Superb Holocaust play on Broadway shows chilling images of Nazis at Auschwitz relaxing and partying

The play, which features actors Michael Cerveris and Brandon Flynn among its cast, centers on the so-called Höcker Album — a collection of photographs showing SS officers and auxiliaries singing, hunting, decorating a Christmas tree, and eating blueberries while the extermination camp operated nearby. Coverage from The New York Times frames the work as looking 'beyond these frames' to the horrors occurring just outside the camera's view, while the New York Post highlights the 'chilling images of Nazis at Auschwitz relaxing and partying' as the production's central provocation. Deadline's review characterizes the evil depicted as 'banal as a bowl of fruit,' echoing Hannah Arendt's concept that the play appears to dramatize through its focus on the mundane.

The critical response spans major theater publications and mainstream outlets, with Playbill aggregating reviews under the headline 'What Did Critics Think of Here There Are Blueberries on Broadway,' and TheaterMania, New York Stage Review (publishing two separate assessments), newyorktheater.me, and Broadway Shows all filing opening-night coverage. New York Daily News emphasizes the production's probing of 'Auschwitz's banality of evil,' while Deadline and The New York Times both situate the work within the tradition of documentary theater that confronts audiences with primary-source evidence rather than dramatic invention. The involvement of Brandon Flynn, noted by Yahoo in a piece celebrating his Broadway opening night, adds a contemporary celebrity dimension to the production's reception.

The play's subject matter derives from a historical artifact: the photo album belonging to Karl Höcker, adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz, which surfaced publicly in 2007 after being donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The images contrast sharply with the more familiar iconography of the Holocaust, showing perpetrators in moments of leisure and camaraderie rather than violence. This documentary approach — presenting archival material with minimal theatrical mediation — aligns with a growing trend in contemporary theater toward verbatim and evidence-based performance. The November 2026 Broadway opening follows what appears to have been a prior off-Broadway or regional run, though the coverage does not specify the production's earlier history.

With opening-night reviews now published across the theater press and major New York media, the production's commercial trajectory and awards-season prospects become the immediate questions. Coverage does not yet specify the theater house, scheduled run length, or ticket sales figures. The play's reception in the broader cultural conversation — particularly regarding its method of confronting audiences with perpetrator perspectives without explicit moral commentary — will likely shape its legacy beyond the initial review cycle.