★★★★☆ Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal offer two monologues of love and death, immaculately performed if not quite honest
Off-Broadway
Sea Wall / A Life: Meditations on Life and Death
★★★☆☆ Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal star in a pair of somber, sometimes rewarding monologues by Simon Stephens and Nick Payne
Switzerland: Patricia Highsmith in Person Niftily Fictionalized
★★★★☆ Joanna Murray-Smith imagines how the thriller author might handle a non-Tom Ripley young man
Bonnie’s Last Flight: A Misguided Journey to Nowhere
★☆☆☆☆ A cool concept for a comedy about a plane trip proves to be a tedious time
Freestyle Love Supreme: Where Hip Hop, Improv, and Comedy Meet
★★★★☆ The hip hop improv troupe cofounded by Lin-Manuel Miranda reunites for an off-Broadway run (with a few special guests)
Freestyle Love Supreme: Going with the Flow
★★★★☆ A hip-hop improv group co-founded by Lin-Manuel Miranda makes an exuberant return
The Shadow of a Gunman: Sean O’Casey’s Seriocomic Saga of Dublin at War
★★★★☆ The Irish Rep launches its three-show cycle of the playwright’s works with a winning revival
The Shadow of a Gunman: Dangerous Games in Dublin
★★★★☆ Irish Repertory Theatre’s Sean O’Casey season kicks off with this piercing look at Ireland’s troubles before The Troubles.
The Day Before Spring: Early Lerner and Loewe, on Their Way
★★★☆☆ The York’s exhumation of an all-but-lost musical exhibits songwriters on the verge of greatness
The Light: Black #MeToo Arguments Blaze Away In a Timely New Drama
★★★★☆ Playwright Loy A. Webb, director Logan Vaughn, and two fine actors deliver a hot he said/she said story