Elysa Gardner

D'Amour does not burden her characters with pity, any more than the elderly burlesque queen who is their matriarch does. To Miss Ruby, made ravaged and regal by the great Judith Roberts, all are 'little duckies'...The playwright clearly shares Miss Ruby's compassion for her flock, and her respect for each member's individual dignity...directed with enormous warmth and wit by Joe Mantello, all are drawn with both haunting specificity and an utter lack of sentimentality...Julie White...makes Tanya painfully raw. Her vanity-free performance lets us see the worn, fragile creature lurking behind her forced glamour and genuine kindness...You may not want to join this family, but you will love and honor its members

The excellent Roger Rees gives a nuanced, moving performance as the older Anton, and John Riddle embodies masculine grace playing him as a young man. But as Riddle and Veintimilla watch and shadow the more mature stars -- dancing and sometimes singing -- the mood becomes one of melancholy longing, bordering on melodrama. This seems at odds with the Brechtian vibe established by the severe-looking townsfolk surrounding them...In 100 minutes, Doyle thoughtfully touches on a range of subjects: mortality, bigotry, greed, revenge, regret...Ultimately, the show's most valuable asset is Rivera. Walking with a cane, the 82-year-old powerhouse expertly conveys her character's fragility and acerbic wit. Yet even while playing a woman who has been broken by bitterness, Rivera can't help but be a transcendent force. Her presence alone makes The Visit worth the trip.

Happily, the director/choreographer is Casey Nicholaw, whose distinctly joyful irreverence...is just what's needed here...The talented players are key. Brian d'Arcy James buoyantly returns to Broadway as Nick...Nick prefigures certain skeptical scholars in believing that Shakespeare's invention is not always truly his own. Certainly, as played by a devilishly funny Christian Borle, this Will's a slippery fellow...Nigel, played by John Cariani -- giving a relatively subdued performance, in which tenderness and goofiness are relayed with endearing understatement -- is actually the more inspired of the siblings...Even if you haven't brushed up on your Shakespeare recently -- or your musical theater -- you'll find plenty that's amusing, if little that's memorable, in Something Rotten!

The shots -- all simulated, rest assured -- are about as much bang as the audience gets for its buck in this adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel...Musical theater can also incorporate history and tragedy, as Bartlett Sher's gorgeous new revival of The King and I is reminding us. But as musicals based on classic literature have proven repeatedly over the past three or four decades, the form cannot accommodate humorlessness or self-importance -- or a lack of compelling songs, for that matter...Simon's music...plods along, usually offering melodrama in lieu of melodic invention. Leading man Tam Mutu...is at least comfortable on this turf, and he belts and broods gamely. But Kelli Barrett's Lara, while pretty and plucky, seems oddly contemporary...

How do you deliver a pitch-perfect performance when the writer keeps giving you flat notes? This is the conundrum faced by the cast of Living On Love (**½ out of four), the flimsy new comedy that marks the Broadway debut of opera star Renée Fleming...Playwright Joe DiPietro...provides a few sharper lines, but not enough to sustain nearly two hours of dialogue. Still, director Kathleen Marshall...keeps the pace brisk, and her actors are infectiously game. Fleming, in particular, plays her part with obvious relish, and reveals a real flair for screwball repartee. The soprano uses her earthy speaking voice to great effect -- lowering it when Raquel is trying to reprimand or seduce, then offering higher, brighter tones to affect delight or indignation. On occasion, Raquel will regale us with a brief excerpt from a classic aria, allowing Fleming to show off her enduring prowess.

Could a musical focusing on a lesbian cartoonist whose closeted father kills himself fly on Broadway? For anyone who saw Fun Home during its run downtown at the Public Theater last season, that's a rhetorical question. From the start, this adaptation ofAlison Bechdel's autobiographical graphic novel had all the earmarks of a contemporary hit: topical subject matter, a wittily irreverent but emotionally compelling book and score (by composer Jeanine Tesori and lyricist/librettist Lisa Kron), and characters who are at once intriguingly idiosyncratic and instantly accessible.

