The week’s other openings
Ameriville; Josephine Tonight; Elemeno Pea
Ameriville
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, Chicago
(773) 871-3000
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“Influenced by hip-hop, slam poetry,” and several other storytelling traditions, this show certainly makes a statement, said the Chicago Tribune. Opening in post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, it eventually becomes too broad a denunciation of America’s ills. But when the actors play ordinary New Orleanians, they “bring them to life with empathetic eloquence.”
Josephine Tonight
MetroStage, Alexandria, Va.
(800) 494-8497
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Sherman Yellen and Wally Harper’s new musical about Josephine Baker benefits from “an exuberant performance” in the title role, said Washingtonian.com. Zurin Villanueva convincingly charts Baker’s rise from gangly Missouri teen to “elegant, commanding star,” elevating the show from “ho-hum musical biography” to “a knockout night at the theater.”
Elemeno Pea
South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, Calif.
(714) 708-5555
Any adult with a sibling or two can relate to the “authentic doses of judgment and jealousy” in Molly Smith Metzler’s new play, said LA Weekly. Her lively story about two sisters from blue-collar Buffalo is weighed down by heavy-handed messages about money and class, but “the sisterly love story—with all its jagged edges”—is winning.
-
'From his election as pope in 2013, Francis sought to reform'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US
-
Israel blames 'failures' for killing of medics
speed read 14 Gaza medics and 1 U.N. employee were killed by IDF special forces
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Hegseth reportedly shared war plans in 2nd group text
Speed Read The defense secretary sent information about an attack in Yemen to a Signal group chat that included his wife and brother
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
If/Then
feature Tony-winning Idina Menzel “looks and sounds sensational” in a role tailored to her talents.
By The Week Staff
-
Rocky
feature It’s a wonder that this Rocky ever reaches the top of the steps.
By The Week Staff
-
Love and Information
feature Leave it to Caryl Churchill to create a play that “so ingeniously mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.”
By The Week Staff
-
The Bridges of Madison County
feature Jason Robert Brown’s “richly melodic” score is “one of Broadway’s best in the last decade.”
By The Week Staff
-
Outside Mullingar
feature John Patrick Shanley’s “charmer of a play” isn’t for cynics.
By The Week Staff
-
The Night Alive
feature Conor McPherson “has a singular gift for making the ordinary glow with an extra dimension.”
By The Week Staff
-
No Man’s Land
feature The futility of all conversation has been, paradoxically, the subject of “some of the best dialogue ever written.”
By The Week Staff
-
The Commons of Pensacola
feature Stage and screen actress Amanda Peet's playwriting debut is a “witty and affecting” domestic drama.
By The Week Staff