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“Passion is universal,” said Johnny Oleksinski in NewCityStage.com. That’s the insight that separates this riveting work from other sports-themed plays, which often provide theater audiences with clumsy “For Dummies” guides to the endeavors of serious athletes. In Brett Neveu’s tale about a struggling Louisiana gym owner and the promising young boxer he trains, gym-world jargon flies by without footnotes, and you’ll be glad it does. “The effect is booming, and immediately relatable, even to the non-athletes among us.” Tre, the gym owner, develops a father-son dynamic with his protégée Donell, but this two-hander is far from sentimental. Neither man “has any interest” in the other’s personal life. To them, all that matters is what happens in the ring.
Which is a lot, said Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. Neveu’s recent plays have been metaphor-heavy and slow, but here “the sheer theatricality of the sparring” keeps him focused. It helps that this staging’s two journeyman actors look like they’re “ready to really knock some demons to the floor.” As Tre, Guy Van Swearingen seems admirably stoic as he “sweats, grunts, and flails for nearly two hours,” while Kamal Angelo Bolden exudes “the confidence of an ambitious man in love with his own charm.” And while excessive reserve and excessive chirpiness both have the potential to become irritating, here they create “just the right binary opposition.” The result is “a great new play that dances, parries, and, most important, lands some killer punches.”
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Delhi's dogs earn Supreme Court reprieveIN THE SPOTLIGHT After an outcry from the public and animal rights activists, India's Supreme Court walks back a controversial plan to round the city's stray dog population into shelters
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8 hotels with ace tennis courtsThe Week Recommends Bring your A game
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Abrego released from jail, faces Uganda deportationSpeed Read The wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego García is expected to be detained at an ICE check-in and deported to Uganda
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If/Thenfeature Tony-winning Idina Menzel “looks and sounds sensational” in a role tailored to her talents.
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Rocky
feature It’s a wonder that this Rocky ever reaches the top of the steps.
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Love and Information
feature Leave it to Caryl Churchill to create a play that “so ingeniously mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.”
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The Bridges of Madison County
feature Jason Robert Brown’s “richly melodic” score is “one of Broadway’s best in the last decade.”
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Outside Mullingar
feature John Patrick Shanley’s “charmer of a play” isn’t for cynics.
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The Night Alive
feature Conor McPherson “has a singular gift for making the ordinary glow with an extra dimension.”
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No Man’s Land
feature The futility of all conversation has been, paradoxically, the subject of “some of the best dialogue ever written.”
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The Commons of Pensacola
feature Stage and screen actress Amanda Peet's playwriting debut is a “witty and affecting” domestic drama.