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  Theatre in Review: Our Town (Ethel Barrymore Theatre)
Even in an uncertain production, Our Town's power remains undimmed; this is good news because Kenny Leon's Broadway revival of the Thornton Wilder evergreen can't quite make up its mind about several key matters ...
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Theatre in Review: The Big Gay Jamboree (Orpheum Theatre)
Stacey, the heroine of the new attraction at the Orpheum, wakes up one morning hung over and trapped in an Off-Broadway musical from which there is no escape. (I guess we've all been there.) Still, one has every right to feel skeptical ...
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Theatre in Review: Franklinland (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
Musical theatre fans know from 1776 that Benjamin Franklin was estranged from his son William, a British loyalist and Royal Governor of New Jersey. Hardcore musical theatre fans know from Ben Franklin in Paris that Ben (as ...
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Theatre in Review: The Counter (Roundabout Theatre Company/Laura Pels Theatre)
You can't say The Counter isn't efficient; like a crack short-order cook, it wastes no time in serving up its thoroughly unbelievable premise. It features Paul, a retired fireman and, inevitably, the first customer each ...
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Theatre in Review: Hold on to Me Darling (Lucille Lortel Theatre)
Kenneth Lonergan has long proved his mastery of contemporary tragicomedy, but he has never given us anything as purely hilarious as the unraveling of Strings McCrane. A massive country star and an action film draw -- think Morgan ...
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Theatre in Review: Safety Not Guaranteed (Brooklyn Academy of Music/Harvey Theater)
"Didn't they promise us some magic?/Yeah, they did," sings one of the disenchanted band of not-quite-young adults in Safety Not Guaranteed. It's a question audience members might similarly pose at this underpowered new ...
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Theatre in Review: Vladimir (Manhattan Theatre Club/City Center Stage I)
The name in the title of Erika Sheffer's play refers to Mr. Putin, although the Russian president never appears onstage. (Boris Yeltsin does, in a riotous opening scene covering his resignation speech, televised on December ...
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Theatre in Review: Sump'n Like Wings (Mint Theater Company/Theatre Row)
"Yer better let me outa here! I'll kick yer ole door down!" So says Willie Baker, the heroine of Sump'n Like Wings, who, as the play begins, is being held prisoner by her mother. (Actually, it's an act of gaslighting; the ...
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Theatre in Review: Deep History (Public Theater/Susan Stein Shiva Theater)
Deep History begins as a lecture and threatens to become a nervous breakdown. David Finnigan, a self-described "artist who works with researchers" and "a consultant with the World Bank on climate and disaster risk" is ...
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Theatre in Review: People of the Book (Urban Stages)
Plenty is going on in People of the Book -- sex, politics, racism, literary chicanery, and a full dossier of scandalous secrets -- but it rarely seems to matter, for two reasons. First, the plot is wildly overstuffed, its ...
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Theatre in Review: The Roommate (Booth Theatre)
I've never seen this before: The Roommate begins with a curtain call. Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone, the entire cast of Jen Silverman's prairie comedy, enter, their names projected on Bob Crowley's airy ...
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Theatre in Review: McNeal (Lincoln Center Theatre/Vivian Beaumont Theater)
"Everything is copy," the screenwriter Phoebe Ephron reportedly advised her daughter, Nora -- words taken to heart by Jacob McNeal, a respected novelist whose personal ledger is wildly out of balance. On the plus side, he occupies a ...
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Theatre in Review: Dirty Laundry (WP Theater)
In Dirty Laundry, Constance Shulman plays the most practical adulteress you've ever met. Referred to in the script as Another Woman, she is, more accurately, The Other Woman, and she provides much more than the usual ...
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Theatre in Review: The Hills of California (Broadhurst Theatre)
The Hills of California, which arrived riding a wave of critical praise, confirms that big ensemble dramas are back. Last season saw such big, rangy dramas as Appropriate and Stereophonic play to acclaim and ...
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Theatre in Review: Yellow Face (Roundabout Theatre Company/Todd Haimes Theatre)
It's one of the oddest comebacks I can remember: When David Henry Hwang premiered Yellow Face at the Public Theatre in 2008, directed by Leigh Silverman, it felt scattered, unsure of itself, tangled in the ...
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Theatre in Review: Good Bones (Public Theater)
Like the house where it takes place, Good Bones has plenty of curb appeal, but it's also a little bit unfinished. It looks good and is filled with attractive, talented people but its drama arrives surprisingly late in the ...
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Theatre in Review: Fatherland (City Center Stage II)
Our current state of American madness is made frighteningly explicit in this verbatim play, taken from court testimonies, public statements, and at least one recorded conversation. The characters are not named but this is the story of the ...
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Theatre in Review: Medea Re-Versed (Red Bull Theater and Bedlam at The Sheen Center)
The play is titled Medea Re-Versed but the evening is stolen by the Messenger, the supporting character who brings the dire news of murder most foul. The production's chief utility player, the great Jacob Ming-Trent, ...
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Theatre in Review: The Beacon (Irish Repertory Theatre)
Beiv, the central character of The Beacon -- "heroine" doesn't seem quite right, given the suspicions under which she labors -- is a remarkably candid woman who, nevertheless, guards a houseful of secrets. An artist ...
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Theatre in Review: See What I Wanna See (Out of the Box Theatricals)
See What I Wanna See lives so thoroughly in its head that it never lets the audience in. This ultra-high-concept musical by Michael John LaChiusa offers a pair of one-acts (each with a distinctly odd prologue) designed ...
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