There are moments in Lincoln Center Theater's ravishing new Broadway production of The King and I (***½ out of four) that may leave you grinning so hard your face will hurt. Then suddenly, without warning, you'll be fighting off tears...The one element missing from this new revival is a rock-solid leading man. Making his Broadway debut as the King of Siam, Japanese film star Ken Watanabe doesn't yet hold the stage with complete confidence, or enunciate all of his lines clearly. But his performance is brave, underlining the character's hidden vulnerability, and at times disarmingly playful. Sparring with and teasing Anna, his King can convey an almost childlike sense of mischief, and wonder. O'Hara complements and supports her co-star with a study in effortless poise, singing and acting with gorgeous subtlety. There is nothing forced or strident about this Anna; when she stands up to the King -- defying his attitudes about women, and his apparent need to demean his subjects -- her indignation is made more powerful by her sustained grace.

Here, unfortunately, Paulus is saddled with a lackluster score -- by pop veterans Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy, who provide mostly syrupy ballads and vaguely peppy production numbers. The book, by rising playwright James Graham, is better -- hokey at points, but offering enough playful wit and compassion to make this story about the creation of Peter Pan fly...Glee alum Matthew Morrison...is predictably likable, and credible, as a man who rediscovers the boy inside himself...Gemme convincingly shows us how Peter's skepticism toward Barrie turns into affection and trust. His moments with Morrison are some of the truest and most poignant in the show...Special effects are on hand, as you might expect, to make these sequences more vivid...In the end, though, this Neverland is most charming in subdued moments, when the emphasis is on human connection and, eventually, loss.

Yet this new musical, this Broadway season's freshest and funniest to date, defies skepticism, both in its wacky humor and its big, buoyant heart. Book writer and lyricist Brian Hargrove and composer Barbara Anselmi have taken a familiar premise -- that of lovers from different backgrounds uniting -- and crafted something that is both endearingly old-fashioned in spirit and decidedly contemporary in execution. Under the whip-smart direction of David Hyde Piece (Hargrove's husband), the 100-minute Shoulda Been can feel like a revival of some lost screwball classic. But Hargrove's hilarious lines, in song and dialogue, take liberties that wouldn't have flown back in the day...The message underlying this madness has to do with the importance of viewing others -- as individuals, in families and relationships -- with eyes wide open. And Pierce and his superb cast serve it with a delicacy befitting a fine soufflé.

Fairchild recalls Kelly somewhat in his sturdy, deceptively wholesome presence. Reprising Kelly's role as Jerry Mulligan, an aspiring painter who lingers in France after serving the USA in World War II, Fairchild looks and carries himself like a college athlete. He moves so cleanly and with such ease that you may not notice at first how instinctively, and seductively, he responds to the jazz nuances in George Gershwin's glorious music.

The subject matter is hardly dull or arcane...At issue, often, is how intrinsically dramatic a character this Cromwell is. Ben Miles provides a suitably thoughtful, nuanced central performance as a man who can be a ruthless enforcer but is not without his own principles...But Cromwell is not, in these plays, allowed any moment of real revelation or release. The flickers of anger, regret and exhaustion that poke through his pragmatic efficiency are not enough to make him a compelling central figure. Other characters allow for more heightened emotional expression. As Katherine of Aragon, Henry's first queen, the excellent Lucy Briers is at once fierce and palpably wounded -- a worthy rival to Lydia Leonard's haughty, saucy Anne, and to the charismatic Henry of Nathaniel Parker, who deftly avoids caricature. The supple performances provided by these and other cast members cannot, however, compensate for plays that impress but don't transport us.

The new Broadway production ofGigi (**½ out of four), starring an adorable Vanessa Hudgens, begins with a giddy orgy of pastels...The choreography...is exhilarating, the mood buoyant. If only the fun would last. Unfortunately, in her current incarnation, the heroine...is showing signs of age, and self-consciousness...Ironically, though, Gaston's courtship of Gigi comes across as creepier here than it did when a thirtysomething Louis Jourdan pursued a dewy Leslie Caron (then Hudgens' age) onscreen...Cott's Gaston, under Eric Schaeffer's direction, rather suggests a handsome but awkward college boy who turns into a stalker upon recognizing his female friend's newfound maturity. The wistful romantic ballad that is Gigi's title song is staged as a near-nervous breakdown, with the robust-voiced Cott breathing heavily and looking alarmingly unsettled...This Gigi fares much better when it emphasizes old-fashioned virtues. Bergasse and Schaeffer provide several exuberant production numbers, and Hudgens, despite over-enunciating her lines, does perky and elegant with equal poise. Little girls, clearly, still grow up in the most delightful way.

