BROADWAY & ME QUICKIES

The Play: Once Upon a Mattress, a joy-filled revival of the fractured fairytale version of The Princess and the Pea Book by Jay Thompson, Marshall Barer and Dean Fuller; Music by Mary Rodgers; Lyrics by Marshal Barer Adapted by Amy Sherman-Palladino    Directed by Lear deBessonet One good thing: Michael Urie and Sutton Foster are pitch-perfect as the hapless Prince Dauntless and the unconventional Princess Winnifred who wins his heart; but the show’s MVP may be Sherman Palladino's smart revisal which adds some contemporary sensibility without sacrificing any of the show's old-fashioned goofiness One not-so-great thing:  Lorin Latarro is such a creative choreographer that I wish the production had made a little more room for her to show off what she—and of course the dance-nimble Foster— can do  

The Play: Six Characters; this riff on Pirandello’s absurdist classic boldly attempts to take on both the issue of how black creatives are treated in American theater and the growing threat of fascism in this country Written by : Phillip Howze    Directed by Dustin Wills One good thing : It’s refreshing to see a black playwright diving into the tricky waters of experimental theater One not-so-great thing: Plays like these need to set the rules of the game early or to provide clear entry points so that audiences know how to interact with them and this one fails to do either  

The Play: Cellino v. Barnes; a two-handed parody about the rise and fall of the self-promoting personal injury law firm  Written by: Mike B. Breen & David Rafailedes  Directed by: Wesley Taylor & Alex Wyse One good thing: Eric William Morris, charmingly smarmy as Cellino; and Noah Weisberg, sweetly silly as Barnes (and who gets extra points for having to wear a bad bald wig) give fully committed and very funny performances One not-so-great thing: The show is little more than an extended SNL skit but the ability to bring in drinks from the full-service bar in the lobby helps takes the edge off that

The Play: The Meeting: The Interpreter; a fictionalized version of the events surrounding the “Russian collusion” meeting at Trump Tower before the 2016 election One good thing: the actors Kelley Curran and Frank Wood gamely try to find some heart in this off-putting multi-media extravaganza  One not-so-great thing: the direction is too self-consciously hip, throwing everything—gigantic video projections, relentless musical scoring, flamboyantly choreographed movements, puppets and silly wigs—at the production without any of it illuminating very much