BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

  The Play: Yellow Face; a satirical blend of fact and fiction that explores racial representation, cultural appropriation and the role of Asian Americans in this country through the playwright’s own professional and very personal experiences  Written by: David Henry Hwang        Directed by: Leigh Silverman One good thing:  The chisel-cheeked TV star Daniel Dae Kim acquits himself well as the onstage surrogate for Hwang but stage vet Francis Jue is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking as the stand-in for Hwang’s father, a Chinese immigrant who took an outsized pride in being an American until his loyalty to the country was publicly challenged One not-so-great thing: It’s distressing that the questions this show raises remain so relevant almost two decades after a slightly different version ran at the Public Theater    

The Play: McNeal; a Nobel Prize-winning author wrestles with his mortality, his moral failings as a husband and father and the lure of using artificial intelligence when his own creative powers begin to fail him.   Written by: Ayad Akhtar        Directed by: Bartlett Sher One good thing: It’s fun to get an up-close look at the Oscar-winning actor Robert Downey Jr., acquitting himself nicely in his Broadway debut One not-so-great thing:  The play is so determined to cram in all the major issues of the day—art, technology, racial diversity, divisive politics, plagiarism,  parenting,  sex, death, Harvey Weinstein—that it all collapses into a mind-numbing muddle and the waste of a talented cast that includes the Tony-winning actresses Andrea Martin and Ruthie Ann Miles    

  The Play: Fatherland; using dialog taken straight from court transcripts and other public documents this family drama tells the true story of the 19-year-old who turned in his father who was a leader in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capital  Conceived and directed by: Stephen Sachs One good thing:  Ron Bottitta gives an impassioned and surprisingly sympathetic performance as the father  One not-so-great thing:  Unfortunately this bare bones production doesn’t provide any fresh insights into t he generational and political passions currently dividing the country     

The Play: Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song; this latest edition of the beloved revue that spoofs Broadway show strives to be so up-to-date that it makes fun of shows that haven’t even opened yet (Hello, Audra’s “Gypsy”) but as always, some skits are funnier than others and some are meaner than others  Created, written and directed by:  Gerard Alessandrini One good thing: The incredibly talented quartet of performers is asked to do the impossible—and do it, with the MVP award going to Jenny Lee Stern, who not only sings, dances, does quick costume changes and dashes off a great Patti LuPone imitation but even pulls off a series of onstage push-ups without breaking a sweat One not-so-great thing: It may be just me, but some of the spoofs seemed too mean    

The Play: The Beacon; an artist and her estranged son try to sort through their troubled relationship including the long ago mysterious death of the father, the son’s new marriage to a much younger woman and the role a neighbor has played in all their lives in this unsatisfying melodrama that bites off a lot more than it can chew Written by:   Nancy Harris  Directed by:   Marc Atkinson Borrull One good thing:  A couple of the performances, anchored by a valiant Kate Mulgrew as the mother and Sean Bell, a standout as the sympathetic neighbor One not-so-great thing: Too many improbable plot twists    

The Play: The Roommate; a mysterious woman from the Bronx rents a room in the home of a naïve Iowa divorcee One good thing: Mia Farrow turns in a winning performance as the sad sack divorcee that is mainly comic but convincingly poignant just when it needs to be One not-so-great thing: Patti LuPone basically plays Patti LuPone, and even her costumes seem more like outfits LuPone might wear than those her street-smart New York character would wear