BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Play: Othello, a thrilling four-person production of the Bard’s tragedy of envy, love, racism and revenge when a Moorish general is tricked by his duplicitous second-in-command into believing that his Venetian wife has been unfaithful  Written by: William Shakespeare        Directed by: Eric Tucker One good thing: Each of the four actors—Tucker,  Susannah Millonzi,  Ryan Quinn  and  Susannah Hoffman —plays multiple roles and— without the aid of a set, props or costume changes — does so terrifically One not-so-great thing:  Adding a coda with an excerpt from a recorded speech by James Baldwin was really unnecessary    

The Play: Kenrex; an imaginative retelling of a true crime story about a small town bully who terrorizes his neighbors until they join forces to stop him  Written by: Jack Holden & Ed Stambollouian        Directed by: Ed Stambollouian         One good thing: Holden shows why he won the Olivier’s Best Actor award over such better-known heavyweights as Bryan Cranston, Sean Hayes and Tom Hiddleston as— aided by terrific sound design and excellent lighting — he deftly plays 35 different characters; and John Patrick Elliott is equally versatile as he plays guitar, drums and keyboard to provide the brooding country-rock score that punctuates the narrative One not-so-great thing: The show is clearly meant to be an indictment of the loopholes  in the American legal system but also kind of comes off as an uncomfortable endorsement of vigilante justice  

The Play: Seagull: True Story; a meta fantasia about a director whose avantgarde staging of Chekhov’s classic play results in his having to flee Putin’s Russia only to find that making theater in American comes with its own set of restrictions  Written by: Eli Rarey        Directed by: Alexander Molochnikov One good thing:   The battle between art and creative freedom is clearly timely and it's interesting to view it through a style of theater that unabashedly mashes up high and low sensibilities, ranging from dream ballets to slapstick comedy  One not-so-great thing:  The 2-hour-and 30-minute show might have packed a more powerful punch as a one act    

The Play: Titus Andronicus; a sensational production of the first—and bloodiest—of the Bard’s tragedies about a Roman general and a Goth queen who fall into a cycle of vengeful acts that include rape, murder, amputations and cannibalism  Written by: William Shakespeare        Directed by: Jesse Berger One good thing:  It's no surprise that the great Patrick Page shines in this accessible production but it also offers a truly satisfying mix of humor, horror and melodrama that the 16th century groundlings who first saw it would have cheered and that today’s audience members—from ages 8 to 80—are sure to enjoy too   One not-so-great thing: A few of the supporting players are a touch too campy and at least one of the younger actors needs to be reminded to serve the play rather than his inflated sense of his own talent  

The Play: Spare Parts; a thought-provoking sci-fi thriller about a billionaire who’s willing and able to spend whatever it costs to keep him from aging and the scientists desperately seeking funding for a project that may give the rich guy what he wants whatever it may costs them to do it. Written by: David J. Glass        Directed by: Michael Herwitz One good thing: The four-person cast, including two-time Tony-nominee Rob McClure in a non-singing role, is top-notch One not-so-great thing: The lo-fi set suggests that the production may be operating on a shoe-string budget but the acting, direction and the twist-and-turns in the plot more than compensate     

The Play: Bughouse; a stream-of-consciousness monologue drawn from the writings of the reclusive outsider artist Henry Darger, whose 5,000-page memoir, 15,000-page novel and over 300 large watercolor paintings depicting a fantasy world where children waged battles against evil adults were all only discovered after his death  Script by: Beth Henley        Conceived and Directed by: Martha Clarke One good thing: The video projections showing animated versions of Darger’s art work, much of it featuring a nude child-rebel leader he named Annie, give a visceral feel for the obsessions that played out in his eccentric imagination One not-so-great thing: John Kelly gives a  committed performance but he isn’t able to make Darger’s overwrought writings come to life and a better sense of the artist can be found on the explanatory poster boards in the lobby