Our Town, a play by Thornton Wilder, at the Barrow Street Theatre. Directed by David Cromer, starring, David Cromer, Lori Myers, Kati Brazda, James McMenamin, Ken Marks, and Jennifer Grace. "Our Town" as directed by David Cromer (a production originating in Chicago), is reborn as if a brand new play, and not a time honored antique.
"Our Town" is searing in this deceptively simple staging which puts the actors among the audience as the play and Grovers Corners itself unfolds around it. Each act builds in intensity -the last act is nearly unbearable in its power and poignancy. We're used to "Our Town" as a sentimental tear-jerker of the life, love and death of young Emily Webb, usually played by glamorous actors like Martha Scott, the first Emily or Teresa Wright who was in the original cast. This cast looks as if it were pulled from the audience, and the naturalism and "everyman" quality quickly bring us into their community, their lives, and ultimately their profound humanity. Seemingly not acting at all, not showing a hint of actorly posturing or temperament, this is that rarity often spoken of, but seldom truly encountered - art that conceals art. Each actor gives the most lifelike, utterly sincere performance in this miraculous production. Three I would single out for special praise are Kati Brazda so centered as Mrs. Webb, David Cromer ideal as the Stage Manager, and the towering Emily of Jennifer Grace, who is absolutely unforgettable. No one who sees Grace's Emily will see the role again without measuring it against her definitive portrayal of our time, in what is the "Our Town" perhaps of all time. Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test Grade A+

The Winter's Tale, a play by William Shakespeare at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Directed by Sam Mendes, starring Simon Russell Beale, Rebecca Hall, Morven Christie, Sinead Cusack, Robert Easton, and Ethan Hawke. The Winter's Tale is my favorite Shakespeare play, in fact it's my favorite play of all. While it's regularly produced in England, the play is a genuine rarity in the US, even in New York, so a first class production of it is not to be missed. The Bridge Project's performance of the Winter's Tale is one of the best I've seen. Superbly directed by Sam Mendes, it has outstanding performances by Rebecca Hall, shattering as Hermione, Sinead Cusack, a sovereign Paulina, and a star turn by Ethan Hawke as the clown Autolycus, singing, dancing, and mugging his way into our hearts and into theater history. Every other Winter's Tale I've seen has used the usual British theatre cliche of portraying Autolycus as a Cockney caricature. But at last, here is a three dimensional Autolycus of substance, humor, and brilliance. I've seen Paulinas by the likes of Eileen Atkins and Margaret Tyzack, but none have been quite as hauntingly powerful as Cusack. Simon Russell Beale is an idiocyncratic Leontes, not so much raging as usual, but out of sorts, irritated, put upon. He starts out lost, but his performance builds from the powerful trial scene to the great last act, staged better than I've ever seen it. Then there is the key Second Act, the pastoral act, in Bohemia. Mendes has cast the British as Sycillians, and the Americans as Bohemians, which works splendidly. The Western warmth of the pastoral celebration, anchored by the lovely dewey Perdita of Morven Christie, is unforgettable. A beautiful Winter's Tale to savor. Don't miss this! Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Grade A.

The American Plan, a play by Richard Greenberg at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (formerly the Biltmore), starring Mercedes Ruehl and Lily Rabe, directed by David Grindley. The Manhattan Theatre Club really strikes theatrical gold in this revival of one of Richard Greenberg's finest plays. A five hander, the principals are two tortured women, a mother and daughter, two tortured men, and a knowing servant who observes it all, during one fateful summer at the Catskills in the 1960's. Is the mother played by Mercedes Ruehl a monster? Is the daughter, played by Lily Rabe, crazy? And just what do the men really want? Much of this is answered as the play unfolds, but some secrets are not revealed and this fine edge is what makes the play so rich and satisfying. The performances by the great Mercedes Ruehl and the beautiful, ever rising, Lily Rabe are sizzling. A good unit set, though I was fatigued by the repetitious monotony of it. Tremendous, riveting entertainment. Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test Grade A-

Music In The Air, a musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II at the New York City Center Encores! Starring Kristin Chenoweth, Sierra Boggess, and Douglas Sills directed by Gary Griffin. Restored by Bruce Pomahac, conducted by Rob Berman, directed by Gary Griffin, "Music in the Air" a 1932 musical miraculously springs to life. This "wedding cake" frothy musical, seemingly a send up of old fashioned operettas is actually more a send up of the New York music and show business industry of the 1930's era, moved to Germany, and it has one of the most beautiful scores we've heard on Broadway and anywhere else. But performing it, getting the early 1930's sensibility right, not camping it up, and being true to the material is not easy. But Encores! has done it wonderfully. The incomparable, mega talented Kristin Chenoweth is at her best, funny, and singing this operetta score with soaring ease. Sierra Boggess shows that her snub by Tony last year (no doubt snobbery against Disney) was a big mistake. She's an ideal ingenue, stunningly beautiful with a voice as clear as the bluest sky. She has the best song, "I've Told Every Little Star" and I will hear her singing it in my head for a long time. Douglas Sills is hilarious as Bruno Mahler. The direction, taken from Hammerstein's own complicated instructions couldn't be more effective. The costumes by David C. Woolard are especially gorgeous. This is one of our favorite Encores! presentations. There are two performances left. See this. Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test Grade A+