★★☆☆☆ Able staging and acting can do only so much with a master author’s minor material
Girl From the North Country: A Visit to Desolation Row With Bob Dylan
★★★★☆ Bob Dylan songs are artfully molded into a new musical of melancholy distinction
I Was Most Alive with You: Craig Lucas Unleashes a Tsunami of Sorrows
★★☆☆☆ A woeful drama (in more ways than one) is performed simultaneously in two languages
Beautiful: That Carole King Bio-Show Stays Good to Go and See
★★★★☆ Long-Run Lookback: A smart jukebox musical remains a some kind of wonderful Broadway attraction
The Emperor: The Curious Decline and Fall of Haile Selassie
★★★☆☆ Kathryn Hunter conjures up the hothouse atmosphere of a vanished kingdom
Uncle Vanya: An Americanization of a Russian Classic
★★★★☆ Richard Nelson’s new version of Chekhov’s intimate classic is artfully understated
The Phantom of the Opera: Still Wonderfully Crazy After All These Years
★★★★★ Long-Run Lookback: That musical madman remains as romantic as ever in his Majestic home
The Naturalists: A Romantic Triangle Shoots Up in the Irish Countryside
★★☆☆☆ A play about new love and old crimes amid Ireland’s rural greenery strains credulity and patience.
Heartbreak House: Framing Shaw’s Upside-Downton Abbey Saga
★★☆☆☆ Inconsistent acting styles and a needless frame obscure Shaw’s portrait of pre-war English society
The Gospel at Colonus: A Joyful Noise Erupts in Central Park
★★★★☆ A unique piece of musical theater briefly makes an inspirational reappearance