Robert Kahn — Theater Critic

'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.

This 'Fiddler,' helmed by the protective Bartlett Sher ('The King and I'), is bookended by scenes featuring a man we can interpret to be a present-day descendant of the tradition-cherishing milkman, famously 'blessed' with five daughters. This new 'Fiddler,' gorgeous and affecting, is a respectful staging of the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick classic, with modernities here and there to keep us on our toes.

The limited staging (a major difference from the original Broadway production a decade ago) puts the focus on the score, by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray...A trio of supremely talented women all making their Broadway debuts do most of the singing. Cynthia Erivo is outstanding as Celie...Hudson gives us a steamy and satisfying Shug...The 'Dreamgirls' Oscar winner gets out of the way of the story and the other actors, in what is truly a supporting performance...Brooks...and Kyle Scatliffe, as on-again, off-again lovers Sofia and Harpo, deliver particularly strong performances. Their second act duet, 'Any Little Thing,' is a grinding, groovy delight...This production, as buoyant and vital as can be, premiered at London's Menier Chocolate Factory in 2013...Broadway's latest incarnation focuses almost entirely on song, but it's still the same joyous and uplifting journey.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's first new work for Broadway in a decade is an otherwise workaday screen-to-stage adaptation, with a generous (and, I'm guessing, hoarse after every show) lead actor and faithful, if prosaic book by an unlikely writer-'Downton Abbey' creator Julian Fellowes. Webber's rock musicals ('Jesus Christ Superstar,' 'Joseph ...') are a polarizing bunch. I don't imagine most of the big numbers here will enjoy an afterlife; they're inferior to his earlier confections. Or, perhaps I need to hear them a few more times-orchestrations frequently drowned out actors, and I wasn't always sure what was being said.

Mickey spends most of 'China Doll' yammering away in one-sided conversation...Pacino doesn't veer far from his usual delivery, working in a characteristically disheveled and hot-tempered fashion...Mamet raises subjects that feel provocatively timely. One need only skim the business pages to read about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and a crack about politics...earns the biggest reaction of the night. But 'China Doll' too often gets itself revved up with no place to go and no clear position. The climax, which occurs impossibly soon after the events that set it in motion, would have benefited from a firmer hand by director Pam MacKinnon ('The Heidi Chronicles'). 'China Doll' is muddled, but it's still a treat to see Pacino, even if we're not always sure what he's doing.

Watching Broadway's 'Misery' is like playing a 33 LP set to 45. It's Stephen King by way of the Chipmunks, and with as much gravitas. (The set, which I loved, is a turntable, by David Korins, of 'Hamilton'-it spins to reveal the bedroom where Annie imprisons Paul, and the kitchen, where Paul and Annie have a dinner that is a high point of this staging.) Don't blink, or you'll miss a lot... The thrilling cinematic climax, a protracted battle to the death, here is reduced to one good whack Paul gives Annie with his used typewriter, the one missing an 'N' key, and a few seconds of neck-throttling. Die-HARD? Die-easy is more like it.

The latest revival of 'A View From the Bridge' -- the Arthur Miller play is having its third Broadway outing in 18 years -- will be noted for its stark set, ghostly sound effects and mesmerizing performance by Mark Strong, as the conflicted Italian-American longshoreman Eddie Carbone...'Bridge' steadily builds anxiety, because of its performances, surely, but also due to a ceaseless humming that reminds you of being at the movies when a subway passes nearby ... though here, the rumbling never stops...This production hangs on the performance by Strong, who acts with his entire lanky body and nimbly moves between rationality and psychosis. Is he in control of his incestuous feelings, or do they control him?

For its unusual subject matter, 'Allegiance' mirrors the structure of classic musicals, with operatic ballads and humorous diversions ('I Oughta Go' offers one fanciful bit of slapstick). As for Takei, he gets out of his own way here, to potent effect. As Ojii-chan, he helps convey the idea of 'Gaman,' a Zen Buddhist term that means 'endurance with dignity,' a guiding principle pertinent to the daily lives of the interned. In scenes that bookend 'Allegiance,' set a half-century after most of the story, Takei plays Sammy as an elderly man.

