Joe Dziemianowicz — Theater Critic

In short order, this musical vehicle steers straight to the middle of the road.

he two-hour musical mosaic loosely traces a couple’s relationship from first love to maturity and back. It is bookended by extended Rodgers and Hammerstein scenes — sunlit moments from “South Pacific” and moonlit ones from “Carousel.” In between the stars cover many songs from the Stephen Sondheim catalogue, including “Into the Woods,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Company.”

It's too matter-of-fact and not nearly frothy enough to make this wickedly romantic comedy sparkle. There are bubbles, mind you, but they're from a goofy-looking aquarium that's in Amanda's Paris apartment. And even that springs a leak during the show.

While it's very enjoyable, it's also by-the-numbers. But with his irresistible Australian grin, touchy-feely affability and snug pants, he holds the audience tight in this production staged and choreographed by Warren Carlyle.

Whoever said lightning doesn't strike twice hasn't seen Nina Arianda reprise her breakout role in David Ives' clever but repetitive comedy 'Venus in Fur.' Playing Vanda, a seemingly ditzy and desperate actress auditioning for a job, she's so funny, smart and sexy that watching her brings unexpected jolts like an electrical shock.

Now on Broadway, where it's sporting a few subtle tweaks (good ones) and two new actors (ditto), this astutely drawn and deliciously performed play is as juicy and surprising as ever...Like a good popcorn movie, “Desert” holds you rapt and keeps you guessing to the end, although, admittedly, you may have questions about some of the logic.

I won't spoil the play's cleverest moment - but it explains why Jerry has no business being with Nina and why various loudmouthed relatives, a eulogy-happy rabbi and an insightful pizza deliveryman pile into the room and raise a ruckus. It's heartening to see Allen use some of his favorite film actors, including Caroline Aaron, who plays Jerry's wife, and Julie Kavner, who is Nina's mother. Old pals, great. Old jokes, and there are plenty of 'em, not so much.

'The Mountaintop' is tall on imagination, it is short on revelations. Unless you count Hall's assertion that King had doubts and lapses personally and professionally. And that God is a proud black woman.

We've reasonably come to expect dramatic fireworks when Frank Langella acts on Broadway. But even a triple Tony-winning powerhouse can't make damp gunpowder flash and ignite. And 'Man and Boy' - a melodrama of high finance and low morals - is packed with the stuff.

No one could expect director Eric Schaeffer, a veteran of several Sondheim shows, to fix inherent issues - a momentumless narrative and soapy dialogue. But more originality in his approach, conceptually and design-wise (black drapes - really?), could have helped make a standard-issue show a truly distinctive one.

Terrence McNally's brusque and brilliant rendering of Callas is the sort of meaty role actresses love to sink teeth and claws into. Zoe Caldwell won a Tony originating the role. Dixie Carter and Patti LuPone assumed the part in that run. Now it's Tyne Daly's star turn. Dressed in chic black pants suit and scarf, she cuts a glamorous image far from her 'Cagney and Lacey' cop days. Ditto from her grasping Momma Rose in 'Gypsy.' Daly's sturdy-looking singer isn't exactly the picture of the svelte jet-setter Callas was in 1971, and the actress' skittering accent sometimes visits France, Germany and beyond. No matter. The portrait is complicated and charismatic.

Emerging from all that tangled drama, Spidey 2.0 is more cohesive, streamlined and funnier than before, and its thrills are still intact - though it is still weighed down by so-so songs. 'Spider-Man' isn't a great, gourmet meal, but it's a tasty diversion.

The music by Mike Stoller, known for 'Smokey Joe's Cafe,' and Artie Butler, famous for hits like 'Here's to Life,' constantly shifts gears between Yiddish music-hall pastiche and contemporary Broadway pop. Because melodies and motifs rarely, if ever, overlap, the spell cast by the show is constantly broken.

Back then, 'The Normal Heart' was a raging, wailing wakeup call. Now it's a look back, a period piece. But one with the power to make you wince and weep.

There's never a dull moment in director David Cromer's entertaining staging, but that's not the same as being completely satisfying. A wild and crazy work cries out for extremes, and this starry production at the Walter Kerr is too tame and emotionally mellow for its own good. Stiller, who played Ronnie in its 1986 Broadway run, gets to show talents he doesn't typically display on film. He plays piano and sings impressively while crooning his character's cornball tunes.

The show opened Wednesday night at the Broadhurst and boasts nearly three dozen hit songs. Among them, 'I Met Him on a Sunday,' 'He's So Fine,' 'Dedicated to the One I Love' and 'Walk on By.' The title of that last hit is my advice for this production, considering that the songs are so blandly performed they don't make an impression.

That's what I call a rebirth. A new face has breathed fresh life into 'Born Yesterday' at the Cort Theatre. Not that Garson Kanin's 1946 comedy was even a little tired. It is as deliciously witty and pungent as when it was born. But it takes a special actress in the key role of Billie Dawn - the dumb blond who outsmarts her junk-dealer tycoon boyfriend - to make the play more than funny and to make you fall in love. With the knockout newcomer Nina Arianda center stage, be prepared to fall hard, fast and completely. If you missed her last year as a dominatrix downtown in 'Venus in Fur,' you probably don't know her work.

But the play, which runs more than three hours, yields diminishing returns. The plot goes in circles and collapses during a contrived meeting between Johnny and Marky. Fortunately, Rylance keeps you from tuning out. He won the 2008 Tony for his hilarious clowning in 'Boeing-Boeing,' and in 'La Bete' earlier this season, he was sheer delight as a buffoonish actor. As Johnny, a cross between the Pied Piper and Fagan, he does everything he can, including handstands, to create a vivid and ultimately touching portrait of a magnetic maniac. Johnny's stories of giants may be nonsense, but there's no denying that Rylance wows you with performances that are larger than life.

A blessed event has landed on Broadway. 'Sister Act,' which opened last night, is a feel-good crowd-pleaser worth celebrating. Here are 10 reasons to sing its praises…

Played by Kathleen Turner, Sister Jamison is a recovering alcoholic who curses like a sailor and bows to no one - sometimes not even God. Her full portrait slowly comes into focus as the action unfolds in director Rob Ruggiero's bare-bones staging.

Something resembling a plot doesn't arrive until late in Act I, as Alice's journey clarifies. It's about reclaiming deferred joy and the powers of dreams and self-invention lost and locked inside her. It's like a John Mayer song: your body - and mind - is a Wonderland. Performances are a mixed bag. Ritchie brings breezy zest to Jack, while young Sonenclar impresses with a remarkably mature voice she sometimes overworks 'American Idol'-style. Swallowed up by her cubist playing-card costume, Mason could be funnier as the royal. The big-lunged Shindle appears stiff as the villainous Mad Hatter, but the role is written that way. Dacal ('In the Heights') displays a pretty voice and presence in her star turn. Alice's best number is her opening duet with Chloe, 'Worst Day of My Life.' It comes before they hit the rabbit hole. It is, alas, downward from there.

Melodramatic? Yes. Sentimental? Sure. And the characters and dialogue are etched in clean, if broad, strokes. But narrative thinness and contrived twists (there are some) are offset by the sheer scope of the production and the achievements of the South African puppet company Handspring.

Cannavale's work is outstanding. With veins popping in his neck and a body language of tics and anxieties, he stunningly conveys a man fighting demons within and without; one day at a time never looked so daunting.It would seem that the X-rated- ranting Ralph D. would make a good fit for Rock, but it works against him. Rock gives the character a good shot, but when he delivers Ralph D.'s lines in his trademark grunts and high-pitched voice, it's too close to what's become his own comic specialty. He not only draws unintentional laughs, but some audience members spoke back to him. Goes to show - sometimes, it's fame that's a 'Motherf-.'

The show has wonderful moments, but issues abound. McNally's overstuffed story jockeys unsteadily between hijinks and serious drama. With Frank's story, the FBI agent's story and Frank's girlfriend's family's story, it's just too much. Shaiman and Wittman's score shows polish and style. 'Butter Out of Cream' smoothly states Frank's life motto, while 'Don't Be a Stranger' is a moody backdrop for a glamorous dance. But '(Our) Family Tree' and 'Doctor's Orders' could've been cut and never missed.

The new production of the Cole Porter classic 'Anything Goes' sailed onto Broadway last night, and it's as cool and intoxicating as a fresh ocean breeze. Credit two bright talents for such a snazzy, jazzy affair: Sutton Foster, who stars as the saucy singing evangelist Reno Sweeney, and director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall, who's at the helm of this buoyantly dance-happy production.