Robert Kahn

But, the pros in 'The Front Page' know how to manage the material and deliver an ink-stained good time. This is a period piece that hearkens back to a time when reporters carried flasks and an HR rep would be tossed out a window if she introduced a dialogue about harassment or proper workplace behavior.

Roundabout's 'Cherry Orchard' is visually in the past, but aurally in the present. The result is a mixed bag lacking symbolic resonance: The audience gets neither the tragic grandeur nor the comedy of the aristocracy seeing its dominance end. Rather, this is a portrait of one clueless family losing their fortune because they don't know how to save a buck.

Stage veterans Mary-Louise Parker and Denis Arndt are the skilled interpreters for Stephens's rich two-hander, a spot-on rumination about joy and sadness, and how either can seep into proceedings where neither may have been anticipated.

'Holiday Inn' is a lovely excuse to get lost in the Berlin chestnuts, particularly as they've been reimagined by choreographer Jones ('Honeymoon in Vegas'). The new story sometimes tries too hard to be charming and old-fashioned, but overall 'Holiday Inn' is a satisfying autumn offering.

There are readily apparent and relatable themes in 'The Encounter.' Among them: we're natural creatures, but our material possessions hold us hostage. As well, there's a well-intentioned message about how it's wrong to interfere with the lives of any indigenous people, particularly these, who-in the telegraphed words of a campaigner for Survival International-view 'the oil underneath the ground as the blood of the earth.'

'Cats' is full of catchy pop tunes many of us have known for decades. Webber's songs don't have the tightest of melodies, but I'll take 'Cats' over 'School of Rock' any day. As a wistful recollection, 'Cats' is guaranteed to leave you feline groovy-it's here now, though I wouldn't bet on it lasting forever.

Hayes, who kept us in stitches as flighty pal Jack McFarland on NBC's 'Will & Grace,' may not be 'infinity' years old,' as the script -- based on a Twitter feed by former 'Daily Show' honcho David Javerbaum -- allows. But he isn't the young kid we remember from a TV sitcom, either. A touch of gray has crept into Hayes' hair. Forehead lines are visible when he furrows his brow. I'd normally stay clear of comment on a performer's physical traits, but there's a gravitas evident that's a help, here. Y'know. If you're gonna play God and all. (Hayes previously earned hallelujahs on Broadway for 'Promises, Promises,' in 2010.)

...The $25 million 'Paramour' goes heavy on the company's signature stunt sequences to our relief, because there isn't much to be extracted from the often eye-glazing book and score...'Paramour' earns props for the ways it employs aerialists and acrobats as doppelgängers for the leads. Thanks to clever costuming conceits, we almost believe we're watching the trio in some blur of elastic trickery...Kushnier...makes the most of his cliché-ridden role, exuding confidence and hubris as needed. Lewis...has a beautiful voice and gamely follows the worn path laid out ahead.

Theater legend George C. Wolfe aims to right a historical wrong with 'Shuffle Along,' a new musical -- and it sure feels new, despite what a key producer is arguing -- about the making of an often-overlooked show...Audra McDonald, groundbreaking in her own right, plays Lottie Gee, who was considered the first black ingenue featured in a Broadway musical. Lottie is lusty, busty and trusty...'Shuffle Along' is stylized to evoke an era and focus on big scenes, which can become burdened with exposition...'Shuffle Along' is moving, in fits and starts, as a story about artists who risk their critical and financial fortunes, sculpting a musical from their most raw emotional expressions and their sophisticated artistic heritage, instead of toning down that spirit for mass consumption.

Lange was Olivier Award-nominated for this role 16 years ago on the West End. Byrne was Tony Award-nominated as Jamie Tyrone in 2000's Broadway 'Moon for the Misbegotten.' They know their O'Neill, and are suited to take us on the roller-coaster ride, set across one day that will prove a turning point in the lives of a troubled family. English theater director Jonathan Kent guides the simple and elegant, nearly 4-hour-long production...Leads Lange and Byrne share an effortless chemistry in which they are alternately tolerant of, and vile toward, one another -- but always easily relatable. That's quite an accomplishment when dealing with a piece of literature that drifts further away from naturalism as the the night wears on.

Lewis is all the things you'd want in a young protagonist, and her Winnie has got an edge...Keenan-Bolger, the energetic performer with his hands in any multitude of entertainment projects...is charismatic as a figure with the impulses of a 17-year-old, who is nonetheless over 100 years old. 'Tuck Everlasting' is a real showcase for his whiz-bang dancing skills. Carolee Carmello and Michael Park are welcome as the TV sitcom-like Tuck parents...Robert Lenzi stands out as Jesse's older brother...A tone of melancholy underscores 'Tuck Everlasting'...Among the more memorable songs...is 'Top of the World,' which has [Winnie and Jesse] scampering up that surreal tree, briefly abandoning their cares before making fateful decisions...This interpretation of 'Tuck Everlasting' is neither tragic nor cynical. It's good entertainment.

