistake to move the country to a single day of voting, something Trump has said he would like to see happen, because it would eliminate early voting and limit access to mail ballots. Both methods are extremely popular among voters. In Georgia, 71% of voters in November cast their ballots in person before Election Day.
Both said they hoped lawmakers would look to what is working in their states and build off those successes.
“We’ve proven time and time again in our states that our elections are secure and are accurate,” Benson said.
As the scope of the consent decree that governs Chicago’s public safety reforms has grown, so, too, has the city’s legal tab.
From 2019 through 2023 — the first five years of the consent decree — the independent monitoring team responsible for assessing compliance billed the city 35% more than was initially quoted. The nearly $5 million in extra bills came while the Chicago Police Department continued its slow pace toward compliance, a Tribune data analysis found.
In this image provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Dec. 25, 2024, firefighters work on a site of an apartment building destroyed by a Russian attack in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service)
Russia launched a massive missile and drone barrage targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure yesterday, striking a thermal power plant and prompting Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas.
The strikes on Ukrainian fuel and energy sources included 78 air, ground, and sea-launched missiles as well as 106 Shaheds and other types of drones, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones, with 52 more drones being jammed.
Uncle Sam, a 25-year-old bald eagle, sits on his perch in front of a U.S. flag before the Extreme Raptors Show at the Permian Basin Fair in the Ector County Coliseum fairgrounds in Odessa, Texas, on Sept. 11, 2013. (Edyta Blaszczyk/Odessa American via AP)
The bald eagle, a symbol of the power and strength of the United States for more than 240 years, earned an overdue honor this week: It officially became the country’s national bird.
An empty parcel of land, top, is all that remains of the former U.S. Steel South Works site on Oct. 22, 2024, in Chicago. PsiQuantum has plans to anchor the new Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park, a 128-acre quantum campus, on the site. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Google recently announced a major breakthrough in quantum computing when its Willow processor solved an equation that would take a conventional computer practically forever. But PsiQuantum, the company planning to build in Chicago one of the world’s first commercially viable quantum computers, is taking a different path.
Herscher school district students get off the electric school bus at their school in Kankakee County on Dec. 17, 2024. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Illinois is third in the country for electric school buses, behind California and New York, with the state’s school districts committing to about 700 school buses, more than 200 of which are already on the road, according to Electric School Bus Initiative Director Sue Gander.
Supporters say that electric buses protect kids and communities from exposure to diesel exhaust, which can lead to asthma and respiratory illnesses and worsen existing heart and lung disease, especially in children and the elderly, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Jeannette Byrd cares for one of her two grandchildren placed with her through the foster system at her home in west suburban Berkeley on Dec. 16, 2024. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Legislation that would make it easier for relatives to get licensed as foster parents and receive assistance is expected to be considered in early January by the state House, having already passed through the Senate. Gov. JB Pritzker has said he will sign the measure if it gets to his desk.
About 60% of family members caring for children under the auspices of DCFS could gain access to additional financial help through provisions in the bill, according to the Illinois ACLU, which has helped shepherd the bill through the General Assembly. That could bring additional resources to thousands of families statewide.
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams rolls out of the pocket in the second quarter against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field on Dec. 22, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago Bears are working through another quick turnaround this week, preparing to face the Seattle Seahawks tonight. Coming off three consecutive blowout losses, the Bears will need to be much sharper in their home finale to prevent their losing streak from reaching 10. That would match the franchise record for the longest skid within a single season.
The Bears held a walkthrough and meetings on Christmas Eve at Halas Hall. Here are four things we’ve learned since Sunday’s 34-17 loss to the Detroit Lions.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso (center) and Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic say hello after a Thunder victory over the Bulls at the United Center in Chicago on Oct. 26, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Alex Caruso cashed in this week on a trade that has aged more poorly with each passing month for the Chicago Bulls.
Six months after the Bulls traded their best defensive player — and arguably one of the best defensive players in the NBA — to Oklahoma City in a rare one-to-one trade for point guard Josh Giddey, the Thunder made a long-term commitment. Caruso signed a four-year, $81 million extension that solidly etched him into the competitive future the Thunder are building around their young core of Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
New Yorker Losel Yauch based “Procession Immemorial” on her grandfather’s memories of growing up in eastern Tibet. Her horses, currently on view in “Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now” at Wrightwood 659, are sculpted from willow branches, recycled sari silk, brass bells, raffia and cotton. (Michael Topea)
“Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now” is an exhibition that pairs art by 28 living artists of the Himalayas and its diaspora with traditional religious objects from Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and surrounding areas, writes Lori Waxman
. The historical objects belong to the collection of New York’s Rubin Museum, which curated the show as the final one in its physical space before its doors closed last fall. It’ll be on view in Chicago at Wrightwood 659 through mid-February.
Conservator Corrine Long, of Dover, N.H., restores nearly 300-year-old painted angels on walls of Old North Church, Dec. 18, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Straddling the scaffolding high up in a historic Boston church, murals conservator Gianfranco Pocobene is working to uncover eight angels that were hidden under layers of paint for more than a century.
The painted angels — with round childlike faces and wings — once were among the defining features of Old North Church when they were painted around 1730. But officials at the church, a seminal location of the Revolutionary War, painted over the angels in 1912 with thick coats of white paint, part of an austere renovation that restorationists are trying to reverse.
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson in the erotic drama “Babygirl.” (Niko Tavernise / A24)
As a table-turning riff on sexual thrillers with a male gaze, and as a portrait of one woman’s sensual fulfillment, “Babygirl” is pretty compelling, writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips
.
The final countdown to the end of 2024 is here, which means it’s time to figure out how you’re going to welcome 2025. However you want to celebrate, these 70 restaurants and bars will make this New Year’s Eve a night to remember.
Ten months after taking over the vacant Tinley Park Mental Health Center property, the Tinley Park-Park District says it’s making progress in clearing out hazardous materials and prepping buildings for demolition.
In September, the district hired Omega III
to do environmental abatement and demolition at the site, northwest of Harlem Avenue and 183rd Street.
The Park District took ownership of the 280-acre property in late February, and in its latest update on cleanup efforts said remediation work, including removal of materials such as asbestos, began in October and will continue into 2025.
Some of the most prominent buildings on the site, closest to the Harlem/183rd intersection, are among those slated for the first round of demolition.
The district has also worked with a firm to clear overgrowth on the property, which has essentially been untouched for more than a decade, and is installing security fencing.
Under a deal with the state, the Park District paid $1
for the property and the state earmarked $15 million to rid the property of environmental hazards and demolish more than 40 buildings.
The property includes the shuttered mental health hospital and adjacent Howe Developmental Center. The Park District initially plans to redevelop 90 acres of the Howe center. The hospital closed in 2012.
The Park District envisions an initial phase with five baseball fields, six multipurpose athletic fields, a domed soccer field, stadium with running track, accessible playground and a pond.
The district has has worked with Tetra Tech, which updated a study it did for Tinley Park in 2014. At the time, the company estimated the cost to clean up any contamination and demolish structures on the property at $12.4 million.
The property had once been considered as a site for a combination harness racing track and casino, but language in the legislation Gov. JB Pritzker signed last summer to clear the way for the transfer to the Park District would prevent the property from being used for gambling purposes.
Maple Hall, one of the more prominent buildings at the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center, is due to be demolished in 2025. (Tinley Park-Park District)
Tinley Park eyed the property
for redevelopment and wanted to buy it from the state, looking for retail and entertainment uses that would generate sales tax revenue for the village.
In late September, with the awarding of contracts for asbestos removal and demolition, along with a separate company to monitor air quality during the work, the Park District said it was exhausting nearly all of the $15 million earmarked by Illinois to prepare the property for redevelopment.
A building at the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center slated for demolition to make way for redevelopment of the 280-acre site. (Tinley Park-Park District)
The Park District said it will request additional state money to complete full demolition of structures, plus the soil sampling that will be needed as part of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s site remediation program.
