Matt Windman — Theater Critic

'Jersey Boys' meets 'Motown' in 'Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,' the latest biographical/backstage rock and roll jukebox musical to hit Broadway and market itself to the baby-boomer demographic. And while not exactly profound or original, it makes for slick, straightforward, tuneful and altogether pleasant entertainment.

But speaking as someone who has attended many prior productions and is well familiar with its numerous audio and video recordings (including the overblown 1953 MGM film and a 1958 TV adaptation with the original leads Alfred Drake and Patricia Morison), the Roundabout's 'Kiss Me, Kate' (directed by Roundabout veteran Scott Ellis) strikes me as an unnecessary, underwhelming and miscast revival.

Whether or not it ultimately proves to be a hit, 'Be More Chill,' a sublimely silly, exciting sci-fi teen musical comedy deserves a place in Broadway history as an unlikely comeback story powered by a passionate fan following on social media.

Both can easily be found online and are far preferable to the play's problematic new Broadway revival, which is directed by James Macdonald ('The Children') and stars a top form Ethan Hawke (in his first Broadway outing since a disastrous 'Macbeth' in 2013) and an utterly miscast Paul Dano ('Ruby Sparks').

'Choir Boy' (under the taut direction of Trip Cullman) makes for highly engrossing, personal and poignant theater. It is a smashing start to the new year on Broadway.

In any event, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (which also sports a period score penned by Tony winner Adam Guettel and played live on organ and guitar) proves to be an engrossing, provocative and uniformly well-acted adaptation - and a fitting addition to a shifting Broadway landscape where an increasing number of plays (including 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,' 'The Ferryman' and 'Network') are gaining the muscularity to stand alongside musicals in prestige and box office power.

This meta theatrical concept is oddly appropriate for the campy concoction that is 'The Cher Show.' Directed by Jason Moore ('Avenue Q'), with bizarre and skimpy costumes designed by Bob Mackie and arena tour-style choreography, the production proves to be more tolerable than similar star-worship vehicles, though nowhere near as satisfying as 'Jersey Boys' (The Four Seasons) or even 'Beautiful' (Carole King).

Many important social issues - inclusion, arts education, community outreach - get run over by lame humor, underwhelming songs and ultra-hammy performances in this original musical, which is so flimsy, tacky and amateurish that it leaves you wondering how it got to Broadway in the first place.

Similarly to his previous work (such as 'Sleepwalk With Me') Birbiglia relies upon a well-honed 'nice guy' persona. In doing so, he comes off as heartfelt and relatable - not so different from any given audience member who is figuring out life as it goes along. There is an appealing smoothness and simplicity to his shows, which tend to be autobiographical in nature. Birbiglia excels at offering fun anecdotes, dramatizing conversations with offstage characters, making Seinfeld-style observations about daily life and performing occasional physical bits.

Following many twists and turns and creative team changes since it premiered in Melbourne in 2013, a $35 million stage musical adaptation of 'King Kong' (showcasing a 2,000-pound, 20-foot animatronic puppet of a silverback gorilla, which is operated by onstage puppeteers and computer technicians) is finally roaring on Broadway - and it is just as technically innovative and absolutely ridiculous as you would expect a stage musical adaptation of 'King Kong' to be.

At its best, 'American Son' is smart, mysterious and engrossing - not to mention an effective star vehicle for Washington, who gives a revealing, sympathetic performance in which her character's professional veneer gives way to surmounting doubt and desperation.

While 'Torch Song' lacks the brilliance of 'Angels in America' and the bite of 'The Boys in the Band,' it is well worth a second look. And though at times it can be rather clunky and schmaltzy, Kaufman's production contains some genuinely beautiful moments and excellent performances all around.

Among the many star turns on Broadway this fall - ranging from Bryan Cranston playing deranged newscaster Howard Beale to King Kong brought to life by an army of puppeteers and technicians - especially noteworthy is 86-year-old Elaine May giving her first performance on Broadway in more than 50 years in an otherwise underwhelming revival of Kenneth Lonergan's downbeat family drama 'The Waverly Gallery,' first produced Off-Broadway in 2000.

