The last Broadway show of the season is a weepie

The People in the Picture- Donna Murphy's terrific performance can't overcome the fact that this show's too sketchily constructed libretto is a let down even if you've been maneuvered into shedding a few tears . . .

This Normal Heart More moving & as Urgent as ever

The Normal Heart- Unlike so many agitprop dramas which tend to be of the moment, this one lives on as a full-blown tragedy with the added parallels to world events that cry for leaders unafraid to speak out. . .

Thisl jukebox musical no female Jersey Boys

Beth Leavel in Baby It's You

Baby Its You- a compulsively swinging but incredibly shallow new jukebox musical about The Shirelles, . . .

House of Blue Leaves: Stellar Cast, wong headed direction f

The House of Blue Leaves- Terrific performances from Ben Stiller, Edie Falco and Jennifer Jason Leigh, as well as support players Christopher Abbott and Alison Pill, can't rescue this darker than ever comedy from being only sporadically successful. . .

The best Billie Dawn since Judy Holliday

Ninar Aianda and Robert Sean Leonard  in Born Yesterday


Born Yesterday - There's a newgorgeous blonde doing an unmissable rendition of "Anything Goes." This one is Nina Arianda who plays Billie Dawn in Garson Kanin's 1949 comedy . . .

Bargain priced 12th Night. . .

Twelfth Night- The Frog and Peach Company adds to its Shakespeare Oevre . . .

Jerusalem --epic play, epic performance--don't miss it

Jerusalem- As the anti-heroic Johnny "Rooster" Byron is a Pied Piper for the teenaged children of the conventional home owners near his outlaw dwelling, so his interpreter, Mark Rylance, is also the Pied Piper who will fill the Music Box's seats . . .

Nun-sensical and silly but great fun

Sister Act- Although downright silly, outrageously hokey and pervasively shallow, under the snappy direction of Jerry Zaks, this latest nun-sensical musical ranks among the season'sbest. .

Kathleen Turner's formidable nun in underwhelming play

High- You don't want to mess with no-nonsense, gutter-mouthed Sister Jamison Connelly, as played by Kathleen Turner in Matthew Lombardo's occasionally gripping but also gratuitously lurid new play. . . .

War Horse is the season's most unique theatrical experience:

War Horse- to paraphrase Albert's exultant "What a team we make! Albert and Joey together for ever" . . . What a team the people involved in this unique show make! I'll remember it for ever -- and so will you

Our critic found this new musical neither wonderful or magical

Wonderland- this modern twist on Alice's familiar journey is only fitfully amusing and certainly never whimsical.. . .

Yaxmina Reza's hit opens in LA with original Broadway cast

God of Carnage- Yasmina Reza's hit premieres in LA with original Broadway cast . . .

A 70-minute metatheatrical gay romance

Go Back to Where You Are- David Greenspan has written himself a whimsical play about a long dead Greek chorus boy who turns into a sort of good fairy to a gathering of modern thespians.

a downtown playwright ventures to Broadway

Chris Rock is the  box office draw but this show belongs to Bobby Cannavale. . .
Motherf**Ker With The Hat- The conversations between Stephen Adly Guirgis's drug and alcohol addicted Romeo and Juliet drop enough F-bombs to make David Mamet's dialogue seem the work of a choir boy . . .

A marriage of Charlie Chaplin and the Bard

The Comedy of Errors-The Acting Company adds a Chaplinesque twist to Shakespeare's farce . . .

A new British import at a downtown "hot spot"

Crystal A. Dickinson in Born Bad

Born Bad- a speeding train of a play, going at full speed from start to finish. . .

A new musical that should be a big hit. .

Catch Me If You Can - though Aaron Tveit has the voice to get this musicaliced caper airborne, it's only when Norbert Leo Butz's modern day Jarvert is on stage, that this show gains altitude. . .

Our London critic clocks in on two revivals

Cause Célèbre- a rare Terence Rattigan crime drama . . .

Smash - Except for Tom Conti this is anything but a smash and it is a mystery why the golden Chocolate Factory has revived it. . .

The "De-Loveliest" show in town

Anything Goes - This revival of Cole Porter's tuneful, danceable show is not just "so easy to love" but impossible not to love. . . .

Thatcherism era play in synch with today's times. . .

Benefactors- Michael Frayn's elegantly structured 4-character 1984 play is still relevant . . .

Wallace Shawn's unhappily undivorced couple at Theater Row

Marisa Tomei
(Photo: Monique Carboni)

Marie and Bruce - This is essentially a plot-less, character-driven play about a notably incompatible married couple, trapped in a surreal-existential world of their own making. .

Solo play about a retired school teacher

The Promise- a fascinating psychological and cultural study. It is performed by an extremely talented actress. . . .

A one-person biomusical about Fanny Brice

One Night With Fanny Brice - Kimberly Faye Greenberg doesn't look anything like Fanny Brice but she delivers her songs in a similar lusty belt and tosses out quips with offhand charm