Marilyn Stasio — Theater Critic

There's bound to be head-scratching over Ivo van Hove's peculiar Broadway production of 'The Crucible,' Arthur Miller's towering 1953 drama about the infamous 17th-century Salem witch trials - and so much more. The ensemble, led by Ben Whishaw, Sophie Okonedo, Ciaran Hinds, and Saoirse Ronan, is superb, and the play sustains its power to shock and thrill. But the directorial concept is baffling. In stripping down the context of 'A View from the Bridge' earlier this season, van Hove did a brilliant job of isolating and illuminating the internal battle waged by its tormented hero to save his own soul. 'The Crucible' resists that treatment. It's too big, too complex, too philosophical to deconstruct and reduce to its 'essence.'

'Bright Star' is Broadway-slick under Walter Bobbie's direction...and an appealing lead performance from Carmen Cusack. But the sheer scale of the package overwhelms this sweet but slender homespun material...Eugene Lee's versatile set looks properly rustic while performing multiple dramatic duties...Martin is an accomplished banjo player and the sweetly melodic music he writes with Brickell sounds completely authentic. But after a bunch of choruses, they also sound repetitive...American roots music is grounded in the English narrative ballad, so it makes sense that Brickell's literate but plot-driven lyrics are intended to advance the story...The big drawback to the chatty lyrics is that they re-hash the plot's melodramatic content, but neglect to deepen or explore the characters.

The Roundabout Theater Company's enchanting Broadway revival of 'She Loves Me' is so charming, you kind of wish it would follow you home. The show is a special triumph for director Scott Ellis...Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi are endearing as the shy lovers in this intimate romantic comedy, the supporting cast (including Jane Krakowski) constitutes a dream team, and the stagecraft is absolutely flawless...In addition to her glorious soprano voice, Benanti has great comedy chops...She's at her best here in a part that has been waiting for her to come along, a part that seems to love her. The songs 'Vanilla Ice Cream' and 'Where's My Shoe?' have her name on them -- and that's that.

Now on Broadway under Joe Mantello's technically immaculate (if overindulgent) direction, Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams play the two deeply troubled lovers (or is it predator and victim?) who meet again, 15 years after their affair (or is it crime?) was abruptly terminated...It was Mantello's directorial choice to go big with the emotions in this first scene, which heightens the drama but also pitches the passion so high that the actors can only take it up... and up... to the edge of hysteria...Both Daniels...and Williams...become more physically invested in the battle and more drawn to one another...But even at this high decibel level, the disturbing substance of the play makes it riveting.

Calling all disco queens. Get out your best polyester frock and fluff up your fro -- it's party time on the Barracuda, the casino riverboat bound for destruction in 'Disaster!,' a ridiculously if unevenly funny Broadway musical...sending up the 1970s cultural zeitgeist. Corralling a catalog of pop and disco hits to tell their spoofy story, the creatives find much to laugh at in the garish fashions, cheesy movies, weepy pop songs and disco-druggy dance tunes of that beloved era...Although not particularly glitzy or glam, this is a good cast that knows the comic ropes...The fun is contagious as long as we're following these eccentric musical cues for plot and character development...At the helm, Plotnick manages the traffic well enough, and the actors are game, bless their hearts. But ultimately, 70s disaster movies were far more ludicrous than anything on this stage.

Calling all disco queens. Get out your best polyester frock and fluff up your fro -- it's party time on the Barracuda, the casino riverboat bound for destruction in 'Disaster!,' a ridiculously if unevenly funny Broadway musical...sending up the 1970s cultural zeitgeist. Corralling a catalog of pop and disco hits to tell their spoofy story, the creatives find much to laugh at in the garish fashions, cheesy movies, weepy pop songs and disco-druggy dance tunes of that beloved era...Although not particularly glitzy or glam, this is a good cast that knows the comic ropes...The fun is contagious as long as we're following these eccentric musical cues for plot and character development...At the helm, Plotnick manages the traffic well enough, and the actors are game, bless their hearts. But ultimately, 70s disaster movies were far more ludicrous than anything on this stage.

