Marilyn Stasio

“Lane and Burstein are consummate pros, and there are considerable sparks of familial communication between the father and son they play with such warmth and understanding.”

“Here, in his tour-de-force performance in ‘A Christmas Carol,’ he plays more than 50 characters from Charles Dickens' beloved holiday classic — including the London fog.”

“Once caught up in the actor's mesmerizing voice, no single horror story will break the spell.”

“There’s no doubt that casting a Black actor as Willy Loman (for the first time on Broadway, no less) adds a deeper dimension to this monumental role.”

“Director Susan Stroman's ensemble is a bona-fide dream team.”

“The play itself still sticks in my throat, as it surely does every woman and girl, young or old, who has seen it in a halfway decent production.”

“It’s a confession as close to illuminating the human condition as any.”

“This maternal figure stands tall, talks truth, and envelops her little band of losers in the warming embrace of honest affection and genuine respect.”

“Director Ivo Van Hove dares to fiddle with perfection in this modernized but still respectful re-working of Jerome Robbins’ 1957 masterpiece.”

“Once past the unfortunate opening scenes, suggesting that the play might center on the superficial Brian, the focus shifts to Nancy and Bill and this smartly constructed comedy finds its footing.”

“It's all in the voice, the voice, the voice, and it's beautifully done.”

“What makes this musical so seriously smart is the way that some of the most beloved songs from Morissette's iconic album come right out of the dramatic content, rather than being slapped on top of a wobbly book scene.”

“The music is fantastic, the staging is deluxe, the central figure is a cultural icon and the lead performer, Adrienne Warren, is sensational.”

“There's something hypnotic about the whole exercise.”

“Strange, if not exactly lovely.”

“Cox himself doesn't really claim the character of LBJ until the second act, when the president stands alone, exposed in all his frailties.”

“Personally, I'd forget looking for logic and just relish the beauty of the production.”

“Of all Pinter’s often-puzzling work, this play is the one that clearly speaks to you, thinks for you, and may even feel for you.”

“The writing in these separate monologues is excellent, as are the solo performances by Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal.”

“Yeah, they had us at the lady sword-swallowers.”

“McDonald makes something palpable – a sudden, trapped look of panic – of Frankie’s fear of commitment.”

“It still packs a wallop all its own, especially in this wonderfully cast, honestly staged and beautifully presented production.”

“The new Broadway adaptation of ‘Tootsie’ is old-fashioned and proud of it — and it’s a surefire crowd-pleaser.”

“There's no shortage of art and craft in this offbeat show; but there's also a limit to how much goofiness a comedy can support, and Mac may have gone over his limit.”

“The only thing wrong in this fictionalized visit to the 2008 primary — the one that saw Barack Obama claim the Democratic nomination for president over Hillary — is that playwright Hnath, Tony nominated for ‘A Doll's House, Part 2,’ has brought nothing of substance to the table.”

“Arriving on Broadway with its earthly delights more or less intact, this perfectly heavenly musical — with book, music and lyrics by Anaïs Mitchell — should stick around for a while.”

“Jackson fails to wring tears, let alone blood, from this production, the sheer intelligence of her performance makes it memorable.”

“By the end of the show, we've been stirred — and challenged — by her penetrating insights into that document.”

“The wonder of this production is that so much of the joy and optimism of the original work still shines bright through the darkness.”

“Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano duke it out as battling brothers in a disappointing revival of Sam Shepard’s fierce 1980 classic.”

“The new venue also gives the show's sensational young lead, Jeremy Pope, more room to spread his wings and soar.”

“Against all odds, writer Aaron Sorkin and director Bartlett Sher have succeeded in crafting a stage-worthy adaptation of Harper Lee's classic American novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’”

“The depth of Chayefsky's cynicism is so breathtaking, so full of existential despair that it makes today's critical pundits look like weepy whiners.”

“The best thing about 'The Prom' is that it wears its big bleeding heart on its sequined sleeve, and the worst thing about it is that it wears its big bleeding heart on its sequined sleeve.”

“On those terms, Mike Birbiglia‘s ‘The New One,’ transferred from a sold-out downtown engagement to a limited Broadway one, qualifies as a real play — a brimmingly warm, entertaining one on a universally relatable topic.”

