Doesn't Everybody Do It in Paris? - Reviewed by LISA JO SAGOLLA

A brainy investigation of the themes of Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" via an ambitious yet sometimes indiscernible multimedia performance piece.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon 2010, Series B - Reviewed by CLIFFORD LEE JOHNSON III

The exhilarating combination of David Auburn's playwriting and David Rasche's acting makes "Amateurs," one of the entries in Series B of this year's Ensemble Studio Theatre marathon of one-a…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Waiting for Lefty - Reviewed by RON COHEN

The good intentions are apparent, but there's not enough genuine fire to fully ignite this revival of Clifford Odets' explosive Great Depression-era play.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Dreams of the Washer King - Reviewed by NICOLE VILLENEUVE

Christopher Wall's powerful new play experiments with time and memory in a world premiere that haunts the more it replays in the mind.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Prophecy - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

Karen Malpede crams in every major international crisis of the past 70 years in this political melodrama. Fortunately, Kathleen Chalfant illuminates the convoluted plot.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Paris Syndrome - Reviewed by LISA JO SAGOLLA

This silly yet glitteringly rendered multidisciplinary send-up of French culture has its charms, but its ludicrous theme may offend some audiences.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Joe Marshall's A Night in Vegas - Reviewed by JASON FITZGERALD

Writer-director Joe Marshall's gaudy entertainment is less like a slot machine than an evil circus clown: It offers tired stereotypes, bad jokes, and poor taste, and it keeps your money.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Can You Hear Their Voices? - Reviewed by MARK PEIKERT

Hallie Flanagan's pre-WPA drama succeeds mostly as a historical artifact in this unevenly directed production.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Seven Minutes in Heaven - Reviewed by NICOLE VILLENEUVE

Steven Levenson's modest exploration of period teenage angst is more successful at portraiture than drama but mostly avoids melodrama and cliché.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Another Part of the Forest - Reviewed by ERIK HAAGENSEN

Director Dan Wackerman and his largely solid if unspectacular cast can't compensate for Lillian Hellmann's schematically plotted, two-dimensional script.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Amerissiah - Reviewed by JASON FITZGERALD

Derek Ahonen's play, here in its Off-Broadway premiere after debuting Off-Off-Broadway in 2008, is as ambitious and self-defeating as the culture it sets out to save.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Joking Apart - Reviewed by TOM PENKETH

As with several of his plays, Alan Ayckbourn's "Joking Apart" exudes the feeling of not being of its time. In this new production that quality is partly due to Ayckbourn and partly a result …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

JACK'S PRECIOUS MOMENT reviewed by Mark Peikert

This new play by Samuel D. Hunter manages to be both profound and funny, even as it suffers at its director's hands. But Lucas Papaelias gives the show a much-needed jolt as a carnival ride …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

DUSK RINGS A BELL reviewed by David Sheward

Stephen Belber's two-character play starts off as a conventional romantic comedy, but takes a sudden and scary turn to the dark side. Kate Walsh and especially Paul Sparks draw us into this …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

THE LIBERTINE reviewed by Tom Penketh

The 1994 play may be better known as the basis of the 2004 Johnny Depp film, but the Fools' Theatre gives it a vibrant life of its own.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

BANANA SHPEEL: A NEW TWIST ON VAUDEVIELLE reviewed by Tom Penketh

Writer-director David Shiner, best known as a performer in Cirque's 1990 "Nouvelle Expérience" and in "Fool Moon," knows how to put on an old-fashioned show and that's just what he's …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE MARATHON 2010 SERIES A reviewed by Clifford Lee Johnson III

"Where the Children Are," the final work in Series A of EST's 2010 Marathon of one-act plays, delivers enough emotional clout to fill an entire evening and makes up for the lackluster quarte…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

YEAR ZERO reviewed by Andy Propst

Michael Golamco's portrait of a first-generation Cambodian-American brother and sister coping with their mother's death can often resemble an ABC Afterschool Special, but there are moments o…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

MY BIG GAY ITALIAN WEDDING reviewed by Marc Miller

The wit is scarce, and the ethnic and gay stereotypes are deafening, in Anthony J. Wilkinson's underwritten and overplayed comedy.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

BUDDY COP 2 reviewed by Mitch Montgomery

Packed with nonchalant theatrics and smoldering intensity, "Buddy Cop 2" proves that the usually scatological Debate Society is also comfortable with a more linear, sentimental narrative.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

THE BURNT PART BOYS reviewed by David Sheward

There is potential here for a moving musical about the pain of growing up without a father, but the show is buried in a cave-in of sentiment.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

MITZI GAYNOR: RAZZLE DAZZLE! MY LIFE BEHIND THE SEQUINS reviewed by David Sheward

Legendary Mitzi Gaynor is younger than springtime and proves she's still our honey bun in this razzle-dazzle set at Feinstein's. And oh, those stories

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Please the Court By Jenelle Riley

Frequent attorney John Larroquette gets dark for 'Oliver Parker!'

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY reviewed by David Sheward

Kristoffer Diaz delivers a body slam of a play with this political satire at Second Stage. It's got everything-politics, muscles, explosions, and hard-hitting critiques of the state of Ameri…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

HEBREW SCHOOL DROPOUT reviewed by Tom Penketh

In his 75-minute solo show "Hebrew School Dropout," David Konig does a unique thing: He uses borscht belt humor and delivery to describe a lifelong spiritual journey

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