David Rooney

“But on stage, it’s an awkward mix, with a lot of monotonously earnest direct address and too few dramatized scenes to lend it vitality.”

“Mantello does some of his finest work in a heartfelt revival that will be remembered for the estimable Lane's career-crowning performance. It's magnificent theater.”

“Excellent performances and simple yet moving writing make Little Bear Ridge Road an all-around solid family drama.”

“That cheeky insertion, which comes right after Keanu Reeves' Estragon leans against Alex Winter's Vladimir and says, "Back to back like in the good old days," gets the biggest laugh of Jamie Lloyd's mixed-bag Waiting for Godot revival.”

“If the drama at times seems almost as educational as it is theatrical, David Cromer's deluxe production remains classy, absorbing entertainment.”

“This punchy revival doesn't need the nostalgic assist and makes a strong case for the play as both a major work of its time and a tart commentary still very much with us.”

“But the blistering depiction of blinding ambition, treachery and gullibility that should linger like a heavy cloud over the blood and anguish spilled in the final scene feels curiously evanescent here.”

“In any case, no minor flaw can diminish the impact of this masterful show in such a beautifully acted production — all of it orbiting around the blazing force that is McDonald.”

“Gold's revival fully commits to its concept and sustains it surprisingly well... this R+J is an infectious emotional rollercoaster.”

“Theater and film converge to brilliant effect at the start of Act II, when Joe throws open a door and steps out onto 44th Street.”

“Cole Escola's irreverent comedy reimagines Mary Todd Lincoln as a boozy, foul-mouthed misfit desperate to escape the White House for a career on the stage.”

“And Peck and Stevens, along with their collaborators and the "Illinoise" family, have given new life to a Broadway musical.”

“The musical is a vibrant celebration of music, community and self-discovery that feels both personal and universal.”

“By the time the play ends, its searing emotional heft creeps up and grabs you by the throat.”

“Ultimately one of the key strengths of this bracing revival is that it presents a classic drama as a play for our time.”

“About one-third of the jokes land — and most (like Peanut’s) come out of nowhere, having nothing to do with the story or its characters.”

“When she steps out of the Helmer home and quite literally into the 21st century in this boldly conceived, commandingly acted production, it’s both shattering and exhilarating.”

“When he swings his razor high, the hair on the back of your neck doesn't budge.”

“It’s immediately clear we’re not in for a staid evening.”

“But the paper-thin characterizations and hackneyed dialogue don’t prevent KPOP from being great fun.”

“For anyone who spent their youth obsessing over great music and believing rock stars were, well, rock stars, Almost Famous will carry a dulcet pang of recognition.”

“The confidence radiating from both performances keeps Topdog/Underdog, a play with a winking eagerness to elude meaning, light, electric and most of all funny.”

“There’s no doubt that The Piano Lesson is a ghost story...It’s those spirits of Black men that are believed to be responsible for the series of well accidents.”

“That’s the case with Lear deBessonet’s gorgeous production, which began as a semi-staged concert in the Encores! series this spring and now moves to Broadway for a limited 8-week run, with a mix of superlative original cast and sparkling new additions.”

“Feldstein gives a spirited, highly enjoyable performance, and her freshness drew squeals of appreciation from what seemed like a large contingent of very vocal young female fans on a recent press night. But she never quite makes the material soar, and this is a rickety vehicle that needs a supernova to put gas in its tank.”

“Much of the play, especially the language, is dated and therefore cringe-inducing.”

“The musical feels overstuffed and underdeveloped, with three fascinating subjects that never quite gel into a cohesive theatrical experience despite the best efforts of a talented cast.”

“Under the assured and inspired direction of veteran Nottage collaborator Kate Whoriskey, the play is an absolutely thrilling experience.”

“This is definitely a history of the English monarchy for people who found the Dynasty -style salaciousness of The Tudors too highbrow, and your enjoyment may depend on how far puberty is behind you.”

“Director Ivo van Hove and choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker reshape the classic tale of bitter street-gang rivalry for a new generation with this boldly contemporary revival.”

“Leon’s muscular production makes a solid case for the play, if not as a top-tier classic then at the very least as a stirring indictment of the cancer of racism.”

“The aggressive bid for now-ness is both a blessing and a burden in this overwrought, overstuffed but ultimately affecting show.”

“If your tear ducts don’t moisten multiple times during this captivating show, you must be missing the empathy gene.”

“The physicality of the production is exhilarating; it stands easily among Daldry’s best work for the stage.”

“The show’s flaws fade away next to the star’s incandescence.”

“Directed with exquisite feeling and precision by David Cromer, this intimate drama manages to be both literary and rivetingly theatrical.”

