4000 Miles

I didn't care much for Amy Herzog's After the Revolution but her latest, 4000 Miles, is delightful. Well worth a trip to the Duke on 42nd Street, especially since tickets are only $20. You could pay three times that for the privilege of seeing Mary Louise Wilson in action.

Side Effects

Today's review is of Side Effects at the Lucille Lortel. Ayee! Not a very good show, I'm afraid. The highlight of the evening I saw it was sitting behind Vanessa Redgrave -- whose daughter Joely Richardson is in the play.

Theater outside NYC

In today's Post, I offer some suggestions about catching theater out of town this summer. This is one of the few times when I wish I had a car -- so I could get myself to Williamstown and see everything. At least I can go to Vassar's Powerhouse Theater by train.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark redux

I saw Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark 2.0 last Friday and lived to write a review. Boy, what a ride it's been — getting this show to open, I mean, because the actual production isn't actually a ride. Or at least not a very fun one.

I also cooked up a handy timeline, so you can discover with astonishment that the seed was planted all the way back in 2002.

One Arm

More Tennessee Williams curios! This time it's One Arm, unearthed and put together from various drafts by Moisés Kaufman. Not a long lost masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but a worthy experience for Williams fans.

The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World

The Shaggs may not be a great musical, but it's a surprisingly warm, affectionate one — and very smart about varying perceptions and the pressures of family. I suspect those who love traditional musicals won't go for it, but fans of a certain brand of indie rock — and a certain indie spirit — should. I certainly did. Click here for my review.

Through a Glass Darkly

Don't mess with the master! Yes, I'm a bit of a Bergman freak (I even have a magnet of his face on my fridge), but even a dabbler could tell that the stage adaptation of Through a Glass Darkly completely misses the point of the movie. I liked Carey Mulligan's performance but that ending left me steaming. More thoughts here.

Lysistrata Jones

Yay, another good musical! What a spring season! Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn's Lysistrata Jones is a cheerleader update of the Aristophanes chestnut. It's ridic good fun. Full review here.

The Best Is Yet to Come

The Cy Coleman revue The Best Is Yet to Come is now at 59E59. I actually love Coleman's work — one of the most swinging on Broadway — but the show is frustratingly uneven. My review's here.

Cradle and All

Daniel Goldfarb's Cradle and All opened at MTC last night. Listening to yuppies talk about having kids — or not — isn't really exotic when you live in Park Slope.

Knickerbocker

Jerry is 40 and about to be a dad, so naturally he has a lot to talk about. That's pretty much the plot of Knickerbocker, which just opened at the Public. My review's here.

Lucky Guy

The new musical Lucky Guy brought me back to those heady 1990s and their kitschy revues. With several judicious cuts (20 songs?!), it could be a nifty show. Review here.

Radio Play

Reggie Watts and Tommy Smith's Radio Play left me cold at PS 122. I suspect my enjoyment of the show may have been enhanced by the ingestion of brain-altering substances but alas, I went in perfectly sober.

Squealer

It's not easy to pull off shock tactics. The Amoralists mostly succeed, but their feats only underline how hard it is to pull off shock tactics. The gory new off-off-Broadway show Squealer, at Theater for the New City, is an example of how not to do it. Still, it's always a pleasure to see Sarah Lemp in action.

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

Oh man, how excellent is Lynn Nottage's new play! By the Way, Meet Vera Stark is just fantastic, both hilarious and very sharp. Click here for my review.

A Minister's Wife

A Minister's Wife opened last night at Lincoln Center. It's a musical adaptation of Shaw's Candida, and is fairly bloodless...until the very end. Talk about a late wake-up call.

King Lear

Michael Grandage and Derek Jacobi's King Lear is at BAM, and my review was in yesterday's paper. If you're keen on seeing a Lear, there's two more productions coming later this year, so you may want to sit this one out.

The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide...

Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures has finally landed. It's not everyday you hear discussions of dialectical materialism on a New York stage, but boy is this show a slog. My review's thataway.

Be a Good Little Widow

I really liked Bekah Brunstetter's new play, Be a Good Little Widow. It's at Ars Nova (meaning you can get cheap tix) through May, and well worth a trip to west west W. 54th St.

The School for Lies

I loved David Ives' The School for Lies, a rhymed riff on The Misanthrope. The Rialto is celebrating the end of the season but what they mean is the end of the Broadway season — this new show is proof that the Off scene continues unabated.