When experienced in the intimacy of the Public's LuEsther Theater earlier this season, Danai Gurira's searing drama about women's roles in the Liberian civil war had an extraordinarily visceral impact. With only 177 seats in the house, audience and performers seemed to be breathing the same air. One wondered whether that connection would be broken when the show moved to a much larger Broadway theater. Not to worry. The 900-seat Golden Theater was originally designed to be an intimate house, a good fit for small-scaled, serious plays, of which 'Eclipsed' is decidedly one. And while the $95 top-priced ticket was a draw for downtown theatergoers, at a new top of $145, the show hits the sweet spot for the serious New York theater crowd - the ideal audience for this intense drama - that often feels overlooked and underserved on Broadway.

Forest Whitaker is blessed with an air of warmth and decency that shines through in film roles like the one he played in 'The Butler.' Michael Grandage...has directed him with considerable sensitivity as Erie, the forlorn gambler in Eugene O'Neill's 'Hughie.' Erie feels abandoned after the death of the hotel clerk who was his only friend and lucky mascot. But Whitaker's warmth can also be a hindrance, as it is when the star, making his Broadway debut here, must also convince us that in better days he was a confident and happy-go-lucky sporting man...What Erie wants is his luck back, a need made palpable in Whitaker's heartfelt performance.

Each and every character is enormously appealing, and Karam takes care to reveal their guarded secrets with great tenderness, just as Mantello's directorial hand gently advances the play from comedy to tragedy. The revelations of weakness in this close-knit family are not entirely unexpected -- lost loves, failed jobs, depression, money troubles, health problems, unpardonable misjudgments and the overwhelming pain of grief and regret. The big question, of course, is whether the Blakes can survive after this emotional night. Karam doesn't make it easy for them -- or us -- and the ambiguous ending seems to tilt toward darkness. But don't bet on it.

Not even the sainted Linda Lavin can save the deeply unpleasant character she plays in 'Our Mother's Brief Affair,' a lazy play by Richard Greenberg...Stubbornly lacking in dramatic tension, the uneventful narrative features a mean-spirited woman who may or may not be on her deathbed, recounting a closely held secret to her disagreeable grown children. There's little to fault in the attractively mounted and very well cast production...Lavin's keen acerbic wit is wasted...on a character like Anna, who is, truth to tell, a sour woman with bitter views of everyone but herself.

Funny lady Andrea Martin leads the nimble cast of this well-tooled revival helmed by Jeremy Herrin, who kept his comedic sensibilities under wraps in last season's austere RSC production of 'Wolf Hall,' but cuts loose here...Act II is bust-a-gut funny...This is where helmer Herrin puts his well-drilled ensemble through the synchronized chaos that can come crashing down on their heads if someone misses a beat...Like 'Law & Order' reruns, 'Noises Off' seems to be always playing somewhere in the civilized world, a perfect specimen of its generic art form. And that's exactly the way it should be, because this kind of comedic brilliance never gets stale.

The ladies wear the pants in John Doyle's ravishing revival of 'The Color Purple.' Jennifer Hudson is radiant as the love machine Shug Avery. Danielle Brooks shakes the house as the earthy Sofia. And Cynthia Erivo, the tiny pint of dynamite who originated the role at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, brings the audience roaring to its feet as Celie...All three performers are making their Broadway debuts, which makes it all the more thrilling. In a feat of reverse magic, Doyle's minimalist production maximizes the strength and beauty of Marsha Norman's book...Both the beauty and the brains of the score are evident in the fact that each character's signature song belongs only to that character.

While paying his respects to that manic role model, Alex Brightman maintains his own appealing brand of scruffy charm as Dewey Finn, amiably ceding the spotlight to a cast of super-talented kids who rock out on the kind of songs you always wished had been in the movie...Thankfully, nothing savage has been done to the original film story - except to lay on the energetic rock songs that people tend to remember as having been in the movie.

