BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Play: Old Friends, a revue of Stephen Sondheim’s most revered show tunes expertly sung by a cast of 19 performers lead by Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga Devised by: Cameron Mackintosh     Music and Lyrics by: Stephen Sondheim    Directed by: Matthew Bourne One good thing: Duh; the show is filled with Sondheim songs  One not-so-great thing:   There have been so many Sondheim revues both before and after his death in 2021 and this one arrives without any fresh insights, without a concept—some numbers have costumes and sets, others don’t—and without much context for the numbers, which slightly weakens the impact even for songs as innately impactful as these  

The Play: The Last Five Years; an uneven revival of the cult musical about a failed marriage, told entirely in song with the woman, an unsuccessful actress named Cathy, looking back from its sad end to its joyous beginning; while the man, an up-and-coming Jewish novelist named Jamie, charts the relationship from its giddy start to its bitter finish  Book, Music and Lyrics by:    Jason Robert Brown      Directed by: Whitney White One good thing: It was fun to watch the audience, many of whom had turned out to see the pop star Nick Jonas play Jamie, won over by the powerhouse singing and nimble acting of Adrienne Warren, a Tony-winner for her portrayal of Tina Turner and on the surface an unconventional choice for Jamie's "shiksa goddess"  One not-so-great thing: The show’s side-by-side storylines are always tricky to navigate but the direction here, which had the two characters regularly interacting with one another, only confused things more   ...

The Play: Purpose; the family of a Jesse Jackson-style civil rights leader comes together for one pivotal day that is filled with comedy, tragedy and reckonings with the heavy legacies passed from one generation to the next  Written by: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins        Directed by: Phylicia Rashad One good thing: The crackerjack cast—which includes LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Kara Young, Glenn Davis and a very charismatic Jon Michael Hill—is firing so surely on all cylinders that even the clichés of the dysfunctional family genre hit with a satisfying pop One not-so-great thing: I wish the play, or maybe the direction, had dug even deeper into how the burdens placed on the families of self-sacrificing leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson have lead to tragic outcomes for so many of their children and even grandchildren    

The Play: All Nighter; a very funny but ultimately poignant look at a group of college seniors as they study for finals and learn lessons about themselves and about what does and doesn’t tie them together as friends Written by: Natalie Margolin        Directed by: Jaki Bradley One good thing: The audience at the performance I attended was filled with people who looked to be around 30, as opposed to the gray heads I usually see in theaters, proving that younger people will turn out when they think shows have something to say to them  One not-so-great thing: Margolin seems uncertain about where her play should end, and so ends it several times     

The Play: Vanya, a one-man version of Anton Chekhov’s increasingly popular mediation on how unrequited love and existential despair surface when a retired professor and his young trophy wife visit relatives in their remote rural home Adapted by: Simon Stephens        Directed by: Sam Yates One good thing: Andrew Scott,  supported only by a few small props,  is a marvel, playing all of the eight major characters while keeping each one distinct and the story dramatically engaging One not-so-great thing: As great as Scott is and as clever as Yates’ direction is (look out for the sex scenes!) I still don’t get what having one actor take on all the roles reveals about the play itself    

The Play: Ghosts, a new streamlined adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s morality tale about how a widow’s plan to open an orphanage in the name of a husband she never loved provokes acts of hypocrisy and questions about the legacy of sin Adapted by: Mark O’Rowe        Directed by: Jack O’Brien One good thing: Lily Rabe gives a burn-the-house-down performance as the widow, and in the process stakes her claim as the leading stage actress of her generation One not-so-great thing: The framing device is in keeping with the new trend of having actors amble onstage as themselves before moving into their roles but it seems distractingly superfluous here    

The Play: Amerikin; a wannabe-in-with-the-in-crowd guy’s plan to join a local white supremacist group is upended by a DNA test that throws his life and his entire community into turmoil Written by: Chisa Hutchinson        Directed by: Jade King Carroll One good thing: Primary Stages, which has publicly refused to comply with new NEA mandates that threaten to withhold federal funds from organizations promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, deserves even more credit for taking on such a third-rail topic as white nationalism One not-so-great thing:   A subplot about postpartum depression seems both underdeveloped and unnecessary