The goal, once the site is cleared, it to obtain clearance from the IEPA that no further remediation is needed and redevelopment can move ahead.
In late September, when contracts were being approved for remediation and demolition, Park District officials expressed confidence the state would step up with additional money.
Initial asbestos removal and demolition targets buildings nearest Harlem and 183rd, including the large, round Spruce Hall, which included the medical center, and the large administration fronting 183rd.
Spruce Hall had been pressed into service to house evacuees from Hurricane Katrina, serving as dormitory and general living space.
Maple Hall, a tall building between Spruce Hall and the administration center, is also targeted among the first structures slated to come down.
At least, not if the players have anything to say about it. Zach LaVine made that clear last week after the Bulls put together a rare streak of three consecutive wins capped with an upset over the Boston Celtics
.
“Players and coaches never tank,” LaVine said. “It’s not going to happen.”
That shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone who has fired up the antenna
to watch the Bulls this season. LaVine and fellow veteran Nikola Vučević have anchored the Bulls through a complete offensive overhaul. Their new style of play demands some of the highest-effort workloads in the entire league — and players from LaVine all the way down the rotation to Jevon Carter are stepping up to that challenge.
And as a result, the Bulls aren’t anywhere close to as bad as they might have planned. With one week left until 2025, the Bulls are still ninth in the Eastern Conference, a position in the standings that has become a sort of purgatory for this franchise over the last three years. And with 30 games gone by, the Bulls are inching closer to missing the boat on any attempt to save their top-10 protected draft pick.
This might seem like an overreaction. The Bulls are only 1.5 games above the playoff line. Even with its current level of effort and buy-in (and 3-point sharp shooting), this roster hasn’t been able to elevate itself above .500. Monday night’s dismal loss to the Milwaukee Bucks
highlighted the unfortunate truth that this team’s promise hasn’t crystallized into anything seriously competitive.
As far as coach Billy Donovan is concerned, the only goal for this season is to keep attempting to win.
Chicago Bulls players yell from the bench after forward Jalen Smith made a shot against the Milwaukee Bucks at the United Center on Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
“Collectively inside the organization, there is an expectation about the integrity of competition,” Donovan said. “Nothing has ever been said to me like, ‘Listen, we’ve got to keep this pick so do this and this.’ That is not happening.”
This is the correct way to approach this type of season. There’s no easier way to lose the loyalty of a player or coach than by speaking honestly with them about the reality of needed losses in a season. But this is also why executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley can only accomplish tanking this season through transactions.
Tanking is an ugly thing to talk about. Fans don’t want to hear about it. Players don’t like it. Coaches and front offices can’t even begin to admit to it. Beat reporters certainly tire of writing about it. And even in the seasons where it makes the most sense — when the stakes are a truly generational player like Victor Wembanyama or Caitlin Clark — it can be hard for any casual viewer of the game to stomach the months of monotonous losing required to reach the finish line and claim a lottery pick.
That doesn’t make it any less necessary. The Bulls need a rebuild as much as any team in the NBA. This is not a reflection of the stars on this current roster — the effort and execution from LaVine and Vučević in particular have proven their value as contending cornerstones — but the Bulls have simply run out of runway.
And they knew that. The front office entered this season with a shifted focus on evaluating value and moving players to begin a new stage of building through the draft and the trade market.
So why isn’t that clear in the standings?
There was no harm in letting this team rip for the first few weeks. LaVine and Vučević needed to rebuild their trade value
(mission accomplished). Lonzo Ball is still getting his legs back under him as he pushes the limits on his minutes restriction. Young players like Matas Buzelis deserve plenty of time to develop.
But here’s the thing about the Eastern Conference this season: mediocrity isn’t cutting it.
In the Western Conference, the Phoenix Suns have a .500 record and are still sitting just outside playoff contention. But the East is a different story. The Washington Wizards have already carved out a 7-and-a-half-game margin at the bottom of the standings. The Toronto Raptors (minus-19) and Charlotte Hornets (minus-18.5) aren’t far behind.
