Joe Dziemianowicz

For Mary-Louise Parker die-hards, 'Heisenberg' won't disappoint. As the endearing, annoying, unknowable Georgie, half of a May-December odd couple brought together by an unexpected kiss, the ex-'Weeds' dope dealer looms very large. So much so there's just enough oxygen left for Denis Arndt as Alex, the generous and gentle seventysomething object of Georgie's affection.

Gil and George have written a play, and it's aswirl with jokes and jabs at actors, stage hokum and overripe clichés. The crotchety geezers bat that around for a while, then launch into NY and personal history. They lurch along and revisit their public access show 'Too Much Tuna' - a chance for puppet master Basil Twist to show off his magic and for Seth Meyers to join the duo on stage. There's an unannounced cameo at each performance.

The whisker of a plot and lyrics are drawn from T.S. Eliot's 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.' A posse of pusses gather to see which one gets a shot at a new life. Who could it be? The Rum Tum Tugger (Tyler Hanes), who struts like a rock star? Twinkled-toed Jennyanydots (Eloise Kropp)? The frisky and nimble Skimbleshanks (Jeremy Davis)? The amazing often airborne Mistoffelees (Ricky Ubeda)? Or a dozen others? It's not much of a spoiler that it's shunned and bedraggled outcast Grizabella (Leona Lewis). After all, she gets 'Memory.' Too bad she inspires so little sympathy. The show's first tagline was 'now and forever.' More fitting for 'Cats' 2.0 - now and whatever.

What if God was one of us? Occasionally characters say something so right that you can't help but nod in complete agreement. The line's so in sync with what's inside your head that you're convinced your brain's been plugged into a la 'The Matrix.'

The new Broadway musical 'Shuffle Along' dazzles like no other show this season -- but it also disappoints...When the cast is singing and tearing up the floor with choreographer Savion Glover's muscular and thrilling tap-dancing it's pure unmitigated heaven. But between numbers, biographies are sketched out and behind-the-scenes blow-by-blows are shared. The narration turns entertainment into dull lecture hall...Mitchell, Porter, Dixon and Henry are terrific. But the ace in the hole -- and in tap shoes -- in this enterprise is Audra McDonald. The six-time Tony winner delivers her patented magic in the role of Lottie Gee, a Jazz Era star with a silver voice and acid tongue. McDonald is funnier, friskier and more light-footed than ever...Even though the narration lacks drama, the tap-happy new show gleams with ambition and topnotch talent.

O'Neill is at his most autobiographical in this Tony- and Pulitzer-winning drama. Repetitive and long-winded too. Even a perfectly tuned production can be an endurance test. Performances aren't all equal in Jonathan Kent's nearly four-hour Roundabout staging. As the morphine-addicted Mary, Oscar-winner Jessica Lange maximizes her meaty role's potential. Lange is blessed with an expressive voice and uses it like a musical instrument -- soft and coquettish, warm and motherly, then barbed and brutal as if dredging words from a bottomless well of despair.

Authors Claudia Shear ('Dirty Blonde') and Tim Federle ('Better Nate Than Ever') make some smart changes. Winnie's dad has passed away, which underscores that death is part of life. The book's elaborate ending has been simplified. Composer Chris Miller and lyricist Nathan Tysen...wrap the story up in a warm and folksy score. It fits the 19th-century time period...Characters are pretty sketchy, but the cast makes the most of what they've got...In the end, 'Tuck Everlasting' is allowed to breathe. Like people, musicals need that to live.

The play by Becky Mode...has been updated for a world that's slightly less obsessed with the 'it' restaurant of the moment...Mode doesn't chase stinging satire, just laughs -- and snags a few good ones. Director Jason Moore keeps things moving briskly and as dynamically as possible...Ferguson has proven himself a likable clown in Shakespeare plays and musicals like 'On the Town' and 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.' But that's not the same as being a chameleon capable of shifting instantaneously from one vivid character to another. Ferguson lisps, growls and crosses his eyes gamely, but people on the other end of the phone line are rarely remarkable. The actor is fully committed, yes, but the production isn't totally satisfying.

Director Diane Paulus ('Pippin') does a fine job guiding actors to lively performances. But her staging is heavy-handed. The pie metaphor is unobtrusive on film, but it's force-fed on stage. Musicals, like dough, get stiff when overworked. Still, the show strikes a chord, in large part thanks to Mueuller's sweet and touching performance. In this fairy tale the girl loses the guy - and good riddance. Everybody wins. So do audiences with Mueller onstage.

With its wicked wit, catchy ear candy and sexy cast, 'American Psycho' gives you a killer buzz - for a while. Euphoria sinks once corpses pile up in this glossy new Broadway musical...Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa ('Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark') and composer-lyricist Duncan Sheik (a Tony winner for 'Spring Awakening') are mostly faithful to the novel. But they heighten the ironic humor and lessen the graphic violence of both the book and the Christian Bale film...The pace and interest slacken in the second act...Walker ('Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson') hits all the right notes, seemingly without effort...

With three Tonys on his shelf, Frank Langella knows his way around a Broadway stage. That includes when he's playing someone lost in the dark clouds of dementia...Written by rising-star French author Florian Zeller and translated by Christopher Hampton ('Les Liaisons Dangereuses'), this 90-minute play comes with 15 scenes and a compelling conceit. You must walk a mile in Andre's slippers to experience what it's like to lose your marbles. And you will...At its best, Zeller's writing is crisp, darkly humorous and emits a hushed Pinteresque chill. On the down side, the play is so sterile it sidesteps the mess that comes with mental deterioration...Doug Hughes' direction in the Manhattan Theatre Club staging also cuts both ways...Fortunately, though, Langella is forever intriguing.

Good things come to those who wait. Remember that. Because it takes a long time for Broadway's star-studded revival of Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' to cast a spell. In the end, it does. The final 15 minutes of this play, set amid the Salem witch trials, are built to be shattering and heart-wrenching...Innovative Belgian director Ivo van Hove's staging wrings out every devastating drop of power. As for the preceding 135 minutes - not so much. The drama is packed with ideas about truth and power. But as played here, it's high on talk, but stubbornly low on impact. Most notably, marquee names - Soairse Ronan, Ben Whishaw and Sophie Okonedo - don't make deep impressions.

Steve Martin is famous for wild-and-crazy antics. But in his debut as a Broadway author and composer, he drops the arrow-through-the-head zaniness. He and co-writer Edie Brickell aim straight for the heart in a new musical about love, loss, family and forgiveness. Called 'Bright Star,' the show isn't a bullseye. But it's sweet and tender and boasts a fine cast...Martin and Brickell's bluegrassy score is mellow and pretty. But it's also repetitive -- melodically and lyrically...Director Walter Bobbie ('Chicago') and choreographer Josh Rhodes keep the show chugging along...Cusack, a Broadway rookie, consistently shines -- even when 'Bright Star' doesn't.

Broadway's bewitching new 'She Loves Me' is as sweet and exhilarating as a first kiss...There's very little that's confused about Scott Ellis' sparkling straight-up staging for the Roundabout. Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's score packs yearning and humor as it caresses the ears and heart. The boutique and its colorful characters are brought to life beautifully...'She Loves Me' has its dark plot twists, but the star turns are all bright. Benanti...reminds that she can do anything, given her incandescent soprano and comic timing. The show lifts off when she sings 'Vanilla Ice Cream' and 'Will He Like Me?' Levi...brings good-looking boyish gusto to the catchy title song. Georg's exuberant cartwheel is a cherry on top.

Michelle Williams's girlish and haunted face is so eloquent in 'Blackbird,' you might wish you had binoculars for a closer look...Williams's Broadway debut, in 'Cabaret,' was so wispy she practically disappeared, but now she's commanding. She's believable and shattering as this damaged young woman. Daniels, ideally cast as an average guy-next-door, is her match. He convinces as a man on the edge, a shifty bird on a wire. The play itself isn't quite as successful...it takes time to settle into believable rhythms...Still, 'Blackbird' is taut, twisty and provocative. There's value in works that make your mind fly to uncomfortable places and send out cries you can't unhear.

It takes guts to call a Broadway show 'Disaster!' That's just asking for audiences to say that it lives up to its name. But this spoof of catastrophe-themed movies set on a floating casino and mixed with '70s pop hits is not a Titanic -- or a jackpot. The campy entertainment lands halfway between. In other words, it's not 'Hot Stuff'...It's Tepid Stuff. It's not sharp enough to be a toothy parody. Or consistently funny enough to be called hilarious. As is, creators Seth Rudetsky, who plays a scientist, and Jack Plotnick, who directs, have come up with something see-worthy but middle-of-the-road.

It's a common lament that there are no good roles for women. But Danai Gurira, a playwright and actress known as Michonne on 'The Walking Dead,' has packed this harrowing, albeit sometimes heavy-handed, 2008 drama with five of them....Liesl Tommy's taut staging provides an excellent showcase for the play. The cast is uniformly very good and while performances have deepened and feel more lived-in uptown, there are still few moments - light and serious - when individuals tilt toward being overly showy, as though they're performing. Despite that, plus a few music miscues at a recent performance, the play is unsettling and eye-opening.

