Robert Kahn

If you're wondering what Moore considers the 'terms' of his surrender, he says so toward night's end: Dump President Trump. And dump Vice President Pence. By its conclusion, 'Surrender' becomes his plea to the audience to do something small, such as running for a local office, in an effort to change the country's direction. This is a man so comfortable with confrontation, it would be fascinating to see him take 'Surrender' on the road. I can think of a few places the audience wouldn't be nearly as friendly as New York, which would make for an even more electrifying event.

I particularly marveled at the way Taylor processed any bad news that comes Bessie's way. She segues briskly from shock to resilience, with the speed and force of a Gulf Coast storm, the way some people-lucky people-can do when faced with ill circumstances that are beyond their control. It's easy, as well, to empathize with Garofalo's chain-smoking Lee (the smoking, by the way, is the only indication 'Marvin's Room' is set some years ago). Hank's adolescent meltdowns have already pushed Lee to the brink, even before Bessie's diagnosis spurred this undesired trip from Ohio to Florida.

A new British stage adaptation of George Orwell's Dystopian novel, now at the Hudson Theatre, is an assault on the senses, pointedly designed to run over an audience like a tank crushing resistors in its path. Here's what has me fidgety, though. To some degree, the strobe lights, gunshots and gore become such a distraction from the story that they threaten to overwhelm its dire message about government run amok. Where do you dial down the noise and turn up the narrative? The answer will differ for everyone, but if you go, here's some advice -- bring earplugs.

Nora Helmer damaged a lot of people when she left home at the end of Ibsen's 'A Doll's House.' Roughly a century and a half later, playwright Lucas Hnath is mining that pain for comic gold in a star-studded sequel (of sorts), 'A Doll's House, Part 2,' now open at the Golden Theatre.

Cott, who segued from college to Broadway when he took over the lead in 'Newsies' a few years ago, learned to play piano for this role. His character is both persuasive, in getting other soldiers to join him, and patient -- there isn't an obvious path to the romance with Julia that we imagine might be coming. Osnes, who starred in 'Cinderella,' brings considerable stage presence to her role as young Gold Star widow Julia, who will become the band's lead singer and writer. Two powerful solos -- the other is 'Love Will Come and Find Me Again,' which the band uses to audition for NBC -- showcase her crystalline voice. Beth Leavel ('The Drowsy Chaperone') is Julia's mother, who has some great comic moments merely serving up deviled eggs to Don; she's also on hand to reinforce to Julia another of the show's themes: Sometimes, 's-it happens,' as she puts it. I wish Blankenbuehler had left a beat for the audience to applaud after her one solo, in the second act.

It's 1990 all over again in 'Six Degrees of Separation,' a period-faithful revival of the John Guare play -- based on real events -- about a clever con artist who convinces an erudite Upper East Side couple that he's the son of Sidney Poitier. Allison Janney, who is as skilled in drama as she is in comedy, leads the cast as privileged Ouisa Kittredge, whose small dinner party with husband Flan (John Benjamin Hickey) is interrupted by the arrival of a young man with a minor stab wound who claims to be a Harvard classmate of her children.

The set is minimalist, save for one scene in 'a chocolate Eden,' a terrarium where you can eat the dandelions. I suspect adults will find both wanting, though things improve in the second act...Given the talent and production values, I'm sure the musical will enjoy a long life on Broadway. But for all its attempts to recreate the delight of Roald Dahl's story, it left me with something of a toothache.

Hearing Midler sing 'Hello, Dolly!' is such a tingly experience that you eventually sit back down and wonder: Is this what it was like when Carol Channing debuted 'Dolly!' on Broadway half a century ago? And, was Midler put on Earth to carry forth that legacy? It sure feels that way. This 'Hello, Dolly!' is as blissful an escape as anyone could want.

Both prove to be equally effective in either role - a sign of each actress' talent and the production's overall perfection. Regina's is the meatier part with the most stage time, storing through all three acts. Birdie's one truly memorable appearance occurs at the start of the third act, with a touching speech about how rarely she's experienced happiness. As they change, so do the supporting characters around them. Richard Thomas delivers a particularly physical performance as Horace, who sees the world with the clarity of a dying man. His moves to punish Regina's ambition read more vengeful with Linney, and more controlling with Nixon.

The creators of 'Matilda' have worked their magic all over again. And again. 'Groundhog Day,' now open at the August Wilson Theatre, is a textured, twisted and ticklish comic musical from composer Tim Minchin and director Matthew Warchus. The book is by Danny Rubin, who also co-wrote the screenplay to the 1993 film starring Bill Murray. With a cast led by Andy Karl, as the cynical TV weatherman stuck in a time warp, 'Groundhog Day' shares with 'Matilda' both an intriguing darkness and enough on-stage razzle-dazzle to seize your attention and hold it across two generally gut-busting acts.

Legendary talents Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole play rival cosmetics titans in a highly anticipated new musical that -- hear this, clearly -- is not a two-act cat fight between dueling so-called divas, but rather a smart portrayal of the obstacles faced by a pair of America's earliest female entrepreneurs. 'War Paint,' directed by Michael Greif ('Dear Evan Hansen') and now open at the Nederlander Theatre, benefits foremost from the remarkable symmetry between its leads.

Kevin Kline leads a talented cast in a rather plodding revival of Noël Coward's 'Present Laughter,' an intimate comedy on the boards at the not-so-intimate St. James Theatre. For this, the 1939 comedy's sixth Broadway outing, Kline, 69, plays a successful light comedy actor of 57, who spends much of the play pretending to be in his mid-40s.

