BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Play: Goddess; an overly complicated but still very enjoyable musical fable about an African deity who rejects the destiny set by her demanding mother and instead comes to earth where she finds refuge in an exuberant Afro-Jazz nightclub in Mombasa and falls for a mortal who is also uneasy with the path his parents have groomed him to follow  Music and Lyrics by: Michael Thurber        Book by: Saheem Ai; with additional book material by James Ijames              Directed by: Saheem Ali One good thing:  Everyone in this show's high-spirited cast is terrific but the real standout is Amber Iman who finally gets the star-making role she deserves, allowing her to showcase her truly divine voice and commanding stage presence One not-so-great thing: The book is a crazy quilt patched together with bits from disparate shows, ranging from Hadestown to The Little Mermaid and stuffed with far too many characters 

The Play : The Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes; a sly two-hander about the power dynamics at work in a series of sexual encounters between a middle-aged college professor and his 19-year-old-student  Written by: Hannah Moscovitch        Directed by: Ian Rickman One good thing: Hugh Jackman knows just how to use the charisma that has made him a star on the big screen to charm—alright seduce if you like—the audience while still making it clear how comfortable he is on a small stage One not-so-great thing: Playing a cipher is a challenge for any actor but it may be too much so for Ella Beatty, a striking young Juilliard grad who seems unable to even hint at what may be going on beneath the surface of her character    

The Play:   Bus Stop, the National Asian American Theatre Company’s maybe too entertaining revival of the 1955 dramedy about a motley group of lonely souls stranded in a roadside diner during a snowstorm Written by:  William Inge         Directed by:  Jack Cummings III One good thing:  Although unavoidably haunted by some earlier performances (Kim Stanley and Elaine Stritch in the original Broadway production; and Marilyn Monroe, Eileen Heckart and Hope Lange in the movie) this production's female cast members Midori Francis, Cindy Cheung and Delphi Borich find ways to put their own distinctive spins on the desperate hunger for something more in life that so defines Inge’s work One not-so-great thing:    The direction is slightly off; t oo much of the action in this “in-the-round” production faces just one part of the audience and leaning into the comedy so heavily undermines the play’s essential pathos

  The Play: The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse; a musical fantasia about a trio of internet influencers trying to solve the mystery of what happened to a pop star who disappeared in the early aughts  Book, Music and Lyrics by: Michael Breslin and Patrick Roley        Directed by: Rory Pelsue One good thing: The music is catchy, the four-person band works hard and the female vocalists hit lots of high notes One not-so-great thing: The book is over stuffed and unnecessarily complicated, with an ending that just doesn’t pay off