★★★☆☆ The accomplished leading lady exuberantly carries a not-quite-satisfying play
Off-Broadway
Apologia: Stockard Channing as Mother Inferior
★★☆☆☆ A birthday dinner takes a dark turn in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s English countryside–set drama
Fireflies: Donja R. Love’s Explosive Look at Destructive Racism
★★★★☆ The marriage of a reverend and his pregnant wife founders as literal and figurative bombs go off
Sakina’s Restaurant: Aasif Mandvi Returns to His Roots
★★★☆☆ Aasif Mandvi plays six characters in this 20th-anniversary revival of his Obie-winning one-man show
Emma and Max: Moviemaker Todd Solondz Tries Theater to Mixed Results
★★★☆☆ A tale ripped from the headlines about liberal guilt and immigrant discontent is watered down
Midnight at the Never Get: A Moody Cabaret About the Man That Got Away
★★★☆☆ A gay romance from the 1960s glimmers within a little musical bubble
Midnight at the Never Get: A Musical That Never Quite Gets There
★★☆☆☆ Mark Sonnenblick is the composer-;lyricist-bookwriter of a sorry tale of 1960s gay romance
The Winning Side: What’s Love Got to Do With Wernher Von Braun?
★★☆☆☆ A mash-up of fact and fiction shows that writing plays can be harder than rocket science
Popcorn Falls: Small-Town Drama, Played For Laughs
★★★☆☆ Christian Borle directs two other facile funny men in a play by James Hindman.
Oklahoma!: Bright Golden Haze (and Darkest Night) on the Meadow
★★★★☆ A brave and mostly successful rethinking of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic