Lovia Gyarkye

And that’s true for all the girls in John Proctor Is the Villain, for at its core Belflower has constructed a poignant story of girlhood and empowering friendships. As Shelby adjusts to the new semester, she reconnects with her friends, especially Raelynn, and shares more information about the real reason why she left school. There are some moments that slacken here, especially as Belflower works her way to the twist, but with no intermission, the play’s frenzied pace continues uninterrupted and helps the inevitable revelation land with a real shock.

Mary Jane is as much about community as it is about the tension of a bifurcated existence — the painful severance one feels in a society that renders the chronically ill and those caring for them invisible. Kauffman and Jellinek use the set, filled with revelatory moments of movement, to reflect the security of an apartment building in Queens versus the sterility of a hospital. Ben Stanton’s lighting attunes audiences to the pull of optimism against the seduction of nihilism. And in the conversations we find Mary Jane, in the face of despair and as a kind of self-protection, always choosing hope.

Directed by Kenny Leon (who nabbed a Tony in 2014 for his A Raisin in the Sun), Topdog/Underdog lays bare the push and pull of American aspirationalism. The play, about two Black brothers wrestling with their history of parental abandonment and desire for economic stability, is airy and oblique. Lincoln (Corey Hawkins) and Booth (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) are the only characters. Their conversations - facetious, verbose, skittish - propel the narrative, reveal their personalities and betray their intentions. In less assured hands, the production could get lost in Parks' jazzy dialogue and structural sleights of hand, but Leon, with the help of his two stars, confidently steers the play until the final curtain.

Her soft, excited wishes fill the intimate space of the Booth Theater in New York City, kicking off Camille A. Brown's rendition of the playwright's canonical choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enough. The production, which opens April 20, takes the task of revival seriously - it's a joy to witness.