Mark Kennedy

Visually beautiful but one-dimensional, the show...is breathless and bombastic to the point of silly, undercutting not only the novel by Boris Pasternak but also some really wonderful actors in Tam Mutu and Kelli Barrett, and what could have been a memorable score by Lucy Simon...Nearby, in another theater, 'Les Miserables,' another flag-waving tale of revolution, looks absolutely subtle in comparison...here the epic nature seems just an excuse for adding flashy elements...Book writer Michael Weller thinks the audience need to be spoon-fed history in huge chunks, and so has used a shovel...Mutu and Barrett bravely give it their all and are utterly perfect as the star-crossed lovers. He is actually understated in a show that is anything but, and captures the inner turmoil of a forbidden love. Barrett's soprano is gorgeous and she is a worthy Lara, bewitching as a woman both tortured and strong...But pulling anyone back from the brink is not something McAnuff does naturally.

The four time Grammy Award winner [Fleming] is a delight...able to lovingly goof on her refined world with an insider's grin...DiPietro...has a knack for writing for daffy characters and this play has a half-dozen of them. It feels comforting, like an old black-and-white film, and yet there's a newness here, too...the play centers on an aging soprano, played by a bejeweled Fleming, and her lothario Italian conductor husband...A fantastic Douglas Sills plays him like an impish boy beneath an exterior of shocking slicked-back arrogance and heavily accented English...One of the play's joys is the performances of two stuffy servants...who sing along to arias as they elegantly change the props between scenes or answer bells perfectly in sync...The play is directed with comedic aplomb by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall...The material could be accelerated and made into a farce, but Marshall never lets the comedic elements upstage the slightly looney characters themselves.

It has only gotten better in its theater-in-the-round format, with director Sam Gold using every inch of the stage and even the aisles. Furniture - sinks, doors and coffins - by designer David Zinn pops up from below the stage and sofas, a car and a bed are spun about. In a play that lingers on death, sometimes the show just has actors onstage amid empty spaces, the voids speaking volumes. (Zinn also nails the '70s costumes, from bowl cuts to awkward plaid to the ill-fitting pants.)

British playwright James Graham's story is part Edwardian melodrama, part love story, part origin story, part valentine to invention and part send-up of the theater itself. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just that each has its own tone. Sometimes Graham is deadly earnest, sometimes he's sly and often he's just trying too hard at both. 'Finding Neverland' awkwardly juggles parental death and divorce and puts them in a Disney show that Disney long ago stopped making...When the show is working on all cylinders, it's absolutely thrilling...The music and lyrics...lean on soaring pop melodies and lilting Irish folk. Some hit -- 'When Your Feet Don't Touch the Ground' -- and some don't -- 'All That Matters'...A decision seems to have been made to paper over any gaps in the show's coherence by backing up a truckload of pixie dust and pumping it into the theater. It also desperately wants you to cry with a series of false endings that will have you exhausted. 'Finding Neverland' has some great performances but never finds its groove.

The acting is led by an indefatigable Ben Miles, whose Cromwell is watchful, patient and sardonic. We watch him maneuver through the alliances and court, protecting his king with skillful manipulations and even what could be considered inchoate press releases. Nathaniel Parker as Henry VIII is riveting, at times needy or smitten and at others very, very dangerous. Lydia Leonard plays her Boleyn as entitled and arrogant, making her fall all that more painful. Directed with blistering pace and guile by Jeremy Herrin, the Cromwell that emerges from these plays is less Machiavellian and more, well, superhero...The first part comes close to being force-fed history like a goose -- but in a good way -- via 30 scenes that change in a blink of an eye...In the second play, things slow down to a steady boil and Cromwell begins the tricky task of becoming a detective, gathering evidence to convict the queen...One part alone stands by itself but this adaptation is like a bag of chips. Can you stop with just one?

...in order to save the score, the creators of a new 'Gigi'...have done a gut renovation on the book by Colette. They've taken out the creepy factor, but they've taken out the zing, too. 'High School Musical' star Vanessa Hudgens does pretty well in her Broadway debut, handling her singing duties admirably...She's game for a cartwheel or sprinting across the stage, but she might want to lose the strange accent since no one else is doing it. She's surrounded by good actors, too, including a head-turning performance by Corey Cott, who proves a terrific actor and singer in a frothy show, as well as the always-wonderful Victoria Clark and a gloriously catty Dee Hoty. Direction by Eric Schaeffer is crisp...and choreography by Joshua Bergasse is excellent...Derek McLane's set of sweeping, iron-lattice stairs and lots of parasols is beautiful, and Catherine Zuber's gowns and foppish suits are very becoming. All the parts are good. They just, maddeningly, don't add for a stunning show.

