Eurydice (Jean Anouilh)

This production's director, Devin Brain, provides a sound, lively interpretation of Anouilh's dream-like recasting of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Though set primarily in a train station, the play wavers between the ugly realities of occupied France and the aesthetic pleasures of love and music.

Highly recommended.

A Delicate Balance (Edward Albee)

Because I attended a conversation with Edward Albee last Friday, I was more alert to Beckett's influence on his plays. The sets may look realistic, and the characters recognizable, but many of his techniques come straight from Beckett and theatre of the absurd.

This brutal, searing 3-hour play requires a production that mesmerizes the audience with perfect timing and powerful performances for every member of the ensemble. All were good--though in being good, Chalfant was disappointing--while Ellen McLaughlin was superb. What a great performance she gave.

Recommend. We saw it opening night; it might merit seeing in another week.

Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky)

Oh my, oh my, oh my. What a gorgeous hunk of music. Sublime choruses swell the first and third sections, while exquisite lyricism marks the middle section. Excellently performed and convincingly staged.

Highly recommend.

Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare)

What with its renovations and opening of a new season, Hartford Stage generated a great deal of hype around its new production of Antony and Cleopatra. I was expecting to be wowed. Instead, I was underwhelmed by production's failure (1) to provide a clear exposition of this sprawling play, (2) to create a visual coherence, and (3) to make me care about the fate of the title characters.

Recommend with caveats.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (T. Williams)

Lively production of this American classic.

Recommend.

Catfish (Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost)

Uninteresting exploration of gullibility and deception.

Avoid.

Angels in America (Tony Kushner)

Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is my favorite American play of the past twenty-five years. So, when Signature Theatre announced it would produce both Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Peretroika as the first of its season-long celebration of Kushner's work, I set every alarm I had in order to log on the moment tickets went on sale. I was not disappointed. Fine performances and well-executed production of a stirring play.