Critic’s Notebook

Two Plays, Four Actors and One Company

By BEN BRANTLEY

Jacob Blickenstaff for The New York Times

Eric Tucker and Andrus Nichols of Bedlam Theater in George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan.”

The young company Bedlam Theater is presenting two four-actor plays — Shaw’s “Saint Joan” and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” — in repertory at the Lynn Redgrave Theater.

Clancy O’Connor at the Barrow Street Theater, where he is subbing this weekend for Michael Urie in the one-man Off Broadway hit “Buyer & Cellar.”

Big Break? Well, Eyes Will Be on Him

By PATRICK HEALY

A brief vacation for the actor Michael Urie is handing Clancy O’Connor the opportunity every understudy dreams of: proving himself to audiences and power brokers.

Theater Review | 'The Record'

Uniting Performers and Audience, Art and Life

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

Part of the Under the Radar Festival, “The Record,” a dance-theater piece at the Public Theater, calls reverent attention to the shared experience of the stage.

Theater Review | 'An Evening With William Shatner Asterisk'

An Evening With William Shatner Asterisk Mari Akita behind a screen image of Mr. Shatner at the New Ohio Theater.

It’s Bitesize Captain Kirk

By ERIC GRODE

The Coil theater festival show “An Evening With William Shatner Asterisk,” at the New Ohio Theater, makes an evening of clips of Mr. Shatner in his “Star Trek” role.

ArtsBeat

Actors’ Union to Discuss Pay for Touring Musicals

By PATRICK HEALY

The Actors’ Equity union will hold a town hall meeting to discuss salaries and pay contracts for touring musicals.

ArtsBeat

Shakespeare Double-Bill to Be Treated as Two Shows for Tony Eligibility

By PATRICK HEALY

The Broadway double-bill of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “Richard III” will be treated as two separate shows for the purposes of the Tony Awards.

Mr. Baraka at home in Newark in 2007. He was a lecturer and poet whose words were celebrated by some, but considered hateful by others.

Amiri Baraka, Polarizing Poet and Playwright, Dies at 79

By MARGALIT FOX

Mr. Baraka’s work was widely anthologized, and he was also long famous as a political firebrand, with critical opinion divided in every arena.

John Patrick Shanley, author of the new “Outside Mullingar,” on a relative’s farmland in Ireland.

Turns Out His Blood Runs Green

By JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY

John Patrick Shanley drew on his Irish roots — a rare strategy for him — in writing “Outside Mullingar,” opening on Broadway this month.

Vanya and Sonia and Abs and Pecs

By ERIK PIEPENBURG

Actors playing Christopher Durang’s Spike list the rigors.

AFTER MIDNIGHT The stars of this tribute to the Harlem jazz clubs of the 1920s and ’30s are the 16 virtuosic musicians who perform —with verve, style and sheer joy — about 25 songs from the period, with a special emphasis on Duke Ellington, both as composer and arranger. The dancers (including Jared Grimes, above) and singers are terrific: Fantasia Barrino performs with style, and Adriane Lenox all but steals the show with her two lowdown numbers. But it’s really the Jazz at Lincoln Center All Stars on the bandstand who shine brightest (1:30). Brooks Atkinson Theater, 256 West 47th Street, Manhattan, (212) 745-3000, ticketmaster.com. (Charles Isherwood)

Theater Listings for Jan. 10-16

A guide to theater productions in New York, with a special note of shows in previews or about to open.

The Week Ahead

Theater

Nick Westrate, left, and Rocco Sisto in Joe Orton’s comedy “Loot.”

Quite Dead, but Up for Grabs

By BEN BRANTLEY

The Red Bull Theater, which has demonstrated a stylish affinity for Grand Guignol, seems the proper troupe to exhume Joe Orton’s “Loot.”

Most Popular Shows

Top-grossing Broadway shows for the week ending Jan. 5.

Source: The Broadway League

Show Reviews

Recommended shows from Ben Brantley, Charles Isherwood and other theater critics for The New York Times.

Recent show reviews from Ben Brantley, Charles Isherwood and other theater critics for The New York Times.

Under the Radar 2014: The Record

Review

An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk

Review

Jay Scheib: Platonov, or The Disinherited

Review

Tyson vs. Ali

Review

Hip and Darkling

Review

See All Reviews »

Recent Reviews

Theater Review | 'Platonov, or The Disinherited'

Platonov, or The Disinherited The director Jay Scheib, right, at the Kitchen, pointing his camera at the actor Laine Rettmer.

