★★★☆☆ Ted Sperling conducts/directs Vanessa Williams, Elizabeth Stanley, Santino Fontana, Joanna Gleason, many more to effect
A Touch of the Poet: Robert Cuccioli a Figure of Valor in Eugene O’Neill’s Drama
★★★★☆ Ciarán O’Reilly directs a worthy revival of a play about a raging pub owner bent on his own destruction
On Sugarland: Playwright Aleshea Harris Concentrates on Black Lives Mattering
★★★☆☆ Whitney White directs a smooth ensemble portraying people trying to persist in a far-flung Southern cul-de-sac
Out of Time: Five Monologues Masterfully Capturing Contemporary Anxiety
★★★★☆ Five BIPOC playwrights, five BIPOC actors, directed by Les Waters, hit involving high notes
sandblasted: The Place of Black Women Today Given a Fantastical Look-See
★★★☆☆ Playwright Charly Evon Simpson has a strong but compromised say, mightily helped by her director and cast
English: Playwright Sanaz Toossi Looks at Language in So Many Wise Words
★★★★☆ A smart cast, under Knud Adams’ smart direction, speak in two tongues but both English
The Merchant of Venice: John Douglas Thompson’s Shylock Takes the Town
★★★★☆ Arin Arbus directs a cast in which some act flashily and some put too much flash in their acting
Black No More: A New Musical About Black Lives Delivers So Much More
★★★★☆ Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and inspired colleagues, under Scott Elliott’s direction, examine today’s racist dilemmas
The Music Man: Hugh Jackman, Sutton Foster Band Together Okay
★★★★☆ Meredith Willson’s joyful musical comedy is back, with Jerry Zaks directing and Warren Carlyle choreographing
Tambo & Bones: American Racism Probed in Ambitious, Faulty Comic Drama
★★★☆☆ Playwright Dave Harris plucks characters from long-repudiated minstrel shows to make his sadly pertinent points