Robert Kahn — Theater Critic

In the staid “No Man’s Land,” Hirst (Stewart), a successful poet, and Spooner (McKellen), a failed one, having met in a London pub, drink into the night in Hirst’s well-appointed home. The overtly homosexual overtones in some productions -- Hirst and Spooner meet in Hampstead Heath, known as a gay-cruising destination -- are not particularly dwelled upon here.

As the Reverend Lord Ezekial D'Ysquith, [Jefferson] Mays is pushed from a church steeple, a bloody scene with Hitchcockian overtones.The murders go on like that, satisfying stand-alone moments that allow Mays to do what he does best: rush backstage, jump into the next costume and play scenes to the hilt. They're delectable schadenfreude. You'll thrill in seeing him bring boundless energy and distinct personalities to his assorted D'Ysquiths of either gender. Pinkham, as well, achieves a tall order, remaining perfectly likable, though his character is committing nefarious acts...If it's escapism you're out for, and you also take pleasure from the suffering of others - after pushing through Times Square to get to a theater during the holidays, you very well may - 'A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder' has the trappings of a fun, lightweight night out. Like many two-for-one offers, it's a rewarding proposition.

As the Reverend Lord Ezekial D'Ysquith, [Jefferson] Mays is pushed from a church steeple, a bloody scene with Hitchcockian overtones.The murders go on like that, satisfying stand-alone moments that allow Mays to do what he does best: rush backstage, jump into the next costume and play scenes to the hilt. They're delectable schadenfreude. You'll thrill in seeing him bring boundless energy and distinct personalities to his assorted D'Ysquiths of either gender. Pinkham, as well, achieves a tall order, remaining perfectly likable, though his character is committing nefarious acts...If it's escapism you're out for, and you also take pleasure from the suffering of others - after pushing through Times Square to get to a theater during the holidays, you very well may - 'A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder' has the trappings of a fun, lightweight night out. Like many two-for-one offers, it's a rewarding proposition.

It's next to impossible to experience Billy Crystal's still side-splitting '700 Sundays'without recalling the absurdist characters and hallmark moments of your own youth. The veteran entertainer, a city slicker-turned-awards-show-hosting-juggernaut, has turned the story of his own coming-of-age into such a relatable piece of theater that any one anecdote may start your waterworks flowing, even while you're doubled over in laughter.

For a comedy that’s about characters carried away by sexual desire, there’s surprisingly little warmth in this “Twelfth Night,” from either Rylance’s otherwise-winning Olivia, who seems to glide across the stage as if on rollers, or Scotsman Liam Brennan’s Duke Orsino, who is falling for his handsome new page boy, Cesario (Barnett, as Viola, in disguise).

Viewers of the Netflix political drama “House of Cards” might detect the influence of Richard III on Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood (Spacey appeared as an energetic Richard III at BAM last year): Richard’s ruthless scheming, shameless manipulation and direct asides to the audience as he confides to us his monstrous plans pretty much set the bar for the cold-blooded quest for political power.

There are gymnastics aplenty, the most memorable coming from Julius 'iGlide' Chisolm, of the dance crew RemoteKontrol, and hip-hop artist Virgil J. Gadson, who does handstands during 'East St. Louis Toodle-oo.' Of the dancers, you'll be particularly taken with Karine Plantadit (a Tony nominee for the Twyla Tharp musical 'Come Fly Away'), who emerges from a coffin and later climbs back atop it during a number that includes the pieces 'The Gal From Joe's' and 'Black and Tan Fantasy.'

A Time to Kill,' also the basis for a memorable film, begins as a horrifying act is perpetrated upon a young black girl carrying groceries to her family. When her father, Carl Lee (here, John Douglas Thompson, excellent) finds out about the rape, he guns down the scoundrels. To keep him off death row, cocky attorney Jake Brigance (Sebastian Arcelus) will have to prove Carl Lee was temporarily insane...Arcelus ('House of Cards'), as the good Southern boy who takes on Carl Lee's case partly out of his own guilt over not preventing the crime, is lost here, almost as if he's just blandly working a table reading...Jake's wife and daughter have been mostly written out of the story; so, too, has a pivotal element of the book that had Ellen Roark's character attacked by the Ku Klux Klan. Indeed, with this script, much of the action has been wrung right out of the story.

