Helen Shaw

Helen Shaw is an American theater critic. She is the chief theater critic for The New York Times. She was previously theater critic at The New Yorker and New York magazine.

Early life Shaw grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, where her parents took her to see plays. She attended Harvard University, where she designed sets, studied with Robert Brustein, and was president of the Harvard–Radcliffe Dramatic Club. In 2002, she received an MFA in dramaturgy from the Institute for Advanced Theater Training. Before joining New York and Vulture as theater critic in 2019, Shaw wrote journalism and criticism for outlets including Time Out New York, The Village Voice, The New York Times, American Theatre, Artforum, The Guardian, Art in America and 4Columns. She received the 2017-18 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.

From 2022 through 2025, she was a staff writer and theater critic at The New Yorker.

She was a member of the New York Drama Critics' Circle from 2017 until joining the Times, whose policy forbids participating in awards voting.

Shaw teaches at Yale and New York University.

Personal life Shaw lives in Brooklyn.