Marilyn Stasio — Theater Critic

What would it take to get you to Lincoln Center Theater to see a three-hour political drama about the 1993 peace treaty between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization known as the Oslo Accords? I doubt this review is going to do it, which is really a shame, because 'Oslo,' a new drama by J.T. Rogers, is unequivocally fascinating. Would that some playwright would write as gripping a play about some contemporary political issue.

The 'Grey Gardens' team is reunited and in good form here. The music feels right for both the individual characters and the progressive time frames. The lyrics suit the characters and serve the plot. And the book is smart and literate - although opening the story in 1935, when both women had already achieved success, deprives us of watching them struggle to rise above their backgrounds and overcome anti-Semitism, in Rubenstein's case, and upper-class social snobbery, in Arden's.

Whatever would we do without Kevin Kline? In an age of lesser stars, he's a bona fide matinee idol of the ideal age and with the urbane sensibility to do justice to sophisticated scribes like Noel Coward. 'Present Laughter' is a delicious drawing-room comedy that Coward dashed off in 1942 to amuse himself and his friends, while engaging in a bit of sober self-reflection. Kline relishes the comic challenge in this snazzy production directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel.

The only thing remotely Parisian about 'Amelie' is the use of a bilious shade of green reminiscent of the outdoor pissoirs one used to see all over Paris. Hardly the image to take away from this musical-theater adaptation of the quirky 2001 film that brought goofy grins to the faces of besotted movie fans. As Amelie, Phillipa Soo ('Hamilton') is no Audrey Tautou. But the star is so bland here, she's not even Phillipa Soo. More than helpful, it's almost mandatory to have seen the movie if you hope to follow the erratic events of Craig Lucas's twee book. David Zinn's surreal set captures Amelie's quirky perspective on life in general, but the Dada-esque views of the city convey little of particular Paris scenes. We could be almost anywhere.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh, the man behind the original production, backs this classy revitalization of an old, presumably boring property that proves to have plenty of life in it yet. The upscale revival should bring a tear to old-timers with romantic memories of the original schmaltzy score, while titillating newbies who were toddlers in the early 90s, when Bush was in the White House, women were wearing big-shouldered power suits, and excess was the name of the game, on Broadway as much as on Wall Street.

Miller wrote Solomon as a half-wise, half-comic figure. DeVito, who holds the audience in the palm of his hand, tends to favor the comic side, making an extended meal out of an egg-eating visual gag. But he also draws on down-to-earth Jewish wisdom to keep family hostilities from boiling over and spoiling the financial negotiations. 'With used furniture you cannot be emotional,' he wisely advises, although whenever he's called, it's always an emotional crisis. 'It's either a divorce or somebody died.'

A concert staging at City Center last fall of Stephen Sondheim's 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical 'Sunday in the Park With George' went swimmingly, with Jake Gyllenhaal in the titular role of Georges Seurat, raising hopes for an extended engagement. The theater gods heard, and the re-mounted show is back for a commercial run in one of Broadway's historic jewels, the newly restored Hudson Theater. Under the direction of Sarna Lapine, the staging is more theatrically structured than it was at City Center, with its stools and lecterns. But even as retooled, the show retains the quality of serene simplicity that heightens the poignant beauty of the score. Gyllenhaal returns in the leading role, his acting chops intact, but his voice refreshed and enhanced by what must have been professional coaching.

Glenn Close makes a triumphant return to the star role of Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Sunset Boulevard,' a once-in-a-lifetime role that won her a Tony Award in 1995. Ever an elegant actress, she's positively regal in the English National Opera production which won her kudos on the West End last year and will play a limited 16-week run at the Palace Theater - a fitting setting for this star.

