BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

  The Play : King Lear; a fast-paced version of the classic tragedy about a monarch whose reckless decision to prematurely divide his kingdom among his daughters leads to the disintegration of his family and his own descent into madness, starring Kenneth Branagh and a group of recent graduates from London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts Written by: William Shakespeare        Directed by: Rob Ashford, Kenneth Branagh and Lucy Skillbeck One good thing: Branagh, who trained at RADA and served as its president from 2014 until stepping down earlier this year, makes only a so-so Lear but gets good mentor points for giving so many young actors the chance to appear in such a high-profile production, and a few of them—including Doug Colling as the virtuous nobleman Edgar and Saffron Coomber, giving off the vibes of a young Zoë  Wanamaker in her feisty portrayal of Lear's middle daughter Regan—show true promise One not-so-great thing:   Aggressively trimming the text so that the running t

  The Play: Hold On To Me Darling; a narcissistic country music superstar tries to return to his humble hometown roots in this comedic takedown of celebrity culture Written by:  Kenneth Lonergan        Directed by: Neil Pepe One good thing: The whole cast is terrific but movie star Adam Driver gets extra credit for taking on such a big role in such a small off-Broadway venue and delivering such a deadpan funny performance, even though it lacks some of the subtler nuances that Timothy Olyphant brought to the part during an almost identical production at the Atlantic in 2016 One not-so-great thing: The play doesn’t really need 2 hours and 45 minutes to make its point that stars can be self-involved and emotionally needy    

The Play: Ragtime; an Encores! concert version of the 1996 musical based on E.L. Doctorow’s award-winning novel about three families—upper-class WASPs, Jewish immigrants and striving African Americans—struggling to realize the American Dream at the turn of the last century  Score by: Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens      Book by: Terrence McNally       Directed by: Lear DeBessonet Two good things: Both Joshua Henry as the proud Black musician Coalhouse Walker and Brandon Uranowitz as the ambitious Jewish artist Tateh are terrific in roles that each has long dreamed of playing One not-so-great thing:  Doctorow’s original mixture of fact and fiction included such real-life figures as automaker Henry Ford, socialist activist Emma Goldman, magician Harry Houdini and educator Booker T. Washington but their connections to the story and its main themes gets a little lost in this production  

The Play: Left on Tenth; an adaptation of Delia Ephron’s memoir about falling in love again after the death of her husband and then having to fight the medical crisis that threatened to cut short that new happiness  Written by: Delia Ephron        Directed by: Susan Stroman One good thing: Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher are the show’s marquee-name leads but its true MVPs are Peter Francis James and Kate MacCluggage who play more than a half dozen roles each and find ways to make every one of them distinctive One not-so-great thing: Neither Ephron nor Stroman has figured out how to transfer the story from the page to the stage and they lean so much on direct-address narration that the result is too much tell and far too little actual show.     

The Play: We Live in Cairo, six young people—one of them played by Ali Louis Borzgui, who broke out in last season’s too-short-lived revival of “The Who’s Tommy”—live, love and put themselves on the line for democracy in this musical set in Egypt during the Arab Spring of 2011 and its aftermath Written by: The Lazours        Directed by: Taibi Magar One good thing: It’s great to get a story about a major historical event like the Arab Spring told by Arab writers, an Arab director and an entirely Arab cast One good thing:   David Bengali’s dynamic video projections are immersive, informative and occasionally gorgeous One not-so-great thing: The brothers Daniel and Patrick Lazour who collaborated on the book, music and lyrics pack in so much of what happened during that tumultuous period that they don’t leave room for much character development     

The Play: Romeo + Juliet; this 21st century spin on the classic love story, which features inclusive and gender-bending casting, music by the hip producer and frequent Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff and Gen-Z idols Kit Connor and Rachel Ziegler in the title roles, is designed to appeal to young theatergoers and other young people the producers obviously hope to attract  Written by: William Shakespeare        Directed by: Sam Gold One good thing: Connor is everything you’d want in a Romeo: swoon-worthy, suitably sensitive and able to speak the Bard’s language beautifully One not-so-great thing: All the double and triple casting— one example: Juliet’s Nurse and the hothead Tybalt are played by the same actor — makes it hard to follow who’s doing what to whom, especially since costume changes are so rare and so random