'Modern Family' star Jesse Tyler Ferguson plays 40 roles-some male, some female; some civilized, others obnoxious-in 'Fully Committed,' a riotous one-man Broadway comedy set in the basement of a trendy Manhattan restaurant...This blissfully frenetic expedition takes things to a whole new level...Ultimately, we behold a fascinating evolution, as the beleaguered fella turns the tables on those who've been wounding his spirit. Everyone gets their just, uh, desserts? Revenge is a dish best served cold? Yes, and yes. 'Fully Committed' wraps on a note more satisfying than anything we imagine is actually cooked up at this ridiculous restaurant.

It's easy as pie to fall for 'Waitress,' a sweet comic musical returning Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller ('Beautiful') to Broadway. Pop singer Sara Bareilles works a recurring chorus of those three ingredients, above, into many of the softly textured songs here, holding out the promise of scrumptious things to come.

It's consistently satirical, insistently techno (video projections illustrate the world of protagonist Patrick Bateman) and hyper-raunchy...Alas, there's no drawing blood from a stone. The weak link is Duncan Sheik's inaccessible score, which doesn't come near the level of 'Spring Awakening,' or his underrated 'Whisper House'...we witness a hodgepodge of prosaic production numbers, with surprisingly little gore...Walker's nailed the requisite mix of narcissism, rage and soullessness, even if his Bateman seems a more tender fella than that icicle Christian Bale, from the film...Alice Ripley...deserves better than what she gets here, a one-dimensional part as Patrick's mother...mass killings are routinely reported on our 65-inch flat-screens. This may be why 'American Psycho' failed to stir me: The notion that evil lurks where we may not expect to find it isn't shocking anymore.

..Because 'The Father' is presented from the view of Langella's André, a retired Parisian engineer-or perhaps a tap dancer?-we can't be sure what's actually happening and what's his imagination...The three-time Tony Award winner (currently on FX's 'The Americans') brings trademark versatility to the role, alternating from aggressive, to lucid and charming, then insecure and infantile. Langella's mercurial performance surely will be relatable to any audience member who has spent time around a person with dementia...Much of 'The Father' is a delusion, and so we work to form our own conclusions about what's real or not, even as André's shifting reality guides us toward a foreshadowed ending. This is an intricately constructed drama depicting a phenomenon few can identify with-what it must be like to be a capable person slowly losing his mind.

Ronan is convincing as chief mean girl Abigail Williams, with her mouth set in a hard line and her eyes narrowed. I liked her performance, but didn't necessarily see Abigail as someone capable of whipping up the frenzy relied on in 'The Crucible'...While I'm confident Miller believed in the power of mankind to manipulate and be manipulated, I'm rather sure his 'witch hunt' was metaphorical. Theatrical flourishes here -- girls suspended in mid-air, windstorms, what appears to be a wolf wandering alone on stage -- suggest van Hove prefers it an open-ended question. That added an unanticipated layer to the nearly three-hour proceedings.

There's much to admire in the final product: The musical is twangy and tightly performed, with a sweeping score. My enjoyment was muted only by the mostly modest character development...Cusack, who reminded me a bit of Donna Murphy, does proud justice to a tough role. Paul Alexander Nolan...has an easygoing confidence as another character we get to know at different stages of life...Martin and Brickell's music is rootsy and most often joyful...Of Martin's book, I felt that too often I was being told what to feel, without being given opportunity to feel it. Connective tissue between the storylines, probably intended to sneak up on us at the end, seemed obvious halfway through the first act...It's not a perfect musical; this 'Star' doesn't always guide the way, but at times it beams brightly enough.

The tremendous revival of 'She Loves Me'...left visions of sugarplums dancing in my head and dreams of vanilla ice cream. The candy fantasies, let's chalk up to Roundabout's cartoonish art nouveau sets, which recreate the streets of Budapest in cheery rainbow hues. The ice cream? That was all Laura Benanti, who, as a lonely salesgirl, cries despairingly into her dessert while singing one of the more delicious confections from the classic rom-com...Benanti...brings an operatic quality to the role, wrenching emotion from songs such as 'Dear Friend.' As with her co-stars, there's a winking and self-conscious quality to her performance. Levi, as the shop's senior employee, has stepped up his game since his nice debut a few seasons back in 'First Date.' His Georg is a solid fellow who wants to make everyone happy...Levi seems to be having fun, and his performance is natural and comfortable.