“Director Kenny Leon has assembled a solid creative workforce...It’s hard to take your eyes off Washington’s Kendra, whose anguish seems to have taken over her entire body...Playwright Demos-Brown is a clever phrase-maker, and he delights in using language that vividly illustrates the social and educational gulf between Larkin and Kendra...”

“Played with great warmth, sensitivity, and good humor by the legendary Elaine May in the Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan's ‘The Waverly Gallery,’ Gladys was once a practicing attorney with plenty of clients and a busy social life.”

“Glorious is not too strong a word for director Sam Mendes's production of Jez Butterworth's heartbreaker of a play, ‘The Ferryman.’”

“And blazing stars they certainly are, both McTeer and Bernhardt, yoked in a dynamic character study that, for all its shining moments, is no play.”

“This is terrifically funny dialogue, and both actors savor every comeback.”

“Stubbornly inconsequential, it’s a morally uplifting fairy tale of which everyone, young and old alike, can be skeptical.”

“The show's one saving grace is its heart, which beats strong and true throughout this homespun tale of a prodigal son who returns to his blue-collar New Jersey hometown to save his mother's house from foreclosure.”

“But the show never recovers from the pervasive feeling of exhaustion.”

“In deconstructing the lives of these white men with all their privilege and power, Lee discovers hidden levels of deep discontent — let's bite the bullet and call it unhappiness — that indicates the kind of existential human pain common to the human condition.”

“You want to talk theater? Take that, people!”

“Rashad’s depiction of the wide-eyed, visionary youth of fierce determination, unwavering faith and beguiling innocence — not to mention a beatific smile that radiates to the balcony — makes you a believer, too.”

“Fun on its own etymological terms, this madcap comedy also tips its hat — a beat-up straw boater with a jaunty red hatband — to the spirit of revolution that galvanized Europe in 1917.”

“But you won’t get much of a sense the times in ‘Summer: The Donna Summer Musical,’ a narrow-minded jukebox musical that views its titular heroine in a vacuum.”

“That's only the first scene, and already this show feels wondrous.”

“This jubilant revival is meticulously mounted and entirely welcome – despite the eccentric casting choice of Lauren Ambrose as Eliza Doolittle.”

“Henry shows off the exceptionally beautiful voice of a genuine actor-singer, a voice that while warm and mellow, can also soar with joy and tremble in despair.”

“Lacking that solid thematic foundation, Medoff's play deflates into just another romantic drama about mismatched lovers struggling to surmount their differences and live happily ever after.”

“The staging is actually too busy, too colorful, too loud, as if Nicholaw doesn't want us to notice that not much of interest is happening.”

“Helmer Trip Cullman does his best work with small, tight ensembles like this one, so there's no slack in the emotional tension and no escape from the sticky web that even nice people get tangled up in when they tell lies – especially the lies they tell themselves.”

“With Jackson in the role, his mother punches back.”

“In fact, experiencing this revival of the 25-year-old play feels more like picking up a scorching hot ember from a fire that won't burn out.”

“As interpreted and manipulated by actor Greg Hildreth, he's a clever little scamp who brings a lot of heart and humor to this chilly show.”

“However well packaged, the show just isn't a good fit for New York, where it arrived by way of San Diego, New Orleans, and those tropical resort towns, Chicago and Houston.”

“He makes a brilliant buffoon of the oblivious barber, allowing himself no more than a delighted and slightly demented cackle to let us in on the joke of this ‘light comedy of small town American life that slowly turns into a gruesome tale of misogyny, adultery, and murder.’”

“There's not much to Claire van Kampen's simplistic script for 'Farinelli and the King,' the play now running on Broadway after premiering at Shakespeare's Globe in London. But with a lead performance by Oscar and Tony winner Mark Rylance in full sail, it's enough.”

“Luckily, these mesmerizing performers could keep us enthralled through any of the cataclysmic events alluded to in the play.”

“This rollicking musical adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon series is a fizzy, exuberant show that captures all the innocent joy and silly humor of the source material while adding sophisticated theatrical craftsmanship.”

“The same number should also clinch the future theater career of this thrilling young talent.”

“But clever lines and canny body language only get you so far, and there comes a point when this lightweight comedy just gives up and implodes on itself from lack of thought and direction.”

“But it gives no pleasure to watch the star struggling to keep up with Chloe as she trolls for current power players and/or future lovers.”

“This exquisite musical, based on the 2007. Israeli film of the same name, is a work of such delicate beauty and emotional intelligence that it seems to have been breathed into existence rather than constructed.”

