★★★★★ This sprawling family story set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles is a contemporary classic
Broadway
The Ferryman: An Intimate, Intense Irish Epic
★★★★★ Jez Butterworth’s London smash arrives in New York with a massive cast, enormous buzz, a goose, and a rabbit
The Lifespan of a Fact: Can You Handle the Truth?
★★★☆☆ Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, and Daniel Radcliffe star in a surprisingly compelling drama about—wait for it—magazine fact-checking
The Lifespan of a Fact: Seeking Accuracy, With Dramatic License
★★★☆☆ Daniel Radcliffe and Bobby Cannavale bring their best to a true-ish script about a battle over truth
Anastasia: Journey to the Musical Past
★★★★☆ Long-Run Lookback: McNally, Ahrens and Flaherty ransack the operetta playbook, with pleasing results
The Nap: All Balled Up, in Sheffield
★★★★☆ One Man, Two Guvs author returns with another very funny play
The Nap: No Farce Please, We’re British
★★☆☆☆ The latest from ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ playwright Richard Bean doesn’t quite make the jump from northern England
Bernhardt/Hamlet: What a Piece of Work
★★★★☆ Janet McTeer is divine in Theresa Rebeck’s metatheatrical ode to Sarah Bernhardt and Shakespeare’s melancholy Dane
Bernhardt/Hamlet: Janet McTeer in Theresa Rebeck’s Almost-Ready Play
★★★☆☆ Sarah Bernhardt takes on the great role while dallying with Edmond Rostand
Beautiful: Some Kind of Wonderful Show
★★★★☆ Long-Run Lookback: Abby Mueller shows the world all the love in her heart as Broadway’s current Carole King in the long-running biomusical