“Instead the end result is much like act one Seymour—confused, a little awkward, and lacking in confidence.”

“Instead, it’s shrill and hysterically over the top, poorly paced and blighted by some very large Italianate acting with all the authenticity of an Olive Garden chicken alfredo.”

“Tracy Letts, the profusely gifted playwright who also happens to be a brilliant actor, or vice versa, is working in an elevated sitcom mode as well as a revealing personal vein in Linda Vista.”

“If The Great Society often feels as much like history homework as drama, it thrums along on the engine of Brian Cox‘s unimpeachably magnetic performance as LBJ.”

“If the author’s bag of tricks is becoming familiar and the wispy drama is too fragmented to be fully satisfying, the commanding performances of Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins and the meticulous direction of Jonathan Kent nonetheless make this an affecting elegy.”

“The balance of complex psychological drama, pervasive melancholy and acid humor is riveting.”

“That enthusiasm translates to the audience, too, with every visual reference lifted directly from the movie yielding huge laughs.”

“That may be true, but Graham’s storytelling instincts too often get dulled here, and Goold’s frantically busy direction can’t disguise that.”

“She exists as a credible, empowered creature in her own right, and by extension, so does this clever, crowd-pleasing show.”

“Ultimately, it feels neither sufficiently contemplative nor revelatory, its ruefulness becoming merely a punishment.”

““A seamless theatrical experience, this beguiling, virtually sung-through musical is notable for the expressive beauty of its score, the dark imagination of its stage pictures and the clarity of its storytelling.”

“As stage entrances go, it’s a stunner.”

“For audiences open to experiencing Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! from a fresh perspective, director Daniel Fish's probing revamp will be a revelation.”

“It's often said that there's no greater grief than a parent's loss of a child, so it follows that there's no more devastating moment in King Lear than when the monarch's pitiless odyssey through familial betrayal, rage and madness, triggered by his own blind vanity, leaves him cradling the dead body of the one daughter whose love for him was pure.”

“It’s a play of ideas for which people are not just hungry but starved.”

“If the show often plays like a hits compilation with commentary, the relative paucity of extended dramatic scenes is overshadowed at every step by the sheer exhilaration of the musical performances.”

“"Even in an imperfectly cast revival like the new Roundabout production, it's virtually impossible not to surrender to its boisterous charms...If the changes dampen some of the show's comedic vitality in order to make it palatable to contemporary sensibilities, so be it. There are corresponding losses and gains, too, in O'Hara's performance...”

“Fortunately, the frequent detours into song can be relied upon to keep recapturing the emotional intensity, revealing the painful aloneness of Pharus and some of his classmates, as well as the solace and hope that the music provides them.”

“This is theatrical storytelling so assured and involving it’s hard to imagine anyone not being mesmerized.”

“Cranston’s Howard seems lucid and laser-focused even when he’s staggering around in his underwear hearing voices, or weeping at the corrosive hypocrisies that compel him to speak up.”

“Would I see it again? Duh, already planning on it.”

“The Prom is a big, bright, fizzy musical that tackles LGBTQ issues with heart, humor and a killer cast of Broadway veterans who know exactly how to sell a song.”

“Even if the star puppet might be better suited for an arena spectacle or theme-park attraction, you can’t take your eyes off this technological marvel, not least for its incredible facial expressiveness.”

“Director Kenny Leon is only ever as good as his material, and in this case he's working with a drama more compelling in subject than execution.”

“Taking a second stab at the material, Kaufman and his cast hit every note of humor and heartache in a durable work that functions as both a historical piece and a universal expression of our search for human connection and the comforts of family.”

“The Waverly Gallery has been given a sensitive, for the most part beautifully acted production that honors the playwright's very personal stake in this quotidian tragedy.”

“This is rich, full-throated theater not to be missed.”

“The spry humor, rippling tension and provocative reflections of this ingenious adaptation of the sui generis book of the same name will by no means speak exclusively to those of us who make our livings as members of the fourth estate.”

“Effortful delivery is just one issue with the wheezy direction of Daniel Sullivan, whose forte is definitely not this kind of snappy, suspenseful comedy, in which timing is everything.”

“However, the play in most respects is a missed opportunity, despite the pleasure of watching the willowy, silver-tongued McTeer careen from high camp into righteous hauteur.”

“End-of-the-'80s nostalgia rules at the Nederlander Theatre, where the cut-and-paste musical version of Garry Marshall's 1990 romantic comedy, Pretty Woman, is re-creating the cultural-touchstone movie beat for beat, set to a score by Bryan Adams and songwriting partner Jim Vallance that could easily pass for vintage FM-radio pop-rock singles.”

“The play's indictment of privilege is nuanced and thoughtful, even if the dramatic payoff is somewhat unsatisfying.”

“In those closing scenes, the play finally achieves its full tragic grandeur.”

“Sadly, that’s one of the few decent jokes in this tacky little show, a feebly dramatized Wikipedia page with lackluster covers, which was rushed to Broadway following a fall tryout at La Jolla Playhouse that received mostly tepid reviews.”

“The ecstatic hype that accompanies the smash London import to Broadway is amply justified, and then some.”

“So why is the stately revival also a slight disappointment?”

“What a gift to have it back on Broadway in a magnificently sung revival that breathes pulsing new life into this shimmering masterwork.”

“The shortage of chemistry between the leads makes it hard to get too worked up about whether Sarah and James can mend the bridge between their separate worlds.”

“That plus the snappy comedy of Fey’s book makes this adaptation of the 2004 movie (which was directed by Mark Waters from a screenplay by Fey) a surprisingly enjoyable and genuinely funny sugar treat with a lot of heart.”

“It's an integral part of an evenly balanced, four-person ensemble piece.”

“In a superlative production like this one, directed with laser-like acuity by Marianne Elliott and imported from London's National Theatre, it's the prescience of the writing that truly astonishes — no less than the harrowing beauty, the wildly imaginative flights and the acerbic humor of the drama, or the riveting work of a magnificent ensemble.”

“For anyone expecting more than a straight-up rehash of the movie on stage, however, this pricey production will seem low on inspiration.”

“Stage acting doesn’t get any better than Glenda Jackson‘s performance as the autocratic nonagenarian in Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women.”

“Unlike in Alan Bennett’s play The Madness of George III, and its film adaptation, the deteriorating mental health of a monarch here doesn’t constitute a sustaining narrative arc, even if Rylance’s commanding performance remains the center of attention.”

“This gorgeous, minor-key show won a deserved cluster of awards in its premiere late last year at the Atlantic Theater Company. It transfers to Broadway with its delicate alchemy intact.”

“This exuberantly silly musical adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon series is a candy-colored rush of joy that somehow manages to be both faithfully nonsensical and surprisingly touching.”

“The very real devastation of those and other Caribbean islands provides a moving canvas for this enchanting fairy tale with mythic elements, set in the French Antilles.”

“But neither director nor cast can disguise the lack of substance in the padded sketch material.”

“But this is a play with an identity crisis, exacerbated by MacKinnon’s incongruously stylized scene changes — architectural blueprints of halls of power laced with ribbons of news ticker.”

“But many will be left wondering if they really needed this dispiriting recap of the shift toward making money off money while building nothing but debt.”

“But in their counterintuitive attempt to make the play relevant for an audience more versed in the complexities of gender and racial politics, Taymor and Hwang have inadvertently undercut its pathos.”

“Time and the Conways is a funny old play, interesting more for its structural adventurousness than its thematic trenchancy.”

“Ultimately, Prince of Broadway is a bit like getting pulled into the YouTube vortex of vintage musical clips, providing a pleasurable reminder of great theater experiences.”

“But this emphatic adaptation of the seminal George Orwell novel, written and directed by rising British stage talents Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, reaches heights of punishing intensity that will rattle even the most jaded audiences.”

“It’s kitschy, old-fashioned entertainment given a relatively sophisticated presentation, and you have to acknowledge its success when you hear the target demographic swoon on cue.”

“It delivers explosive laughs while also posing thoughtful questions about marriage, gender inequality and human rights that reverberate across the almost 140 years since Henrik Ibsen’s original was first produced in 1879.”

“But for all the strenuous effort and good intentions evident in Bandstand, it mainly demonstrates that if you're going to drop the name Dachau in a musical, it needs to be far better than this one.”

“Trip Cullman's razor-sharp staging of Six Degrees of Separation serves as a welcome reminder of the fiercely intelligent, pungently funny voice of playwright John Guare at his vintage best.”

“This choc-atrocity has got to rank as one of the most aesthetically off-putting family musicals in memory.”

“This is a production as classy as it is smart, shining a spotlight on a playwright who, unlike such contemporaries as Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, is too seldom revived on Broadway.”

“Groundhog Day is a delirious reinvention with its own defiantly unique personality, a relentless forward-backward spin that leaves you smiling, exhilarated and giddy.”

“I found it thoroughly compelling and masterfully entertaining throughout.”

“That arch knowingness in the writing finds sublime echoes in Kline’s performance, that of a consummate theater creature returning to his natural domain with obvious relish, playing an actor who is always performing, on and off the stage.”

“While Nottage doesn’t always manage to incorporate her research into entirely organic dialogue in the overlong play’s lumpy first act, what follows becomes a powerful and compassionate song of blue-collar despair.”