Playwright Robert Askins' bracing comedy, mixes violence, swearing, brutal honesty, parental failure, church hypocrisy, and plenty of sex - of both human and puppet varieties. But beware: It's a show for those who consider 'Avenue Q' too tame, for folks who think Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, is too neutered...The cast is great, made up of Boyer, Michael Oberholtzer and Sarah Stiles playing three teens - and the adults played by Geneva Carr, who portrays Boyer's character's mom, and the gravelly voiced Marc Kudisch as the righteous but horny church pastor...Moritz von Stuelpnagel directs with a flair for allowing the play's little absurdities to reveal themselves naturally and a skill with onstage physicalit...Beowulf Boritt's set is spot-on...Askins at times seems to fumble for a deeper meaning about the individual getting lost in the collective, but while he comes close to profundity, it's really his cast that leaves an impression. Especially Tyrone. He'll keep you up at night.

Mulligan, in a crackling revival of David Hare's 'Skylight' that opened Thursday at the Golden Theater, starts and completes a spaghetti Bolognese during the first act, chopping onions and garlic and boiling water along the way. The whiff of sausage lingers deliciously during intermission. It's a fitting theatrical device because this show, quite simply, cooks. Mulligan, a spectacular Bill Nighy, the marvelous newcomer Matthew Beard and the director Stephen Daldry make alchemy onstage with their own red-hot talent. Funny, poignant and insightful, the West End transfer 'Skylight' is a full meal in a place where appetizers often pass as entrees.

Mirren, who is becoming something of an expert on playing English royalty, creates an astonishing portrayal, by turns prickly and chummy, regal and regular, insecure and temperamental. She nails the fussiness and strange high-pitched voice but also reveals a frustrated yet resigned monarch quietly pining for a different life. Her quick changes often happen onstage with a new outfit and wig. But perhaps the best stitching is from Morgan, who nimbly fits in exposition and big swaths of history into a coherent and touching portrait of power and majesty. And, with Mirren, even ardent anti-monarchists will clap.

If you're wondering if you'll like Larry David's Broadway debut, 'Fish in the Dark,' you need to ask another question: Do you like 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'? That's because David's new stage comedy is like his 30-minute HBO show, only stretched out over two hours so that what is usually a cringe-worthy appetizer on TV has grown into a tedious and self-indulgent main course onstage. What opened Thursday at the Cort Theatre will surely delight fans of David, the 'Seinfeld' and 'Curb' master of observational humor, who stars and wrote 'Fish in the Dark.' But it may leave others frustrated that a great cast, set and director were wasted...David stalks the stage like an overgrown, wiry insect -- a bespectacled Daddy Longlegs comes to mind -- as he stuffs his hands in his pockets or waves his arms around to sell his outrage. A self-satisfied smirk never seems far from his lips...Director Anna D. Shapiro keeps the action as brisk as a sitcom but this cold fish of a play would likely have ended up on the cutting room floor if it was made for TV...Talk about the one that got away: David had a chance to do something special here with a new medium and a game cast, but he chose to spin his wheels. He chose to go faux.

Albee's 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winner, which takes an upper class, suburban WASP family to the breaking point over a weekend, is superbly directed by Pam MacKinnon and so well performed by a trans-Atlantic ensemble that each actor manages to convince you that they are the focus of the show...Albee has clearly found a soul mate in the examination of how life gets compromised and calcified. MacKinnon has an equally blistering cast this time, with Lithgow as a terribly good ineffective peacemaker, trying to avoid verbal land mines, counseling 'let it be,' and constantly fetching drinks. His story about an old house cat becomes an aria and his eventual collapse into a barking puddle of honesty is gorgeous. Close's Agnes perfectly navigates the role's twin dangers of barking self-righteousness, on the one hand, and nasty bitchiness on the other. She's able to switch from soft and loving to arch and noble to pounce like an alley cat.

Jackman himself is earnest and slightly flabbergasted as his character's narrative and memory gradually crack, but lacks any real slipperiness, making him more a victim of circumstance than a man complicit in his past tales. The actor's natural sweetness shines through when what we really want to see is the rogue. The role may get more mileage from a wolf, not a Wolverine. Butterworth's voice is always welcome and he returns with a pretty, less bombastic script than 'Jerusalem,' though one with gorgeous turns of phrase. (A fish is 'like a bar of precious metal. Like God's tongue.') He has a knack for dialogue between two people testing each other and his recurring love of fearsome nature - 'There are monsters out there. Huge monsters,' the fisherman warns about the fish - is darkly romantic.