Above those three bottom-feeders lives a whole lot of uncertainty. The Philadelphia 76ers are floundering. The Brooklyn Nets and Detroit Pistons are jockeying for the last spot in (or out). And the Bulls are treading water in the middle of it all — too low in the standings to ever challenge for an outright playoff spot, too high to hang onto their first-round pick.
The players have made it clear: even despite their shortcomings, they won’t be completing this tank job on their own. The rest is up to the front office. And without a significant series of moves in the next month, the Bulls will remain in this same meaningless position — too mediocre to satisfy fans in either direction.
NEW YORK — This last year was busy on Broadway, with new musicals and several impressive plays featuring ensemble casts. As always, the best shows asked the fundamental questions of human existence and focused on how human relationships can both destroy our certainty and save our souls. And the shows listed below also managed to be great nights out on the town.
Here are my 10 favorites, in order.
1. “Stereophonic”
: By the end of “Stereophonic,” you were sick of the characters kvetching, arguing, loving and creating music in a 1970s recording studio, a la Fleetwood Mac. Playwright David Adjmi’s secret sauce here was to center his observations on a Rosencrantz or a Guildenstern, in this case, the sound engineer, a kind of outsider. Through this laconic character’s eyes, we watched a perfectly cast ensemble explore what it is like to collaborate as well as show us why some of our most intense and important relationships come with a sell-by date and disappear into the dust. As do we, with only our creative works remaining. This show was an object lesson in the importance of detail and veracity; get the small stuff right and people will contemplate their own mortality all night long.
Juliana Canfield in “Stereophonic” on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre in New York. (Julieta Cervantes)
2. “The Hills of California”
: Jez Butterworth’s richly layered drama about a Blackpool Madam Rose in northern England and her singing daughters, some talented, some not, is a superbly constructed play set in two 20th century eras, linking how families change and curdle with the falling economic fortunes of what once was the closest Britain ever came to its own Las Vegas. The show was directed by Sam Mendes and featured an all-British cast working together with great intensity. The experience was as riveting as Broadway gets. For anyone worried about becoming their mother, this play evoked echoes of Greek tragedy to suggest that you might as well just practice acceptance. A shivering, exciting piece of theater.
Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond, Helena Wilson and Laura Donnelly in “The Hills of California” on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York. (Joan Marcus)
3. “Sunset Blvd.”
: The British director Jamie Lloyd has become the No. 1 Andrew Lloyd Webber-whisperer, charged with updating his grand, fin-de-20th century spectacles for the millennial hipster aesthetic (“Evita” is next). But this was an especially effective show because Lloyd’s interest in fusing film and theater reflected the original theme of the piece and its source movie. Better yet, his minimalism, pretentious as it can seem, here became an ideal match for the florid romanticism in the Lloyd Webber score, to my mind his best. What impressed the most of all was the searing Nicole Scherzinger. This great star ditched the typical tragic turban and creaking Norma Desmond voice in favor of evoking a still-sexy beast, sizzling with desire all night long.
Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss in “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre in New York. (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
4. “Maybe Happy Ending”
: This delightfully quirky and deceptively shrewd musical from Will Aronson and Hue Park about two Korean robots who fall in love uses battery life as an effective proxy for human mortality. Remarkably, clear rules are established, the metaphor perfectly fits the A.I. moment and the result is a show that is both adorable and creepy. Much of its appeal comes from its charming stars, Darren Criss and (especially) Helen J. Shen, but Michael Arden’s direction is notable not just for the humanity (irony intended) of the production but for how well it manipulates the audience’s eye so that the physical production reflects the growing fusion between robotic and carbon-based views of the world.
Audra McDonald in “Gypsy” on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre in New York. (Julieta Cervantes)
5. “Gypsy”
: Madam Rose long has been known for her powerhouse belt and for being a bad mother, but Audra McDonald surely is the best actress ever to play this role and she has some different ideas. Universalized by a multi-racial cast, this “Gypsy” feels more emotional than previous incarnations. That’s partly due to McDonald’s empathetic performance, as supported by Joy Woods as a cynical, wound-tight Louise, her hopes for normalcy lost too soon, but also to the rich texture of director George C. Wolfe’s production that faults not so much Rose herself but the world beyond the theater’s doors. Here was yet another reminder of the sacrifices showfolk make: the heartbreak, the likelihood of failure and the cruel passage of time for which aging humans are never well-prepared.
