Elisabeth Vincentelli — Theater Critic

Enough of these baby­boomer-baiting tribute concerts trying to pass for Broadway musicals! Just months after the Beatles impersonators in 'Let It Be' left town comes 'A Night With Janis Joplin' - or more exactly, 'A Night With Mary Bridget Davies as Janis Joplin,' though that title wouldn't sell many tickets.

There's a huge gap between what you see and what you hear in 'Big Fish.' Visually speaking, this new Broadway musical is inventive, playful and often downright magical. But then, we expect nothing less from director Susan Stroman, the whiz behind 'The Producers' and 'The Scottsboro Boys.' Unfortunately, Andrew Lippa's score is a hack job stringing one banal non-tune after another. Every time Broadway takes one step forward musically ('Matilda,' 'Once'), it takes two back with safe, witless junk like this. Those who heard Lippa's disposable contribution to 'The Addams Family' can't say they weren't warned.

This revival of Tennessee Williams' 'The Glass Menagerie' arrives on Broadway from Cambridge, Mass., with the excitement usually reserved for 'Breaking Bad' and cronuts: It's genius! You need it! Well, not quite. This is a fine evening at the theater, not a divine revelation. The show is a good take on Williams' memory play, and Zachary Quinto and Cherry Jones offer interesting spins on familiar characters - even if Jones' execution doesn't match her concept of the role.

The most mesmerizing of the lot is Christian Camargo. As Romeo's disenchanted, provocateur pal, Mercutio, he languidly delivers his razor-sharp lines. It's as if the character was fatigued by life itself - yet he energizes the stage whenever he's on. And he doesn't even need to ride a motorcycle.

Actually, that hackneyed vibe applies to the whole show, from Benoit-Swan Pouffer's vague choreography to the groan-inducing dialogue. You often wish 'Soul Doctor' had called a script doctor - especially when Shlomo's warned that he's 'gonna do the horah/In Sodom and Gomorrah.' To which even a gentile might sigh, 'Oy vey.'

But the show really rests on Levi's shoulders - and he carries it effortlessly. The only clue we had that he could carry a tune was from his duet with Mandy Moore in Disney's 'Tangled.' Here, he turns out to be able to do far more than just sing a song: He can sell it. His 11 o'clock number, 'In Love With You,' is a tour de force of comic timing, physical clowning and effective interpretation.

There's a reason we have a revue like 'Forever Tango' and not 'Everlasting Jitterbug' or 'Always Rumba.' Since its beginnings in lower-class Argentine neighborhoods, tango has enjoyed global success, becoming an international code word for both torrid passion and popular routines on 'Dancing With the Stars.' Maybe it's that combination of stylized aggression, pent-up sexuality and aloof intensity that draws fans: A hard-to-get lover can be more rewarding than an easy conquest, and tango doesn't try to charm.

Talk about going out with a bang! Broadway's ending its season with a sensational revival of 'Pippin' - a thrilling piece of eye-popping razzle dazzle filled with daredevil acrobatics.

For her first Broadway appearance since 'Clams on the Half Shell' 38 years ago, Bette Midler split the difference between playing it safe and taking a risk.

No wonder this first-ever Broadway revival drew a powerhouse cast: Cicely Tyson is Mrs. Watts, with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Vanessa Williams as Ludie and Jessie Mae. They share the natural, prickly-but-affectionate rapport of a real family, not hired stars.

Few, if any, others could match her ferocious intensity, keen intelligence and dark humor. This skeptical Mary doesn't bother to hide her contempt for her son's cynical followers. But she also acknowledges her own failings, admitting that she could not bear to stay until the conclusion of the crucifixion.

A word of warning before you sit down for this latest version of 'Macbeth' on Broadway: read or reread Shakespeare's tragedy, or at least the playbill's synopsis. Because if you're not familiar with the plot and characters, the show won't make any sense.

'Where is that fine line where sanity melts?' Jekyll sings. Some theatergoers, bored out of their minds, may well answer: at the Marquis.

Considering its agitated gestation, it's amazing how smooth 'Orphans' is. During rehearsals, actor Shia LaBeouf had well-publicized - by himself - arguments with co-star Alec Baldwin and director Daniel Sullivan. In short order, LaBeouf was out and Ben Foster was in.

Despite this tighter focus, 'The Assembled Parties' bogs down in far-fetched tangents and revelations, as well as an unlikely story about a ruby necklace. It's not even clear why Christmas means so much to this Jewish family.

The play moves along at a reasonably fast clip, and Odets paints a fascinating portrait of Hollywood as a machine that destroys people, marriages and ideals. Too bad the production only gives us a partial view, a CinemaScope movie seen on a computer screen.

With his hunger to entertain and his precision timing, Lane reminds us why he's a vaudevillian master in those scenes. He could ham it up even more, though, as he did so flamboyantly in the film 'The Birdcage.'

Here's what a $150 orchestra seat gets you at 'Motown: The Musical': bargain-basement sets, basic choreography performed merely adequately, and laughable dialogue. But then there are the songs: thrilling, unimpeachable, familiar yet still completely fresh. They fill the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in a huge, giddy rush - and number a whopping 59, though most are shortened.

For once, you can believe the hype. A treat for ears and eyes, brain and heart, the glorious 'Matilda' has it all - plus lasers!

There are few things theatergoers love more than musicals about persistence and self-acceptance. Cyndi Lauper's taken those themes to heart, too, in songs such as 'True Colors,' so it's no surprise that her first score, 'Kinky Boots,' finds her at ease on Broadway. And since Lauper teamed up with book writer Harvey Fierstein, the man behind 'La Cage aux Folles,' rahrah empowerment gushes out of the likable but heavy-handed show as if from a broken pipe.

Nora Ephron's 'Lucky Guy' is a eulogy. A really fun, really entertaining eulogy. You may have heard that Tom Hanks, making his Broadway debut, is the star of the show - and he is, his Everyman-relatable charm coming through as strongly onstage as it does on- screen. But Ephron's real focus isn't a man but the end of hardboiled New York journalism.

The endearing, motley crew with a paw on the Nissan includes the underdog older man with knee problems (Keith Carradine), a blustery former winner (Hunter Foster), a cheery guy who just eats Snickers (Jacob Ming-Trent), a crotchety woman cheered by her devoted husband (Dale Soules, William Youmans), and a religious devotee supported by her church’s prayer chain (the show’s breakout, Keala Settle).

Clarke captures that survivor's drive, as well as the aching vulnerability that bubbles up under the cool, sophisticated exterior. This Holly is still in her teens, after all - a kid who had to grow up fast, she's putting on airs. 'She's such a goddamn liar,' says her Hollywood agent pal, OJ Berman (Lee Wilkof), 'maybe she don't know herself anymore.'

Hyde Pierce and Nielsen make the most of their monologues — his a fierce tirade about how Vanya preferred the life of his youth; hers a heartbreaking phone call setting up a date — and their timing is flawless. Hyde Pierce is a master of the slow burn, while Nielsen’s wild-eyed Sonia often looks as if her train of thought has a loose caboose.

You can’t fault her performance. Strapped in one of Richards’ trademark suits, a halo of white hair perched on top of her head, she brings the late politician back to life, dropping bon mots in a light drawl. The problems stem more from the writing. The show’s framing contrivance has Richards looking back on her life in a commencement address. This is a cradle-to-grave journey, starting in a Waco lower-middle-class family and ending with the Texan’s death of cancer in 2006, at 73.