BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Play: My First Ex-Husband; a Vagina Monologues-style evening in which a rotating cast of actresses read stories supposedly drawn from conversations with real women that riff on a common theme: in this case, the reasons women divorce their hapless and otherwise inadequate male spouses  Written by: Joy Behar        Directed by: Randal Myler One good thing: The opening cast—Susie Essman, Tovah Feldshuh, Adrienne C. Moore and Behar herself—are all pros who know how to charm an audience—particularly an audience of women of a certain age One not-so-great thing: Each of the eight stories they tell is far too long and not nearly as witty nor insightful as they should be, making the actors work harder than they should to put them across      

The Play: Show/Boat: A River; a post-modern revisal of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s 1927 musical that weaves together the love relationships and racial tensions experienced by a group of people who travel along the Mississippi River on a showboat around the turn of the last century  Written by: David Herskovits        Directed by: David Herskovits One good thing: It’s great to hear the songs in this glorious score—Ol’ Man River, Make Believe,  Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man, Bill—and often gorgeously sung, especially by Phillip Themlo Stoddard as the gambler Gaylord Ravenal and Stephanie Weeks as the singer Julie who has been passing for white One not-so-great thing: The concept here is as muddy as the Mississippi often is and getting rid of all the scenery, putting actors in a hodgepodge of period and contemporary costumes and casting them regardless of race isn’t as daring or revelatory as this adaptation seems to think it is, particularly not for...

The Play: Grandiloquent; comedian Gary Gulman’s solo show chronicles how his childhood as a precocious kid not embraced by other kids and not always appreciated by adults turned him into the funny guy he is today Written by: Gary Gulman        Directed by: Moritz von Stupelpnagel One good thing: Gulman is very funny and very smart and so although stand-up isn’t usually my thing, I laughed a lot and was really tickled by his witty literary and pop cultural allusions, ranging from Immanuel Kant to Sesame Street's Grover One not-so-great thing: I wish Gulman trusted the audience more and allowed us to make the connection between his angst and his comedy instead of underscoring it in the final part of the show, making this yet one more Hannah Gadsbyesque confessional about how a comedian feels conflicted about using his psychic pain to make people laugh      

The Play: The Merchant of Venice; the problematic tale of an anti-semitic merchant whose inability to pay back a loan he took from a Jewish moneylender results in a dramatic trial that hinges on justice, bigotry and mercy Written by: William Shakespeare        Directed by: Igor Golyak One good thing: Veteran actor Richard Topol who has done such fine work in so many plays about Jewish oppression finally gets a crack at playing the moneylender Shylock, even if he’s being made to do it while wearing a Groucho mask, a Dracula cape, a blood-soaked shirt and vampire teeth One not-so-great thing:  In an effort t o realize his vision of the play as a “comedy,” di rector Igor Golyak has dragged in every gimmick he could think of— the Groucho mask, an actor on a unicycle, bubble machines, superhero costumes, video projections, rap music and breakdancing, puppets, puppets having oral sex—but he’s unable to find a way to make those things mesh with the innate tragedy of S...

The Play: Welcome to the Big Dipper;  Amish farmers,  drag queens,  descendants of an Underground Railroad conductor and the spirits of the Mexican painter Frieda Kahlo and Annie Edson Taylor, the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel, make for too-unbelievably strange bedfellows in this lackluster musical  set in an inn during a blizzard   Music & Lyrics by: Jimmy Roberts    Book by: Catherine Filloux & John Daggett    Directed by: DeMone Seraphin One good thing: The simple set of doors on rolling casters and the subtle video projections of snow falling against a night sky are elegant reminders of how much a production can do on a limited budget One not-so-great thing: Robert Cuccioli, still in great voice two decades after starring in Jekkyl & Hyde, deserves a better showcase than this one    

The Play: Strategic Love Play, a slightly awkward play about an awkward first date between two insecure people Written by: Miriam Battye        Directed by: Katie Posner One good thing: This is an Audible production so you’ll soon be able to listen to this two-hander in the comfy confines of your own home One not-so-great thing: Both Michael Zegen and Heléne York commit wholly to their characters but those characters, particularly hers, are somewhat annoying, as is the play’s ending