Philip Boroff

Combine 'Fiddler on the Roof' with 'Jersey Boys,' add some 'Hair' and hokum and you get a taste of 'Soul Doctor,' a lively, occasionally cartoonish new musical on Broadway. For fans of Carlebach, the bushy-bearded, guitar-strumming singer-songwriter who mixed contemporary genres with traditional Jewish music, the show has dozens of his songs to recommend it...Given its anemic sales, 'Soul Doctor' may not be practicing for long. Those intrigued by this passionately performed niche entertainment shouldn't dawdle. For the less choosy of the chosen people, the musical hits the spot.

The title 'Let It Be' suggests a departure from the formulaic Beatles tribute. Maybe a drama about the recording of the final album that the band released and the tensions that drove the four apart? No such luck. The show at the St. James Theatre breaks no new ground...The show proceeds chronologically from the early innocent rock influenced by Chuck Berry and others to the more experimental songs that changed pop music. The patter is kept to a minimum and these Fab Four get along from beginning to end. Although the musicianship is proficient and vocal range is impressive, seldom does the show rise above what London critic Michael Billington called 'faintly necrophiliac nostalgia.'

A trouper, Maroulis sings more than a dozen songs. He and the rest of the cast, as directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun ('Newsies'), have survived 25 weeks on tour. With two of the show's catchier numbers ('Someone Like You' and 'A New Life') Deborah Cox is a lovely, nuanced singer. She rises above her part as a prostitute who loves Jekyll and enjoys being tied up by Hyde.

Cast with a dream team of New York theater talent, the Roundabout presents an inspired revival of Rupert Holmes’s interactive musical, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

“Magic/Bird” cries out for an epilogue, about how Johnson lives with HIV and thrives in business after basketball. Should this play have another life, it would benefit from having more Magic, less Bird, and greater distance from its subjects. Tasteful to a fault, the play is unlikely to offend anyone, particularly the National Basketball Association or Johnson, both involved in producing.

Directed by John Turturro, the playlets concern themselves with corrosive family relationships. At a time when light contemporary comedy without songs or British accents is a rarity, they’re something different for Broadway.

The 'Baby' players make the most of their threadbare parts. Leavel elevates the enterprise with pitch-perfect singing, acting and bouffant, her Florence blowzy and vulnerable. Near the end, Greenberg concedes that the Shirelles sound needs updating. The women record the resplendent title number, co-written by the then-up-and-coming Burt Bacharach. For a fleeting instant, the first major girl group of the rock era and the show about them seem to be going somewhere new.

Staged by Gregory Boyd, who co-wrote the book with Murphy, 'Wonderland' isn't the most original or coherent musical. But it's light on its feet, a nice option for kids and at just over two hours, its length is wonderful.

A newcomer to theater, Rock deserves credit for aiming high with a complex part that, incidentally, includes onstage wrestling. His performance is funny, if a bit stiff, and will likely get better when he relaxes into the role.