The Village Voice

“Contributing to the detail-perfect representation, Pask, Heather Gilbert (lighting), David Bengali (video/projections), Daniel Kluger (sound), and Brenda Abbandandolo (costumes) all turn in stellar work.”

“Snook is a fireball of an actress, reminiscent at times of past British stage stars like Beryl Reid and Janet McTeer.”

“She is magnificent, giving a tingly performance that will be as hard to shake off as a tightened tassel.”

“Directed by Rupert Goold (Ink, Patriots), this show is a guilty pleasure awash in a colorful struggle between good and evil.”

“There’s no show without the stars — their staccato interplay is expert — and while Silverman’s play often feels like it might evaporate through those beams, it’s nice to spend time with these two old friends.”

“In any case, this Cabaret doesn’t always trust the material, but there are also times when it breathes life into the show, becoming powerful as its ‘go for broke’ approach increasingly hits the jackpot.”

“Well, more than four decades after it premiered to quizzical expressions, Merrily Along is a hit.”

“By the end of the show, the audience has submitted to the pizzazzy uplift.”

“Scott Pask’s set is a big wooden barn that practically gives you splinters when you look at it, and three-time Tony-winning director Jack O’Brien (Hairspray) and choreographer Sarah O’Gleby keep things moving so you don’t stop and ponder too much about plot developments dealing with who kissed whom, not to mention a dumb bit about the dual sets ...”

“That’s correct, if not exactly thrilling theater.”

“Vapid, musically dead, and dramatically flat, Pretty Woman exists for no other reason than to dig cash out of tourist pockets.”

“Shrewd, funny, sexy, and with a glorious beat, Head Over Heels will have you flipping for joy.”

“O’Neill tried to sound a wake-up call; we can be grateful that it rings out so loud and clear in this production.”

“As it stands, its effect more closely resembles a pack of Bertie Botts’s Every Flavor Beans — in which, too often, you draw the wrong flavor.”

“But as the musical dragged on, I found myself wishing it were weirder, riskier — more willing to try something new rather than phone it in, knowing that audiences will flock no matter how formulaic and lazy an adaptation this is.”

“The one serious misfire is Garfield’s Prior, squawky and overstated, with little emotional shading and barely a hint of the physical weakness in the character’s condition; memories of Stephen Spinella’s immaculately nuanced Prior keep crowding him off the stage.”

“Frozen itself is like Elsa’s ice palace — a big, cold, ugly thing, full of glittering effects but ultimately barren.”

“Here’s a morality tale where no one in the audience, or onstage, has enough information to act with moral certitude.”

“So it’s a bummer to report that Escape to Margaritaville, a new jukebox musical devised from Buffett’s feel-good song catalog, turns out to be something of a snooze on Broadway.”

“It is a pleasure to witness Lithgow demonstrate his proficiency as an actor while honoring both his father and the power of the spoken word.”

“A tuneful tribute to the Antillean residents’ adaptive ability and will to survive, its spirit well captured in Arden’s cheerfully flamboyant production...Of the many musicals Ahrens and composer Flaherty have written together, this one shows her skills at their best...”

“Regrettably, the most provocative thought The Children has left me with is the gnawing concern that plays of its kind will not do anymore, that the mounting crises of our world can no longer fit inside a box set, however oddly canted or dressed up with effects.”

“But in truth, Key and his fellow cast members can only light up the darkness, briefly, before the void returns.”

“Gently and subtly, Cromer blends this mix of arid discontents and lush emotional yearnings into a startlingly savory whole, a piece of musical-theater nouvelle cuisine, in which the disparate elements enliven one another’s flavors.”

“That such a love is misguided, blinding those afflicted with it to so much else in the world, contributes to the play’s melancholy chill, as does Akhtar’s awareness, pointed up in two key late scenes, that most of us will never feel or comprehend it.”

“In fact, you may find yourself wishing the Cort had provided seat belts, because if your fondness for the original runs high, your feelings may be in for a very bumpy night.”

“It does so, however, in a puzzlingly perfunctory fashion.”

“Zany, morbid, and brimful of compassion, Marvin’s Room is the defining work of a playwright who died of complications from AIDS at the age of 33.”

