Selective listings from theater critics of The New York Times.

Like the best absurdist playwrights, Durang fills his socio-political themes with jokes and levity. It's best if you let him explain it all for you.

"Beauty and the Beast," Disney's first Broadway hit musical, gets the full Broadway-scale treatment on Long Island by Gateway Playhouse. In the process, artistic director Robin Joy Allan may have discovered a n…

"The Book Club Play" is a play about a film mockumentary about people who love books. The form it most resembles, however, is TV sketch comedy - and not particularly sharp TV sketch comedy, at that.

Ever since an afternoon in 1979 when he performed all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets from the stage of the Olivier Theater in London, Simon Callow has taken an almost obsessive interest in these poetical works fr…

Although tremendous flamenco stomping to music by the Gipsy Kings is the loudest part of the experience, it's a close call between that and the sound of a show falling between two stools.

Lenora Champagne crams "Traces/fades" with enough material to fill two or three plays. It's little wonder, then, that given the piece's running time - just 60 minutes - much of the work feels only partially rea…

Bare skin is the name of the game when it comes to gay-themed plays. Chip Deffaa riffs on this maxim of maximum exposure in "Theater Boys," his attempt at a cheeky musical comedy.

By juggling so many stereotypes without any real intelligence or insight, the crew behind "The Red Paintball" sadly seems to have shot itself in the foot.

Philip Mutz's play is exactly the type of fluffy fun one always hopes to find in festivals but so rarely does.

Journalism is all about having the courage to write the truth even if it will get you mocked by your relatives and co-workers, so here goes: "Space Chimps" is hilarious.

"Space Chimps" is delightful from beginning to end: A goofy space opera that sends three U.S. chimptronauts rocketing to a galaxy, as they say, far, far away.

Who is this hermitic, tormented man on stage? It's Liam Neeson, of course, wearing a forlorn yet mysteriously blank-faced look.

More like: Oh, no! The stage-to-screen adaptation is loaded with excess. But, hey, Meryl Streep comes off well.

I saw the stage version of "Mamma Mia!" in London, where for all I know, it is now entering the second century of its run, and I was underwhelmed. The film version has the advantage of possessing Meryl Streep, …

You can have a perfectly nice time watching this spirited adaptation of the popular stage musical and, once the hangover wears off, acknowledge just how bad it is.

Others Might Want To See Something Else

"[title of show]" comes across as a flyweight exercise in narcissism interspersed with fleeting moments of genuineness.

What was once a rigorously original meditation on artistic inspiration is now (to quote from the show) a "toothless, gutless, and crotchless" backstage drama with an unusually peppy setup.

But stripped of satirical edge for its heavy Broadway date, the backstage show by Hunter Bell (book) and Jeff Bowen (score) is revealed in all its narcissism, flaunting its shallow aesthetic values and taking u…

How I wish I could love the show. I wish I didn't feel that I was being manipulated by long-struggling talented people on a guilt trip. Most of all, considering the risk, I wish the offbeat and low-budget show …

This Broadway musical about the making of a musical has plenty of heart, passion, wit -- and a terrific cast of four.

Insider or otherwise, expect a sharp, entertaining look at the agonies and ecstasies of making theater today.

What started off as a cutsey little self-referential festival entry became a sassy, cult-like Off Broadway musical that has plopped down, with no added flash and trash, onto the Great White Way.

"[title of show]" is a delightful 90 minutes, fueled by the passion, wit, and wackiness of its creators.

The more these sincere, talented folks sing about the tough world they'll die to conquer, the more universal they become. You don't have to make theater to identify with {title of show}, you just have to want something meaningful.

The production remains as appealing as ever, a slyly funny yet surprisingly sweet-tempered look at following your dreams and remaining true to yourself as you suffer - and suffer - the pangs of artistic creatio…

Somehow, though, these boys' all-too-familiar quest for fame and fortune manages never to sink into cliche.
It's fresh, smart and funny.
And those virtues are timeless.

If you see only one mega-meta-micro-musical this year, make it "[title of show]."

"[title of show]," which opened Thursday night at the Lyceum Theatre, may be small - that's the point, actually - but it produces some of the best laughs on Broadway.

"[title of show]" is genial, unpretentious and far funnier than many of the more expensively manufactured musicals that make it to Broadway these days.

Susan Blackwell makes a name for herself in [title of show].

Marquee-name playwrights, directors and actors lend an air of glamour, fill the houses and help keep the bills paid at the main stages at these Massachusetts festivals.

Q&A with choreographer Bill T. Jones, whose musical "Fela!" is about Nigerian Afro-beat musician and political activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who died of AIDS-related illnesses in 1997.

She has earned seven Tony nominations and a rapt fan base. Rebounding from tragedy, she writes a children's book and zips around to perform in concert.

"Don't worry, Paul has a plane," Joanne Woodward told Angela Lansbury, whom the Westport Country Playhouse wants to honor at its annual gala on Sept. 15.

Musical closes for sound system update

Shows include 'First Musical,' 'Beatsville'