Howard Shapiro

I couldn't help but think of an ATF agent named Peter Forcelli while I watched the super-charged Broadway revival of An Enemy of the People, Henrik Ibsen's play about a man who tries to do the right thing and makes the awful discovery that in his Norwegian town, money is the root of all truth. The man is a whistleblower, and is reviled by everyone for the message he delivers: The water in the town's spas - its lifeblood - has become toxic.

In the new musical Chaplin, which is every bit as entertaining as Charlie Chaplin himself, Rob McClure portrays the film genius with an irresistible sweetness, like candy you can't - and don't want to - stop eating…Director-choreographer Warren Carlyle gives the musical some inspired touches, not least of which is the scenes of movie-making, which play out while the real film flashes in the background. Carlyle also lets McClure take over - but makes sure the actor's Chaplin is far more nuanced than just little-tramp screen imitations. In the end, the compact, sparkling McClure – like Chaplin – makes you believe he can perform just about anything and command an ovation for it.

...'Bring It On' is basically inconsequential. I know that cheerleaders and their nearest will disagree, but for most of us, a story about kids from an urban high school vying for a national cheerleading title against kids from a privileged one is not such a compelling issue, even with helpings of intrigue. At intermission, I was thinking, gee, the dancing is fabulous and the cast, outstanding, but I don't frankly care if these characters live or die. By the end of the show, at least I was curious about how the whole thing would turn out. You can't go too far wrong with a Rocky story done well, but we've been bombarded with so many, a new one has to be inventive to be anything more than routine. 'Bring It On' is neither...The dancing is the single element that electrifies 'Bring It On,' pushing its demands on the cast to the very edge.

Chase wrote a tight plot with characters so richly defined, they could be played as real people or as cartoons, as most are in Scott Ellis' tidy Roundabout Theatre Company production. Ellis honors the play's smooth narrative arc with a seamless staging on David Rockwell's impressive set, which turns back and forth from Dowd's wood-paneled manse to a glaringly sterile sanitarium…It's good and often silly fun, greatly enriched by Parson's performance. His Dowd walks through life much like TV's late and beloved Mr. Rogers, with that same sort of googly twang, aw-shucks inflection, nonjudgmental manner and gentleness of spirit.

I found “Don’t Dress for Dinner” to be head-knockingly convoluted. So do its characters, as they try to explain what’s going on as the two-act moves to resolve itself; part of the gag is that when they attempt to sort everything out, you can’t follow a thing they are saying past the first two sentences...In the end, it didn’t matter, since the situation of the moment becomes clear with a nastily aimed squirt of a seltzer bottle or a shove that has people falling over the side of a couch. It is farce, after all. And it is, after all is said, fun.

People who see maybe two or three new Broadway shows a year — which is to say normal people, not necessarily critics who get to see everything — will like “Leap of Faith” for its playful energy, and because the formula will not be so well-worn for them. They’ll admire its tunes by master songwriter Alan Menken (you always leave the theater humming his music), and its attractive and talented cast led by the superb Raúl Esparza as the preacher, Jonas Nightingale...“Leap of Faith” is about a phony who employs the cheap trick. If the show offers any real revelation, it’s that the playwriting does, too.

Straightforward is the way “The Columnist” goes, in Sullivan’s sure-footed direction, Auburn’s smooth narrative arc, and a sterling performance by John Lithgow, who makes a wonderfully nuanced Joseph Alsop. Also solid are the portrayals of the supporting cast: Boyd Gaines as his brother, Margaret Colinas the friend he eventually joins in a marriage of convenience, Grace Gummer as her teenage daughter, Stephen Kunken as the young whippersnapping New York Times reporter David Halberstam and Brian J. Smith as a bedroom trick during one of Alsop’s trips to Moscow.

The cast is spot-on. Is there any ingenue role in musical theater that Kelli O’Hara — of “The Pajama Game” and “South Pacific” revivals — couldn’t make her very own? In “Nice Work,” even given a stellar cast, when she’s on the stage she often is the single focus, by sheer force of her ability to sing any song fully in character, and deliver it with a striking musicality. This leaves her leading man, Matthew Broderick, in an uncomfortable position. Although his part of a rich playboy with a low-wattage brain means he must appear as a constant shade of gray among the colorful characters on stage, a part he delivers earnestly, his singing seems only serviceable by comparison to O’Hara’s.

“The Lyons” is blessed with Mark Brokaw’s nimble direction and a cast that mines all the dissonance as if each little imbroglio comes popping hot from a precious nugget. Lavin is the outright leader in this — everything from her New York accent to the world-weary mini-whine in her voice to the roll of her eyes says this is a woman who knows her mind and wants nothing to do with anyone else’s. The wonderful Dick Latessa is her dying husband; even though Silver gives him far too many cheap barbs based solely on high-level cursing, Latessa is a pro with the know-how to land them...“The Lyons” works best as lashing comedy, less as a meaningful look at anything. And there’s enough funny lashing to leave an audience happily smarting.

Under Mann’s direction, noisy offstage trolleys clang and rumble by on an erratic schedule (Mark Bennett’s sound), the air seems always very still, and the temperature duly enflames raw nerves. But life also goes on apace. Forget the dreary stagings of “Streetcar,” with intense interpretations at every turn. This one has both life and heart, not just mind; it’s as funny as it is violent and loud...Emily Mann knew Tennessee Williams, and at the end of his life the playwright and director had a real bond. She was not depending on the company of strangers when she took on “Streetcar,” and her insights in this version make that clear.

