BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Play: The Art of Leaving; a hapless would-be comedy of manners about a self-centered finance bro who, after falling under the spell of a guru who specializes in male mid-life crises, suddenly decides to leave his unbelievably accommodating wife after 25 years of marriage  Written by: Anne Marilyn Lucas        Directed by: Matt Gehring One good thing: Maybe the set One not-so-great thing: I felt embarrassed for the actors who are clearly more talented than this misguided attempt to revive the kind of shticky humor that went out of style in the '60s    

The Play: Not Ready for Prime Time; a lackluster retelling of the early days of TV's “Saturday Night Live.” Written by: Erik J. Rodriguez & Charles A. Sothers              Directed by:  Conor Bagley One good thing: The show looks great (the costumes capture the bell-bottomed swagger of the era and the main set replicates the junk-shop whimsy of Studio 8H where every episode of “SNL” has been recorded for the past 50 years) and it sounds great too with an onstage band joyfully rocking out pop tunes from the ‘70s even before the show starts One not-so-great thing: No one associated with the show seems to have come up with a reason for doing the show or any ideas about how to add something new to the legions of articles, books, documentaries and even movies that have been made about "SNL"; meanwhile the cast, while not untalented, can only muster up wan imitations of the lighting-in-a-bottle magic that made stars out of such real-life Not Ready...

The Play: André de Shields is Tartuffe; a high-camp version of the 17th century satirical farce about a hypocritical holy man who tries to dupe a wealthy family out of its fortune  Written by: Molière         Translated by: Ranjit Bolt         Directed by: Keaton Wooden One good thing:  The venue—the library of an old Upper East Side mansion—is glorious and p eople who love de Shields’ flamboyance are going to love this production because despite carrying a prompt book to help him with his lines,  the 79-year-old theatrical icon goes at it full tilt here, from a peacocking entrance to some impressive twerking later on One not-so-great thing: The cast is uneven, most of them seemingly more comfortable playing up the camp than on playing out the farce      

The Play: The Other Americans; the familiar dysfunctional family drama is filtered through the Latino experience in this story about the Colombian-American owner of a string of failing laundromats desperately trying to grab hold of a piece of the American dream despite the great cost to those he loves most Written by: John Leguizamo        Directed by: Ruben Santiago-Hudson One good thing: Some critics have chided Leguizamo, who is best known for his funnier solo shows, for telling this story which is at times melodramatic and predictable but it's clear that the point here is to demonstrate that we all—black, brown and white; native and immigrant—share the same hopes and despairs; and the fact that this show has alreaddy been extended several times is proof that its message is hitting home with lots of theatergoers  One not-so-great thing: The set design tries to cram in too much and a simpler approach might have made the transitions from one scene to anoth...

The Play: Let’s Love; a bawdy trio of comedy sketches about sex and love Written by: Ethan Coen        Directed by: Neil Pepe One good thing: The cast—led by Aubrey Plaza as a shrewish ball-buster, Noah Robbins as a sweet nerd and Chris Bauer as a brainless lug—is extremely game and the classic love songs that singer-songwriter Nellie McKay performs during scene changes are entertaining even if they have little direct connection to the rest of the show One not-so-great thing: The sketches lean heavily on the kind of potty-mouthed humor that junior high school boys tell one another in vain attempts to show how cool they are; and the first scene with a white woman coming on to a black guy at a bar is a particularly embarrassing riff on  The Dutchman, LeRoi Jones’ 1964 classic drama about a similar encounter    

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    

The Play: Torera; an entertaining and imaginatively staged coming-of-age story about a young Mexican girl who yearns to become a famous bullfighter Written by: Monet Hurst-Mendoza        Directed by: Tatiana Pandiani One good thing: The set and particularly the costumes are impressive for a show playing in such a small venue; and the unexpected choreography is kinetic, sensuous and thoroughly captivating One not-so-great thing: The narrative is a bit predictable so that even the surprises are somewhat less surprising.