Jesse Oxfeld

“Scott Ellis’s staging is brisk and effective, David Rockwell’s sets impressionistically evoke Yankee Stadium, and Bray Poor’s sound design plays amusingly with the sounds of the ballpark.”

“But Plaza Suite feels remarkably, almost obliviously, a product of its era, full of jokes about the demolition of the Savoy Plaza (across the street, where the General Motors Building now stands), secretarial hanky-panky, and lecherous producers jetting in from The Coast.”

“This revival has been in the works seemingly forever.”

“MJ is both wonderfully fun and predictably blinkered.”

“Mrs. Doubtfire is a silly confection, with a standard-issue heartwarming point.”

“It is bloodless, procedural, and, in Christopher Ashley’s staging, constantly, exhaustingly turned up to 11.”

“It remains, as she told the Times, ‘a lament.’”

“As it turns out, this West Side Story is excellent.”

“Even when black people succeed in America, Fuller says, they’re still first and foremost seen by this country as black.”

“The musical, which opened tonight at the Broadhurst Theatre, is, like the album, surpassingly excellent, if also slightly flawed.”

“Powered by Warren’s hard-charging performance, Tina makes us feel that.”

“That sad-happy complexity is what makes Little Shop a little thing that packs a big punch.”

“★★★★ ‘'All You Need Is Love (and Showmanship).' Baz Luhrmann's hit bohemian-Paris movie gets bigger and bolder for Broadway.’”

“For all the virtuosity on display, I’m not sure that we ever truly believe the characters, believe that these people are as lonely, and as needy, as the script requires them to be.”

“And if this Beetlejuice has a flaw, it’s that: In its insistence on entertaining you, it’s a story about death with tons of life but maybe not quite as much soul.”

“In Gary, his characters succeed.”

“It’s a slim, impressionistic portrait.”

“The play, about a pair of estranged brothers and their apparent role reversal under pressure, is as funny as it is serious, and this new staging, directed by James Macdonald, a specialist in heavy-hitters, is as entertaining as it is profound.”

“But this all serves to make him, well, boring.”

“That’s why this flawed play nevertheless packs a punch.”

“The play The Lifespan of a Fact is an amusing evening at the theater.”

“It remains consistently, stubbornly, mildly amusing.”

“Now, the beauty is there, but the show feels a bit worn.”

“Keeping this 1988. Phantom running, even running well, does a disservice to the piece and its creators.”

“It’s so full of Jersey namechecks—conspicuous verisimilitude amid the consumption—that one starts to suspect paid product placement, and yet its 1990s Central Jerseyans call it Six Flags.”

“But it’s the creaky dramatics, not the changed mores, that make Boys in the Band feel like it’s playing such an odd tune.”

“Stoppard’s genius, especially in his earlier work, is to mix high intellect with low comedy, and Travesties manages to be both deeply thoughtful and guffawingly funny.”

“The performances are frequently electric, and the songs sound spectactular, but any attempt to learn something about Summer’s life, to understand what drove her, to gain a deeper era understanding of the disco era, comes and goes as quickly and lightly as that barely acknowledged tumor.”

“Because this is a play that holds as its hero a hearing, white, male bully of a speech teacher, boldly dedicated to saving his hearing-impaired charges by training them to speak and, occasionally, with the attractive female ones, committing light sexual assault.”

“That’s what they’ve achieved here: Mean Girls delightfully fun and funny, silly and sweet, energetic and adorable, sarcastic but good-hearted.”

“As it is, we’re left with a would-be blockbuster that’s good but not great, skillful but not memorable.”

“Escape to Margaritaville is perfectly pleasant but not especially good, a watered-down, mostly flavorless, machine-made frozen concoction that does enough to remind you of a better version of itself that you’re left satisfied by default, for lack of another option.”

“It's not the only haunting moment in this beautifully staged production.”

“It’s full of high energy and big performances—and yet it manages to feel nearly as empty as used-up tub of face cream.”

“Kline — whose movie career includes turns as both Cole Porter and Errol Flynn — takes to it like, well, a pig to slop.”

“And so, too, is the rest of the play distant: Stagey and self-consciously acted, never rich and emotionally resonant.”

“It's a sketch, drawn out. What's actually most interesting, if not really explored, is Kroll and Mulaney's obvious love for theater, through their jokes about recurring dramatic devices - the one-sided phone call, the bloody handkerchief that indicates imminent death, the profound curtain line - and bits of shtick about other plays.”

“And yet, returned to Broadway, Cats just keeps crawling along, full of sound and fur, signifying nothing.”

“It still hasn’t figured New York out.”

“In the British director John Doyle's emotionally rich and visually striking new production of The Color Purple, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway, there is an elegant staging and three gorgeous star performances.”

“If the children are in fact our future, School of Rock suggests we’re in pretty good hands.”

“Van Hove was given us an intense, unsettling, and deeply original evening of theater.”

“As long promised, the rhythm does indeed get you.”

“Was the applause tepid? Reluctant? Polite? Dutiful?”

“Six Degrees of Separation, as seen here, is a great play with great performances but very much a creature of its time.”