In lesser hands, 'The Ferryman' may have come off as pure hokum, but Mendes makes it absolutely entrancing, bringing out many intense, full-bodied performances, particularly from Donnelly, who brilliantly conveys Caitlin's raw vitality, vulnerability and stifled rage. Other key performances come from Flanagan, who offers an otherworldly, haunted presence and Considine, who gives the impression of a man walking a fine line between his past and present, burdened by guilt, bound to crack.

While the production (directed by Leigh Silverman, 'Violet') is lively and centered on three great actors fighting it out, the play itself is rather thin (little more than the back-and-forth dialogue on which it is based) and the characters are all one-dimensional. It is also problematic that the show (unlike the book) is unable to convey the full extent of D'Agata's essay, without which the subsequent analysis lacks context.

The production (staged with an ear for comic timing and an eye for physical bits by Daniel Sullivan, who is best known for directing contemporary American dramas) is great fun with thick English accents and foul language. Just a few weeks following the death of Neil Simon, it is nice to see that an old-fashioned, silly-but-smart nonmusical comedy can still find a place on Broadway.

One wonders wonder whether Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful run for the presidency played a role in the development of 'Bernhardt/Hamlet.' There is an obvious connection between the hostility faced by both Bernhardt and Clinton as they ventured into traditionally male territory. 'Bernhardt/Hamlet' is an inspired, timely and interesting idea for a play - if only it had been better executed.

To its credit, 'Pretty Woman' is adequately and competently handled - and it is far better than the other two new Broadway musicals to open this summer: the bewildering Go-Go's jukebox musical 'Head Over Heels' and the embarrassingly amateurish 'Gettin' the Band Back Together.'

Originality (as in not being based on a pre-existing film or song catalog) turns out to not be the equivalent of quality in 'Gettin' the Band Back Together,' a tacky, witless and amateurish new pop-rock musical set in Sayreville, New Jersey, that might have been commendable had it been written and performed by high school students from Sayreville, but is a total embarrassment to find on Broadway.

Um, no. Contrary to the affirmatively cheery chant of its opening number, 'Head Over Heels,' a new jukebox musical on Broadway in which the hit songs of the all-female 1980s pop-punk band The Go-Go's are inserted into a ridiculous Elizabethan-era pastiche, has not 'got the beat.' That probably got lost long ago in the development of this oddball property

There is no character development or plot, besides a handful of guys sitting around on a couch. As their father looks on, the three young men play games (including a retooled version of 'Monopoly' created by their mother), joke around (breaking into a parody version of the title song of 'Oklahoma!') and strut around in matching pajamas.

Like the musical 'Hair,' 'The Boys in the Band' is very much a product of its time. Had it premiered just a year later following the Stonewall Riots, Crowley may have made his characters more defiant and less self-loathing in nature. Yet even if the play is dated and its shock value has worn off, as this crowd-pleasing revival demonstrates, it can still be a powerful piece of theater.

In order words, Hickey (played by Nathan Lane three years ago at BAM) would not appear to be a role destined for Denzel Washington - yet here he is on Broadway giving a first-rate performance in a first-class revival of O'Neill's titanic 1946 tragedy of shattered dreams, hopelessness and inebriation.

On the heels of Lincoln Center Theater's acclaimed revival of 'My Fair Lady' (which is based on Shaw's 1913 comedy of manners 'Pygmalion'), Manhattan Theatre Club is presenting a straightforward, generally effective production of his 1923 tragedy 'Saint Joan' with three-time Tony nominee Condola Rashad ('A Doll's House, Part 2,' the Showtime series 'Billions') as Joan of Arc.

Good luck making sense of 'Travesties,' Tom Stoppard's difficult, diffuse and dense 1974 comedy of faulty memory and early 20th century European history and culture, which has returned to Broadway in a robust revival produced originally by London's Menier Chocolate Factory and brought to New York by the Roundabout Theatre Company.'