With August Wilson's 'Fences' playing in movie theaters and Andre Holland attracting Oscar buzz for his star-making performance in 'Moonlight,' Manhattan Theater Club should draw crowds to this pitch-perfect revival, with Holland in the fine cast, of another play in Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle. Although 'Jitney' was the only one of Wilson's ten plays that hasn't previously had a Broadway production, this ensemble piece about gypsy cab drivers trying to make an honest living during the 1970s economic depression remains one of. Wilson's best plays.

Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh lead the Sydney Theater Company in a sparkling production of 'The Present,' Andrew Upton's free-form treatment of Anton Chekhov's 'Platonov.' The original play, an early effort written when the playwright was 21, is quite the shaggy dog - rambling, unfocused and stuffed with gratuitous characters. But the spirit of Chekhovian farce shines bright, and the ensemble work of this Aussie company is just grand.

The very thought of a Broadway transfer of 'Dear Evan Hansen' might chill the blood of theatergoers who loved this bittersweet show when it played in the intimate setting of Off Broadway's Second Stage Theater. But through the alchemy of Michael Greif, who directed the original productions at Arena Stage and at Second Stage, Broadway's Music Box Theater proves a perfect fit for this sensitive musical starring a sensational Ben Platt as a neurotic misfit trying to survive senior year in high school. As for the music and lyrics by Benj Pasekand Justin Paul: Not since 'Next to Normal' has a score tapped so deeply into the troubled psyche of its needy protagonist.

To the best of our knowledge, 'A Bronx Tale,' Chazz Palminteri's love letter to the wise guys and tough street kids from his old neighborhood has not been re-imagined as a ballet, but given the popularity of this vintage material, that might very well be in the works. After the 1989 solo show, the 1993 movie directed by Robert De Niro and the 2007 Broadwayproduction staged by Jerry Zaks, where else could this show go but back to Broadway as a musical starring Nick Cordero? Is it a good fit? Not really, but there's something nicely symmetrical about the material progress. Next up: surely an opera.

To the best of our knowledge, 'A Bronx Tale,' Chazz Palminteri's love letter to the wise guys and tough street kids from his old neighborhood has not been re-imagined as a ballet, but given the popularity of this vintage material, that might very well be in the works. After the 1989 solo show, the 1993 movie directed by Robert De Niro and the 2007 Broadwayproduction staged by Jerry Zaks, where else could this show go but back to Broadway as a musical starring Nick Cordero? Is it a good fit? Not really, but there's something nicely symmetrical about the material progress. Next up: surely an opera.

'Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,' with Josh Groban and Denee Benton in the title roles, is a luscious, 360-degree immersive experience that feels like being smothered in velvet. After transferring seamlessly from Ars Nova to Kazino, Dave Malloy's innovative musical treatment of a tiny wedge of Tolstoy's 'War & Peace' has re-surfaced at the structurally revamped Imperial Theater in a Broadway transfer of the original, wondrously well-staged production by director Rachel Chavkin.

'Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,' with Josh Groban and Denee Benton in the title roles, is a luscious, 360-degree immersive experience that feels like being smothered in velvet. After transferring seamlessly from Ars Nova to Kazino, Dave Malloy's innovative musical treatment of a tiny wedge of Tolstoy's 'War & Peace' has re-surfaced at the structurally revamped Imperial Theater in a Broadway transfer of the original, wondrously well-staged production by director Rachel Chavkin.

Schreiber gives it his best shot, but the sensitive feelings of a charming libertine don't register in the same way that his more animal appetites do. Not that animal appetites are quite the thing for this play. Schreiber is a strong actor and a studly kind of male, and despite a constricting costume and skull-pinching wig, he exudes a modern manliness that hardly suits the effete Valmont.

The warm performances of a terrific cast soften the underlying sadness of Finn's breakthrough musical about a nebbish named Marvin (an endearing performance from Christian Borle) who leaves his loving wife, Trina (Stephanie J. Block, dynamite), and young son (Anthony Rosenthal, blessedly unaffected) for a male lover with the improbable name of Whizzer (Andrew Rannells, irresistible to all sexes).

