Frank Scheck — Theater Critic

Reminiscent of Greek tragedy in its depiction of its central character's inexorable fall from grace, All My Sons can feel overly mechanistic at times. Some scenes, such as George's confrontation with Joe, the man he blames for his father's imprisonment, don't quite ring true in their quicksilver emotional shifts, and the play's symbolism can be heavy-handed (a downed tree is not just a downed tree). But the classically structured drama nonetheless still exerts a tremendous raw power that is fully realized in this rendering.

It would be a pleasure to report that the gamble has paid off, at least creatively. Unfortunately, despite the tremendous abundance of talent both onstage and off, the production is mainly notable for being the most batshit-crazy thing to be seen on Broadway in many a moon.

Be More Chill doesn't benefit from a repeat viewing for anyone who's already gone through adolescence. Iconis' pop/rock score, augmented for its Broadway debut with an additional, inconsequential song, 'Sync Up,' is catchy enough. It features some fun, upbeat numbers, including the title tune and 'Upgrade,' while another, 'Michael in the Bathroom,' is a terrific showcase for Salazar, who gets a huge ovation when he first walks onstage, signifying how familiar many audience members already are with the show.

Shepard's enigmatic play defies easy interpretation, with its vague themes of sibling rivalry, the mythos of the American West and the thin line between civilization and anarchy never truly coming into focus. But it works marvelously as a mood piece, which for several reasons this production only partially succeeds in capturing. The expansive American Airlines Theatre isn't intimate enough to provide the necessary air of claustrophobia; the slack pacing of Act I allows boredom to settle in; and Hawke, as good as he is, is a bit too studied in his affect. He certainly tries hard, but you never get the sense of true danger that his character is supposed to emit.

To say that the humor is unsophisticated is an understatement. The jokes are frequently hoary ('We're on, Mitch,' Tygen taunts. 'We're on like your prom date's dress.') and such running gags as Tygen constantly beginning epigrams only to leave them uncompleted ('It's like my dad used to say. There are two kinds of people in the world.') get tired awfully fast.

If you have trouble imagining songs like 'Vacation' and 'Cool Jerk' fitting into a scenario depicting a royal family's romantic complications, you still will after seeing this relentlessly frothy musical, for which the term 'check your brain at the door' could have been invented. The farcical, gender-fluid shenanigans are as campy as things get on Broadway. And that's saying something.

Straight White Men is great fun for much of its running time, but the play falters when it attempts to explore more serious terrain. The playwright doesn't manage to convey successfully what she's trying to say about the expectations that inevitably accompany privilege. The work's ambiguity, deliberate or otherwise, ultimately proves frustrating, especially in its unresolved conclusion.

Burn me at the stake for heresy if you must, but I'll say it. Even when done well, Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan is a slog. And since Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway revival of the 1923 play isn't done very well, it's even more of a slog than usual. The production has been anticipated for the starring turn of three-time Tony nominee Condola Rashad in the title role. Unfortunately, this talented actress fails to galvanize the lengthy proceedings, making the play feel longer than it is. And at nearly three talk-filled hours, it's already very long.

You don't have to enroll for a graduate degree to enjoy Tom Stoppard's simultaneously wacky and intellectual 1974 comedy, now being given its first-ever Broadway revival by the Roundabout Theater Company. That's largely due to the accessible nature of director Patrick Marber's rollickingly staged production, which garnered raves for its London stints at the Menier Chocolate Factory and the West End. The handy crib sheet provided in the program doesn't hurt either.

Rock and classical music had a shotgun wedding, and their love child is on Broadway in the form of Rocktopia. Not since K-tel's best-selling Hooked on Classics series in the '80s has there been such a misguided attempt to combine two musical forms.

That a fairly large percentage of the crowd at a recent Wednesday matinee enthusiastically shouted out those lyrics indicates that the show may find its audience, even if New York is probably not the epicenter. But even those unfamiliar with Buffett's songwriting oeuvre (I know, not a word usually associated with the composer of 'Cheeseburger in Paradise') should find the proceedings relaxedly enjoyable. This jukebox musical is the theatrical equivalent of sipping on a frozen drink while lying on a beach chair in the blazing sun. It's not good for you, but it feels good.

Directed by Daniel Sullivan, the piece has been given an expert production, enhanced by John Lee Beatty's homey, wood-paneled set featuring little more than a comfortable easy chair, a small table and a stool. Kenneth Posner's warm lighting - which keeps the house lights up for the first several minutes, as if to emphasize our collective involvement in the act of storytelling - strives to intensify the intimacy of the proceedings.

A thoughtful and provocative theme about one generation's responsibility to the next eventually comes into play, but unfortunately, the evening takes way too long to get there. The plot, such as it is, doesn't kick in until nearly an hour into the intermissionless proceedings, when Rose finally announces the reason for her visit. Before that, there is an endless amount of small talk that, while it teases out revealing information about the characters, proves a trial to sit through. The attempts at comic relief, such as the lengthy exchange revolving around whether Rose did 'number one' or 'number two' in the couple's temperamental downstairs toilet, hardly amuses.

Morose over being stuck in the city during the holidays? Tired of seeing those same old perennials like the Radio City Christmas show or The Nutcracker? If you answered yes and wish to throw yourself even further into seasonal depression, there's a new show on Broadway that's just the ticket. Expertly recalling the sort of entertainment you'd experience on a cruise ship or in a low-rent Vegas casino, Home for the Holidays is a Christmas show only Ebenezer Scrooge could love

From its title and marketing campaign, you'd think the new musical Bandstand would simply be an exuberant paean to the joys of big band swing. But there's a gloominess hanging over this thematically ambitious show, written by Broadway newcomers Richard Oberacker and Rob Taylor. And why shouldn't there be, since its troubled main characters include six World War II veterans and the widow of a man killed in combat. Uneasily attempting to be simultaneously a feel-good, swinging musical and a serious depiction of post-traumatic stress, Bandstand is at war with itself.