How far would you go for family? That's the deceptively complex question posed by 'The Winslow Boy,' a satisfying, very British drama from the Roundabout Theatre Co. now open at the American Airlines Theatre. In the case of the Winslows, an upper-class clan living in London's Kensington district, the answer is: you go until it hurts, and then you go some more...It's a credit to actor Rees that the dated storyline and Masterpiece-esque class distinctions don't come off as exceptionally antiquated...

Norbert Leo Butz, as Edward, is as charismatic as ever in this father-and-son fable, based on Tim Burton's 2003 film about a traveling salesman who tells far-fetched stories...The two-time Tony winner leaps, swaggers and sweats his way through more than two-and-a-half hours of fair-to-middling show tunes with enough visual spice to keep us engaged, if not quite tapping our fingers along in our armrests....Where 'Big Fish' gets stuck in the shallows is with its score, by Andrew Lippa ('The Addams Family'). A brash musical demands you leave the theater wanting to buy the cast recording, or at least humming a song. 'Big Fish' doesn't, though 'Be the Hero,' which bookends the production, is catchy enough, in spite of its been-there-heard-that message: you should 'be the hero of your own story.

[Quinto's] performance, brooding and self-aware, allows you to experience Tom's turmoil: the contradictory knowledge that to save himself, he needs to desert the ones he loves most...Jones, in the months leading up to this opening, left us with the sense she never wanted to play the complex Amanda, but allowed director Tiffany to persuade her. Thank goodness. Her forceful matron is bullying and boisterous, motherly and affectionate, deluded and desperately needy, without ever quite coming off as detached from reality...Keenan-Bolger holds her chin high through every disappointment. Her face remains blank, but she carries the weight of her burdens in hunched shoulders. Laura's low self-esteem drives the action in 'Menagerie,' though by the end of this production, Keenan-Bolger will have you second-guessing just who among the Wingfields is truly the weakest link. Her Laura is frail, but not yet so lost to despair that she is unable to take risks.

[Quinto's] performance, brooding and self-aware, allows you to experience Tom's turmoil: the contradictory knowledge that to save himself, he needs to desert the ones he loves most...Jones, in the months leading up to this opening, left us with the sense she never wanted to play the complex Amanda, but allowed director Tiffany to persuade her. Thank goodness. Her forceful matron is bullying and boisterous, motherly and affectionate, deluded and desperately needy, without ever quite coming off as detached from reality...Keenan-Bolger holds her chin high through every disappointment. Her face remains blank, but she carries the weight of her burdens in hunched shoulders. Laura's low self-esteem drives the action in 'Menagerie,' though by the end of this production, Keenan-Bolger will have you second-guessing just who among the Wingfields is truly the weakest link. Her Laura is frail, but not yet so lost to despair that she is unable to take risks.

There's plenty of heat emanating from David Leveaux's production of 'Romeo and Juliet'...The opening scene, pitting rival cousins Benvolio (Conrad Kemp) and Tybalt (Corey Hawkins) against one another in front of a graffiti-marked wall, could well introduce the contemporary 'West Side Story.' An engine revs offstage, and a helmet-clad rider storms in on a Triumph Scrambler motorcycle. It's an entrance that totally works for Bloom, popular star of 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchises...Rashad, often barefoot, plays Juliet as a portrait of innocence and naivete, with eyes that widen in Bloom's presence...There is chemistry here, though for me it seemed to peak early on...During the famous balcony scene, I confess I began to wonder if this all might just be about hormones. The debonair, at-ease Bloom seems to overpower Rashad from here out. Blame it on the strategic wielding of a sun tattoo on his stomach ... or his nuanced performance.

