★★★★☆ A fine ensemble cast serves Peter Gil-Sheridan’s study of a successful man trying, against all odds, to make a difference
Off-Broadway
The Chinese Lady: For Your Education, Entertainment, and Discomfort
★★★★☆ Playwright Lloyd Suh draws on real-life 19th-century events with 21st-century ramifications in this Ma-Yi Theater, Barrington Stage, and Public Theater production
The Chinese Lady: Exoticized, Mistreated, and Still a Cipher
★★★☆☆ The story of the first Chinese woman in America is horrifying, and all these years later we’re still telling it
A Touch of the Poet: Robert Cuccioli a Figure of Valor in Eugene O’Neill’s Drama
★★★★☆ Ciarán O’Reilly directs a worthy revival of a play about a raging pub owner bent on his own destruction
On Sugarland: An Ambitious, Epic Wartime Drama
★★★★☆ Aleshea Harris explores the aftermath of war and the shades of grief in a shattering new play
On Sugarland: Playwright Aleshea Harris Concentrates on Black Lives Mattering
★★★☆☆ Whitney White directs a smooth ensemble portraying people trying to persist in a far-flung Southern cul-de-sac
Out of Time: Five Monologues Masterfully Capturing Contemporary Anxiety
★★★★☆ Five BIPOC playwrights, five BIPOC actors, directed by Les Waters, hit involving high notes
sandblasted: The Place of Black Women Today Given a Fantastical Look-See
★★★☆☆ Playwright Charly Evon Simpson has a strong but compromised say, mightily helped by her director and cast
English: Playwright Sanaz Toossi Looks at Language in So Many Wise Words
★★★★☆ A smart cast, under Knud Adams’ smart direction, speak in two tongues but both English
English: Lost in Translation
★★★☆☆ Sanaz Toosi’s play concerns a group of adult Iranian students attempting to learn English.