The core component of their act is pure character comedy. Looking a fright in floppy old-man wigs and baggy old-man outfits designed by Emily Rebholz, Gil Faizon (Kroll) and George St. Geegland (Mulaney) are 70-something roommates who have been living in a rent-controlled apartment on the Upper West Side for about half a century. Taking upon themselves the theatrical vibe of the neighborhood, George fancies himself a writer and Gil insists he's a working actor. To enlighten us about their work, they illustrate the techniques of delivering nonsensical curtain lines and making one-sided telephone calls. We should also be aware that, 'if this is a drama, there will be screaming.'

The core component of their act is pure character comedy. Looking a fright in floppy old-man wigs and baggy old-man outfits designed by Emily Rebholz, Gil Faizon (Kroll) and George St. Geegland (Mulaney) are 70-something roommates who have been living in a rent-controlled apartment on the Upper West Side for about half a century. Taking upon themselves the theatrical vibe of the neighborhood, George fancies himself a writer and Gil insists he's a working actor. To enlighten us about their work, they illustrate the techniques of delivering nonsensical curtain lines and making one-sided telephone calls. We should also be aware that, 'if this is a drama, there will be screaming.'

Memories could be fatal to this revival of 'Cats' - specifically, the memory of Betty Buckley as Grizabella, singing 'Memory' as it's meant to be sung, with heartbreaking beauty and exquisite pain by a great stage performer. Leona Lewis, the British pop star anointed by Andrew Lloyd Webber himself, isn't in her league. Happily, nothing as catty can be said of the rest of this fabulous revival of the 1981 musical phenom that padded its way around the world on little cats' feet.

Both the opening and closing numbers of this ebullient show pay homage to alumni of the original production of 'Shuffle Along' and those who followed. Florence Mills didn't join the show until Gertrude Saunders was fired (both characters are played here by the dynamic Adrienne Warren), and Josephine Baker had to wait until she turned 16 to officially sign on. But Adelaide Hall was in the chorus of Jazz Jasmines. And the refined Lottie Gee, played here by that goddess we mortals know as Audra McDonald, was the star of the original production.

The tenderness between Gabriel Byrne, in the towering role of the fading Broadway actor James Tyrone, and Jessica Lange, as his beloved but tormented wife Mary, brings welcome relief from the overall misery of Eugene O'Neill's semi-autographical masterwork, 'Long Day's Journey Into Night.' As staged by British director Jonathan Kent and acted by a cast that also includes Michael Shannon, the Roundabout Theater Company's outstanding revival has a lighter tone and softer edges that, paradoxically, impart a deeper sorrow onto this classic domestic tragedy.

Without bringing anything special to the role of the beleaguered reservations clerk, Ferguson's performance should remind the industry why this clever trifle is among the ten most-produced plays in the country...The funny voices and comic poses Ferguson adopts to play all these characters are no more amusing than they need to be. But he shines as one character: Sam. Not only does he bring a sense of true if battered humanity to the role, he also gives Sam all the satisfaction he deserves as the worm who finally turns -- and reveals that he has teeth.

'Waitress' owes its sweetness to the mouth-watering goodness of Jessie Mueller. As a diner waitress named Jenna, Mueller is such a honey bun, she melts us like the mounds of butter that make Jenna's homemade pies so luscious. The musical resorts to comic overkill to create characters based on Adrienne Shelly's 2007 indie rom-com. But Sara Bareilles has written a charming score that suits the quirky material and Mueller's dazzling voice and endearing personality.

There's no real drama to the basic structure of the play, just the ruthless forward movement of one man's inevitable fate unfolding. To say the play is hard to take is a cruel understatement...Langella does a superb job of communicating the conflicted feelings of a man who can't believe - and won't accept - the changes in his life...Aside from letting Donald Holder get away with shining high-beam lights at the audience during blackouts, director Doug Hughes handles the material with sensitivity