★★★★☆ A diabolical visitor encounters amazing grace in Conor McPherson’s supernatural Irish drama
Off-Broadway
The Seafarer: Conor McPherson’s Tense Drinking, Soul-Searching Tale
★★★★☆ Matthew Broderick heads an expert ensemble is this realistic-surrealistic drama
Mlima’s Tale: A Monumental New Play by Lynn Nottage
★★★★★ The award-winning playwright delivers a masterwork about ivory trafficking—and much more.
Mlima’s Tale: Lynn Nottage Incarnates the Ivory Trade with Cruel Irony
★★★★☆ An imaginative quasi-documentary sees an elephant’s precious tusks pass through a chain of ivory traffickers
King Lear: Antony Sher Makes Foolish Old Age Memorable
★★★★☆ Director Gregory Doran runs mostly hot and sometimes cold on the Shakespeare masterpiece
King Lear: Antony Sher’s Crowning Achievement
★★★★★ In his last dance with the Bard, Antony Sher tackles (and conquers) the mad king with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Miss You Like Hell: Hudes and McKeown View Mothers and Daughters
★★★☆☆ Rubin-Vega and Jiménez as an estranged mother and daughter renewing their love to songs
Miss You Like Hell: Can a Latina Mom Fight Deportation?
★★★☆☆ An incandescent Daphne Rubin-Vega blazes through a topical new musical at The Public
This Flat Earth: A School Shooting Raises Sad Questions
★★☆☆☆ A sorrowful teen survivor wonders: “So why don’t the grown-ups just fix it?”
The Winter’s Tale: Arin Arbus’ Austere–Too Austere?–Revival
★★★☆☆ The stage direction that goes “Exit, pursued by bear” gets it best showing ever