‘A Particle of Dread’ Theater Review: Sam Shepard and Stephen Rea Eyeball Oedipus
Rea may be the first Oedipus to play the role in blood-spattered overalls, and he deftly handles Shepard’s freewheeling segues from tragedy to slapstick and back
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‘A Delicate Balance’ Theater Review: Glenn Close Revisits More Than One Diva
Close’s strong, unyielding matriarch is sister to Norma Desmond from “Sunset Boulevard,” the actress’ last role on Broadway twenty years ago
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‘By the Water’ Theater Review: Superstorm Sandy Returns, This Time with Glimpses of Arthur Miller
Sharyn Rothstein’s new play recalls Miller’s “All My Sons,” and to her credit, the absorbing story deserves more than its current one act
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‘Punk Rock’ Theater Review: Simon Stephens’ New Play Is Much More Than a ‘Curious Incident’
Some of the British slang doesn’t translate, but Stephens’ grasp of those young hormones that can create a “Lord of the Flies” situation does cross the pond
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‘Side Show’ Theater Review: Bill Condon Gives Twin Dreamgirls Another Shot at Stardom
In this smashing new revival, the Hilton sisters are treated as “freaks,” but Condon quickly ups the glam quotient to create a novel Cinderella story
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‘The River’ Theater Review: Hugh Jackman Gives a Lesson in Fly-Fishing
There’s much talk about reflection and recycling in Jez Butterworth’s play about a devoted fisherman-womanizer. But where’s the sexual heat?
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‘Lost Lake’ Theater Review: John Hawkes Channels Wile E. Coyote
Hawkes delivers a great performance — and that’s even before he speaks a word on stage. Fortunately, he gets to talk a lot in David Auburn’s new play
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‘Sticks and Bones’ Theater Review: Holly Hunter and Bill Pullman Tackle Ozzie and Harriet
It’s not torture or ISIS that trouble America’s TV family when a son comes home from Vietnam; but in this harrowing revival, the nightmare is the same
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‘The Oldest Boy’ Theater Review: The Reincarnation of a Bernardo Bertolucci Movie
Like in “Little Buddha,” the parents in Sarah Ruhl’s new play send their son to Nepal to be tested, enthroned, and educated. And so the lecture begins
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‘The Real Thing’ Theater Review: Ewan McGregor, Maggie Gyllenhaal Live Up to Tom Stoppard’s Title
Actors’ chemistry is like Hepburn and Tracy’s only in reverse; she’s solid and implacable, he’s high-strung and nervously pecking around for a way to chip into her guarded world
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‘The Last Ship’ Theater Review: Sting Takes a Cruise to Nowhere
At its best, Sting’s score is pre-Sondheim. But it’s good pre-Sondheim. Too bad John Logan and Brian Yorkey’s book about a boat doesn’t float
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‘Disgraced’ Theater Review: Josh Radnor, Gretchen Mol Join Hari Dhillon for a Broadway Brawl
It’s time for the theater world to ‘fess up to the fact that many TV and movie stars are famous in other media for good reason
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‘The Fortress of Solitude’ Theater Review: Jonathan Lethem’s Brooklyn Via ‘Avenue Q’
Some of Michael Friedman’s tunes are real keepers, but missing in Itamar Moses’ book and Daniel Aukin’s direction is the meanness as well as the creative energy of 1970’s Brooklyn
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‘On the Town’ Theater Review: Sailors on Leave, Broads on the Make
In John Rando’s fun, new Broadway revival, everyone dances like there’s no tomorrow in wartime New York
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‘It’s Only a Play’ Theater Review: Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick Remain Broadway’s Funniest Team
A savvy director helps bring life to the scorched-earth approach to comedy
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‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ Theater Review: Now on Broadway, Soon to Be a Movie
“War Horse” director Marianne Elliott embellishes Simon Stephens’ play with lots of razzle-dazzle lighting and videos, but Elliott tends to turn her minor characters into gross caricatures
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‘The Country House’ Theater Review: Blythe Danner Plays a Mommie Chilliest
After playing good cop to Robert De Niro’s bad cop in all those “Focker” movies, it’s fun to see Danner let go with a bad mother character
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‘You Can’t Take It With You’ Theater Review: Rose Byrne Debuts, James Earl Jones Floats
The light airiness of Jones’ performance provides just the right launching pad for others to soar and bring down the rafters
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‘Scenes from a Marriage’ Theater Review: Ingmar Bergman, Funnier and Even Bleaker Than Before
Ivo van Hove directs the first must-see event of the 2014-15 theater season.
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‘The Money Shot’ Theater Review: Neil LaBute Delivers a Poison-Pen Note to Hollywood
For anyone familiar with this playwright-director’s work, it will come as no surprise that a very good-looking, buff guy will be outmatched by the lesbian on stage
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‘Love Letters’ Theater Review: Mia Farrow and Brian Dennehy Perform Postcards from Their Hedge Fund
There are no OMGs or WTFs in these missives, but Mia Farrow does elicit a few laughs with some well-placed expletives and a heartfelt performance
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‘This Is Our Youth’ Theater Review: Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin Get Serious in Broadway Debuts
Daring casting of the young actors pays off as Culkin delivers a performance with the surreal ferocity of Robert Downey Jr
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‘Poor Behavior’ Theater Review: Theresa Rebeck Scores a Real Smash Off Broadway
Director Evan Cabnet keeps the plot line crackling nicely, even delivering a Grand Guignol touch right out of “Wait Until Dark”
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‘The Maids’ Theater Review: Cate Blanchett Enters the Camp Pantheon Wearing Alexander McQueen
When the distraught actress looks into the bathroom mirror to reapply her makeup, nobody smears lipstick with the panache of Blanchett
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‘The Long Shrift’ Theater Review: James Franco Adds Another Credit to His Ever-Expanding Resume
Robert Boswell’s new play is not a comedy, but James Franco, making his directorial stage debut, goes for a few laughs that only expose the story’s flaws
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‘Holler If Ya Hear Me’ Theater Review: Tupac Shakur Resists a Broadway Makeover
Todd Kreidler’s book can’t match the power of Shakur’s stark and bracing poetry
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‘Cabaret’ Theater Review: Michelle Williams Tackles Sally Bowles, Alan Cumming Auditions for ‘Hedwig’
Williams sports a Giulietta Masina peroxide job, and her first number is strictly geared for the pedophiles at the Kit Kat Klub
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‘Casa Valentina’ Theater Review: Harvey Fierstein Lifts the Skirts of Hetero Crossdressers
In the Playbill, the playwright tells us not to call his characters “drag queens” or “female impersonators.” And that’s not the end of his sermonizing
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‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ Theater Review: Neil Patrick Harris Crosses Over to the Glam Side
The star recalls Marlene Dietrich, Nicole Kidman and Cameron Diaz, in his role as Hedwig, an edgy, angry, bitchy transgender rocker
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‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’ Theater Review: Daniel Radcliffe Returns to the Stage
Even the star’s credible singing and dancing in “How to Succeed in Business” never brought to mind Hollywood’s great song-and-dance man. But in Martin McDonagh’s play, Radcliffe does a real James Cagney