But Hare's play is not a polemic, and the chasm that has grown between Tom and Kyra owes to more than political differences. In this U.K.-based production, directed with compassion and brutal clarity by Stephen Daldry, both emerge as flawed, sympathetic, believable human beings...This Tom, for all his superficial arrogance, is a man overwhelmed with restlessness...We see the flickers of shame and vulnerability behind his imperiousness. Mulligan's Kyra has her own nervous energy, but is more palpably weighed down by repressed passion, and guilt...Sad-eyed and draped in an oversize sweater, Mulligan seems almost physically transformed by her character's premature weariness...Whether Kyra and Tom can reconcile or not, this Skylight assures us, both will endure -- as will the troubled, contradictory world around them.

Twenty-six years later, in director Pam MacKinnon's sensitive, impassioned new production (***1/2 out of four stars), Heidi's struggles can still seem dishearteningly familiar...The excellent company MacKinnon has assembled reminds us that Wasserstein's dialogue can be as funny as it is unsettling. Jason Biggs, of Orange Is the New Blackand American Pie fame, mines the arrogance of Scoop Rosenbaum, Heidi's aforementioned flame and foil, with delicious wit. As Heidi's more reliable confidante, the deeply compassionate but sometimes caustic Peter Patrone, rising stage star Bryce Pinkham delivers the show's breakout performance.

Chenoweth brings to Lily, along with those requisites, the girlish goofiness, feline sexuality and gleaming, chirping soprano - higher and brighter than Kaye's - that have made her one of her generation's most distinctive musical theater talents. At 46, Chenoweth lends both an ingenue's exuberance and a knowing wit to production numbers that require her to juggle virtual arias with hyperkinetic dance routines. Yet while Lily may well be the role of Chenoweth's career, this Century, which opened Sunday at the American Airlines Theatre, is by no means her triumph alone. In this production, directed with giddy virtuosity by Scott Ellis, every player seems perfectly cast - starting with the leading man, Peter Gallagher...

What, you were expecting Chekhov? Surely, even Larry David's most ardent fans weren't hoping to have their lives changed by Fish In the Dark (*** out of four)...A man who has found his greatest inspiration in minutiae...was not likely to try to bowl us over with depth...But the jokes do keep coming, and usually stick. If its humor can be predictably caustic, Fish's tone is pleasingly light and flaky. Director Anna D. Shapiro keeps the pace brisk but also knows how to milk a visual...The leading man is something of a spectacle in himself. David has said that he didn't plan to play Norman when he wrote Fish, but he rises to the task by, basically, upping his shtick for the back rows. Waving his arms about and sounding increasingly shrill, David can make Norman's social awkwardness rather too convincing...Perhaps the ultimate message, to the extent that there is one, is not to take life -- or death -- too seriously.

Vegas' ace in the hole is the duly beloved TV vet Tony Danza, who makes Tommy much warmer than James Caan did on screen -- more of a mensch, and thus a more viable rival in pursuing Nick's fiancée, Betsy. When Danza sings, serviceably, or breaks into a tap-dance routine, he sails on pure charm...McClure is energetic and endearing throughout, as is leading lady Brynn O'Malley, whose Betsy is sharper and brighter than Sarah Jessica Parker's was. Jason Robert Brown's generic-sounding score, which can veer on caricature in nodding to Rat Pack-era Vegas, and Andrew Bergman's unabashedly hokey book don't offer them, or the supporting players, a lot of meat...As empty-calorie musicals go, you could do worse than this Honeymoon.

Constellations...will pull you in well before its 70 minutes have ended, leaving you shaken and stirred. Payne is interested in big subjects and ideas -- not just human connection, but mortality, which is at issue in the play's most haunting development...here, intimate and cosmic concerns are woven together with such grace that they seem inextricable. Repeatedly in Constellations, the playwright mines the profundity in the most seemingly mundane conversations...Gyllenhaal, whose performance is as disciplined as it is vigorous, instills the questions with the kind of barely controlled desperation they demand. Wilson...is an irresistibly vital presence, veering from loose-limbed goofiness to earthy sensuality as Marianne seduces Roland with her knowledge of atoms and molecules. Later, when her plight and theirs darkens, she is at once movingly fragile and stoic, assuring him, 'We have all the time we've ever had.'