Come back, come back, wherever you are, David Mamet. All is forgiven (even 'Race') if you will just quit jerking us around on non-plays like 'China Doll' and get a grip. There's material for maybe a one-act in this overblown character study of a power broker whose sins are about to catch up with him. But even with Al Pacino putting him through his emotional paces, this tarnished titan is going through hell in a vacuum, with no one to play off but unheard voices on the other end of the telephone.

The eek! factor is largely missing from 'Misery,' starring a laid-back Bruce Willis as the bed-bound author held hostage by his 'greatest fan,' played here by Laurie Metcalfe. Despite the physical intimacy imposed by its stage setting, William Goldman's theatrical version of the 1987 Stephen King novel lacks the stifling sense of claustrophobia that made Rob Reiner's 1990 movie version starring Kathy Bates and James Caan so unnerving. Or maybe the atmosphere of fear and dread was just wiped out by the show's undercurrents of arch humor.

The strength of 'Allegiance' is in the story. Not the musical's book, which is no more than serviceable, but the disturbing real-life events behind it. The book by Marc Acito, Lorenzo Thione and Jay Kuo (who also contributed the bland score), does what musicals tend to do when dramatizing major historical events - attempt to 'humanize' complex issues by refracting them through the experiences of a small representative group.

If the producers of 'On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan' know what's good for them (odds are, they do), they're ad-bombing Spanish-language media outlets and pitching group sales 24/7. That's the way to go with a surefire audience pleaser like this jukebox musical built around the life and career of Cuban-American superstar Gloria Estefan. Newcomer Ana Villafane (who originated the role in the show's Chicago premiere) is a knockout in the leading role, the dazzling centerpiece of this flashy, splashy spectacle helmed by Jerry Mitchell.

Director Rupert Goold's ingeniously abstract staging calls upon the players in this Almeida Theater production to amplify -- even to the point of parody -- the correlation of the real-life characters they play to the Shakespearean models they're based on. Prince Harry (Richard Goulding), cavorting with his Falstaffian friends, embodies the very soul and image of Henry IV. Will and Kate effortlessly transform themselves into the Macbeths. And all the politicians who betray Charles represent all the court villains who brought down the ill-fated kings in the history plays. There's even a tragic parental ghost and some wicked witches to dispense bad advice.

Gabriel Ebert, who won a Tony for his music-hall turn as Mr. Wormwood in 'Matilda,' brings the same goofy sensibility to Camille Raquin...But even for such a bona-fide fool as Camille...the characterization is much too light-hearted (and empty-headed) for this Grand Guignol tale of murderous lust and obsession...Knightley is infected with the same stupid-bug...she slouches around her mother-in-law's bourgeois flat looking petulant and behaving rudely in front of visitors...Knightley hangs onto Therese's girlish demeanor until Laurent puts her out of her misery by seducing her -- at which point, Knightley comes alive and delivers Zola's lushly romantic sentiments with the exuberant joy of a woman famished for love and ripe for a lusty affair...Getting rid of the buffoonish Camille brings out the best in everyone...Knightley and Ryan are ravishing -- and articulate -- as these fierce bourgeois Macbeths, undone by their own greed and passion.

Ashford does her considerable bit by finding realistic human actions suggestive of doggy behavior...So long as she's jumping all over the furniture, slobbering all over Greg, and turning Kate's new shoes into chew-toys, Sylvia is innocently adorable. As is Ashford, who has created an endearing persona that's equal parts doggy charm and girly sex appeal...In helmer Daniel Sullivan's super-slick production, everybody pitches in to sustain the illusion that the soul of a shaggy dog can live in the shapely body of a gifted comic actress...As long as we can sit back and laugh at Sylvia's doggy antics while admiring Ashford's comic flair, 'Sylvia' is harmless fun. But...Gurney's point is that having a dog socializes and civilizes a dog owner -- especially a dog owner whose wife is insensitive to his existential crisis.

