★★★☆☆ The Mint unearths the first of several works by a neglected British playwright
Off-Broadway
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark: She’s Quite a Character
★★★☆☆ Part screwball comedy, part post-doctoral thesis, Lynn Nottage’s 8-year-old play still hasn’t solved its identity crisis
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark: Black and White in Hollywood’s Golden Age
★★★☆☆ Lynn Nottage’s inter-Pulitzer satire is well revived at the Signature, but still only hits some of its marks
Merrily We Roll Along: A Glittering Jewel Revealed
★★★★★ Fiasco Theater rethinks Sondheim and Furth’s backward-through-time musical, with dazzling results
Merrily We Roll Along: Opening Doors, Again
★★★★☆ Fiasco Theater and Roundabout Theatre Company offer another compelling take on a challenging Sondheim musical
Sea Wall / A Life: Personal Storytelling, Carefully and Impersonally Constructed
★★★★☆ Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal offer two monologues of love and death, immaculately performed if not quite honest
Sea Wall / A Life: Meditations on Life and Death
★★★☆☆ Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal star in a pair of somber, sometimes rewarding monologues by Simon Stephens and Nick Payne
Switzerland: Patricia Highsmith in Person Niftily Fictionalized
★★★★☆ Joanna Murray-Smith imagines how the thriller author might handle a non-Tom Ripley young man
Bonnie’s Last Flight: A Misguided Journey to Nowhere
★☆☆☆☆ A cool concept for a comedy about a plane trip proves to be a tedious time
Freestyle Love Supreme: Where Hip Hop, Improv, and Comedy Meet
★★★★☆ The hip hop improv troupe cofounded by Lin-Manuel Miranda reunites for an off-Broadway run (with a few special guests)