Early Chekhov, Framed Anew

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

The experimental designer and director Jay Scheib is offering audiences two ways to view his raucous contemporary rewrite of an unfinished early Chekhov play.

Movie Review | 'Hamlet'

The Danish Prince and His Family Drama

By NICOLAS RAPOLD

Bruce Ramsay’s “Hamlet” is set in an upper-class, buttoned-down home in postwar London.

Theater Review | 'Tyson vs. Ali'

Tyson vs. Ali This play, which uses video and live performance to create a theoretical boxing match, stars Femi Olagoke, left; Dennis A. Allen II; and Dave Shelley, in background, at the 3LD Art & Technology Center.

A Dream Fight Made Real Onstage

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

Reid Farrington splices together video footage and live performance to produce a theoretical matchup of Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali in “Tyson vs. Ali.”

Theater Review

Fra Fee and Scarlett Strallen in the Menier Chocolate Factory production of

Connecting With the Classics

By MATT WOLF

The Menier Chocolate Factory’s scaled-down production of “Candide,” the 1956 Broadway musical, offers a fresh perspective; while stars take on two Shakespeare roles.

Theater Review | 'Hip' and 'Darkling'

Hip Nora Woolley in her solo show, which appears on a double bill with Kim Katzberg’s “Darkling” at the IRT Theater in the West Village.

Seeking Loved Ones, Including Themselves

By ANDY WEBSTER

Two solo shows, “Hip” and “Darkling,” have their author-stars embodying many characters at the IRT Theater in the West Village.

More News and Features

Snapshot | Sheldon Best

Steps of a Stage Career, Taken at a Run

By ERIC GRODE

Sheldon Best, the star of Atlantic Theater’s “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner,” speaks about his niche as an athletic actor.

Brian D. Coats, left, and Edwin Lee Gibson rehearsing Edward Albee’s “The Death of Bessie Smith” in Interfaith Medical Center, which last month was saved, at least temporarily, from closure.

A Play Is Set in a Hospital, in Two Ways

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

A small Brooklyn company is producing Edward Albee’s play “The Death of Bessie Smith,” set in a whites-only hospital, at the Interfaith Medical Center, which serves patients from Bedford-Stuyvesant.

ArtsBeat

Rylance’s Shakespeare Shows Recoup on Broadway

By PATRICK HEALY

A double bill of “Twelfth Night” and “Richard III,” starring Mark Rylance, has recouped its $3.1 million capitalization, the producers said.

Critic’s Notebook

Michael Cerveris, center left, and Judy Kuhn in “Fun Home,” adapted by Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron from Alison Bechdel’s memoir, at the Public Theater.

That Uncertain Muse and Witness, Memory

By BEN BRANTLEY

Several current productions, from Tennessee Williams’s “The Glass Menagerie” to Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land,” navigate the malleable landscape of recollection.

From left, the actress Laura Campbell, the author Toni Bentley and the director Zishan Ugurlu at a rehearsal of “The Surrender,” based on a memoir.

A Rite of Sexual Submission: Bed to Book to Off Broadway

By ALEXIS SOLOSKI

The writer Toni Bentley and the actress Laura Campbell discuss preparations for a solo show based on “The Surrender,” Ms. Bentley’s erotic memoir.

ArtsBeat

In Performance: Bobby Moreno of ‘Year of the Rooster’

By ERIK PIEPENBURG

The actor performs a scene from Eric Dufault’s cockfighting comedy at the Ensemble Studio Theater.

Many of these shows are currently in previews.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (January 12)
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (January 12)
Breakfast With Mugabe (January 12)
Staged Reading: The Real Inspector Hound (January 13)
Brokentalkers: Have I No Mouth (January 14)

Maximum Shakespeare

Francesca Faridany as Hecate in “Macbeth” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Is This a Video I See in Front of Me?

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

WordPlay Shakespeare and other programs allow readers to watch or listen to sections of his works as they view the text.

A few of the young actors who created 15-second interpretations of “Hamlet.”

Young Souls Portray the Wit of ‘Hamlet,’ With Brevity

By MICHAEL ROSTON and ERIK PIEPENBURG

Approximately 500 high school and college students recorded themselves delivering lines from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” in 15 seconds or less using Instagram.