★★★☆☆ Little Lord’s latest work playfully digs at the roots of indoctrination
Off-Broadway
Surely, Goodness and Mercy: A 12-Year Old Good But Maybe Too Good
★★★☆☆ Chisa Hutchinson’s play includes the 23rd psalm and is just as hopeful
The Mother: Family Affairs Française, Outside Buffalo
★★☆☆☆ Florian Zeller follows up his sterling The Father with a less-intriguing The Mother
The Mother: Female Trouble, in Midlife
★★☆☆☆ A radiant Isabelle Huppert tries to breathe life into Florian Zeller’s account of a woman’s isolation
If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka: Black Sure Is Beautiful Here
★★★★☆ Tori Sampson’s allegory heartily examines beauty definitions, with Leah C. Gardiner directing
Fleabag: Waller: A Very Funny Girl With Sex Always on Her Mind
★★★★☆ Phoebe Waller-Bridge arrives from Great Britain, impressing stateside audiences with her talent
Chick Flick the Musical: Watching Women Bond Over Watching Women Bond
★★☆☆☆ This cliched celebration of cliched movies is exactly what you think it, which might make it perfect for its venue
Chick Flick the Musical: The Wineglass Is Half Empty
★★☆☆☆ How many Chardonnay jokes can you fit into one show? You’re about to find out.
Imagining Madoff: Deb Margolin’s Imagination Runs Brilliantly Wild
★★★★☆ The Ponzi criminal seen raving and ranting in a knock-out performance by Jeremiah Kissel
The Cake: When the Antigay Baker Meets a Same-Sex Couple
★★★★☆ Debra Jo Rupp is the key ingredient in Bekah Brunstetter’s sympathetic portrait of cultures colliding