Abby Bien

Abby Bien was raised in Indiana. She has growing up in a college town — and in a family of musical nerds — to thank for her love of theatre. While cornfields and county fairs and football games surrounded her childhood, so did national tours in her hometown and trips to Chicago and New York to see Wicked, Les Misérables, In the Heights, and more. There were quick moments on and off stage at the community theatre as a kid, but the role of audience member is always the one that stuck. 

In 2017, she graduated from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana with a degree in Public Relations & Advertising. Her initial experiences on the marketing and writing side of the theatre industry came from internships at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and at advertising agencies, working with the Indiana Repertory Theatre. 

After graduating, Abby moved to New York, and she has been contributing to New York Theatre Guide since 2020. Her favorite productions that she's gotten to write about in recent years include Waitress, A Strange Loop, The Ferryman, Harry Clarke, Hello, Dolly!, and the time Audra McDonald, Joel Grey, and Bernadette Peters sat in front of her at a show.