Matt Windman — Theater Critic

Running about 101 minutes (in a nod to 'room 101,' the novel's chamber of horrors), this visceral and unpredictable staging is more exciting and effective than this summer's other politically-oriented productions (including Robert Schenkkan's prison drama 'Building the Wall' and The Public Theater's uneasily Trump-infused 'Julius Caesar').

It's apparently never too late to create a sequel - even to a Norwegian domestic drama written more than a century ago. Lucas Hnath, who had two of his plays ('The Christians,' 'Red Speedo') produced last year by major off-Broadway companies to great acclaim, now makes his Broadway debut with the lightweight but feisty comedy 'A Doll's House, Part 2.' This marks the play's New York debut following a world premiere just last month on the West Coast.

It would have been easy to simply plug in 1940s pop standards. But instead Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor created a swinging original score that not only captures the period style but also digs deep into the characters. The music is so tightly integrated into the script that 'Bandstand' becomes unusually powerful musical theater. Its reinterpretation of the traditional 11 o'clock number is both smart and electrifying. Andy Blankenbuehler, who rose to prominence as the choreographer of 'In the Heights' and then 'Hamilton,' does a stunning job as both director and choreographer.

Any doubt that John Guare's 1990 sharp-edged comedic drama 'Six Degrees of Separation' is one of the finest contemporary American plays should be put to rest by the terrific new Broadway revival starring Allison Janney ('The West Wing'), John Benjamin Hickey ('The Normal Heart') and Corey Hawkins ('Straight Outta Compton'). The play (which was adapted into a 1993 film with Will Smith) popularized the idea that everyone in the world is connected by just a handful of people (i.e. 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon'). But it also displays a class-based society, where an Upper East Side penthouse is a world away from a homeless youth sleeping in Central Park - though not necessarily impenetrable.

Combine early 20th-century Russian history with bits and pieces of 'Les Miz,' 'My Fair Lady' and 'Newsies,' and you've got 'Anastasia,' the uneven but well-meaning and mostly pleasant new Broadway musical based on the 1997 animated film of the same title from 20th Century Fox.

Pity the poor Oompa Loompas that get assigned by Willy Wonka with the impossible task of cleaning up the disastrous and distasteful Broadway musical adaptation of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.' No amount of 'Pure Imagination' can save this train wreck.

With her broad and brassy comic personality, star presence and underlying tenderness, Midler is ideal to inherit the sacred mantle of Dolly Gallagher Levi from actress Carol Channing, who starred in the original 1964 production and played the role for decades...The production (directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Warren Carlyle) lovingly recreates the look and feel of Gower Champion's iconic 1964 production, bursting at the seams with old-fashioned showmanship, hyperkinetic energy and stylized movement.

You can learn the dates that Linney and Nixon will be playing each role in advance. Linney and Nixon are better suited to playing Regina and Birdie, respectively, but the show is fine either way, and checking out both casting arrangements makes you appreciate their versatility. The fullest performance actually comes from Thomas as Regina's sick and wheelchair-bound husband, who switches off between gentility and heated fervor as he attempts to outsmart his wife. Meanwhile, McKean and Goldstein play it up as Regina's similarly aggressive and greedy brothers.

International diplomacy isn't easy - especially when it involves getting two warring populations to make hard concessions - and neither is 'Oslo,' J.T. Rogers' three-hour ensemble drama depicting the back-and-forth backroom negotiations leading up to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The play is long and talky and jam-packed with names, dates and historical exposition, but also well-crafted and nuanced, with interesting characters and even humor every now and then. The subject matter is also increasingly vital at this time of heightened instability throughout the Middle East. Under the direction of Bartlett Sher, it is presented with as much clarity and personality as possible.

'War Paint' still has a lot going for it, including self-empowered protagonists, high-powered performances, well-crafted period-style songs, the classy aura of old-school New York and the smooth direction of Michael Greif (who staged 'Dear Evan Hansen' earlier this season). It ought to be a hit with Broadway's primary ticket-buying demographic: women from the tristate area who use cosmetic products, are familiar with Rubinstein and Arden's important legacies and know that LuPone and Ebersole are musical theater artists of the highest caliber.

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.