The first time 'The Real Thing' came to Broadway, it won the Tony Award for best play. The next time it arrived, it won for best play revival. This time it just may sneak away with the trophy for best musical revival. A thoroughly excellent and tuneful version of Tom Stoppard's brilliant play about love and fidelity opened Thursday at the American Airlines Theatre, directed by Sam Gold and featuring a dozen songs, both sung onstage by the actors between scenes or wafting out of record players...Some may grouse that they may be a little too on-point for such a slippery play, but the actors integrate them well...The seven-member cast is first-rate...McGregor rarely lets his mask down, but when he does -- moaning alone or quietly sobbing -- it's heartbreaking. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Annie...with a fierce opaqueness, her face decorated with a clever, knowing smile or a cool standoffishness. Gyllenhaal telegraphs her character's unease and real desires with aching subtlety...If this play is almost 30 years old, its age wasn't visible.

Akhtar's blistering 'Disgraced' opened Thursday on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre with a punch and power that won it a Pulitzer Prize. Few playwrights are examining what Akhtar does, certainly not with his insightfulness, and his play is breathtaking -- and not a little uncomfortable -- to watch. In the best of ways. An excellent five-person cast led by Hari Dhillon -- and beautifully directed by Kimberly Senior -- starts the play with swagger and confidence, building to horrific exchanges in which they are at each other's throats...Dhillon nails the master-of-the-universe strut and moves across the stage almost like a boxer when his anger is fueled, making his fall all the more painful, while Mol skillfully lets a silent gulf slowly emerge between her and her husband. But perhaps the best performances are turned in by Radnor (TV's 'How I Met Your Mother') and Pittman (Broadway's 'Good People'), two natural stage actors who get to be funny, outraged, needy, broken and feisty -- and manage to do it all in the 90-minute work.

Sting's stage composing is nicely complex, mixing sassy ballads with brooding duets and big, violin-led crowd pleasers. Outstanding are 'Dead Man's Boots' and 'The Night the Pugilist Learned How to Dance,' which here is wonderfully staged between a father and son behind bars, and the simply beautiful title track, which the creators clearly know is good: It's leaned on no less than four times.

The webs have been swept away, the comic book villains are long gone and even the name of the theater has changed. So what better way to bid farewell to the doomed 'Spider-Man' musical at the re-christened Lyric Theatre than with a pure American classic? An exuberant, dazzling revival of 'On the Town' opened Thursday, filling Broadway's biggest theater with big, crowd-pleasing dance numbers, lavish and clever visuals and superb performances from a massive cast. It's simply a helluva show...The revival seems to have tapped into the youthful exuberance at the time of its creation -- Bernstein, Comden and Green were still in their 20s in 1944...Bergasse has hewed close to Jerome Robbins' original choreography and he's been blessed by dancers who make mincemeat of several pas-de-deux. Fairchild, a principal dancer at the prestigious New York City Ballet, makes her Broadway debut and is impossible to stop watching.

Some people might call 'It's Only A Play' a valentine to the theater, but you mustn't believe them. Terrance McNally's play is not so much a love letter from a shy, smitten admirer as a mash note sent by a stalker who's written it in capital letters and smeared it with what may be bodily fluids. Whatever it is, it's a pure hoot, a rollicking comedy with perfect casting and deft direction in Jack O'Brien that gleefully dissects modern Broadway and doesn't pretend to mask its targets by using fake names...Lane is the unquestionable star here, at his droll best with perfect timing, mugging when he needs to or raising a haughty eyebrow to sell a joke the next. The rest of the cast -- including a really remarkable Broadway debut by Stock in a company of powerful stars -- is superb, all hysterical at first and then revealing deeper desires as the play continues.

Though the cast is peerless, they attack it unevenly. Scott Ellis, who did brilliantly with the revival romp of the big-cast THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, has Jones at the center, understated and stately, with Rogers, Ashford and Ashley playing it so over the top it's like they're in a vaudeville act. Even so, they're almost demure compared to Julie Halston, who plays a soused actress and deserves a special Tony Award for Going Up a Flight of Stairs.

