Taste Test
What is “good taste” anyway? Allow your favorite actor, musician, celebrity, or comedian to let you in on what they’re watching, reading, and consuming.
One of the hottest plays on Broadway right now is John Proctor Is the Villain, in which a group of 11th-grade students in rural Georgia read The Crucible during the height of the Me Too movement and find that the themes they’re exploring in the book are helping them to better understand one another and themselves. While playwright Kimberly Belflower wrote John Proctor in 2018, it’s still an apt look at the modern teenager — especially the ones who spend their time online stanning Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Lorde — without veering into a lane of overhyped Gen-Z slang. Whether it’s because of the brilliant script or the stellar performances from the cast (including Tony-nominated standouts Sadie Sink and Fina Strazza), women have been reported as leaving the theater in tears, telling everyone they know to see it.
For the past few months, everyone has been wondering whether Lorde had seen the play, especially since her music plays such a critical part in the show’s conclusion. “We were in rehearsals when she announced that Virgin was coming out, and it was one of those moments where we were all kind of like, ‘Did we conjure this?’” says Belflower. On Friday, the singer finally made it to the theater, and right in time, as Sink took her last bow as Shelby on Sunday. But don’t worry: You still have plenty of time to see the play as Cruel Summer’s Chiara Aurelia takes over the role through August.
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Tell me about the origins of John Proctor Is the Villain. When and where did you write this?
I started writing it in 2018. It was the first play I wrote after grad school. A few things were happening the year before that made me revisit my younger self and think back on my adolescence. I read an amazing nonfiction book called The Witches by Stacy Schiff, which was about the Salem Witch trials. It contextualized a lot of the information about the teenage girls in a way that made my brain blow open. And when the tidal wave of Me Too hit, there was an interview where Woody Allen called it a witch hunt, and I was like, “I should reread The Crucible.” When I did, I was like “This is nothing like the way it was taught to me,” and suddenly the power imbalances and misogyny seemed clear in a way that they hadn’t when I was a teenager.
Why do you think this play is right for now? Would it have worked if it came out, say, in 2021?
We had a big reading in Ojai, California, in 2019, and then a couple of college productions, and the play did hit then, but it feels like it hits differently now. We are in a moment of history repeating itself. It feels like nothing has changed institutionally, but so much has changed internally. It’s gone from “We can change the systems” to “The systems are never going to protect us, so we have to protect each other.” It feels like the focus has shifted.
The thing that makes it always hit is the ending. Danya Taymor, my director, and I were talking about how it feels like one of the only times in mass media that I can remember where teenage girls are using their bodies with no purpose of being sexualized. It’s not for the male gaze; it’s totally for them and each other, and to express something. Every woman I know has a history of making up dances in her room with her best friends. Plus, with the girls dancing in The Crucible, it feels like there’s an ancient thing that we as women and marginalized genders have inherited.
Is there a girl you resonate most with in the show?
I’m a little bit of all of them, but I am predominantly Beth. My parents saw a college production of the play, and my mom went up to the actress and was like, “You were a perfect little Kimberly.”
Tell me how you found out Lorde was going to come see the show.
She originally had tickets to come in May, but it didn’t work out. We weren’t sure if it was going to happen and I had to tell myself that it’s okay if it doesn’t. But then she DM’d me on Instagram, and it was perfect timing, because this past weekend was also Sadie’s last weekend in the play and I was already planning on being in New York.
I was talking with a friend, and she asked “is this better than a Tony nomination?” She was joking, but honestly, yeah. Her song has been in this play from the very first draft seven years ago. Her music has been essential to the development of this play, so having her there was amazing.
Do you have a favorite track off the new Lorde album?
The song that I keep going back to right now is “David.” Something in that build, it wallops me every time.
Let’s move into the taste-test questions. Where do you get your best cultural recommendations from?
