Matt Windman

With all due respect to Noel Coward's classic English comedies of the 1920s through 1940s, do they really merit being revived so regularly? Sure, they're witty, classy and charming, but also insubstantial and tame by today's standards, and not especially relevant anymore. I suspect that we run into the plays so often because they contain great roles for actors, like the kooky medium Madame Arcati in 'Blithe Spirit,' the sparring couple Amanda and Elyot in 'Private Lives' and the vain stage actor Garry Essendine in 'Present Laughter.'

Soo, looking stunning, gives a winning, seemingly effortless performance, and there are nice supporting turns from Adam Chanler-Berat as Amélie's sensitive crush and Tony Sheldon as her elderly neighbor. As directed by Pam MacKinnon (who is better known for dramas), the production attempts to capture the film's distinctive color palette and freewheeling qualities on its own relatively simple terms. With narration by the actors and makeshift costuming, you get the sense the cast is telling a fairy tale through improvisation. You appreciate their hard work, but it doesn't really come together. The film benefitted from incredible art direction and zooming cinematography that is lost here. The show may have been more effective in an intimate venue that could immerse the audience in this cozy and offbeat world.

'The Play That Goes Wrong' is a nonstop, intensifying rush in which the murder mystery is performed from beginning to end...The eight performers have individual personalities but come together to form a tight ensemble well-disciplined in the art of being hilariously bad.

'Sweat' is an involving drama, calibrated to increase in intensity toward its brutal climax. Nottage, who won a Pulitzer for 'Ruined,' explores her characters and their environment with the sensitivity of a master dramatist and the objectivity of a journalist. She doesn't provide any answers, only the faintest hope that people will take care of each other, even in desperate circumstances.

Stylistically, 'Miss Saigon' is a remnant of the bombastic, spectacle-driven, opera-meets-rock English mega-musicals that conquered Broadway in the '80s and '90s, such as 'Les Miz' and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Cats' and 'Phantom.' But as a piece of political theater that depicts Americans involved in a disastrous foreign war, cultural misunderstanding, the difficulties of emigrating to the U.S. as a refugee and the pursuit of success through shameless exploitation, 'Miss Saigon' is more relevant and heartbreaking today than when it premiered on Broadway in 1991 at the same theater.

'The Price' can easily come off as slow and hokey today, but director Terry Kinney (co-founder of Chicago's famous Steppenwolf Theatre Company), achieves a fine balance between Ruffalo, Shalhoub and Hecht's raw, accusatory battling and DeVito's spirited, minutely-detailed character acting.

The cast is made of versatile performers including Broadway veterans such as Jenn Colella, Rodney Hicks, Chad Kimball and Kendra Kassebaum, who are able to handle the fast pace and quick changes. It's a heartwarming story told with high energy, not to mention an effective seminar on crisis management and a persuasive advertisement for Canadian tourism. (Not surprisingly, Justin Trudeau is expected to attend the show later this week.) But good intentions aside, 'Come From Away' has the depth of a Hallmark card and a pub rock score that is generic and unmemorable.

The winning streak of Sam Gold, who has become one of the most prominent directors in recent years ('Fun Home,' the plays of Annie Baker), comes to a screeching halt with a misconceived Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' 1944 breakout drama 'The Glass Menagerie,' led by Sally Field...Gold, who apparently wanted to remove all artifice or period flavor, uses a bare, exposed-looking theater space, with just a metal table and a shelf of props. Stage lighting is avoided. No southern accents are used and the actors wear contemporary attire. Even the intermission has been removed. This all results is a painfully self-aware production that is devoid of Williams' trademark lyricism.

There is a constant fluidity to Trip Cullman's production, which bounces between short scenes using a tall set that evokes workplace, club and home settings and precise lighting changes. Glick ('Spring Awakening,' 'Speech and Debate') is so adorable and vulnerable that you feel compelled to jump onstage, give him a hug and find him a date or at least introduce him to Yente the Matchmaker.

This revival (directed by Sarna Lapine, niece of James Lapine) originated as a concert staging at City Center. With the exception of an elaborate light sculpture sequence, it is a simple presentation that lacks the visual thrills of the original production or the 2008 Broadway revival. However, storytelling is focused and the score (played by a full orchestra) sounds as glorious as ever. Compared with other actors who have played the role, Gyllenhaal's Georges is sensitive, wounded and even sympathetic.

Two decades since its splashy Broadway premiere, the plot and the production history of 'Sunset Boulevard,' Andrew Lloyd Webber's sweeping 1990s musical treatment of Billy Wilder's 1950 film noir, have become one and the same. At the end of 'Sunset Boulevard,' Norma Desmond, the former silent screen star who has spent two decades in lonely obscurity, determinedly thrusts herself back into the spotlight, ready for either a close-up or the madhouse. In sync with Norma's intentions, the musical has returned to Broadway two decades later, bringing Glenn Close (who won a Tony as Norma in 1995) back to the stage and Lloyd Webber (who now has four musicals running simultaneously) back to his glory days.

