New York Daily News

“This take-down of the literary efforts of the likes of Carol Channing or David Hasselhoff or Whatever Kardashian offers a slight, but intermittently amusing summer attraction for anyone who has snagged a ticket, sufficiently affordable so that you are not constantly questioning your value for money for the entire 90 minutes.”

“That Lane can so clearly reveal that to us is as remarkable as it is devastating.”

“This is a highly original concept, albeit with every note of the score intact.”

“Clearly, everyone here understood all that what was really needed was Radcliffe and what he means to people.”

“Smart does her considerable best to find it for him, but she didn’t write the play.”

“Despite best efforts from all, the whole thing feels like a burger smashed onto a grill manned by Father Time, a charred remnant of days fast gone by.”

“But in a musical, if you’re not pulling for said relationship to survive and if you don’t believe you are watching a real partnership that could live or die before your eyes, nothing works.”

“Culkin, though, has a staccato delivery, a halting rhythm and an innate sense of vulnerability, all qualities that have made him a much-cherished star.”

“Snook’s performance in Kip Williams’s self-penned production is powerful in every way, an exquisitely crafted melange of determination, drive and cheekiness.”

“It’s a remarkably moving character, likely all too familiar to all scions of big personalities with even bigger flaws.”

“To speak in English in order to function in a new place, the play argues, forces non-native speakers to live forever in that gap.”

“Whatever criticism gets hurled its way, nobody could reasonably say that ‘Death Becomes Her’ looks cheap or lacks entertainment value.”

“She’s clearly having a good time and you either jump on the Good Ship Sutton, or you’ll keep falling overboard all night long.”

“‘Job’ is a very provocative and genuinely disrupting 85 minutes with acute observational powers; you won't be bored for a millisecond.”

“It's a measure of the superb acting in Tina Landau's production that you easily believe the middle-aged Keenan-Bolger and Parsons as high-schoolers, just as you do the 74-year-old Lange as a woman in her 30s.”

“‘Uncle Vanya’ never works without a strong, clear point of view and this one is just too hard to track.”

“Here you have one of the sexiest shows ever written as weirdly afeared of eroticism as it is of actual vulnerability.”

“Strong is one of the great American actors of his generation.”

“To the great credit of everyone involved, ‘The Notebook’ also delivers unexpectedly sophisticated theatricality with the requisite supercharging of the tear ducts, notwithstanding an archly familiar narrative.”

“‘Days of Wine and Roses,’ a ‘beautifully’ executed musical”

“Aside from a few silly songs, ‘Gutenberg! The Musical!’ relies for its appeal mostly on the rapport of its two contrasting stars.”

“But it makes for thin Broadway gruel, alas, with a 90-minute running time, a straight-up POV, and a series of behind-the-camera recreations of a situation that already has been much dissected and discussed.”

“Others will be ready to head to the basement bar at intermission to nurse their headache and remain there.”

“It’s very clever and very funny.”

“The rest of this summer dud is just a pale and pandering whitewash.”

“It feels like all of the writers got to do their thing and make their points, but no one insisted on everyone getting on board with the same style and story.”

“A formidable Broadway attraction, indeed.”

“The production problems evident here are rooted in a lack of believability: FastHorse’s premise only works if you can imagine this little crew really existing and the actors and director have to make that happen.”

“It’s very much in ‘One Man, Two Guvnors,’ a madcap couple of hours that bespeaks of old-school pleasures and fun for all.”

“It’s the chilliest ‘Camelot’ you ever did see and it embodies so many of the current neuroses surrounding the revival of classic American musicals.”

“And snorts, giggles and rolled eyes are what it delivers.”

“In the theater, what matters most is what an audience feels, what it cares about.”

“At once funny, scary and disarmingly moving, this must-see production is content to peel back any cobwebs or artifice and let Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Gothic revenge tragedy of a musical howl anew with the agony of human injustice and the ameliorating constancy of love.”