Williams is venomous, fragile and, finally, stripped bare as she narrates a spellbinding account of Una's last encounter with Ray, at a beach-side hotel in a town far away enough from where they both lived that they wouldn't be recognized...In [Daniels] hands, it's apparent Ray knows what he did was wrong, but also clear that he doesn't believe he was one of 'them' -- the kind of man who belongs on a sex-offender registry...After Una tells Ray her father died some years back, Ray moves to comfort her, touching her back in the warm way a friend might. The way Williams reacts feels pointedly truthful. Joe Mantello's direction is as taut as in 'The Humans'...I'm genuinely surprised a piece of this intense nature has made it to Broadway. 'Blackbird' is a small gem, here in the hands of two gifted actors.

With this slight, silly, campy and cornball musical comedy, now open at the Nederlander Theatre, many of those celebrities are, I imagine, expressing goodwill for a bona fide Broadway hero. They can consider their debt paid. By the time 'Disaster' was over, I had laughed some, but mostly I was rooting for the piranhas...Rudetsky is both a co-star and -- alongside director Jack Plotnick -- co-author of 'Disaster,' which features a melange of the era's cheesiest songs, inserted, and often pummeled, into the book in such a way that they're meant to exist as an extension of the dialogue...This is a goofy show, and one producers...would've been far wiser to squeeze into a single act.

'Eclipsed' is a colorful and fiery drama, and one that no doubt stands bracingly apart from ordinary Broadway fare. But there's more here than just that....The performances are top-notch. I loved Nyong'o, who is vulnerable, comical and charismatic, as a still-malleable girl on the cusp of womanhood. I was touched, as well, by Sengboh and Armand, who are torn between the enemy they know, and the uncertainties of a life without his protection.

The likable actor, an Oscar winner for 'The Last King of Scotland,' is brave to spread his wings to Broadway, but his performance, at least for now, is disappointingly one-note...Whitaker, north of 6-feet-tall, manages to slouch and slink into the role. He plays Erie as consistently content, but such joviality doesn't seem to fit the circumstances...There must be a deep unhappiness and loneliness within him; we just aren't seeing it. Whitaker delivers his dialogue in an oddly staccato style. Maybe he's still trying to find his footing with O'Neill's rhythms. Wood's challenge, as the new clerk, is to react professionally, even though he'd rather not engage in mindless chatter...Wood does a remarkable job radiating detachment.

Our calendars are teasing spring, but it's still Thanksgiving in the Chinatown duplex Brigid Blake shares with boyfriend Richard in 'The Humans,' Stephen Karam's eloquent and wholly relatable modern family drama...Sensitively staged by Joe Mantello...Beck, too, stands out, blending the causticness brought by illness with an alarmingly healthy sense of humor about Aimee's predicament...Karam paints such a dynamic portrait of real life that I could only sit and absorb the insecurities and frailties batted around on stage. 'The Humans' is monumentally affecting, and something for which theatergoers should be oh-so-very thankful.

Linda Lavin is alternately sardonic and fragile in the New York premiere of Richard Greenberg's drama 'Our Mother's Brief Affair'...The notion of 'legacy' weighs heavily in the drama, which touches on themes such as the suburban dream, and the desire, when one's life is nearing its end, 'to be known'...Lavin...paints a balanced portrait here, as a Long Island mom who dutifully raised two kids despite being in a marriage that was never romantic... Greenberg...is making a point about 'scale,' that some loads we carry through life-the burdens that bring us shame-are worse than others, and that after a point we must forgive ourselves. It's a point I'd gander he might have made more elegantly without the plot twist, but nonetheless, with Lavin leading the cast, it's a beautifully performed play.

An A-list ensemble, led by beloved comedienne Andrea Martin, takes classic scenes and amps them up. So here, an actor doesn't just fall down a flight of steps -- he flips over a banister with an acrobatic flourish, breaking the handrail right off its balusters. It's the sort of commitment that leaves audiences concerned for the well-being of a performer...Wonderful here, Martin conveys that Dotty Otley, leading lady of the show-within-a-show, is essentially a highly paid showgirl talking down to her character. Torturing every vowel ('saw-dines'), Martin puts her stamp on the script with wiggly-fingered antics...Of Hilty, as inept ingenue Brooke Ashton, let's note: You have to be an excellent actress to play a bad actress...'Noises Off' takes its time building to full-fledged nuttiness. But director Jeremy Herrin ('Wolf Hall') shrewdly pulls off 'Off' with one intermission, combining the traditional second and third acts into one. Things here just flow.