Elisabeth Vincentelli — Theater Critic

This timidity is but one example of the ways in which the show comes up short, both as a feminist text and as a tribute to Spears’s songbook — and, yes, her life. The last thing her fans might have expected from a Britney Spears musical is dutiful conventionality.

It all looks and sounds great, but the clock is ticking — therapy! — and we are no closer to understanding the real Neil. Until, at long last, the older singer cracks and stops obfuscating. Naturally, the source of his discontent can be found in his childhood, and the show finally makes the essential connection between Diamond’s artistry and his roots, including his Jewishness. By that point it feels rushed and not quite earned, not to mention a little too nakedly sentimental. And yet, the beating heart of “A Beautiful Noise” is that sequence, featuring “Brooklyn Roads” and “America” leading into “Shilo,” which becomes Diamond’s Rosebud and is performed with almost unbearable grace by the ensemble member Jordan Dobson. Never mind: naked sentimentality is just fine.

It all looks and sounds great, but the clock is ticking — therapy! — and we are no closer to understanding the real Neil. Until, at long last, the older singer cracks and stops obfuscating. Naturally, the source of his discontent can be found in his childhood, and the show finally makes the essential connection between Diamond’s artistry and his roots, including his Jewishness. By that point it feels rushed and not quite earned, not to mention a little too nakedly sentimental. And yet, the beating heart of “A Beautiful Noise” is that sequence, featuring “Brooklyn Roads” and “America” leading into “Shilo,” which becomes Diamond’s Rosebud and is performed with almost unbearable grace by the ensemble member Jordan Dobson. Never mind: naked sentimentality is just fine.

You could also consider the rehashing of certain stories and themes as part of a large-scale autobiographical enterprise. Catching up with him at regular intervals, we are watching the construction of a lifelong narrative arc. It's a bit like a comic, one-man version of the Michael Apted documentary series 'Up,' a decades-long project in which that director caught up with the same group of people at seven-year intervals. I, for one, am looking forward to hearing about Birbiglia's next medical tests, not to mention how he is going to spin tales of Oona's growing up.

You could also consider the rehashing of certain stories and themes as part of a large-scale autobiographical enterprise. Catching up with him at regular intervals, we are watching the construction of a lifelong narrative arc. It's a bit like a comic, one-man version of the Michael Apted documentary series 'Up,' a decades-long project in which that director caught up with the same group of people at seven-year intervals. I, for one, am looking forward to hearing about Birbiglia's next medical tests, not to mention how he is going to spin tales of Oona's growing up.

Despite the performers spending time suspended about the stage, the production remains stubbornly earthbound. Until, that is, what turns out to be a somewhat perverse move: the single showstopping scene, in which Antony Cesar flies over the audience, happens after the curtain call, when there is no show to stop anymore.

Indeed, it's not just minutes that have been lost in this revival, which is directed by Moisés Kaufman and had a successful Off-Broadway run at Second Stage last year. This safe production suggests but never fully summons the ache behind the wisecracks, or the dangers and the loneliness gay people had to endure in the 1970s, when the story is largely set. There is also little period sense in either David Zinn's streamlined set or Clint Ramos' costumes.

You can't say the new musical 'Gettin' the Band Back Together' doesn't try hard. At one point somebody shoots T-shirts into the audience from a cannon. Marilu Henner, who plays the lead's mom, passes along Rice Krispies Treats during the intermission. Throughout, the game cast sells the action with undeniable energy - if Broadway quality was measured in sweat, 'Gettin' the Band Back Together' would be a shoo-in for a Tony. Unfortunately, other factors must be considered. The show is a willfully silly piece of cheese, but that stuff is actually hard to pull off - and 'Gettin' the Band Back Together' is no 'Head Over Heels' or 'Rock of Ages.'