“But, along with JoAnn M. Hunter’s choreography, in a few places, that’s about all this pretty terrible show has on its list of positives.”

“A decent vehicle for two superb actors, ‘The Collaboration’ is not some gorgeously poetic drama, nor does it offer new revelation for the ages, nor a feast of formative risk-taking.”

“You believe her as this idealistic college woman, progressively shattered by what she finds as an unwelcome Buckeye.”

“Diamond was a kind of talisman, and his music, filled with his signature blend of macho groan and sweet melodiousness, is complex enough to stand a show like this.”

“A cautionary tale for families with young kids: Christmas Eve nightmares may be caused...Nothing wrong with a good shudder at the holidays. Gets you in practice for the new year.”

“It's a great truth that acting is not so much about people but people in motion. And that's what is so enthralling about the luminous work of both Clark and Cooley.”

“'Walking with Ghosts,' directed by Lonny Price, has some quirks. It’s only loosely staged with minimal visual accoutrements and it hews too closely to the memoir.”

“Leon has put this 2001 masterpiece back on a fresh, vital pedestal.”

“When you’re talking about characters whose historical presence on a Broadway stage has either been erasure or sentimental objectification, that makes ‘Cost of Living’ unlike any play that ever has been on the main stem before.”

“In fact, it’s the inside of most of our heads and we have to recognize our own regrets; the vision of the past presented here feels pretentious, weirdly cinematic and, well, alienating.”

“That deeply arresting emotional key, added to the play’s predictable intelligence, is what makes the work feel so important.”

“It is successful not unlike the way the long-running revival of ‘Chicago’ became successful, by cutting away what it did not need and allowing for an atypical intense, direct communication with the audience.”

“Gold’s production simply lacks narrative drive. You cannot get fully invested in an evening spent pondering Macbeth’s narrative psyche if you don’t comprehend the world.”

“And if you’re in search of hilarity, retro good times and Crystal’s now-precious signature smoothie of affirmation, timing and stark comedic honesty, ‘Mr. Saturday Night’ is your show.”

“Fresh, funny and full of spunk, ‘POTUS’ may in fact be saner than the truth.”

“The chasms are long enough to send the ordinary viewer spiraling into confusion interrupted only by soul-crushing boredom.”

“Truly, ‘How I Learned to Drive’ was a groundbreaking play, if you can imagine that adjective being used for the first time.”

“Reaction was not sought, connection was rarely made and the entire experience was more soporific than emotionally revealing.”

“Clarified, intensified and inestimably improved since its less-cohesive Chicago tryout, 'Paradise Square' focuses on how poor Irish immigrants shared a neighborhood with Black Americans, intermarrying, exchanging cultures and sharing music and dance.”

“Remarkably, the show is playing pretty much the same soothing role on today’s post-crisis Broadway.”

“That just can’t fully drive a show far more complex than the usual romantic musical.”

“Aside from a few clanging scenes, it’s a gorgeously executed celebration of a pained subject’s artistry.”

“That’s all cool, but it cannot solve that central issue of the lack of dramatic tension nor the overly languid nature of this production.”

“This superbly cast musical has been given a whiz-bang farcical staging by the wily old maestro Jerry Zaks, who has installed more physical shtick, especially from the droll ensemble, in almost any show since 'The Producers.'”

“And, to my mind, this is a very clever, multi-layered and deliciously self-aware allegory from the writer Lynn Nottage that deftly shrouds its true intent between two pieces of bread.”

“I just wish this remarkable piece of writing had been given a more truthful production.”

“In the end, the production is clearly saying that Caroline’s existential struggles in this riven, deeply unfair America can be rationalized only as a gift to the next Black generation.”

“I'd argue that the piece actually could use yet more of those titular thoughts on the state of the nation, of New York City, of Black America.”

“A fun night out reminding us of the importance of familial love, tolerance and forgiveness.”

