BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Show: Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride; a one man-show about the people and events in the comedian’s life that helped him overcome adversity—including being orphaned in his teens and more recently diagnosed with cancer—and achieve his current fame as an insult comic so celebrated he's been nicknamed the Roastmaster General Written by: Jeff Ross        Directed by:   Stephen Kessler One good thing: The underlying sweetness to Ross' account of his journey is almost inspirational One not-so-great thing:  Fans coming for a steady stream of the put-downs for which he’s most famous may be let down     

The Play: Mamma Mia!; a Broadway stop for the national tour of the crowd-pleasing musical about a girl who invites three of her single mom’s former lovers to the Greek island where she grew up because she wants to find out which of them is actually her father so that he can give her away at her upcoming wedding Music and Lyrics by: Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus     Book by: Catherine Johnson      Directed by: Phyllida Lloyd One good thing: The head-bopping music by the ABBA duo is pretty much irresistible and the crackerjack cast, clearly delighted to be on Broadway, infuses each of the 22 numbers with unabashed joy One not-so-great thing: The book is silly and now anachronistic (a DNA test would easily solve the parentage question) but some uplifting silliness is welcomed in these too-often depressing times even by a jukebox-musical grinch like me    

The Play: Ava: The Secret Conversations; a too-lightly fictionalized recreation of the testy relationship between the midcentury movie star Ava Gardner and the journalist she hired to ghostwrite her memoir Written by: Elizabeth McGovern        Directed by: Moritz von Stuelpnagel One good thing: The video projections of scenes from Gardner’s movies and the photos of the actress with her many famous husbands (Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra) and other lovers convey a sense of the star’s mystique One not-so-great thing:  McGovern, who also stars as Gardner, and Aaron Costa Ganis—playing the journalist and all three of the husbands—work hard but are unable to make it clear why we should care about either of these people or their woes