Bird Machine - Reviewed by RON COHEN

The stagecraft is the star of "Bird Machine," co-created by Renee Philippi and Carlo Adinolfi.

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

Shafrika, the White Girl - Reviewed by LEONARD JACOBS

This new musical trades on a wearingly ubiquitous device: metatheatrics.

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

This Isn't Paradise - Reviewed by RON COHEN

Richard Hymes-Esposito's "This Isn't Paradise" seems more impressive as an act of revenge than as a play.

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

Sax & Dixon: We Thee Wed - Reviewed by PAUL MENARD

Before this couple can tie the knot, the honeymoon's already over.

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

Paved Paradise Redux: The Art of Joni Mitchell - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

If John Kelly had concentrated on the subtext of the music rather than re-creating an image, this would have been a real evening in paradise.

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

Keeping Up with the Beat By Jessica Glenza

Our Time, a company for young performers who stutter, releases its second CD.

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

Those Whistling Lads! The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker - Reviewed by KARL LEVETT

Dorothy Parker and her wonderful way with words continue to fascinate, and Maureen Van Trease is clearly in her thrall in this intermittenly effective entertainment.

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

Stunning - Reviewed by ADAM R. PERLMAN

Before collapsing into self-parody, "Stunning" starts off as the year's most exciting new play.

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

The Wiz - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

This innovative revival of "The Wiz," the 1975 soul and rock adaptation of L. Frank Baum's classic fairy tale, drenches the audience with a downpour of pizzazz and talent.

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

FUBAR - Reviewed by GWEN OREL

See "FUBAR" if you want to experience theatrical shock and awe. So smart, entertaining, stylish, and surprising is Karl Gajdusek's play that it risks looking too slick and hip in any descrip…

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

An Evening at the Carlyle - Reviewed by MARC MILLER

There's solid songwriting in this new musical revue by Al Tapper, but it's lite FM and not convincingly of today.

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

Hamletmachine - Reviewed by JASON FITZGERALD

It is as though the company prefers not so much to engage the play's dark impulses as to step around them.

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

Arsenic and Old Lace - Reviewed by RON COHEN

An energetic, responsive cast gets a lot of entertaining mileage out of this 68-year-old classic warhorse of macabre farce.

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

Someone in Florida Loves Me - Reviewed by MARK PEIKERT

Written and directed by the very talented Jane Pickett, "Someone in Florida Loves Me" is just a sliver of a play, but it's none the less potent for it.

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

Heart of the City - Reviewed by MARK PEIKERT

Throwing a bunch of troubled people on a stage is no substitution for writing just one engrossing story.

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

August: Osage County - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

More than a year since it opened, "August: Osage County" Tracey Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning dysfunctional-family drama, retains enough heavyweight punch to knock audiences out.

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

#9 - Reviewed by LEONARD JACOBS

Think of the first half of "#9" as the best kind of first date you can possibly imagine: The chemistry is strong and dynamic. Think of the second half of "#9" as, well, if not the worst seco…

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

From Russia With Angst - Reviewed by MARK PEIKERT

Five members of the WorkShop Theater Company have adapted Chekhov short stories into one-act plays in "From Russia With Angst." Unfortunately, the limited playing time has done little to ind…

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

Pound - Reviewed by RON COHEN

Rather than emotionally engaging drama, "Pound" in essence shapes up as a dialectic examining the role of the artist in relation to his art and society as a whole.

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

The Funeral Director's Wife - Reviewed by MARK PEIKERT

I've been to actual funerals that had more life than "The Funeral Director's Wife."

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

Dov and Ali - Reviewed by ADAM R. PERLMAN

What follows from the premise is exactly what you expect. If you think it sounds inspirational, you'll be moved. If you think it sounds turgid, you'll be rolling your eyes.

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

Oleanna<br> Reviewed by Les Spindle

It's rare for a play that seemed highly pertinent and provocative in its time to feel even more galvanizing nearly two decades later.

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

The Temperamentals - Reviewed by ERIK HAAGENSEN

Gay artists are reclaiming their history. Like "Milk," Jon Marans has done something similar for Harry Hay in his bright and affecting new play, "The Temperamentals."

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

The Amish Project - Reviewed by LISA JO SAGOLLA

This enthralling one-woman show was inspired by the real-life Amish school shooting that occurred in Nickel Mines, Pa., on Oct. 2, 2006.

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

Richard III: An Arab Tragedy - Reviewed by ANDY PROPST

Sulayman Al-Bassam takes Shakespeare's history play about the infamous ruler and transforms it into a compelling portrait of political maneuvering in a contemporary Arab monarchy.

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