How cruel, to make comparisons with a legendary star! How unkind! How unfair! Well, tough luck, because here it comes: the new leading lady of 'Dames at Sea' is no Bernadette Peters. There's nothing wrong with this revival that Peters, who played the role of Ruby in the original 1968 production, couldn't fix. But musical theater stars of her caliber don't grow on trees, and although newcomer Eloise Kropp is a power tapper par excellence, she hasn't the saucy charm of a Broadway Baby like Ruby -- or the magnetic appeal of a star like Peters.

...this two-hander really is a slip of a thing, elevated to dramatic art by captivating Broadway performances from two of the most enchanting actors you'd ever hope to see on the same stage...the real name of this game is 'Let's Pretend,' and Fonsia and Weller are doing a brilliant job of pretending that they are still alive and that they still matter -- if not to society, then to each other...Like the principals in any other romantic comedy, the stars handle this relationship with delicacy, restraint, and great wit -- until the supposedly untutored Fonsia starts winning big-time. Both stars play to their strengths in Leonard Foglia's beautifully paced production. Jones makes wonderful use of Weller's superior size and strength to bully and bluster his way through every contested hand, while Tyson's priceless skills in the gentle art of passive aggression make the oh-so-delicate Fonsia a fierce and formidable opponent.

The tormented lovers in 'Fool for Love' are a broken-down cowboy named Eddie (Rockwell, wonderfully at ease in the role) and his beaten-down girlfriend May (Tony Award winner Arianda, exhausted from battle)...These ritualized couplings (carefully choreographed by David S. Leong) consist mainly of one lover throwing the other against the wall or across the bed -- although Eddie adds his signature touch of twirling a lasso...His legs bowed and his posture a perpetual slouch, Rockwell is so genuinely invested in this cowboy role that anyone would take him for the real thing...'Fool for Love' is far more physical than other plays by Shepard, and physicality is Arianda's strong suit. The actress has a remarkably supple back, which she uses in expressive ways -- curled in on itself like a beaten puppy, or hunched in a corner like a rabid dog.

Director Douglas Hodge...has made some curious production choices, but once the erotic games begin, you hardly notice that the writer's signature pauses and ominous silences have been trimmed. The most baffling aspect of the production isn't the play's elusive meaning or Pinter's ambiguous dialogue -- it's the setting...what to make of that solid block of ice in the shape of a door that dominates the room, which itself takes a twirl on a turntable for no earthly reason? Or the eyeball-searing strobe lights and that giant psychedelic whirligig and the loud metallic assault on our ears? It's a blessed relief when things settle down and Pinter's seductive parlor game for grownups can begin in earnest. In Reilly's controlled performance as the play's most controlling character, Kate doesn't seem to be looking forward to a visit from an old friend she hasn't seen in years...Owen has perfected the smoldering, could-be dangerous look of an imperfectly civilized hoodlum, so it's a nice jolt when he drops his cool facade and jumps at the idea that Kate's old friend might provide some insights into his inscrutable wife...There's nothing reserved about Anna, who exudes that air of confidence that comes from being married to a rich man.

The wonderful dancing chorus seems to have more room to perform its leaps and bounds, and the individual characters have always been larger than life in the first place. In fact, Leslie Odom Jr. seems even more invested in the difficult character of Aaron Burr, really sinking his teeth into the frustration and yearning that this troubled character reveals...Like any true landmark, 'Hamilton' stands up to repeated viewings. After six months, the show's initial impact hasn't dulled a bit; in fact, the qualities that made it so extraordinary the first time around are all the more striking...That rapper style, with its interlocking interior rhymes and pounding cadences, perfectly captures Hamilton's feverish intelligence and hyperarticulate manner. But instead of keeping to a single uniform musical style (hip-hop or otherwise), as traditional shows often have, Miranda continues to draw from all available styles and musical sources, from nursery lullaby to rock 'n' roll and operetta, in order to capture the soul of a character and the spirit of the moment. If this sort of thing catches on, the old, reliable Broadway showtune may be a thing of the past.