Overview
- Helen Shaw will join the New York Times as chief theatre critic in mid-January 2026, becoming the first woman to hold the post.
- Shaw departs The New Yorker, where she has served as theatre critic and staff writer since 2022 and earned honors including the 2025 Grace Dudley Prize for Arts Writing.
- The Times positioned the hire as part of a push for critics who can deliver reviews, essays and multimedia work following Jesse Green’s reassignment to culture correspondent in September.
- Emily Nussbaum has been named theatre critic at The New Yorker, with editor David Remnick describing her as returning to criticism after several years of wide-ranging reporting.
- The New Yorker also announced staffing additions, hiring Jason Zengerle and Ruby Cramer as politics staff writers and adding Jon Allsop as a contributing writer.