Chicago
Funk It Up About Nothin’
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“The Bard gets a bawdy and fun remix” in this Much Ado About Nothing adaptation, said Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. A cast led by “rappers” named GQ and JQ rhymes its way through the play’s couplets. Even “if you’ve seen too many Much Ados” in your day, “this one will greatly amuse.”
New York
The Marriage of Bette and Boo
Laura Pels Theatre, (212) 719-1300
Director Walter Bobbie’s revival of Christopher Durang’s dark 1985 comedy is imperfect, said Charles Isherwood in The New York Times. In mining laughs from a family’s series of stillbirths, however, it proves that the playwright’s “trademark blend of zany humor and grotesquerie remains unsettlingly potent.”
Washington, D.C.
The Skin of Our Teeth
Gonda Theatre, (800) 494-8497
Director Rahaleh Nassri has “blown the dust off” this quirky 1942 play by Thornton Wilder, said Nelson Pressly in The Washington Post. It’s hard to believe this cartoonish take on mankind’s plight through the ages won the Pulitzer Prize, but here both Nassri and the actors “coolly control the play’s heightened style.”
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Freakier Friday: Lohan and Curtis reunite for 'uneven' but 'endearing' sequelThe Week Recommends Mother-and-daughter comedy returns with four characters switching bodies
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Al fresco art: the UK's best sculpture parksThe Week Recommends Soak up the scenery with a stroll through these open-air galleries
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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.