The production certainly fulfills its modest creative aspirations. The actors are very good at being bad and are so daring with the outrageous physical comedy that we often fear for their safety. There's no paucity of wit to the proceedings, and director Mark Bell stages the action with clockwork precision. Nigel Hook's purposefully cheesy set design deserves special commendation, rivaling Disney's Haunted Mansion with the ingenuity of its surprises. But for all the strenuous effort involved, the repetitive show evaporates in your mind the moment it concludes.

The true-life story that inspired the new musical Come From Away would seem like the stuff of a Frank Capra movie. The show relates the tale of how a small Newfoundland town in 2001 found itself unexpectedly hosting 7,000 airline passengers stranded there for days after 9/11. But though the material might have lent itself to sickly sweet sentimentality, creators Irene Sankoff and David Hein have crafted a heartwarming and thoroughly entertaining musical. Especially in these politically fractious times, it should prove a true crowd-pleaser on Broadway following previous hit engagements in San Diego, Washington D.C. and Toronto.

The song 'As If We Never Said Goodbye' takes on touching new resonance in the Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1993 musical Sunset Boulevard, based on the classic Billy Wilder film. This version once again stars Glenn Close in the role that won her a Tony Award 22 years ago, and the veteran actress reprises it magnificently. Playing Norma Desmond, the aging former movie star obsessed with making a comeback, Close delivers a more subtle, nuanced performance well suited to a production dramatically scaled-down from the original.

The appeal of paying Broadway prices for such an experience can be debated. More to the point, In Transit, while boasting engaging performances, features cliched characters and situations too bland for a sitcom, let alone theater.

For this Broadway production first seen earlier this year at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse, the co-directors are DeNiro and Jerry Zaks (who staged the original solo version), with Palminteri as the book writer. Despite its by-now overfamiliarity, the piece achieves a new freshness in this entertaining musicalization, featuring a tuneful score by two Disney veterans - eight-time Oscar-winner Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin) and Glenn Slater (The Little Mermaid, Tangled), whose previous collaborations include the screen-to-stage musicals Sister Act and Leap of Faith

Most musicals are lucky to have one showstopping number. Holiday Inn, the new Broadway show adapted from the 1942 film starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, features two. One of them, 'Shaking the Blues Away,' sums up what this musical packed with 20 Irving Berlin songs succeeds in doing. So sweetly wholesome that you experience a sugar rush while watching it, the show is corny and predictable. But it will surely provide a happy diversion for stressed-out theatergoers during the holiday season, much like its similarly conceived predecessor, White Christmas, which received limited end-of-year Broadway runs in 2008 and 2009.

Although it remains to be seen whether this revival will live up to the original production's tagline of 'Now and Forever,' enough time has passed for a new generation of theatergoers to embrace the show, while those who saw the original (and liked it) will probably want to return for a blast of nostalgia. And with the dramatic upturn in tourists to the Big Apple in recent years, there's no reason to think that this Cats won't be purring on Broadway for a very long time.

..their latest effort attempts to combine Cirque's trademark acrobatic acts with an original Broadway musical. Unfortunately, the resulting hybrid, Paramour, is more Frankenstein's monster than love child...The $25 million production is a traditionally-styled Broadway musical, albeit a very mediocre one, infused with the sort of acrobatic routines normally seen under a big top...And so it goes throughout melodramatic proceedings in which the humor is largely unintentional...Granted, audiences going to a Cirque du Soleil show expect extravagant acrobatics. But the creators of Paramour - tellingly, no writer is credited - seem to have gone out of their way to produce as banal and generic a musical as possible. Featuring atrocious dialogue and forgettable songs, it feels more like a parody than the real thing...The show does have some imaginative, thrilling sequences...Kushnier delivers a thoroughly professional performance in his thankless role, and Lewis and Vona are both appealing....

The story of an 11-year-old girl encountering a family in the woods who seem perfectly normal except that they're immortal, Tuck Everlasting is a sweet concoction that feels in over its head amidst the flashier delights of Wicked and Matilda, among many others...The book...is more serviceable than inspired...The tuneful country and folk music-influenced score by composer Chris Miller and lyricist Nathan Tysen is equally unmemorable. Director Nicholaw...keeps things moving at a sprightly pace, although he overdoes the carnival-style dance sequences that are clearly intended to provide visual distraction...The performers put the fanciful material over with admirable energy and emotional conviction...But the real find is Lewis, who amazingly is 11 years old in real life and whose precocious talent suggests that she may secretly be immortal herself.

The almost entirely sung-through show is remarkably faithful to the historical facts, packing immense amounts of detail into its sprawling narrative. But it does so in such riotously entertaining fashion that it never feels like a history lesson, although it surely delivers one...Largely unaltered from its original production save for one important cast change, the lyrically dense show makes an even greater impact on the large Broadway stage, which provides ample room for its large ensemble. The performers have only gotten better, with Miranda in the title role...delivering a commanding star turn that is as charismatic as it is emotionally affecting. But there's also terrific work from Leslie Odom, Jr. as the scheming Burr, stopping the show with the rousing number 'The Room Where It Happens'...The musical is a triumph...More to the point, it signals its immensely talented creator and star as a game-changing figure in musical theater.