Intellectual exercises with Rafe Spall, Roger Allam, Alan Cumming and Daniel Radcliffe in worthy productions
From London: Stoppard Potently Examines His Elusive Background in Leopoldstadt
★★★★★ For his supposedly last work, the revered playwright looks at vanished Viennese Jews
Blues for an Alabama Sky: 1930s Harlem Dreaming
★★★★☆ Pearl Cleage looks at five figures running for their natural lives
Dracula/Frankenstein: Stoker, Shelley Classics on Lowered Stakes
★★☆☆☆ Adaptations by Kate Hamill and Tristan Bernays are playing in rep, directed by Sarna Lapine and Timothy Douglas
Chekhov/Tolstoy Love Stories: Russian Masters Sparsely Served
★★☆☆☆ Chekhov’s “An Artist’s Story” and Tolstoy’s “Michael,” adapted by Miles Malleson
Where We Stand: Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ Elusive Town Meeting
★★☆☆☆ Audience participation with a perhaps misguided purpose, directed by Tamilla Woodard
Hamlet: Ruth Negga To Be or Not To Be in Title Role?
★★★☆☆ Yaël Farber’s handsome Gate Theatre production boasts pluses and minuses
House Plant: Wilts Quickly Before Your Aching Eyes and Ears
★★☆☆☆ Sarah Einspanier’s elusive play with three (over)actors and a fourth on violin
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice: Mazursky’s Movie Musically Mangled
★☆☆☆☆ Creators Jonathan Marc Sherman, Duncan Sheik, and Amanda Green do no one any adapting favors
Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake: Masterpiece Returns Triumphantly
★★★★★ A male swan king and male companions turn Ivanov/Petipa into masculine pride