★★★★☆ The reliable Dominique Morisseau scores again, with Stori Ayers firmly directing an extremely versatile cast
Off-Broadway
At the Wedding: Of Canapés and Cannibals
★★★★☆ Nuptials upended by hilarity in Bryn Turner play at Lincoln Center Theater
what you are now: A Cambodian Family in Universally Identifiable Memory Denial
★★★★☆ Sam Chanse’s strong new play, directed by Steve Cosson with an impressive five-member ensemble
The Life: Seldom-Revived Cy Coleman Musical Gets a Shot in the Arm from Billy Porter
★★★★☆ The stage and screen star and his collaborators pump fresh blood into this ode to New York’s mean streets
Notes From Now: The Pandemic Musical Revue You’ve Been Waiting For
★★★★☆ The Prospect Theater Company has Stephen Schwartz, Gretchen Cryer, Jeff Blumenkrantz, other witty songwriters on tap
Anyone Can Whistle: One-Night Laurents-Sondheim Revival Often Whistle-Worthy
★★★☆☆ Ted Sperling conducts/directs Vanessa Williams, Elizabeth Stanley, Santino Fontana, Joanna Gleason, many more to effect
Anyone Can Whistle: Famously Troubled Musical, Flaws Magnified
★★★☆☆ Santino Fontana and Elizabeth Stanley shine in an under-rehearsed semi-staging of the Sondheim-Laurents not-quite-masterwork
This Space Between Us: Making Room For Change
★★★★☆ A fine ensemble cast serves Peter Gil-Sheridan’s study of a successful man trying, against all odds, to make a difference
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