BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Play: Caroline, the complicated bonds between mothers and children are put to the test in this quietly powerful drama that focuses on the close relationship between a woman and her trans kid and the more strained one between that same woman and her own mother  Written by: Preston Max Allen        Directed by: David Cromer One good thing: It’s so refreshing that the main problem in this story is not the kid’s gender identity and as usual Cromer draws the best of out of his actors, particularly from River Lipe-Smith, a remarkably unaffected child actor; and Chloë Grace Moretz, herself a former child actor, just as remarkable as the kid's mom One not-so-great thing: There are a lot of different locales and the stage is long and narrow, all of which created challenge that the set design doesn’t completely master    

The Play: Waiting for Godot; a star-driven revival of the absurdist classic about two aimless men waiting endlessly for a mysterious figure who may or may not give their lives meaning Written by: Samuel Beckett        Directed by: Jamie Lloyd One good thing: It’s the supporting players who shine in this production with Brandon J. Dirden delivering a commanding—and aptly hilarious—performance as the blowhard passerby Pozzo; and Michael Patrick Thornton putting a compellingly original spin on Pozzo’s ironically-named servant Lucky. One not-so-great thing: Neither Keanu Reeves nor Alex Winter, real-life pals since their days in the “Bill & Ted” comedies of the 1990s, embarrasses himself portraying the main characters Estragon (Gogo) and Vladimir (Didi) but in a play that depends as much on what’s not said as what is, they only manage to serve up the text without the necessary subtext 

The Play: Saturday Church; a jukebox musical adaptation of the 2017 indie film about a teen torn between his devotion to the traditional church he grew up in and his desire to explore his gay identity in a weekly support group for LGBTQ+ youth  Book & Additional Lyrics by: Damon Cardasis and James Ijames  Music by: Sia, with additional music by Honey Dijon        Directed by: Whitney White One good thing: Newcomer Bryson Battle, a recent finalist on TV’s “The Voice,”  brings great vocals and an appealing sweetness to the role of the conflicted teen but the show’s MVP is J. Harrison Ghee, who even more than in their Tony-winning performance in Some Like it Hot  radiates true star power in the dual roles of a conservative minister and the boy’s high-heeled and fabulously-dressed guardian angel whom the show calls Black Jesus One not-so-great thing: In its effort to celebrate queer joy and to be inclusive, the sketchy book tries to cram in f...

The Play: Punch, a kinetic adaptation of a memoir by Jacob Dunne, a former British rowdy boy who threw a punch that killed a man but who, after serving a sentence in prison, found redemption—and a new life—through his later encounters with the dead man’s parents Written by: James Graham        Directed by: Adam Penford One good thing: Will Harrison is giving a star-making performance as Dunne that hits every beat from macho bro to anguished penitent One not-so-great thing: Even though the staging is dynamic, the production can’t evade the color-by-numbers sensibility of an afterschool special or an advertorial for the restorative justice movement that helped Dunne move on from his deed  

The Play: The Honey Trap; a tense psychological thriller centered around the concepts of retribution and redemption as a former British solider and a former IRA operative look back at the fateful decisions they made during the violent period in the 1980s when Protestants wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom and Catholics fought to be unified with the Republic of Ireland.  Written by: Leo McGann        Directed by: Matt Torney One good thing: The cast, lead by the award-worthy performances of  Samantha Mathis  and  Michael Hayden, is top-notch One not-so-great thing: I’m stuck for what to say here because although this isn’t a perfect play, it’s a damn good one and it’s being given a first-rate production.    

The Play: Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God;  a multi-media, one-woman show centered on a writer whose memoir about her traumatic past as a young lesbian growing up in an evangelical family is challenged by the people who knew her back then Written by: Jen Tullock and Frank Winters        Directed by: Jared Mezzocchi One good thing: Taking on trauma narratives—and how the stories we all tell ourselves — navigate the often fuzzy lines between fact and autofiction is an intriguing premise One not-so-great thing: It’s hard to keep track of who’s doing and saying what with Tullock playing all of the show’s 11 characters (fewer might have been more manageable) particularly when she’s doing it without changing costumes and the distracting video projections only add to the confusion