★★★★☆ Michael McKeever’s play, directed by Joe Brancato with a strong cast, disturbs with great effect
Surely, Goodness and Mercy: A 12-Year Old Good But Maybe Too Good
★★★☆☆ Chisa Hutchinson’s play includes the 23rd psalm and is just as hopeful
If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka: Black Sure Is Beautiful Here
★★★★☆ Tori Sampson’s allegory heartily examines beauty definitions, with Leah C. Gardiner directing
Fleabag: Waller: A Very Funny Girl With Sex Always on Her Mind
★★★★☆ Phoebe Waller-Bridge arrives from Great Britain, impressing stateside audiences with her talent
Imagining Madoff: Deb Margolin’s Imagination Runs Brilliantly Wild
★★★★☆ The Ponzi criminal seen raving and ranting in a knock-out performance by Jeremiah Kissel
Dying in Boulder: Linda Faigao-Hall’s Drama Dies More Than One Way
★★★☆☆ A Buddhist-style death wish is examined from a perspective not sympathetic to religion
Marys Seacole: An Everywoman Play That Hits and Misses Targets
★★★☆☆ Jackie Sibblies Drury’s work tributes a famous healer but doesn’t entirely heal itself
The Play That Goes Wrong: Rarely Does Anything Go So Right
★★★★★ The long-running British send-up moves to a new address, keeping its old hilarity
Switzerland: Patricia Highsmith in Person Niftily Fictionalized
★★★★☆ Joanna Murray-Smith imagines how the thriller author might handle a non-Tom Ripley young man
My Very Own British Invasion: A Warped Brit-Based Jukebox Tuner
★★☆☆☆ Herman’s Hermit’s lead singer Peter Noone’s story, via Rick Elice, with nostalgic rock ditties