“What it does do, in this slickly directed production directed by Doug Hughes, is capture the electric energy that fueled these aggressive acquisitions, along with the intoxicating sense of power that blinded the raiders to all other principles and values.”

“Here, Owen seems more deeply haunted by Gallimard's forbidden love for Song Liling (a lithe Jin Ha in this production); but his earnest attempt to play the character's sexual uncertainty is ultimately unconvincing.”

“It’s a great scene, but first we have to get there, and the erratic directorial style makes that rougher than it needs to be.”

“These are the stories that deliver his main message that ‘one person out of nowhere can make a revolution.’”

“He’s so unsettling during this scene (scarier than the box of rats waiting for Winston in Room 101 of the Ministry of Love) that Orwell’s suggestion that Big Brother doesn’t actually exist — that he is, in fact, all of us — really knocks us out.”

“Hnath’s dialogue, slangy and vulgar and brightly idiomatic, is full of zingers.”

“As the young woman who finds not only her identity but sense of self, Altomare takes the spotlight with the same assured conviction with which Anya takes the crown.”

“Allison Janney gives a performance of stunning complexity as Ouisa, the Upper East Side matron whose worldview is shaken by an encounter with a charismatic young con man.”

“While visually droll, too many of these gimmicks distract from the story and encourage the cartoon treatment of characters as caricatures.”

“Director Sullivan has done brilliant work with this revival.”

“Unfortunately, his music lacks a distinctive sound and doesn’t rise above monotony, not even in the song that (so help me!) involves an enema.”

“‘Oslo,’ a new drama by J.T. Rogers, is unequivocally fascinating.”

“Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole are perfectly cast as the cosmetics titans Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden in this biomusical that's as glossy and appealing as the products these women sold.”

“Kline relishes the comic challenge in this snazzy production directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel.”

“Credit the writer for giving many forgotten Americans a voice.”

“The production values alone are a jaw-dropper.”

“But a strategy that might illuminate other dramas disregards the fact that these embellishments — the harmonies of the language, the melodic accents, the music of nostalgia — are intrinsic to the writer's plays, and especially to an intimate ‘memory play’ like this one.”

“Terry Kinney, a founding member of Steppenwolf Theater, directs a superlative cast consisting of Mark Ruffalo, Tony Shalhoub, Jessica Hecht, and Danny DeVito, who make this revival a treasured experience.”

“By the end of the show, the characters are scarcely more defined than they were at the beginning, and the monotonous music (juiced up by a nifty eight-piece band playing interesting instruments) may be pounding on your head.”

“Yes, cheery, because Harmon is that kind of playwright: He makes you laugh, he makes you laugh harder, and then he makes you choke.”

“Under the direction of Sarna Lapine, the staging is more theatrically structured than it was at City Center, with its stools and lecterns. But even as retooled, the show retains the quality of serene simplicity that heightens the poignant beauty of the score...”

“Close's performance is so ferociously committed that it's impossible to look away, even when you want to.”

“As one of his most realistic plays, ‘Jitney’ is filled with sharply observed characters who don’t immediately reveal themselves to the naked eye.”

“Blanchett and Roxburgh give off so much heat that it’s hard to focus on all these secondary moths.”

“Broadway’s Theater proves a perfect fit for this sensitive musical starring a sensational Ben Platt as a neurotic misfit trying to survive senior year in high school.”

“No matter where you’re seated, you’re never far from the action because the action is all over the theater.”

“This surprisingly fresh revival has been directed by original director Lapine, who plainly understands the bittersweet humor and provisional joy of that period.”

“In this version, which originated at London’s Donmar Warehouse under the direction of its artistic director, Josie Rourke, wit and style count more than passion.”

“The production is as close to perfection as it comes, peaking in sheer hilarity when Hildy’s editor, Walter Burns (Lane), roars onstage to sabotage his star reporter’s plans to escape.”

“Engaging performances, dynamic dancing and a lively orchestra make it the feel-good show of the fall.”

“‘Oh, Hello on Broadway’ might not be the show to win over new enthusiasts.”

“Simon McBurney's solo show for his company Complicite is quite extraordinary: a profound meditation on our relationship to time and a captivating piece of high-definition storytelling.”

“Happily, nothing as catty can be said of the rest of this fabulous revival of the 1981 musical phenom that padded its way around the world on little cats' feet.”

“But he shines as one character: Sam.”