The week’s other openings
Ameriville; Josephine Tonight; Elemeno Pea
Ameriville
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, Chicago
(773) 871-3000
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“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
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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.
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June 1 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Donald Trump's golden comb-over, brain drain in America, and a new TACO presidential seal.
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5 cartoons about the TACO trade
Cartoons Political cartoonists take on America's tariffs, Vladimir Putin waiting for taco Tuesday, and a new presidential seal
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A city of culture in the high Andes
The Week Recommends Cuenca is a must-visit for those keen to see the 'real Ecuador'
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If/Then
feature 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.