“The group creates its vividly bittersweet narrative together, as a team.”

“But as a fan of both children’s literature and Broadway, I came away disappointed, cheated of human warmth and theatrical energy.”

“But in the constant dynamic juggling of our sympathies, The Little Foxes is something so much better — and so much more affecting: It's a fantastic play about flawed human beings.”

“More than a quarter-century after its premiere, the play feels newly critical in our current neo–Gilded Age, built on debts and speculation, hollow imaginations and empty experiences.”

“Karl uncorks a torrent of peerless, worth-the-ticket-price reactions, riffing at length on Phil's feelings of stunned disgust with all the vigorous invention of Sonny Rollins running through a calypso.”

“Sher achieves a gallery of first-rate performances, with Mays and Ehle, caught in the middle, gulping in anguish or swallowing their pride as the two opposing teams veer from hostile harshness to cheerful camaraderie and back again.”

“War Paint may not be this year's best musical, but it's a highly entertaining, inventive, and informative show.”

“Buloff's comedy was gigantic; DeVito's feisty, energetic extravagance makes him loom nearly as large.”

“What a paradox that a musical so full of humanity and light could be built on the relentless exactitude of his inner questing.”

“That depth and density comes out vividly in Ruben Santiago-Hudson's production. Every role is fulfilled handsomely and inventively.”

“Like previous adapters, Upton has not succeeded in turning Chekhov's messy draft into a play.”

“He communicates the role infallibly — ironic, given that its core is the character's anxiety over his constant miscommunication.”

“The bigger show, it turns out, is the more quietly real.”

“Rising to the challenge of the mammoth text (the production runs nearly four hours) is an accomplishment worth celebrating.”

“Van Hove's faithful production can't patch the cracks in Miller's conceit.”

“It's a timely tragedy: a reminder of how easily wounded pride can mutate into xenophobic aggression.”

“It just doesn't matter as much as it ought to.”

“Erivo's voice reverberates throughout her body with a fury that ignites the show with purpose — if one that's only fleeting.”

“Despite Metcalf's excellently maniacal Annie, the tension here is more discomfort than terror.”

“It doesn't quite achieve either — though there is a mildly exciting rowboat scene.”

“Alas, Dames at Sea isn't big enough — or good enough — to command a Broadway stage, even at the diminutive Helen Hayes.”

“Fools for realism, these lovers never make it outside the motel room and into the vast night beyond.”

“It's been said that a musical has to have at least three 'wow' moments to really grab an audience. Well, the Diane Paulus-directed revival of the 1972 musical Pippin has at least seven.”

“As the monologue grows in texture, Midler shines, serving less of a caricature and more of a person--someone who it turns out has some real feeling lurking beneath the caftan and the zingers.”

“It's a terrible shame, it's an insult to the talented performers.”

“By the end, the talented Porter has veritably become Whitney Houston while learning the importance of being a man.”

“In the uneven but boisterously affecting result, McAlary's pure love of journalism--like Ephron's--shines through like a cigarette in the dark.”

“Taylor is splendid, capturing the humor, decency, and abrasive energy in the woman while smoothly going from speech to phone call to more yakking.”

“If you ask me, I'm still glad to have been part of the mob who demanded an original drama, but The Anarchist could have used a lot more blood and tears.”

“But despite the chuckles, The Performers tended to remind me of one of the satirical porn titles mentioned in it: I Ate Chinese and Now I'm Hungry Again.”

“This one does quite nicely, with splendid sets, good casting, and solid attention to the score.”

“Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain is a fine actress who seems incapable of a false move, giving a naturalistic performance, though I found some of her moments flat, needing a bit more awakened fire.”

“The three-plus hour, three-act play is done with a crackling intelligence, a sense of immediacy and realness making the material fresh again.”

“The Columnist, it turns out, is well-written, nicely designed, talky, and a little bit dull.”

“The result (and the coda) can be heavy handed but in the context of such a bold gimmick, the incisive Clybourne Park is worth spending 50 years with.”

“So while this might not be the best Best Man -- except for some of the women -- the play still provides enough topical pleasures to warrant blackmailing someone for a ticket.”

