BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Play: Tartuffe; the second version this fall—this one a post-modern adaptation—of the 17th century satirical farce about a hypocritical holy man who tries to dupe a wealthy family out of its fortune   Written by: Moliere    Adapted by: Lucas Hnath        Directed by: Sarah Benson One good thing: Tapping into the contact list of great comic actors she assembled during her nearly two decades heading up Soho Rep, Benson has put together a cast of downtown faves—Lisa Kron, Emily Davis, Francis Jue,  Ryan J. Haddad,  Amber Gray —who all look to be having great fun swishing around in Enver Chakartash’s over-the-top costumes and performing Raja Feather Kelly’s intentionally fey choreography. Even Matthew Broderick—simply dressed in Pilgrim drag and giving his usual deadpan performance—seems to be having a good time as the titular scoundrel One not-so-great thing:   The revised script: too many of its rhyming couplets are predictab...

The Play: Picnic at Hanging Rock, a musical based on the 1967 novel and 1975 film about the mysterious disappearance of a trio of female boarding school students and one of their teachers during a picnic near the site of a former volcano in the southeastern corner of Australia on Valentine’s Day in 1900 Book and Lyrics by: Hilary Bell        Directed by: Music and Arrangements by: Greta Gertler Gold One good thing: Money has clearly been spent on the atmospheric set, character-defining costumes and finding a committed and strong-voiced ensemble of young actors, several making their New York debuts One not-so-great thing: The storytelling is muddled and might have benefitted from breaking away from the beats of the source material—particularly its unsatisfying ending—and deciding what message this version wants to tell    

The Play: It’s a Wonderful Life!; a charming radio play version of Frank Capra’s classic 1946 film that reimagined “A Christmas Carol” as the story of a good man who despairs that his life hasn’t amounted to much but is shown by an angel how very much it has enriched the lives of so many others in his small town Adapted by: Anthony E. Palermo        Directed by: Charlotte Moore One good thing: The versatile five-member cast clearly delights in playing the show's many roles, performing a series of period-appropriate songs plucked from the American Songbook and making this a holiday treat for the whole family  One not-so-great thing:  You'll have to look elsewhere for any naysaying humbug     

The Play: Gotta Dance, a beautifully produced revue of some of the most iconic dance numbers created by some of the most celebrated choreographers in Broadway history Conceived by: Nikki Feirt Atkins        Directed by: Nikki Feirt Atkins and Randy Skinner         One good thing:   This is a delightful reminder of the essential role these pieces played in so many memorable shows, particularly those created by the great Jerome Robbins  One not-so-great thing: The show’s dancers are terrific but it’s nearly impossible for them to live up to the original performers who made these dances so legendary in the first place    

The Play: The Seat of Our Pants; a musical version of  Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth” that heightens the absurdism and meta-theatricality of the 1943 Pulitzer winner, whose allegorical narrative about a family surviving calamities ranging from the Ice Age right up to the present time is frequently interrupted by direct addresses to the audience and the actions of a fictional stage manager who tries to get the actors to behave Adaptation, Music and Lyrics by:   Ethan Lipton           Directed by: Leigh Silverman One good thing: Lipton’s score is filled with tunes that are jaunty and occasionally moving and Silverman has assembled an all-star cast that is stacked with folks—Damon Daunno, Micaela Diamond, Andry Grotelueschen, Shuler Hensley and Ruthie Ann Miles—who know how to put on a good show; plus there are puppets One not-so-great thing: The production is performed runway style, which not only means that one side of the audience is ...

The Play: Initiative; a somewhat self-indulgent five-hour character study of a group of millennial outsiders in a small California town at the turn of the century Written by: Else Went        Directed by: Emma Rose Went One good thing: The individual characters are interesting and their struggles with gender identity, absent or opioid-addicted parents and the advent of online social interactions are clearly designed to speak to theatergoers who grew up during those years—and to those still wrestling with memories of troubled adolescences in earlier times One not-so-great thing: The long segments devoted to re-enacting sessions of Dungeons & Dragons might have been more meaningful if they’d been shorter and less opaque for those not familiar with that fantasy role playing game    

The Play: Weer; a one woman show in which Natalie Palamides, wearing a costume that on one-side has her dressed as a plaid-shirted, scraggly-bearded bro and on the other as a down-market Carrie Bradshaw wannabe, plays both the male and female roles in a fractious on-and-off relationship Written by: Natalie Palamides        Directed by: Natalie Palamides         One good thing: You have to admire the plain physical energy that’s required for Palamides to throws herself around the stage in a literal do-any-thing-for-a-laugh performance that lasts what must be an exhausting 90-minutes  One not-so-great thing: This is a bit too silly and all-over-the-place to be my kind of humor but the show is clearly aimed at Millennials and Gen Zers, and the ones at the performance I attended seemed to be having a great time    

The Play: Gruesome Playground Injuries; a satisfying revival of the 2009 two-hander about the relationship between childhood friends who over three decades inflict physical harm on themselves and emotional wounds on one another Written by: Rajiv Joseph        Directed by: Neil Pepe One good thing: I’d admired the 2011 Second Stage production with Pablo Schreiber and Jennifer Carpenter but Nicholas Braun (cousin Greg from the HBO series “Succession”) and two-time Tony winner Kara Young find new depths in these damaged souls who are desperate to connect but can’t seem to find a way to save themselves or each other One not-so-great thing: Despite the projections at the start of each scene and the fact that the script instructs the actors to change into decade-appropriate costumes in front of the audience, the out-of-sequence time jumps can be confusing    

The Play: Meet the Cartozians; based in part on a real Supreme Court decision, this two-act dramedy about the struggles of Armenian-Americans to balance the burdens and privileges of racial identity in this country during the early years of the 20th century and now in this one is both thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable Written by: Talene Monahon        Directed by: David Cromer One good thing: Under Cromer’s customarily adroit direction, each cast member—Raffi Barsoumian, Will Brill, Nael Nacer, Susan Pourfar, Tamara Sevunts and the always crowd-pleasing Andrea Martin—aces the challenge of playing utterly different characters in the two time periods One not-so-great thing: The show’s a bit too long but I’m going to give it a pass on that since it manages to make its inarguably relevant points without being too didactic about it