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My best friend, Blake, and I like a lot of the same pop girls, so we’ll recommend new pop girls to each other. Audrey Hobert has been a big obsession of ours. “Sue Me” is the song of the summer. Danya will send me an article from the New York Times about a Turkish film, and she’s like, “We should go see this.” Josh Sharp, one of my other good friends, and I both really like hardcore music, so we’ll share that. It really is a mix. We’ll send TikToks back and forth. It runs the gamut of highbrow, lowbrow.
What is your pre-writing ritual?
If I’m being my best self, I have one pre-writing ritual, and if I’m being my chaos self, then I have another. If I’m at my best, I will have done morning pages. One of my grad-school professors told us to try writing warm-ups. You wouldn’t go out and run a 5k without stretching, so this is the way to ease your brain into it. I like to make lists and set timers and give myself a prompt, and I’ll do this with my students. If I am just a chaos goblin, then it’s like two in the morning and I’m writing hunched over in the dark.
Do you have go-to playlists for when you’re alone or writing?
It has to be instrumental. The 2005 Pride & Prejudice score is a heavy hitter in my lineup. Otherwise, I tend to make seasonal playlists. I haven’t updated my summer 2025 playlist since Virgin came out. But it’s a mix of current songs, vibes, and songs from past years that will resurface.
If you could invite five celebrities to a dinner party, who would be on that list?
I would want to invite the Brontë sisters, but then I don’t know if they’re gonna be good for a summer event. I do a summer dinner party every year that is tomato-themed; every course is tomatoes. María Irene Fornés, who’s a playwright that I love, could come to the tomato party. Lorde. Is it a cop-out if I say Sadie Sink because she’s a celebrity, but like, I know her? I want it to be girls only. Taylor Swift, if I’m keeping with the John Proctor theme, and then let’s say Audre Lorde.
Tell me about these tomato dishes.
I use heirloom tomatoes when they’re at their peak in late summer. Last year, for the main dish, I kept it simple and did a make-your-own tomato-sandwich bar. Tomato sandwiches are such a southern thing. I had bacon, different kinds of bread, and mayonnaise. Then I made several different salads and deviled eggs with pickled tomatoes for appetizers. I was very proud of the drinks and the desserts: tomato gin and tonics with this tomato shrub, and tomato martinis. For dessert, I made a tomato-and-salted-plum sorbet.
That sounds amazing. I love a themed party. What is the worst thing someone can do at a dinner party?
If somebody says “Don’t bring anything,” you can still bring something that the host can enjoy later if it doesn’t fit with their vision. But if they say “Don’t bring anything” and then you show up with a salad, it’s like, I made four salads. You have to be respectful of the vibe that’s being curated.
I always bring a bottle of wine, because they can save it for later. What’s your comfort rewatch?
It’s three things that all have the word “girl” in them: Girls, New Girl, and Gilmore Girls. Because I’ve seen all three of those so many times now, I’ll often pick a point in the series, and then I’ll watch from that point to the end, and then go back to the beginning and watch up to that point. With all of them, but especially Gilmore Girls, you see the evolution of certain characters. You go back to the beginning, and you’re like, I just got punched in the gut by who they used to be.
Is there something that you watch with your partner that they’re not allowed to watch without you?
We have things that we watch together when we’re together, like The White Lotus, but I’ve been traveling so much this year that we didn’t. I’m going to get hate mail, but I don’t care about Severance and high-concept shows like that. They just never quite get me. So he watched that without me. He wanted us to watch it together. And then finally I was like, “I don’t think I can.”
What’s your favorite game to play?
I don’t like games. I like the New York Times word games, but I’m not a board-game person at all. I can get competitive, and I don’t like that side of me. I also just get kind of bored by them. I’m like, “Why are we doing this? We could just be having a conversation or reading a book.”
What’s another book you would say deserves a reread?
My favorite book of all time is Wuthering Heights, and I think it is profoundly misunderstood. People refer to it as a love story, and it’s not. It’s a story about inherited trauma, class, race, and violence. I reread it pretty often, and every time I get somebody to read it they’re like, “This book is batshit insane.” So we should all reread that. I regret not inviting Emily Brontë to my tomato party now.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