You can't say the new musical 'Gettin' the Band Back Together' doesn't try hard. At one point somebody shoots T-shirts into the audience from a cannon. Marilu Henner, who plays the lead's mom, passes along Rice Krispies Treats during the intermission. Throughout, the game cast sells the action with undeniable energy - if Broadway quality was measured in sweat, 'Gettin' the Band Back Together' would be a shoo-in for a Tony. Unfortunately, other factors must be considered. The show is a willfully silly piece of cheese, but that stuff is actually hard to pull off - and 'Gettin' the Band Back Together' is no 'Head Over Heels' or 'Rock of Ages.'

Anticipation for the latest revival of 'My Fair Lady' was high - the Lerner and Loewe classic, from 1956, had been absent from Broadway for nearly 25 years - but not entirely positive. After all, the story of a Cockney flower girl being bullied into learning upper-class speech by an abrasive male professor could feel out of touch, to put it mildly, in our modern climate. Happily, this Lincoln Center Theater production starring Lauren Ambrose and Harry Hadden-Paton is everything it needs to be, and quite a bit more.

Ultimately, though, the real problem is the set list's utter blandness. Commingling rock and classical music has birthed such wildly diverse artifacts as Emerson, Lake & Palmer's cover of Aaron Copland's 'Fanfare for the Common Man,' the Metallica-San Francisco Symphony collaboration 'S&M' and the popular prog band Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Sadly, no such ear-bending ambition is in evidence in this show's selections. Taken individually, these songs are in the canon for a reason, of course; one after another, their effect is numbing. Judging by the evidence on stage here, if classical music spawned one thing, it is the power ballad.

Bring back Donny & Marie! As clean-cut as their 2010 'Broadway Christmas' may have been, it also displayed a ravenous need to entertain, not to mention unexpected senses of humor and kitsch. Sadly, those qualities are absent from 'Home for the Holidays,' a limp revue of carols and Yule-themed pop songs that makes the Osmond siblings' spectacle look as debauched as a Mötley Crüe concert

The show doesn't convincingly bring to life this constant invasion of privacy, but gains traction as soon as the affair is exposed as Winston, screaming like the damned, endures terrifying 're-education' at the hands of O'Brien (Tony winner Reed Birney, most recently of 'The Humans'), whose preternaturally calm demeanor contrasts with his inhuman actions. Even a possibly optimistic coda about the end of the dictatorship fails to reassure. When lies are the norm, how can you tell that they have stopped?

The show packs in an inordinate amount of music - including the now-classic 'I'm Just Wild About Harry' - and dance. You're always looking forward to what choreographer Savion Glover will come up with next, and his set pieces here are just thrillingly fun. The pace doesn't flag until sometime in the second act, although the 'whatever happened to them' epilogue is simultaneously poignant and acerbic. The curtain comes down on a bittersweet note, though without dimming the immense joys that preceded.

If you like your family fare with a good heap of sweetener, welcome to 'Tuck Everlasting'...What sucks is that we missed an opportunity for an all-ages musical with bite, a la 'Matilda,' since the 1975 children's book that 'Tuck' is based on isn't afraid of the dark. It's pretty crazy that this story about regret, mortality and big life choices -- make that 'eternal life or death' choices -- could end up so toothless...the actors are largely engaging, especially seasoned pros like Carolee Carmello, Terrence Mann and Fred Applegate. As Winnie, Sarah Charles Lewis is 11 going on Laura Benanti -- the downside is that she projects such unflagging confidence that you never doubt that Winnie will be all right no matter what she decides. So much for pathos.

Benjamin Walker is toned and resplendent in his tighty whities...his fiancée, played with hilarious archness by Heléne Yorke...The second act flags...but the score is strong...Duncan Sheik's synthesizer-heavy music - radical by Broadway standards...finally delivers a worthy follow-up to his 'Spring Awakening.' A comic 'American Psycho' you can dance to? Somehow, it works.

While the role of an elderly man slowly losing his marbles could have lent itself to some mugging - Florian Zeller did subtitle his play 'a tragic farce' - Langella is fairly restrained. Not quite as much as when playing the calmly menacing KGB handler of 'The Americans,' but pretty low-key by his standards.

