★★★☆☆ Jen Silverman’s characters are smart, sharp-tongued, and far from stereotypical. Try to keep up.
Bernardo
Private Peaceful: One Soldier’s Story, in Multiple Voices
★★★★☆ Another World War I–era novel from ‘War Horse’ author Michael Morpurgo gets the theatrical treatment
Days to Come: Less-Than-Mint-Condition Hellman
★★☆☆☆ The Mint Theater digs up Lillian Hellman’s long-forgotten, failed 1936 drama
Henry VI: Stop and Smell the War of the Roses
★★★★☆ The National Asian American Theatre Company condenses Shakespeare’s three Henry VI plays into a two-part, five-and-a-half-hour experience
Gettin’ the Band Back Together: Déjà Vu All Over Again
★★☆☆☆ The groans drown out the laughs at this totally unoriginal original musical
Head Over Heels: The Beat Goes On
★★★★☆ Mad about the Go-Go’s? Get up and go to the Elizabethan-set musical packed with their hook-heavy hits.
Straight White Men: Check Their Privilege!
★★★☆☆ Young Jean Lee makes her Broadway debut with a Christmas-set family drama starring Josh Charles and Armie Hammer as backslapping bros
Mary Page Marlowe: Six Actresses, One Amazing Woman
★★★★★ Tracy Letts returns to the Midwest with a subdued but stunning play about someone “unexceptional”
Gone Missing: Requiem for a Composer
★★★★☆ The late Michael Friedman receives a fitting tribute at Encores! Off-Center with The Civilians’ melancholy Gone Missing.
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever: A Fine Romance
★★★☆☆ Melissa Errico and Stephen Bogardus star in Irish Rep’s stripped-down, chamber-style revival of the 1960s musical.