'On Your Feet!' is uneven and occasionally long-winded. It's also sometimes inspiring and uplifting. The two lead performers, Ana Villafañe and Josh Segarra, are charismatic, in different ways. Numerous jukebox musical tropes are at work in 'On Your Feet!'...What the musical does best, though, is illustrate the sacrifices it took for the Estefans to succeed...Villafañe, also a Cuban immigrant from Miami, looks and sounds like Estefan...As Grammy-winning producer Emilio Estefan, Segarra ('Lysistrata Jones') sings in a subdued way. His acting is more engaging, and his entrance, in a pair of only-in-Miami shorts, is charming. Dinelaris's book does some unnecessary pandering...'On Your Feet!' isn't quite 'Jersey Boys,' but in places, the rhythm is gonna get you.

First, it's bracingly suspenseful for a story that hinges on a parliamentary bill. Next, there's a misandrist streak here for the ages-one departs with the notion that royal males are oafish, and the U.K. is run by emboldened women. Last, the story is told in iambic pentameter and modeled on a clutch of Shakespearean tragedies and histories. The language, though, is contemporary and straightforward: 'But now I'll rise to how things have to be. The queen is dead, long live the King. That's me.'

Knightley, the English actress with such admirable range, is fine as the title character, something of a caged animal who makes a brutal grasp for true love...For how well-assembled director Evan Cabnet's production is, rest assured the figures in this update of Zola's 1867 story...are still falling to pieces. The atmospheric production design also underscores the fact that no one here is quite functioning in reality...Knightley is awkward in the parts of Edmundson's well-paced adaptation where awkwardness is required. I never got a sense of her Thérèse as deeply miserable. Rather, she's rabbity during the play's early scenes and curiously dispassionate later on, even once she begins her affair...Ryan, as Laurent, is more effective...It's a credit to Ryan that he never allows Laurent to come across as a shallow Lothario

There's a casting director out there who deserves a Milk-Bone. That reward is for realizing twinkly Annaleigh Ashford could so dynamically inhabit the title role in 'Sylvia'...As a labrador-poodle mix who nuzzles up to a middle-aged schlub (Matthew Broderick) in Central Park and awakens him to life's possibilities -- while almost destroying his marriage -- Ashford pounces into a potentially fraught role and comes out gleaming...Ashford is put into every canine trope conceivable (Sylvia is neutered!) and manages it without being cloying, a crucial matter for a play that's already got some behavioral problems...It was comforting to see stage vet Broderick more at ease than he was last season in 'It's Only a Play.' His chemistry with Ashford is swell.

'Dames at Sea' is a technicolor, tap dance-filled tribute to the movie musicals of the 1930s. It's delightful, and it doesn't take itself seriously for a minute...After an evening with the 'Dames' ensemble of dancers and singers, directed and choreographed by Encores! vet Randy Skinner -- he also worked on the 2001 revival of '42nd Street' -- you will surely agree. It works...'Dames at Sea' opens with Margherita in a flashy, affectionate and snark-free tribute to Wall Street. With that as a bar, it falls to Margherita to set a tone of ironic distance to everything that comes after...Six actors do all the work. 'Dames at Sea' is a small-scale musical, crammed into Broadway's teensiest theater, but with the gumption of a mighty battleship.

In case the prospect of old age and its frailties doesn't already frighten you, allow me to direct your attention to the lonesome and raw revival of D.L. Coburn's 'The Gin Game'...Nothing in director Leonard Foglia's ('Master Class') update of 'The Gin Game' is stylized...As Weller, a decaying businessman who was outmaneuvered by his partners, Jones wears clothes that are sizes too big, making him seem literally a man smaller than he once was. Jones seethes and seethes as Fonsia wins and wins, building up to a crescendo of ire that terrifies her...Tyson shuffles across the stage like a once-powerful woman not used to having to be careful with her body. It's a perfectly ladylike performance, until it's time to put the screws to her verbally abusive new friend, and then she really lets him have it. Jones and Tyson, it will surprise no one, make for lively sparring partners.

Rockwell, the reliable movie actor celebrated as much for his supporting roles as his leading ones, is part action, part talk -- and far more skilled with a lasso than we'd have any right to expect...Rockwell comes on as a wiseacre at first, something like Brad Pitt in 'Thelma & Louise,' trying to assure Arianda's May he just wants her to be happy. He gets cockier as he goes, and it's a very nifty, physical performance...Arianda, the Tony winner of 'Venus in Fur,' is hot-tempered and emotional, yet her performance all fits well within the bounds of Shepard's economical prose. The idea is to portray her -- purposefully -- as the stock, blousy working-class woman who's been in abusive relationship and has finally decided she can't take it anymore...'Fool for Love' is classic Shepard: Family dysfunction, a Western setting and some dark and twisted stuff leading up to a big reveal (or two). It's all handled with an enormous amount of skill and affection -- the 75 minutes fly by, and we feel as if we know these folks intimately.