The company of “The Who’s Tommy” on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre in New York. (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
6. “The Who’s Tommy”
: A much under-appreciated revival of the superb rock musical by Pete Townshend and The Who, finally given a new Broadway production that had the guts to confront head-on the issue of child abuse that always informed the original 1969 album. “Tommy” always was an existential howl of boomer anger at the psychological fallout from their emotionally repressed parents; it just took years for the stakes to become clear. Alas, many tastemakers did not understand the importance of what admonitions and reconciliations were being attempted in this radically different remount, even though the show was superbly directed by Des McAnuff, who poured much of his self into this fearless, superbly performed ensemble production.
Nikki M. James as Ida B. Wells and cast in “Suffs” on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in New York. (Joan Marcus)
7. “Suffs”
: This new Shaina Taub musical was another underrated show of 2024. Granted, a weighty topic like the history of women’s suffrage didn’t offer the kind of escapism-empowerment fusion found at “Hell’s Kitchen, “& Juliet” and “Six.” But Taub’s show, an achievement of great note for its courageous composer, lyricist and star, actually made its audience feel those things more than those other shows. Sure, this was very much a gathering of the politically like-minded and its timing was not ideal. But this was also a historical musical that did what all the best Broadway musicals do: It taught, humanized, empowered, entertained and moved an audience.
Rachel McAdams and Lily Santiago in “Mary Jane” on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in New York. (Matthew Murphy)
8. “Mary Jane”
: Amy Herzog’s beautiful little play, written with the authority that comes from experience, is about an ordinary young mother doing her best to save her very sick child. More than that, “Mary Jane” explained far better than any murderous vigilante why ordinary people are so upset at the healthcare system. Part of our collective malaise comes from our timeless frustrations with sickness and mortality; healing is always a thankless job when it fails. But Herzog, and the play’s gut-wrenching star, Rachel McAdams, still made clear that ordinary human kindnesses on the part of those in the medical profession go an awfully long way toward stemming that pain.
Conrad Ricamora and Cole Escola in “Oh, Mary!” at the Lyceum Theatre in New York. (Emilio Madrid)
9. “Oh, Mary!”
: Cole Escola’s chaotic one-human version of poor Mary Todd Lincoln casts the former first lady as a wild-eyed wannabe cabaret star marinated in whiskey, paint thinner and self-delusion — and the star of an uproariously anachronistic farce that arrived on Broadway during the summer from edgier points downtown. A satiric soupçon at just 80 minutes, “Oh, Mary!” was not supposed to still be running but Broadway audiences have rightly demanded otherwise, mostly because the show packs in more hard laughs per minute than any other show. Escola’s career now seems set. This show showed the power of searing satire blended with gobs of empathy for the woman who had to follow the guy in the top hat around, losing her mind in the process.
Amy Ryan (as Sister Aloysius), Zoe Kazan (Sister James) and Liev Schreiber (Father Flynn) in Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway production of “Doubt: A Parable” at the Todd Haimes Theatre in New York.
10. “Doubt: A Parable”
: An immaculate revival from director Scott Ellis and the Roundabout Theatre of John Patrick Shanley’s taut masterpiece about the now-familiar sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church. “Doubt,” though, also is about the difficulty of making crucial decisions without certainty — something to which everyone can relate. In 2024, this show felt like an ode to those women, and some men, who found the courage to stand up against abusers and take the side of the young and vulnerable. Then again, every character in this production appeared to be in some kind of pain. As the central nun fighting off a sly priest, Amy Ryan revealed a character slowly realizing that her unswerving belief in the hierarchy she serves — the way she had ordered her entire life to date — is immoral. Time to stand up.
