★★★☆☆ With additions from the Rodgers & Hart songbook, this updated interpretation is juicy if not entirely cohesive
Dig: Theresa Rebeck could delve a bit deeper
★★★☆☆ Each recovery story is unique, but this one proves overly schematic.
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors Tickles Ingeniously
★★★★☆ A clever script and a versatile cast transform a horror classic into pure fun and games
Death, Let Me Do My Show: Rachel Bloom picks up the pieces post-Covid
★★★★☆ Bloom is back, spilling and spewing her neuroses and obsessions – wittily.
Once Upon a One More Time: Betty Friedan Would Plotz
★★★☆☆ Sometimes a supposed tribute is an ill-camouflaged insult. Britney Spears gets lionized in this femmage; Betty Friedan, not so much.
Cassie and the Lights: A Family at Risk, Reconfigured
★★★★☆ Family dynamics get a tragicomic treatment in this tale of three virtual orphans surviving precariously in contemporary London.
The Comeuppance: A High-School Reunion Prompts Some Startling Revisionism
★★★★★ With surgical precision and abundant sympathy, Branden Jacob-Jenkins dissects the Class of 2002.
Oliver!: A Problematic Classic Benefits From a Reconsidered Villain
★★★★☆ A cuddly Fagin? Raúl Esparza pulls off an improbable transmogrification in this Encores! staging
Summer, 1976: An Odd Couple of Midwestern Moms
★★★★☆ Not every woman wants – or needs – a makeover, but plenty of women enjoy initiating them. Toxic or benevolent? You get to decide.
Regretfully, So the Birds Are: Clear the Airwaves for a Fresh New Voice
★★★★☆ Fledgling playwright Julia Izumi works out Tolstoy’s dictum about families unhappy and otherwise in this loopy portrait of three adult Asian adoptees.