BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Play: Initiative; a somewhat self-indulgent five-hour character study of a group of millennial outsiders in a small California town at the turn of the century Written by: Else Went        Directed by: Emma Rose Went One good thing: The individual characters are interesting and their struggles with gender identity, absent or opioid-addicted parents and the advent of online social interactions are clearly designed to speak to theatergoers who grew up during those years—and to those still wrestling with memories of troubled adolescences in earlier times One not-so-great thing: The long segments devoted to re-enacting sessions of Dungeons & Dragons might have been more meaningful if they’d been shorter and less opaque for those not familiar with that fantasy role playing game    

The Play: Weer; a one woman show in which Natalie Palamides, wearing a costume that on one-side has her dressed as a plaid-shirted, scraggly-bearded bro and on the other as a down-market Carrie Bradshaw wannabe, plays both the male and female roles in a fractious on-and-off relationship Written by: Natalie Palamides        Directed by: Natalie Palamides         One good thing: You have to admire the plain physical energy that’s required for Palamides to throws herself around the stage in a literal do-any-thing-for-a-laugh performance that lasts what must be an exhausting 90-minutes  One not-so-great thing: This is a bit too silly and all-over-the-place to be my kind of humor but the show is clearly aimed at Millennials and Gen Zers, and the ones at the performance I attended seemed to be having a great time    

The Play: Gruesome Playground Injuries; a satisfying revival of the 2009 two-hander about the relationship between childhood friends who over three decades inflict physical harm on themselves and emotional wounds on one another Written by: Rajiv Joseph        Directed by: Neil Pepe One good thing: I’d admired the 2011 Second Stage production with Pablo Schreiber and Jennifer Carpenter but Nicholas Braun (cousin Greg from the HBO series “Succession”) and two-time Tony winner Kara Young find new depths in these damaged souls who are desperate to connect but can’t seem to find a way to save themselves or each other One not-so-great thing: Despite the projections at the start of each scene and the fact that the script instructs the actors to change into decade-appropriate costumes in front of the audience, the out-of-sequence time jumps can be confusing    

The Play: Meet the Cartozians; based in part on a real Supreme Court decision, this two-act dramedy about the struggles of Armenian-Americans to balance the burdens and privileges of racial identity in this country during the early years of the 20th century and now in this one is both thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable Written by: Talene Monahon        Directed by: David Cromer One good thing: Under Cromer’s customarily adroit direction, each cast member—Raffi Barsoumian, Will Brill, Nael Nacer, Susan Pourfar, Tamara Sevunts and the always crowd-pleasing Andrea Martin—aces the challenge of playing utterly different characters in the two time periods One not-so-great thing: The show’s a bit too long but I’m going to give it a pass on that since it manages to make its inarguably relevant points without being too didactic about it    

The Play: Archduke; a darkly comedic take on the events leading up to the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose death helped set off World War I Written by: Rajiv Joseph        Directed by: Darko Tresnjak One good thing: Patrick Page is having a grand time as the blowhard mastermind behind the plot and set designer Alexander Dodge has constructed a massive revolving turntable that delights in revealing one set location after another One not-so-great thing: The history is shaky, the jokes are silly and the show seems to be striving to say something about how young men, especially those poor or jobless, can be so easily radicalized into violent acts but the way it delivers that message is too muddled to have the effect it desires     

The Play: Little Bear Ridge Road; a stymied gay writer returning to his rural Idaho hometown after his opioid-addicted father’s death finds himself sheltering during the Covid quarantine with his estranged and reclusive aunt in this quietly affecting meditation on loneliness, the obligations of family, the privileges of class and the power of forgiveness Written by: Samuel D. Hunter        Directed by: Joe Mantello One good thing: Hunter tailored the role of the flinty aunt for Laurie Metcalf and she’s unsurprisingly terrific in it but equally superb is Micah Stock, whose performance as the emotionally-stunted nephew makes good on the promise that won him a newcomer's Theater World Award in 2015 for standing out in a cast that included such scene stealers as  F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally One not-so-great thing: I've spent days thinking about what to say here but I’m pretty much all in on this one, I wa...