Critic’s Pick
A child-loathing Whoopi Goldberg.
‘Annie’
Jenn Thompson, who played the orphan Pepper in the original 1977 Broadway production, directs this touring version of Thomas Meehan, Martin Charnin and Charles Strouse’s classic orphan tale. It’s a thoughtful interpretation starring Hazel Vogel as the Depression-era redhead darling and Whoopi Goldberg as a tipsy Miss Hannigan.
From Laura Collins-Hughes’s review:
Glad tidings from the holiday run of “Annie” at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, where Whoopi Goldberg is giving a rib-ticklingly funny, extremely smart performance as the tipsy, terrorizing Miss Hannigan, bane of all the orphans in her care. If Goldberg the TV talk-show presence has eclipsed in your mind Goldberg the savvy comic actor, her Miss Hannigan will jog your memory.
Through Jan. 5 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
An updated American classic.
‘Gypsy’
George C. Wolfe directs Audra McDonald as the first Black woman on Broadway to play Rose, a bulldozer mother who pushes one daughter into vaudeville and the other into burlesque, in a revival of the 1959 classic written by three theater greats: Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents.
From Jesse Green’s review:
McDonald, as will be no surprise if you’ve seen her in full dramatic mode, makes a meal of Rose’s ambition and, with a slight southern drawl, a dessert of her guile. … “Gypsy,” like other great works of midcentury American drama, rewards a layering of lifetime impressions. Wolfe offers a rich new layer, sufficient in itself, and more so as part of history. Most important, he has given us a way of seeing a star who had to be seen in this role.
At the Majestic Theater. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Holding space for the righteous.
‘Eureka Day’
Mansplaining, virtue signaling and new-age parlance set the lexicon for Jonathan Spector’s hilarious play about a progressive preschool rocked by a vaccination debate. The showdown, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, stars Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch and a thumbs-up emoji.
From Jesse Green’s review:
Just in time, laughter is making a big comeback on Broadway. … But the funniest character now on Broadway isn’t even a human being — or not exactly. Getting the biggest belly laughs in Jonathan Spector’s “Eureka Day” is a yellow thumbs-up emoji. The emoji appears — chipper then aggravating then weirdly insidious — in a livestream meeting of parents and executive board members at Eureka Day, an upscale private school in Berkeley, Calif.
Through Jan. 19 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Home for the holidays, with grudges for all.
‘Cult of Love’
Leslye Headland brings another unhappy family to Broadway in a home-for-the-holidays dramedy that starts as a warm reunion and ends in meltdown. Shailene Woodley and Zachary Quinto star in this doomed Christmas dinner, directed by Trip Cullman, as two siblings whose grudges urgently need airing. Hypocrisy, burdens disguised as blessings and folk songs abound.
From Jesse Green’s review:
Though “Cult of Love,” like many unhappy family reunion plays, draws big buckets of humor from the toxic brew of religion and repression, those buckets also draw blood. Headland knows just how to get there, suggesting deep familiarity with the territory. But she also has a gift for complication and construction. … They are all at war, in every possible permutation, but Headland and her director, Trip Cullman, make sure we have no trouble mapping the minefield.
Through Feb. 2 at the Helen Hayes Theater. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Big emotions from the future.
‘Maybe Happy Ending’
Directed by Michael Arden, and starring Darren Criss and Helen J Shen, Will Aronson and Hue Park’s charming musical about a robot couple whose time is running out probes very human questions from a nonhuman love story.
From Jesse Green’s review:
Never was a meet cute as cute — and as quietly ominous — as it is in the musical “Maybe Happy Ending.” That’s because the pair are robots, and Claire’s battery is running down fast. … That we nonrobots also connect, pair and empower one another to share a too-brief lifetime is the surprising double vision that makes “Maybe Happy Ending” a ravishing addition to the catalog of Broadway nerdicals. … Under cover of sci-fi whimsy, it sneaks in a totally original human heartbreaker.
At the Belasco Theater. Read the full review.
Beloved comedians delight and bore.
‘All In: Comedy About Love’
In Simon Rich’s Broadway debut, directed by Alex Timbers with live music from the Bengsons, Rich’s stories are read aloud, script in hand, in sketches performed by a starry rotating cast, currently including John Mullaney, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Fred Armisen, Richard Kind and Renée Elise Goldsberry.
From Elisabeth Vincentelli’s review:
This new production is a slight affair that’s as easy to forget as it is to watch. … It’s frustrating to see Goldsberry and Kind spend so much of their time idling (though Armisen has even less to do), especially since in addition to their comic skills they excel at chair-acting, often twisting like pretzels inside their tiny spaces. … It all adds up to a pleasantly innocuous evening, but it’s also hard not to think that we’re watching a bunch of Formula 1 cars being throttled at 25 m.p.h.
Through Feb. 16 at the Hudson Theater. Read the full review.
Evading death, via potion.
‘Death Becomes Her’
Christopher Gattelli directs (and choreographs) the musical version of the 1992 film — with a book by Marco Pennette and a score by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey — about a miracle elixir that reverses aging and promises immortality. The vocal powerhouses Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard star as bawdy love rivals with a common enemy: death.
From Jesse Green’s review:
The musical stars the two comic treasures as lifelong frenemies for whom the “lifelong” part is an understatement. Their animosity is eternal. That Hilty and Simard make it so jolly is a big relief and a big surprise. … Hilty and Simard are tireless, forever pulling vocal drama and line-reading surprises out of their Swarovski-encrusted imaginations.
At the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. Read the full review.
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