“It’s a fascinating piece in every way, replete with fabulous central performances from both Emily Davis (who plays Winner) and Pete Simpson (who plays the lead FBI agent at the interrogation).”

“It is to the enormous credit of this small show staged in a time of recovery, that you’ll journey back across the landscape of your own life.”

“‘Pass Over’ is no longer just an expression of authorial fury at the killing of young Black men by the police but a play that embraces intersectionality and says, in essence, that we all need to start over and recalibrate.”

“In its trim two-hour frame, ‘A Soldier’s Play’ sees generations colliding on The Great White Way.”

“Fans will be delighted to hear so much of Morissette’s extraordinary work.”

“As played in this gorgeous piece of theater by Mary Louise Parker — and, heaven forfend, what a complete performance!”

“And yet it also understands that infidelity has a sweet and gentle side.”

“At least you will have fun doing the deciding.”

“His Joe Keller is a monster, barely concealing what is rotten within.”

“Never has that been clearer than in ‘Gary,’ as important and risky a role that he ever has assumed.”

“A radical, enigmatic and uneven production that nonetheless showcases one of the great actresses of the stage, an octogenarian possessed of such energetic intensity and rhetorical accuracy as to seem almost superhuman.”

“Mackey’s custom creations are paraded throughout the evening in the most entertaining fashion, giving the show an atypical glamor and level of spectacle that exceeds most of its competition.”

“It still packs a wallop — even with slow patches and plot devices as old as the hills.”

“Washington has shiny star quality and 100-proof charisma that fits like a glove for Hickey, who's a sort of celebrity to these barflies.”

“But her star turn lacks mystery, might and command to hold you in her grip.”

“Broadway’s spry revival of ‘Travesties’ is guaranteed to work your gray matter.”

“The show gleams like a bolt of lightning — not one that leaves marks on your forehead, just vivid memories in your mind.”

“Ambrose, of ‘Six Feet Under’ fame, is marvelous start to finish.”

“But elsewhere their characterizations are one-note.”

“On the other hand, Medoff’s script can be simplistic and preachy.”

“That's not the same as saying it's a great musical — but the show surprises and impresses.”

“Simply put, she gives one of the best and most exciting performances of the season.”

“He is the show’s MVP — if not its hero.”

“The unsettling winged wonder, hoisted aloft by a handful of people in black, is just one of the eye-opening, brain-jogging jolts of this revival — the most electrifying production you're apt to ever see of the author's masterwork.”

“But their parents may have buyer's remorse.”

“But so it goes in this musical that may fit the bill if you're in the mood for a breezy but dopey diversion.”

“Lithgow's show is personal and has heart. But it also has a weak pulse.”

“English playwright Claire van Kampen’s fact-based but liberally embroidered drama isn’t so sensational — and can't get past one obstacle.”

“The three actors, reprising roles from the Theatre run in London, deliver lived-in, persuasive performances.”

“Arden's smart and timely concept underscores the elemental and emotional tempests at work in the musical fable that celebrates love, resilience and the spirit of hope.”

“At times the dialogue is too stiff to sound natural.”

“Even so, by the time ‘Meteor Shower’ runs its course — it’s about 75 minutes long — the laughs have pretty much dried up.”

“The show is fast-paced, funny, foul-mouthed, insightful and, on the down side, occasionally cringe-worthy...Amid the commentary Leguizamo slips in and out of Spanish, busts out dance moves and apes accents of friends, family, and famous figures. Leguizamo is a terrific mimic..Still, doing voices of a deaf relative and scientist Stephen Hawking...”

“This hushed, heart-melting musical is real — and truly magical.”

“‘Junk,’ at the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center, is polished but lacks a satisfying punch.”

“Between a wan star turn, a clumsy staging and nagging issues that remain even with a revised script, the revival at the Cort Theatre frustrates and falls flat.”

“Sometimes you do walk out humming the scenery.”

“It’s not a deep dive into the mind of a master — more like, Shallow Hal.”