★★★★★ There’s no way to sugarcoat Thomas Jefferson’s abuse of Sally Hemings, but Suzan-Lori Parks whips up an entertaining gloss.
Off-Broadway
Sally & Tom: Follies of a Founding Father
★★★★☆ Suzan-Lori Parks melds the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemings mystery with the struggle for freedom in our own day
Macbeth (an undoing): The Shakespeare Classic Undone to a Fare-Thee-Well
★★☆☆☆ Zinnie Harris is the problematic playwright as well as the much more adept director of this ill-advised project
Stalker: A Magical New Import From Sweden
★★★★☆ The Swedish magicians who stumped Penn & Teller arrive in New York
Grief Hotel: Misery Loves Company
★★★★★ Liza Birkenmeier’s Obie Award–winning play paints a gorgeously impressionistic picture of a group of acquaintances in loneliness, contemplation, and despair
Grief Hotel: A Bizarre Business Plan That Doubles as a Clever Leitmotif
★★★★☆ “Loss is fast, and grief is slow…. At the grief hotel, you get to stop time.”
Philadelphia, Here I Come!: The Brian Friel Classic Returns In Grand Fashion
★★★★★ The Tony-nominated best play is revived in a Broadway calibre production at the Irish Rep
Philadelphia, Here I Come: Two Aces Finesse This Spirited Revival of a Modern Classic
★★★★☆ Brian Friel’s early character study – an exercise in ego vs. id – proves surprisingly timely and compelling.
Like They Do in the Movies: Laurence Fishburne’s Autobiography in Unspared Candor
★★★★☆ The acclaimed Tony winner and screen actor offers an entertaining and revealing self portrait
Teeth: A Rip-Roaring Revenge Musical With Teeth, Many of Them
★★★☆☆ Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs, with Sarah Benson directing, add a score to the scarifying 2007 movie Teeth