Austin Winsberg's slapstick book makes hash of every dating cliche we've heard...The breezy if plain score is by young composers Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, who've written for Disney...[Levi's] got pipes, and 'First Date' is a nice vehicle for the lanky actor, who mugs his way through a handshake-turned-awkward-fistbump, and other well-done comedic moments. Rodriguez is compelling and believable as the wounded, sometimes claw-bearing serial dater who hasn't quite given up on love...'First Date' doesn't boast the most memorable score or original story, but you'll still walk out feeling as if you've gotten lucky. That's thanks to the charismatic stars, who display a comfort and ease with their fictional counterparts that you usually only see in couples married 20 years.

These people all have magic to do, and over the course of two and a half hours, they deliver in relentless, surprising and cathartic ways. This revival, choreographed by Chet Walker 'in the style' of original director Bob Fosse, is Fosse by way of the Flying Wallendas...Miller makes for a charismatic guide as the Leading Player, locking eyes with audience members throughout the evening...My advice is to judge this 'Pippin' based on how it makes you feel, once you've separated that from all the delightful noise. It left me ecstatic and spent, and feeling like it's time to attend trapeze school.

The comic timing we've come to associate with the Tony-nominated Baldwin is on grand display...Foster's shady Treat vacillates between menacing and childlike; at any point, you fear he may knife Harold, or hug him...Sturridge is phenomenal as Phillip, the type of fellow we'd think of today as falling somewhere on the autistic spectrum, though such classifications likely weren't part of Kessler's vernacular back in the day. His Phillip inhabits the tiny confines of the row house like a cat, leaping lithely from sofa to stairs to windowsill (the appropriately glum set is by John Lee Beatty).

'Motown,' which clocks in at nearly three hours with intermission, is a greatest hits collection of music and a treasure trove of history...Like so many collections, it would benefit from some considerable paring down. I'd have preferred fewer of those awesome songs, with more of them performed in full. The actors (among them, the fine Valisia LeKae as Diana Ross and Bryan Terrell Clark as Marvin Gaye) do a swell job of not imitating the artists they're charged with portraying, instead infusing roles with their own individual charms. More nettlesome is the story, not that most people will care, since audiences will flock to 'Motown' on the goodwill of its name alone.

If you're going to stage a musical about fathers and sons, expectations and disappointment, you couldn't ask for more promising shepherds than rock icon Cyndi Lauper and four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein. Separately, each has created some of the more affirming material in the self-acceptance canon (think 'True Colors,' and 'La Cage aux Folles'). What the duo has conjured together in 'Kinky Boots,' which has just opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, is a vibrant, if choppy tale about carving your own identity, with bold, brassy music that delivers on its promise, and a story that, like so much from this genre, is often predictable.

The biggest challenge faced by 'Lucky Guy' might be the conundrum of its title. Ephron originally called her script 'Stories About McAlary,' and McAlary's widow was reportedly apprehensive of the change, at least before sitting in on a rehearsal. McAlary's time was brief, but it seems as if it was filled with the love, camaraderie and success many spend lifetimes twice as long trying to achieve. All things considered, you could say he was pretty lucky.

It’s cliche to say it, but Taylor becomes Ann Richards, mostly thanks to her witty script, and with a nice assist from costume designer Julie Weiss, who’s clothed her in a white, all-business jacket and skirt, with a sparkling Lone Star brooch. The transformation is all the more remarkable for the fact that Taylor only once met Richards, when they were briefly introduced at New York’s Le Cirque in 2004 by the columnist Liz Smith.

Metcalf's Juliana is two different women: the first, a businesslike medical researcher-turned-pharmaceutical rep; the second, a disintegrating mother distancing herself from reality. Juliana's fear about her health manifests as anger and sarcasm, and is particularly potent in scenes like one where she bites the head off her doctor for not allowing her to smoke in her office ... which is inside a hospital. Anyone can get sick, but is it the truly brilliant people who have the most trouble when control over their bodies is wrenched away? Metcalf makes us feel her fear.