What's the minimum requirement for putting on a play? Is it performers? Sets? Memorization? Surely, at a minimum, it's acting, right? More than a quarter-century after 'Love Letters' premiered, A.R. Gurney's charming ditty of a play has landed on Broadway with virtually none of the characteristics of what you might expect in a play. While the script is clever, the thinness of the spectacle -- which the author himself insisted upon -- is sadly deflating...You almost feel sorry for Dennehy and Farrow, who are both trapped in a twilight between full-on acting and reading. It's like putting a mighty Rolls-Royce engine into a Fiat 500...Dennehy is great as a young earnest lover and is wonderful years later as a respected man torn in several directions emotionally. Farrow is inspired as a bored, girlish rich girl whose later years are marked by darkness and neediness.

Michael Cera, making his New York stage debut, once again perfectly captures being an awkward man-boy, while veteran fashionista and acting newbie Tavi Gevinson matches his goofy nervous energy. Kieran Culkin is marvelous as their smug, narcissistic friend. Spending two hours watching these wealthy, unmoored slackers is a treat, even without the contact high. The production...is directed by Anna D. Shapiro, who knows her way around onstage arguments ('August: Osage County') and movie stars (James Franco in 'Of Mice and Men'). She keeps this revival fresh and electric, crackling with energy even as the stoned get more stoned.

The high-energy, deeply felt but ultimately overwrought production opened Thursday in a blaze of N-words at the Palace Theatre, proving both that rap deserves its moment to shine on a Broadway stage and that some 20 Shakur songs can somehow survive the transformation -- barely...Unlike other jukebox musicals, the songs in 'Holler If Ya Hear Me' are rarely ever delivered in the style of the original artist. Instead, the show's creators test their elasticity by turning them into duets or group songs -- and one even gets a folky acoustic guitar treatment. The danger is that the urgent, free verse style of Shakur's very personal songs gets diffused, lightened and flattened...Either way, rap is firmly on Broadway, and that's something to celebrate.

Not a revival so much as a revival of a revival, this 'Cabaret' -- again produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company -- opened Thursday night, with only hours to spare before its eligibility expired. Whatever it's called, it's as thrilling as ever, a marvel of staging that hasn't lost its punch...One big change is the woman in the bob: Michelle Williams makes her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles and she does an excellent job, playing both scared and daffy superbly and singing with real heart...Williams starts out a little tentatively but soon roars into the role and her version of the title song has a wrenching, dead-eyed quality that hauntingly undercuts its light lyrics...Cumming is as lascivious as ever -- more playful than Joel Grey-scary in the film version...The addition of Linda Emond as the landlady Fraulein Schneider and Danny Burstein as her Jewish suitor Herr Schultz are strokes of casting genius.

It's obvious from the first moments of 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' that star Neil Patrick Harris is doing something special. And it's not just trying on a new role...Before our eyes, Harris is opening another chapter in his exceptional show business career with this 90-minute show and he simply crushes it, holding nothing back, softening no edges, making no nice...Harris sings with real feeling, whether it's a torch song on a stool while dressed in a little cocktail dress or rocking out a head-banging tune by attacking the scenery...it will come as no surprise that while Hall has an understudy, Harris does not. And that's perfectly right: Rarely does a role fit a performer so well. Harris is funny, twisted, poignant, outrageous, bizarre, silly and very, very human.

Some musicals are big and brassy, calling out for attention with their razzle-dazzle and sassy sets. Others are more demure, letting their simple beauty shine. How appropriate then that a show about inner loveliness chose the latter path...Violet is a reminder - if we have already forgotten the power of Once - that a Broadway musical has to hit your heart as much as be visually pretty. A recent preview of Violet left some in the audience crying and smiling. And that's with a show that has actors simply bumping up and down on chairs to recreate a bus trip...It's not too hard to figure out that a show about a woman who thinks she's repulsive will ultimately deal with issues of beauty and the nature of love. It does, but it also explores guilt and belief, proving there's a lot you can do when you have great songs, wonderful singers and keep it simple.

It makes perfect sense that his autobiography is onstage. And no less a modern theater icon than James Lapine has adapted and directed the play, using the stage thrillingly in a way the book could not. The sweet 'Act One,' which opened Thursday at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, faithfully and chronologically charts Hart's rise from poverty in the Bronx to co-writing with Kaufman 'Once In a Lifetime' in 1930, his first Broadway hit. But it's of course more than that: The majority of the 22 actors play multiple parts, jumping in and out of characters and costumes while the bold, complex set by Beowulf Boritt spins and spins. So in its very fiber and execution, it's a celebration of the theater itself.