But what has theatergoers talking is the show's paranormal activity. The Belgian van Hove doesn't seem to have gotten the memo about how Miller wasn't writing about Satan but the Communist witch hunt of the '50s. In his version, a girl levitates off her bed, a gust of wind upends a classroom and mysterious scribbles appear on a blackboard. The show tries to have it both ways: As a supernatural spookfest and as a morality tale about mass hysteria and intolerance. You may be mystified, but you won't be bored -- the gorgeous-looking production weaves a creepy spell every minute of its nearly three hours.

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's 'Bright Star' is a Broadway oddity -- and not just because it has a bluegrass score. No, the weird thing about 'Bright Star' is the way it juxtaposes an over-the-top plot with a low-key production and mild-tempered music...The show ambles along, alternating between lively hootenannies and lovely ditties -- the title song is especially wonderful, performed by Shively and the ensemble with hopeful joy...The show's droll, earnest tone does have its appeal...As a gentle fable, 'Bright Star' has a quirky charm, but its stubborn refusal to face up to its dark side diminishes it.

A musical doesn't have to be perfect to delight. Cutting-edge is overrated, too: Just give us well-crafted material and a starry cast that knows exactly what it's doing...Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi shine brightly as a classic rom-com couple. They bicker amusingly throughout the show, before realizing -- zero spoiler alert! -- that they're in love. The pair have such a natural rapport that it's impossible not to root for their characters...But then the entire cast of this spry production is flawless, with special kudos to comic MVPs Jane Krakowski (as a sultry minx) and Gavin Creel (as her mustachioed Lothario).

...had Michelle Williams made her Broadway debut in 'Blackbird' instead of 'Cabaret,' she'd have been hailed as a major new stage star, because what she pulls off in David Harrower's 2005 drama is shattering...By play's end, 80 minutes later, both actors look drained. You'll be shocked, yet strangely elated -- the sign of powerful theater.

Forest Whitaker may have an Oscar under his belt (for 'The Last King of Scotland') but his Broadway debut is largely inconsequential -- he brings no heft or insight to Erie Smith, the small-time gambler in Eugene O'Neill's two-hander, 'Hughie'...Whitaker's soft-toned take is laudable -- without making much of an impression. You're more likely to remember the gorgeous set: the darkened lobby of a ghostly hotel, dominated by a steep, foreboding staircase. Michael Grandage's direction emphasizes a spooky atmosphere that makes you wonder if the characters -- Frank Wood plays the other, mostly silent, one -- are dead and in some kind of purgatory.

At times it seems as if the cast is so focused on hitting its marks - 'Noises Off' requires Swiss-like precision - that the actors forget to have fun. Let's hope that with time, they'll become as comfortable as sardines in oil, and the production should gear up into the required breakneck speed and unhinged ­lunacy.

It's Hudson's co-stars you'll remember...Erivo goes from zero to hero as Celie...Celie's 'I'm Here' is meant to be a big eleventh hour anthem of resilience, and Erivo drives it home with dignity and fire...As for Brooks, her sharply funny portrayal of the feisty Sofia won't surprise anyone familiar with Taystee. The shocker is that she can sing -- and when she belts the take-no-guff anthem 'Hell No!' you want to shout back 'Hell yeah!' 'The Color Purple: The Musical' is far from perfect. Marsha Norman's adaptation of Alice Walker's novel takes tons of shortcuts, careening from scene to scene at full speed. Characters, including Celie's brutish husband, undergo drastic changes at the drop of a hat. But the show works in a primal way...Your head may quibble, but your heart's on board.

Well-adapted by William Goldman, the horror-tinged thriller 'Misery' is popcorn theater - it's a carnival ride that piles on the twists and thrills, complete with ominous thunder and lighting during particularly tense moments. It's genre theater that's gotten rare on Broadway, which is too bad: The show is shameless, and that's what makes it so fun.