Broadway's Best Shows

by Ben Togut

Across several decades, a relentless matriarch struggles to navigate her relationship with her two children in Mother Play, now playing at The Hayes Theater. 

As Phyllis, Jessica Lange is mesmerizing. Lange commands the stage in each of her character’s iterations—as an emotionally abusive mother living in poverty, a woman grappling with her children’s queer identities, and a patient at a nursing home trying to cope with her surroundings. As Martha and Carl, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Jim Parsons deliver performances that are moving in their own right, Keenan Bolger as a tomboy struggling with her mother’s expectations and Parsons as a free thinker who remains steadfast in his principles and identity.

Under the direction of Tina Landau, the actors deftly navigate the production’s emotional terrain, finding genuine comedy amid the play’s bleak subject matter. Mother Play gets its biggest laughs through physical comedy, such as when Carl teaches Martha how to “walk like man,” parodying a masculine gait and having her imitate him. Projection design by Shawn Duan, which features a dancing chorus of roaches, provides a welcome moment of campiness while illuminating the family’s experience of poverty.

With layered performances that amplify Paula Vogel’s tragicomedy, Mother Play is an exacting portrait of family dynamics gone awry.

by Ben Togut

A professor’s return to a country estate reignites old resentments in Uncle Vanya, now playing at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Back on Broadway with a star-studded cast and a new adaptation by Heidi Schreck, Uncle Vanya finds the humor and pathos in dysfunctional family relationships and breathes new life into Chekhkov’s classic.

Steve Carrell is at the top of his game as the titular Vanya, skillfully tackling Chekhov’s humor and turning a character usually played pathetic and self-pitying into someone lovable. Anika Noni Rose delivers a regal yet grounded performance as Elena, a woman who is keenly aware of how her beauty makes her appear untouchable. Rose is a joy to watch as she reveals Elena’s true character, advocating for a smitten Sonia (Alison Pill) and exposing her own vulnerabilities when she struggles to ward off a romance with Astrov (William Jackson Harper).

The set, by Mimi Lien, features familiar furniture and a giant mural of trees in the background, making the space feel intimate and expansive, while musical interludes by Andrew Bird add a warm, homespun quality to the production. Lighting design by Lap Chi Chu and Elizabeth Harper complements the mood of the play, shifting from candlelit family gatherings to stark, white lighting in the production’s final moments.

by Ben Togut

A spirited cast breathes new life into the battle for women’s voting rights in Suffs, now playing at the Music Box. The show transforms a critical period of American history into an exciting night at the theater, dramatizing the campaign for gender equality in voting rights and championing the fearless women behind it.

One of the production’s greatest assets is its ensemble, which embodies the feistiness of the suffragists and exhibits a moving sense of comradery on stage. Jenn Colella turns in a willful performance as Carrie Chapman Catt, an activist who refuses to stray from her non-confrontational strategy. She is a joy to watch as she campaigns for female suffrage in the opener “Let Mother Vote” and criticizes the aggressive  tactics of younger suffragists in “This Girl.” Broadway veteran Emily Skinner is delightfully snarky as socialite Alva Belmont. She showcases her range  by doubling as rural housewife Phoebe Burn in Act II, delivering a poignant rendition of “A Letter From Harry’s Mother.”

Another one of Suffs’s delights is its score by Shaina Taub, which balances a story of protest struggle with moments of genuine humor, such as in the song “G.A.B.”  Director Leigh Silverman’s staging elegantly complements the world Taub has created. At the end of the second act, Taub’s Alice Paul takes center stage while her castmates are silhouetted behind her, visually highlighting that it took a legion of women joining together for their voices to be heard.

At once a history lesson and a call to action, Suffs is an inspiring and timely piece of theatre.

By Dabney Peterson

It begins with the rousing “Hip To Be Square” and it’s a non-stop cavalcade of the songs of Huey Lewis and the News, some of which you may remember and some of which you may not.  They are all fueled by a megawatt energy, credit to choreographer  Lorin Latarro, that will have you inspired to do the bubble wrap at your next high school reunion. This is “The Heart of Rock and Roll”, currently at the James Earl Jones Theatre. In a year populated by some very serious  (and good) musicals, here’s one that stands out for the audacity to have nothing on its mind but sheer entertainment.  And a terrific twosome at the center, Corey Cott and McKenzie Kurtz, who bears a striking resemblance to a young Hilary Clinton.

If you had a good time at Grease and Mamma Mia, you’ll have a blast at “The Heart of Rock and Roll.”  It’s hot fun in the Summertime!