Bright flashes of light and discomforting noises make for a jarring start to Harold Pinter's 1971 'Old Times'...The sensory-assault -- truly, some may find the play's first half-minute or so hard on the eyes and ears -- announces we're back in Pinter territory: abstract, and make-of-it whatever we will...All the performers manage the tricky dialogue with finesse, making this the sort of revival you'd want to see a second time just to catch all the nuances. Owen, in his Broadway debut, is louche and bemused, at first pushing brandy on his wife's guest with cocky and jerky movements that seem particular to, well, Old Times ... or, at the very least, 'Mad Men.' Reilly uses her dreamlike gaze to fine effect as something of an introvert who doesn't like the way her husband bosses her around...The focal point of the production, though, is British actress Best.

Frank makes for a magnetic Wendla, not in the least thanks to the vibrance and intensity of her signing. Most of her dialogue is voiced by Katie Boeck, who follows her just off the spotlight. As well, having actors with doubles allows the deaf performers to interact with their 'other' selves. You have to appreciate it when Moritz, overwhelmed with new-found sexual knowledge, hands off a burning cigarette to his alter ego (Alex Boniello, doing great work).

'Hamilton' arrives burnished and proud, though two performances struck me as having evolved considerably from the musical's debut. The first is Leslie Odom Jr.'s Aaron Burr...Odom's Burr is a stop-at-nothing climber obsessed with relevancy, fully exposed when he raps about wanting to be in 'The Room Where It Happens.' Yet somehow, the kinetic Odom makes Burr's admiration for his lifelong rival come through in every scene. Odom is just magnetic here. Enchanting, as well, is Phillipa Soo...as Eliza, Alexander's wife...Daveed Diggs, doing double duty as Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, is a hyper-caffeinated and charismatic White Rabbit, by way of Willy Wonka. Christopher Jackson's Washington is confident and good-humored. Groff has the crowd on his side and hits all the right notes, even if he appears more of a prince than a king...And of course, there's Miranda...His Hamilton is an astute, painfully flawed free-thinker whose efforts in war and peace inevitably prop up the people in his midst, though his failures are profound on the homefront...Turns out, once you've gotten over the first wow, there's plenty more wow to be uncovered.

More to the point, 'Amazing Grace' focuses on Newton as a bratty young man in the 1740s, when he was truly the self-proclaimed 'wretch' of that hymn's first stanza. The spiritual -- recently sung by the president at a eulogy for the Charleston shooting victims -- isn't heard until the musical's final moments. Writer Smith (sharing book credit with Arthur Giron) piles on a lot to explain why John is a rebellious man: His mother died when he was young ... His love interest, Mary (the appealing Erin Mackey, of 'Chaplin'), comes from a broken family that wants to marry her off to a pompous British major (Chris Hoch)...Because most of the relationships are musical theater tropes, they tend to drag on the pacing. The tone of scenes in the first act oscillates wildly, from striking and severe -- particularly the difficult images of chained slaves being branded -- to overly smug and smirky (Hoch is fun, though he seems to be channeling King George from 'Hamilton'). The songs are confident, if not quite memorable -- the best being 'Truly Alive,' early on.

Drifting in and out of the crumbling Humming Bird Motel are a half-dozen friends, including Tanya, a prostitute (Tony winner Julie White)...For Tanya, who gave up her own biological children for adoption, the Humming Bird family has become an outlet for nurturing instincts, and White is just lovely as a woman who can't face the decisions of her own past. 'Airline Highway' also includes an excellent turn from K. Todd Freeman as Sissy Na Na, a trans bartender who is the play's requisite voice of spiritual wisdom. The raucous party organized by Tanya brings with it much of the energy we associate with the freewheeling city...There aren't any sort of tidy resolutions in 'Airline Highway,' and we never get the feeling these has-beens at the Humming Bird will pay Miss Ruby any due. They're stuck, but at least they're having a swell time.

Never trust a woman who travels with her own coffin. That's one big takeaway from 'The Visit,' the thought-provoking and -- there's no other word for the experience -- bizarre musical...Rivera is provocative as Claire. The venerable actress is on stage for most of the production, and gets in a few chorus line kicks here and there...The two-time Tony winner has an entrance, in billowy white fur coat and hat, that's as thrilling as you'd want it to be...Rivera is solid, but it's the melancholy and soulfulness in Rees's performance that holds back 'The Visit' from any risk of sliding into a parody of itself...Do everything in your powers to avoid having the ending spoiled.