Casting one of Hollywood's most beautiful people as Merrick may seem like a gimmick, but this revival, which premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2012, offers nothing of the sort. Cooper had, by all accounts, imagined himself in the role before anyone suggested it to him, and he approaches it with total commitment, not only to reflecting Merrick's physical challenges but also to capturing the character's great sensitivity and wit. That's not to say Cooper dominates this staging, robustly directed by Scott Ellis. Playwright Bernard Pomerance also was drawn to Frederick Treves, the surgeon who helped ensure Merrick had shelter and comfort in the final years of his short life, and wrote about him.

There are few things more terrifying than a calm Glenn Close...Agnes, who sees it as her task to maintain order, never entirely loses her cool. But in Close's revelatory performance, she evolves from a woman who seems almost preternaturally composed -- even as she contemplates going mad, in her first lines -- to a more intimidating and sadder creature striving desperately for 'maintenance,' as she puts it...MacKinnon certainly doesn't shy away from Balance's absurdist leanings...Tobias and Agnes and their decades of baggage are central throughout, of course, and MacKinnon and her actors make it abundantly clear that this marriage is not a loveless one. The tenderness and regret in Lithgow's expression as Tobias looks at his wife, and the barely repressed agony Close brings to some lines, convey something greater than tolerance or co-dependence. These fine actors find the warmth in Albee's stinging message. It's a pleasure to see them in roles that accommodate both their intensity and their flair for nuance.

It's impossible to see Side Show...and not marvel at how much pop culture and media have changed -- not just over the past century, but also since the show premiered on Broadway 17 years ago...Director Bill Condon's darkly glittering, substantially revised new production of Side Show (***½ out of four stars)...does invite us to question the increasing nonchalance with which we dissect and ridicule public figures of all sorts...Erin Davie and Emily Padgett make the Hiltons convincing as both sisters and wounded survivors. Their bright, resonant sopranos blend impeccably; Davie's Violet tackles the top notes with a delicacy and ardor that emphasize the character's fragility and fear, while Padgett gives Daisy pluck and wit...In the scorching finale, other members of the side show gather upstage as the Hiltons face the merciless glare of the spotlight with a chilling sense of resignation. 'Come look at the freaks,' they sing, but this Side Show reminds us, at every turn, of the humanity they share with us -- all of us.

Boldness is not, unfortunately, a quality that distinguishes the play overall. For all its sensual, lyrical language and movement, River generates a chilliness that this stark, intimate production, directed by Ian Rickson, reinforces. There is much talk of the vastness and eternal quality of nature, things that Butterworth's writing can evoke with robust beauty.

Thirty-two years after it premiered in London, Stoppard's comedy, which involves people of the theater, still raises questions about love and art that are as fascinating to ponder as they are difficult to answer. In the new Roundabout Theatre Company production (* * * ½ out of four stars) that opened Thursday at the American Airlines Theatre, they're explored -- by director Sam Gold and a starry, supple cast -- with a bracing candor that puts into sharp focus both the dazzling beauty and wit of Stoppard's language and the emotional urgency underlying it...McGregor's cunning performance shows us the extent to which irony is Henry's shield...In contrast, Gyllenhaal's Annie is grounded from the start, and radiantly comfortable in her own skin...As the more jaded Charlotte, Nixon proves a predictably, delightfully razor-sharp presence, while Hamilton's Max is by turns piercing and poignant.

By the end of Disgraced, Amir -- who seemed so richly human earlier, with his capacity for arrogance and shame and fear and pride and empathy -- has been reduced nearly to a victim, and his potentially intriguing journey to a sort of cautionary tale about ambition and bigotry. To Akhtar's credit, and that of director Kimberly Senior and her excellent cast, that tale is at least fun to watch. Hari Dhillon makes Amir...charming and frustrating, showing us both his cultivated slickness and his ongoing struggle to reconcile what he's experienced...with what he's become. Gretchen Mol movingly conveys Emily's own conflicts, and her fundamental decency.Josh Radnor and Karen Pittman provide witty, full-blooded performances as the Kapoors' guests, who seem to have their own issues...Their combined efforts make Disgraced consistently entertaining and thought-provoking -- just not as much as you wish it were.

The songs, despite a few maudlin touches, are melodically and emotionally vital, offering potent vehicles for performers such as the wonderful Fred Applegate, cast as Father O'Brien, and Jimmy Nail, who plays a crusty veteran laborer, and whose smoky but siren-like voice evokes Sting's more nearly than Esper's. By the deeply affecting final scene, Gideon, Meg and the others have learned that love, in all of its forms, can involve letting go - of grievances, dreams, even people. That's hardly a novel concept, but The Last Ship makes it feel surprisingly fresh.