The cast on Broadway has come from a production in Los Angeles, staged at the same time Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company was running its own. The Arden’s version, directed by Ed Sobel, came off a bit differently than the Broadway production, which opened Thursday night. The second act — when Norris really lets loose with his characters’ intimations about racial issues surrounding the sale of a property to a white couple in a solid and upscale African American neighborhood — is mined more for laughs on Broadway, where it’s directed by Pam MacKinnon. The Arden’s production, while undeniably funny, was more intense as it progressed, giving the issues at stake a higher focus. While that’s the interpretation I prefer, there’s nothing awry about the show on Broadway, where it provides all the food for thought and lets you do the grazing by yourself.

Corden is remarkable in the way he makes his character bamboozle the others and even the theatergoers, swept into the action in several ways that I won’t reveal, except to say that the pranks are cunning. I got the feeling as the show moved on that the audience believed we were no longer onlookers, but were conspiring with the actors to bring the whole thing off — a real feat for the cast and the production.

An extended hit last year at New York Theatre Workshop, Peter and the Starcatcher opened Sunday night on Broadway, a Broadway show suitable for families. Adults will enjoy its complex theatricality (an enormous crocodile made from found objects, electrified touches of acting through movement choreographed by Steven Hoggett,sound design by Darron L West that puts us squarely in different places and situations). Kids will follow it for its bizarre and hammy characters and its constant sense of adventure.

Daniels and Coker are supported by a team of four actors who make Magic/Bird one of the better examples of ensemble acting on Broadway so far this season. Peter Scolari plays the owners of both teams and other roles; Deirdre O'Connell takes four very different female parts; Francois Battiste and Robert Manning Jr. perform a total of 10 roles - Battiste's Bryant Gumbel imitation is especially a winner, but each of the different roles the four actors play is sharply defined and delivered.

The 1979 Broadway debut of “Evita” catapulted the careers of Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, and the 1996 movie version gave pop singer Madonna a boost in respect. I’m not sure this revival will do much for anyone, except for the people who would come see Ricky Martin whether he were performing in “Evita” or a one-man concert. Come to think of it, for them he may be performing in what essentially turns out to be both.

Somewhere over the rainbow, Judy Garland never spotted her pot of gold. But a British actress named Tracie Bennett found hers - in the person of Judy. She is sensational in the erratic Broadway show End of the Rainbow, about Garland's last attempt at a comeback, which opened Monday night.

This big-star cast worth a wide shelf of past Tony and Emmy Awards deserves a worthwhile play - and they have one. Vidal's smart, tightly plotted story of political intrigue is not just entertaining, it's refreshing; it focuses on a decent presidential candidate who challenges the idea of ad-hominem attacks on an opponent.

There's not a new idea about musicals in Newsies - just a superb rendering of all the old ones. The show makes you realize again that, against all odds, musicals can feel like real life. ... The choreography by Christopher Gattelli adds another striking element and the cast dances it with real joy, executing its demanding slides, flips and high-jumps as though they were innate movements.

Josh Young's Judas is a standout, not just for his powerful singing but his ability to act through song. Chilina Kennedy's Mary Magdalene, Tom Hewitt's Pontius Pilate and Bruce Dow's goofy King Herod come off just so, and Lisa Shriver's choreography makes for dandy dancing disciples. While this revival may not present the superstar of our dreams, it provides solid musical reasons to walk in its ways.

They won the original-song Oscar in 2007 for 'Falling Slowly,' in the film and now, a key song in the stage musical. In it, yet another browbeaten lyric for its two main characters commands: 'Take this sinking boat and point it home -- you've still got time.' Not a bad suggestion for the audience, either.

What makes this production so powerful is the way Nichols draws clear characters from everyone - even the waiters in a late scene seem to have back-stories hidden somewhere in their portrayals. ... From its opening, when Willy returns abruptly from a business trip, to its requiem in the final moments, Nichols squeezes these juicy characters. Miller gives Death of a Salesman a muscular narrative arc, and this revival provides the intensity to flex it and strike.

Shatner's World is equal parts endearing and funny - a mixture of two worlds, really: everyday and rarefied. The show is a must for Shatner fans, but you needn't be all that familiar with his work to understand a lot about him through his stories, which travel from his roots in Montreal through college there at McGill University, and jobs that grew more challenging with each 'yes.' ... Shatner's appetite for new challenges pushes him to constantly redefine himself; he has been America's captain of Star Trek on TV and in the movies. He's been T.J. Hooker on the so-named TV show, host of TV's early reality-based Rescue 911, then oddball lawyer Denny Crane on Boston Legal and The Practice. And more. If you want a glimpse of him as himself, catch him interviewing celebs on Bio's Shatner's Raw Nerve. If you want to watch him build a character without saying a word or moving, click Priceline on the Web. If you're looking for Shatner the raconteur, you'll find him on Broadway.

Wit is, of course, scary - when is cancer not? But it's also funny - very funny - which is part of its triumph; we understand the pain and the process so much more clearly through the main character's witty vision. Nixon delivers those insights, in a play the character has constructed about her life with cancer, with a shaved head and no eyebrows - her character is on the highest dose of chemo possible. Emma Thompson shaved her scalp for Mike Nichols' tele-play of Wit on HBO (2001), as do actresses in regional theater. Nixon's normally expressive face is even more so, with a baseball cap perched on her high forehead

The immensely satisfying Porgy and Bess that opened in a Broadway revival Thursday night is not your grandma's P&B. In a controversial makeover that has ended up neither controversial nor very much made over, what you get is a compelling and confident mixture of opera and stage sense that drives the music as well as the story.

Well, you get the picture, even if audiences may find it spotty. The plot was tough in 1965, without all the sexual confusion that in fact gives the plot new depth - even as it makes it harder to believe. Except for the memory scenes with Melinda, On A Clear Day was set then in the '60s. It's update takes place in the mid '70s, still with Alan J. Lerner's lyrics and Burton Lane's lovely music, although some of it was not in the original and much of the rest has been moved around to nicely fit the new plot.