★★★☆☆ A new musical by and featuring Grace McLean recalls a singular woman (and saint) to beguiling, bewildering effect
Toni Stone: A Woman At Bat, Alone in the Game
★★★☆☆ Lydia R. Diamond casts new light on the Negro League legend and first lady of professional baseball
A Strange Loop: The Cycle of Life, on Repeat
★★★★☆ Michael R. Jackson takes on identity, and Tyler Perry, in a funny, haunting and truly original new musical
The Secret Life of Bees: Finding Honey in Hard Places
★★★★☆ Duncan Sheik and Lynn Nottage team up for a musical adaptation of the long-cherished novel
Dying City: Lovers, Brothers and Other Strangers
★★★☆☆ Second Stage Theater revives Christopher Shinn’s intimate play tracing personal struggles in the Iraq War’s early stages
Underground Railroad Game: Learning From History, Bearing Its Weight
★★★☆☆ The acclaimed play looking at slavery’s enduring legacy returns to Ars Nova
Something Clean: A Child’s Mess, A Mother’s Burden
★★★★☆ Kathryn Erbe is radiant as a middle-aged matron seeking a fresh start after crushing trauma
Happy Talk: Matchmaking and Mystery in the Suburbs
★★★★☆ Jesse Eisenberg’s new play, starring Susan Sarandon and Marin Ireland, puts funny, vexing twists on suburban cliches
The Pink Unicorn: A Modern Mother’s Quandary, Deep in the Heart of Texas
★★★☆☆ A one-woman play casts Alice Ripley as the mother of a gender-neutral teen
Curse of the Starving Class: How the West Was Lost
★★★★☆ Terry Kinney’s witty, wrenching new production reveals the Sam Shepard classic as a play for our times