“Yes, there have been better Salesmen, but this production is a solid reminder of the play's sturdy brilliance in dissecting the dark side of the American dream.”

“Her vehicle is not all smoothly entertaining--the play within a play is less riveting than the actor-versus-playwright dynamic, and without an intermission, it's a long sit--but for a pristinely acted literary sex comedy, it's hard to beat Venus In Fur, except with a stick.”

“Regrettably, the neatness, like the play's dramatic interest, begins and ends there.”

“And supporting turns by Jayne Houdyshell, Terri White, and Rosalind Elias deliver socko old-school showmanship that reminds you why, even if theaters shutter, vaudeville will never die.”

“Daly, a forceful, convincingly complex presence in the coaching scenes, seems uncertain and unfocussed in the reveries (where Stephen Wadsworth's scattershot staging doesn't help).”

“I've never seen a production that kept them buried more effectively than this new revival, directed by Doug Hughes as snappily as if Born Yesterday had been written yesterday.”

“Yet together they somehow harmonize, ably conveying Guare's gentle, genial take on the pathos of unremarkable, everyday lives.”

“The tone is wrong -- distancing, unpleasant, not funny enough.”

“Any serious theatergoer who misses an event like this should be bulldozed in favor of condos.”

“And you watch a lot of the show smiling despite yourself.”

“In this wack musical, things just seem desperate.”

“So go. I think you'll enjoy this even more than that other spoof of Mormonism -- the Donny and Marie Christmas Show.”

“His actors, both accomplished individually, make no emotional connection.”

“Less gaudily surreal than the original, Warchus's staging makes a strong case for Hirson's writing, but can't hide his dramaturgic flaws.”

“Despite the glibly drawn characters, the all-English ensemble, under Max Roberts'”

“What I can't live without, in the theater, is drama, of which American Idiot, like many previous album-based shows, provides only the slightest wisp.”

“Sean Hayes, so busy knowing he's funny that you never believe the hero's suffering, and Kristin Chenoweth, the Teflon actress, to whom no emotion ever sticks.”

“Yet the show feels puzzlingly lackluster, like a last-minute birthday gift originally purchased for somebody else.”

“Even Nathan Lane's resourcefulness, Kevin Chamberlin's moonstruck charm, and Carolee Carmello's giddy vocal display can't reanimate this inert monstrosity.”

“Red is simultaneously wonderfully astute and dishearteningly naïve.”

“Parks throws a variety of theatrical surprises into this situation, but they tend, rather more surprisingly, not to alter it.”

“Yet Berger fails to make audiences care much about his characters.”

“Luckily, these minor visual nuisances can be ignored, since Aukin hasn't neglected his central task: getting from his cast five uniformly affecting performances, rich, detailed, and sensibly unshowy.”

“They're selling you the dream, not living it.”

“Some aspect of this uninviting work about unappealing people must have revitalized him.”

“The show's a mess, but it's a likable, good-hearted, overstuffed mess; you're more likely to go away feeling puzzled than feeling cheated by its unevenness.”

“Patti LuPone has enriched and refocused her performance till it actually deserves some of the torrents of gush the press has poured over her.”

“Hence Wicked, a hideous mess of a musical that wants to be many different things, and rarely succeeds in being any of them.”

“Tossing about its alternative hypotheses, Copenhagen has the odd, brainily diverting quality of a salad made of cut-up strips of conflicting doctoral dissertations -- hard to swallow but great fun to toy with on the plate.”

“It's just a glorified excuse for musicalizing and hijinks.”

“Richard Greenberg's adaptation of Truman Capote's classic novella Breakfast at Tiffany's turns out to be earnest, talky, and rather lifeless despite its good intentions.”

“At least when Brick gets to tell his ‘half-assed story’ about how ‘clean’ his relationship with his departed close buddy Skipper was, Walker finds texture in the material, and Williams's angsty glow shines through.”

“It's definitely the most energetic performance of the year.”

“And it was worth the ass-busting.”

“It's thin stuff and difficult to pull off because a lot of the action happens offstage and is merely recounted, but this production has moments, while not really soaring into the absurdist yet warming stratosphere.”

“Alas, for the most part, High gave me a crisis of my own.”