★★★☆☆ Amidst a hurricane, a Jewish family hashes out Israel and Palestine, solving little but revealing plenty
Beyond
From Cambridge, MA: Black Swan, Tu-Tu Thrilling
★★★★☆ Classy musicalization of a psychosexual cinethriller uses human and technical legerdemain to spellbind
John Pizzarelli: Salute to Duke Ellington at the Carlyle
A stellar symphony in jazz, at Café Carlyle
From Boston, When Playwrights Kill: A Not Quite Dizzy-Enough Backstage Farce
★★★☆☆ A Broadway-hopeful laugh-fest is long on its players’ comedy chops, if a little light on grace
From Massachusetts: Wonder The Musical, Not So Wonderful
★★☆☆☆ Musicalization of a popular young adult novel about people’s cruelty toward human difference is too-thinly told and too-broadly played
Porgy and Bess: Masterful Masterwork at Met
★★★★☆ The George Gershwin-DuBose Heyward-Ira Gershwin folk musical in fine, full form
Bull Durham: Film to Stage Transfer Hits a Homer
★★★★☆ Ron Shelton’s 38 year old baseball movie makes its mark as a high flying musical
From Massachusetts: The Weekend, Angst Upon a Time
★★☆☆☆ A quartet of disaffected souls assembles in the mountains of Western Mass. to explain, indeed overexplain, their problems
From Maine: When Elvis Met The Beatles, A Melding of the Music
★★☆☆☆ The re-creation of a real-life encounter between the King and the Fab Four isn’t as fab as it ought to be
From Massachusetts: Williamstown, New Festival, New Focus
A venerable theater fest rises like a phoenix in its 71st year to celebrate Tennessee Williams