★★★★☆ Five BIPOC playwrights, five BIPOC actors, directed by Les Waters, hit involving high notes
Off-Broadway
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.
The Daughter-in-Law: Early D.H. Lawrence Revived Again, in Mint Condition
★★★★☆ Martin Platt once again helms a bracing revival of the socially and emotionally charged play
The Daughter-in-Law: Sons and Lovers and Clinging Mums
★★★☆☆ The Mint returns with D.H. Lawrence’s posthumously unearthed “problem play”
Wolf Play: Surviving on Animal Instincts
★★★★★ In Hansol Jung’s heartbreaking play, an adopted boy assumes a lupine identity while trying to find a place to call home
The Merchant of Venice: A Too-Timely Production of Shakespeare’s Problem Play
★★★★☆ ✩ John Douglas Thompson brings a steadfast gaze and spine of steel to the much-maligned Shylock
The Merchant of Venice: John Douglas Thompson’s Shylock Takes the Town
★★★★☆ Arin Arbus directs a cast in which some act flashily and some put too much flash in their acting
Black No More: A New Musical About Black Lives Delivers So Much More
★★★★☆ Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and inspired colleagues, under Scott Elliott’s direction, examine today’s racist dilemmas