You either go for this sort of thing or you don't -- I don't, particularly, but I was in the minority at a recent performance. 'The Play That Goes Wrong' works best when you believe the actors are in real danger. There are times you do. I might've enjoyed it as a 70-minute romp. As things stand, for me at least, a comedy this tired just can't be right.

Nottage, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'Ruined,' eloquently captures the malaise among a group of longtime coworkers at a Berks County, Pennsylvania, mill. As their career prospects fade-a fate one character attributes to 'that NAFTA bulls--'-they turn on one another, leading to a climax that is no less upsetting, even when you know it's coming. 'Sweat' should be hailed for its visceral performance by JohAnna Day, as the conniving and xenophobic Tracey, a longtime floor worker who sees her job as a generational entitlement.

The revival of Boublil and Schönberg's sweeping musical 'Miss Saigon' features two strong lead actors-one appealingly seedy, the other capable and tenacious. As when the musical first helicoptered onto Broadway in 1991, the famous hardware-heavy set deserves star billing, too.

I can see why 'The Price' isn't staged as frequently as the Miller classics. The second act spins into an exhausting cyclone of old slights and misunderstandings to justify the silences between siblings. Director Terry Kinney does his best to keep things reeled in, but some of the interaction between the brothers borders on tedious. 'The Price' is best described as dyspeptic. If you're looking for a hero or a villain, it's an irresolvable conundrum-you can find evidence that it's any of the four. That said, in the hands of a quartet as skilled as this, what we're left remembering finally is not Miller's art, but something of a master class in great performing.

Colella's melodic solo, 'Me and the Sky,' is a high point in a show where the songs are consistently interesting...Some of the characters are real; others are recognized to be composite sketches of the people whom writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein met during a 10th anniversary reunion in Newfoundland. Inevitably, many of the portrayals feel like stock characters-the blustery mayor, etc.-but the acting is excellent all around...There was discipline used here. There's no footage of burning towers, crashing planes or falling bodies. 'Come From Away' manages to find a spiritual angle to a horrific story, depicting the goodness in humanity while still allowing us room for the feelings of loneliness and fear that will always be connected to that time.

The sad St. Louis clan is back again, in a production starring Sally Field as its faded matriarch. This newest 'Menagerie,' helmed by director Sam Gold ('Fun Home') and now open at the Belasco Theatre, could not be more different from the one we last saw...Gold puts his stamp on 'Menagerie' with both hyper-realistic elements and a minimalist set so barren it can only leave us to focus on the actors-the juxtaposition of styles makes this 'Menagerie' as interesting as any I've seen.

Glick ('Spring Awakening') has fully realized his character, who is unsure, in a familiar way, if he'll ever find an appropriate mate. His comic chops are put to fine use in a drawn-out scene where, late one lonely night, Jordan tries to rationalize sending a far-too-long e-mail to his office crush. One word for this performance? Relatable. Mendez, the 'Wicked' and 'Dogfight' vet, keeps Laura grounded and full-of-heart, while letting us also glimpse the character's countercultural and misanthropic sides.

There aren't many circumstances in which I'd use the phrase 'bare bones' to characterize a musical that boasts, among other big gestures, a 40-piece orchestra-incidentally, it's said to be the largest to play on Broadway in 80 years. Yet 'stripped down' and 'spare' are the words that come to mind when considering 'Sunset Boulevard,' the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that this month returns powerhouse star Glenn Close to Broadway as silent-screen recluse Norma Desmond, a role that earned her a Tony 22 years ago. This revival, directed by Lonny Price and now open at the Palace Theatre, was staged last year in London by the English National Opera. The entire West End cast has made the journey to New York, and be assured: aside from the enormous orchestra-and perhaps a bulbous chandelier that makes the one from 'Phantom' seem like a toddler's night light-there's little here to distract from Close's mesmerizing Norma, or Lloyd Webber's pop friendly score.

Until this year, 'Jitney' was the only one of August Wilson's 'Century Cycle' plays to have never been performed on Broadway. Now it's finally arrived, in an artful and melodic staging directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, one of the most well-regarded interpreters of works by the 'Fences' playwright.

Fireworks, here, are both metaphorical and literal: Halfway through the three-hour drama, the sensual leading lady detonates the countryside summer house where much of the first act has transpired. 40 ... it's the new 14? An adaptation by Andrew Upton, who is Blanchett's husband, 'The Present' arrives at The Barrymore Theatre with its original Australian cast intact. Anna's foil, Mikhail, a childhood friend and former paramour, is played by Richard Roxburgh, who may be best known to American audiences from Baz Luhrmann's 'Moulin Rouge.'

'In Transit' manages to create a reality-distortion field that left me feeling the MTA isn't the hostile environment I know it all too well to be. For that alone, go ahead and swipe your MetroCard.

'The Great Comet' team has managed something unusual for Broadway, an intimate and affecting musical that can't really be said to have populist appeal. I imagine you'd experience it differently depending on your seat, and possibly every time you might attend. Bravo.

A family oriented musical about one kid and a half-dozen adults becoming fully realized humans, 'Falsettos' is grounded in ideas that came before gay liberation or AIDS. Is there a theme more universal than the mystery of why some people fall in love? This eloquent take bridges age and cultural boundaries and is as timeless as they come.