This 'Hughie' is hooey. It's not that Forest Whitaker's acting is bad in this high-profile revival. It's that this likeable Oscar winner is not doing any discernible acting to speak of...Whitaker...is simply reciting his lines rather than embodying Erie Smith...Whitaker offers was no connection or depth. That's a shame, since there's plenty to play as Erie, who's down on his luck and living on illusions...Director Michael Grandage...comes up short with a production that lacks high points...Christopher Oram's scenic design is an unqualified success...If you tire of Whitaker's disconnected talk, gaze at the faded tin ceiling or the broken elevator. They're subtle signs of former glory.

Playwright Stephen Karam takes this familiar, if shop-worn, dramatic framework and transforms it into a 95-minute work that is fresh, funny, piercing and perceptive...Karam has an eye for detail on a near-cellular level, an ear for authentic dialogue and a superlative ability to balance laughter and sorrow. There's a lot of both here...Joe Mantello's direction is smart and subtle, making excellent use of the bi-level stage. In an ensemble of all aces, a few actors stand out. Beck, a wonderful rising star, nails the hapless Aimee's black humor. Houdyshell tickles and stings as an undervalued wife and mother. Birney anchors everything as a middle-class Everyman terrified of losing what he loves.

No one does difficult moms like Linda Lavin...With signature style, wry wit and an irresistible glint in her eye, Lavin makes Anna Cantor, 'an average situational liar,' as she's called, a force to be reckoned with. Lavin can do that in her sleep. Even so, the play is a snooze...Greenberg writes sharp and smart dialogue. Lynne Meadow is an efficient director. The cast is fine, but can only do so much with a script that is undercooked and overwritten at the same time...The notion of how much we can ever truly know people in our lives is worth exploring. Who was she, indeed? But the question 'Brief Affair' leaves you with is 'What was that?' Ultimately, not enough to satisfy.

Broadway's fitfully funny 'Noises Off' reminds that it's tricky to perfectly bake this triple layer cake of a comedy. This production gets about it about halfway right -- so even with a soggy and slack final stretch, you're left grinning over the show's sly inner workings...Director Jeremy Herrin's staging features a number of Roundabout regulars not known for broad comedy, but David Furr, Jeremy Shamos, Tracee Chimo and Kate Jennings Grant step up. Martin, a comic ace, brings signature unhinged unpredictability -- a boon to any comedy. Daniel Davis, as wayward senior actor Selsdon, has a goofy demented look in his eyes. Megan Hilty lets it all hang out in pink lingerie and is terrific as a terrifically bad actress. Shining brightest is Rob McClure, who loads fun and finesse into the small role of an overtaxed prop manager and understudy, who shivers from stagefright like an overgrown Chihuahua.

Performances are very good, as is the lively dancing choreographed by Hofesh Schechter that taps tradition and some contemporary moves. But the curious scenery often gets in the show's way. It makes for a distracting, busy and slow-pokey production of a tightknit musical. As always, it ends on a strong note. Tevye's acknowledgment, 'God be with you,' to the disavowed Chava will change the shape of her life, her fathers' and everyone's. You'd have to be made of granite not to be moved to happiness and tears.

My heart has suddenly grown fonder for 'The Color Purple'...The shift from 'Who cares?' to 'Holy mackerel!' is partly due to a canny staging that squarely puts the focus on the rich score by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. And my renewed excitement also comes from pitch-perfect casting of an unknown and an Academy Award winner in lead roles -- an eloquent echo of the central dynamic of Alice Walker's novel, adapted by playwright Marsha Norman. Cynthia Erivo, a Brit who's unknown in New York, is spectacular as the beleaguered Celie, who loses her innocence, self-esteem and all else thanks to men in her life...she sings with such clear, honest openness that you feel everything she's feeling -- and she feels a lot.

Director Laurence Connor's staging is inconsistent, but his young actors/musicians all kick axe. Brightman is huggable and kinetic and rocks steady as a slacker who saves the day. The actor lives up to his surname and earns his gold star. Better, gold devil horns. But he can't save a show that can't get out of its own way - or add much to the classic movie.

David Mamet said his new play, written for frequent muse, Al Pacino, would be 'better than oral sex.' Oral sex? 'China Doll' is not even better than oral surgery. At least for that sort of medical procedure you get painkillers. And it's not a complete waste of time and money. 'China Doll' - henceforth 'China Dud' - is both. Pacino is Mickey Ross, who's on his cellphone for three-quarters of the show. Not the stuff of great drama...Director Pam MacKinnon...makes only one discernible contribution. She signed off on one of the clumsiest, least convincing fights ever on stage...Pacino fails to make phone calls anything but drudgery. He lacks authority playing this millionaire and he doesn't get traction from his customary eccentricities. The trademark shrugs, hand gestures, wide eyes and that gravelly voice feel like the same old, same old.