Talk about perfect timing: Immediately following the premiere of the critically acclaimed film version of August Wilson's 'Fences,' 'Jitney,' one of Wilson's lesser-known plays, is receiving its Broadway premiere in a focused and penetrating production directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and featuring an outstanding ensemble cast.

As directed by John Crowley with a spare visual design, 'The Present' is an uneven, uneventful and aimless mess. It gets off to a poor start with a long opening scene that leaves audience members confused regarding the various character relationships. Blanchett gives a layered and enigmatic performance as Anna (Blanchett), a widow on the verge of turning 40. Looking stylish and sexy, Blanchett revels in revealing Anna's contradictory and spontaneous behavior, from lazily lounging around to getting drunk and dancing on a dinner table to brandishing a firearm. Blanchett is ably supported by Roxburgh, who brings an intense physicality to the passive but alluring Mikhail. The rest of the 13-member Australian cast has much less to work with in terms of characterization.

'In Transit,' an original musical depicting a variety of ordinary New Yorkers who take the subway while in pursuit of their various goals, marks Broadway's first a cappella musical - and the results aren't so great, in spite of the meticulous vocal engineering.

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul ('Dog Fight,' 'A Christmas Story'), a young and extremely promising songwriting duo, have crafted a haunting soft rock score that is neatly integrated into Steven Levenson's captivating book. Michael Greif, director of 'Rent' and 'Next to Normal,' presents a tight and compelling production built around finely-textured ensemble acting and a seamless visual design of shifting panels and floating video imagery. Platt is giving one of the most vulnerable and shaded performances you've ever seen. He is terrified, enigmatic and completely believable.

The characters are simple, the storytelling is derivative of better-known musicals ('West Side Story,' 'Jersey Boys') and the tone is excessively sentimental and solemn. But 'A Bronx Tale,' the new Broadway musical based upon actor-writer Chazz Palminteri's coming of age in an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx of the 1960s, is nevertheless an entertaining crowd-pleaser and a poignant piece of theater. If it works, it works.

It truly is an opera (with sung-through scenes and arias instead of traditional songs) version of a novel (with plenty of exposition, long conversation and quiet meditation). Since it premiered, I have always found the show to be extremely uneven, with a stop-and-start momentum that alternates between all-out liveliness and long episodes of slow tedium.

Schreiber's Valmont is disengaged and stiff instead of smooth and sexy. He looks uncomfortable and out of place in a period wig and dressy attire. McTeer gives an authoritative performance as the devilish Merteuil, but she has zero chemistry with Schreiber. The real find of this production is Sørensen, a Danish actress, who makes for a vulnerable and beautiful Tourvel.

Lapine's production is energetic, finely textured and extremely well-cast. Visually, it is built around a novel scenic design (by David Rockwell) in which a giant cube is pulled apart to reveal building blocks that suggest various settings. Borle (who will star as Willy Wonka later this season in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory') captures Marvin's emotional journey from combative egotist to supportive father and lover. The cast scores vocally, comically and dramatically, bringing out the manic heights and tender pauses of this truly extraordinary musical.

Jack O'Brien's lively and lavish production holds nothing back in terms of busy movement and broad comedy, but the three-act play does not hold up so well by today's standards, containing fewer one-liners and much more exposition than you'd expect from a comedy. I often found myself admiring the production but unable to enjoy it. Slattery is an ideal Hildy, with a cool and unfazed aura. Lane steals the final third of the show with an over-the-top performance with shades of Max Bialystock (his shifty and shameless character from 'The Producers). Goodman is loud, but strangely ineffective, relying heavily on a country accent.

'The Cherry Orchard,' Chekhov's final play and a timeless tragicomedy about how people choose whether or not to respond to a changing world, proves to be less powerful than usual in the Roundabout Theatre Company's disjointed and flat revival, which stars Diane Lane alongside an accomplished ensemble.

It opens on an intriguing note: Georgie suddenly goes up to Alex at a London train station and kisses him on the neck. This unusual introduction leads to dinner, dancing, sex and long conversations. But despite its initial promise, this static two-hander quickly goes flat.

Nick Kroll and John Mulaney's eccentric and enjoyable two-man comedy routine 'Oh, Hello,' which gained popularity on Comedy Central's 'Kroll Show' and is now playing a limited run on Broadway, is intended for aging, oddball, scruffy, cranky, culturally (if not authentically) Jewish New Yorkers - and anyone else who identifies with or appreciates the same demographic.

White Christmas' - no wait, I mean 'Holiday Inn' - has a sentimental, old-fashioned plot where boy meets girl, loses girl, and finally wins girl while the gang puts on a show in the barn. It also sports a cozy post-World War II setting, lovely songs that have stood the test of time, decent performances from a likable cast (led by Bryce Pinkham and Corbin Bleu) and polished dance choreography.

'The Encounter' resembles an immersive, sensory take on the old-fashioned radio play, with multiple voices, heavy breathing and other sounds fully engulfing the listener. But after a while, the novelty wears off and you are left with unending bits of description and psychological contemplation.