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A bright slip of a swimsuit seems a small garment on which to hang a knotty morality play, but the ingenious Lucas Hnath engineers this remarkable feat with ''Red Speedo,'' [...]

A wedding almost always involves some kind of culture clash. Church ceremony or civil? To bridesmaid or not to bridesmaid? But the impending nuptials in Danai Gurira's fiercely funny new [...]

''What shall be next,'' says Gower, the sorely taxed narrator of Shakespeare's complicated romance ''Pericles,'' preparing to introduce the next knot in the yarn. Well, you might reasonably think, what [...]

CORRECTION APPENDEDMILLBURN, N.J. -- The tug of war for the soul of a young man on the mean streets of the Bronx may not sound like a subject that sings. [...]

One minute, Dotty's eyes are clear, and her mind is as steely sharp as her tongue. A minute later, clouds seem to shroud those big, bright peepers, and she has [...]

Your appreciation of ''Smokefall,'' an enigmatic comedy-drama by Noah Haidle about several generations of an eccentric family, may boil down to your reaction to the dietary choices of the character [...]

A precocious talent for musical composition proves to be as much a curse as a gift for the mostly unseen heroine of ''Her Requiem,'' a thoughtful, beautifully acted new play [...]

CORRECTION APPENDEDFor a certain slice of New Yorkers -- you know who you are -- Mark Rylance is the cultural deity that Beyonc is to, well, a different slice of [...]

Arriving on the winds of great notices in Chicago, where it received two productions from the Goodman Theater, Noah Haidle's ''Smokefall'' makes its New York premiere this month. Mr. Haidle's [...]

CORRECTION APPENDEDNot so long ago, it seemed as though some kind of legislation had been passed decreeing that Broadway musicals could come in only a handful of styles. The musical [...]

Byline: CHARLES ISHERWOOD Not so long ago, it seemed as though some kind of legislation had been passed decreeing that Broadway musicals could come in only a handful of styles. [...]

CORRECTION APPENDED''Doing life twice sounds like the only thing worse than doing it once,'' says the beleaguered paterfamilias of ''The Humans,'' Stephen Karam's piercingly funny, bruisingly sad comedy-drama about an [...]

Byline: CHARLES ISHERWOOD The view of the Hudson River from Joel Grey's apartment on West Street is enchanting, even on a murky day, with a drizzle of rain fogging the [...]

CORRECTION APPENDEDCHICAGO -- The obvious challenge in adapting a novel to the stage is how to make a story lying flat on the page leap to three-dimensional life. The task [...]

The view of the Hudson River from Joel Grey's apartment on West Street is enchanting, even on a murky day, with a drizzle of rain fogging the long wall of [...]

''I do hope you're following this,'' the professor of neuroscience says to his students in the dizzying prologue of Lydia R. Diamond's drama ''Smart People.'' He might well wonder. Prickly, [...]

The Devil and the Lord fight a war by proxy for the soul of a sweet but feckless fellow in ''Cabin in the Sky,'' an all-black musical from 1940 that [...]

Shakespeare and Broadway have had a relationship quite a bit more intimate than a handshake over the years, but the two have perhaps never met with quite the coziness that [...]

Lydia R. Diamond, whose ''Stick Fly'' was seen on Broadway in 2011, dives again into thorny territory in ''Smart People,'' which begins previews Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Second Stage Theater. [...]

''Huh?'' Such is, on occasion, my unhappy reaction upon leaving a show. But in the case of ''A Ride on the Irish Cream,'' it expressed my befuddlement going in. On [...]

Whose birthday is this, anyway? Thomas Merton's? Or a gay circuit-party promoter's? For much of the 80-minute running time of ''The Glory of the World,'' your best guess would probably [...]

Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage doesn't fit the mold of a conventional heroine, or even the mold of a conventional antiheroine. But Kecia Lewis, who plays the role in the Classic [...]

Although the language occasionally takes on a darkly lyrical hue, music plays no role in ''Key Change,'' a moving, intimate and superbly acted drama about women's lives in (and out [...]

Although the language occasionally takes on a darkly lyrical hue, music plays no role in ''Key Change,'' a moving, intimate and superbly acted drama about women's lives in (and out [...]

A chalkboard is not the most cheering sight to behold upon entering a theater. Nor is a slide projector. Both are on view, aptly enough, alas, in ''Escuela,'' a dull, [...]

The computer is the conductor, and in some respects the composer, too, in ''Yesterday Tomorrow,'' a haunting and strangely beautiful musical theater piece that is as simple in its emotional [...]

''Where are we?'' asks the dazed-looking woman in a maid's uniform, her voice throaty with fatigue. Looking around with confused wonder, she seems to have just awakened from a yearlong [...]

''Employee of the Year'' was performed in October 2014 as part of the Crossing the Line festival. Following are excerpts from Charles Isherwood's review, which appeared in The New York [...]

Sensation slides into silliness in ''The Changeling,'' a 1622 tragedy -- with generous dollops of comedy -- by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. The convoluted story grows more lurid and [...]

''Chair or floor?'' This startling question greets you as you enter ''The Art of Luv (Part 1): Elliot'' at the Under the Radar Festival. Audience members have the option of [...]

SAN FRANCISCO -- It is often the locals who blithely ignore the most storied attractions in their midst. Not until, say, an energetic Aunt Nora storms into town and insists [...]

Last call! The January doldrums usually translate into a culling of Broadway shows that haven't caught on, and shows both Off Broadway and on that are sagely ending limited runs. [...]

Byline: CHARLES ISHERWOOD The sorry state of the world gives us new reason to appreciate the depth of feeling so powerfully, so ingeniously embedded in 'Fiddler on the Roof,' the [...]

The sorry state of the world gives us new reason to appreciate the depth of feeling so powerfully, so ingeniously embedded in ''Fiddler on the Roof,'' the much-loved and much-revived [...]

Try to forget Shakespeare, and it's easy enough to have a goofy good time at ''These Paper Bullets!,'' a lively if labored update of ''Much Ado About Nothing'' that the [...]

''Sometimes it feels like I've spent my entire life terrified of getting pregnant,'' says Staceyann Chin at the top of her solo show ''MotherStruck!'' Born in Jamaica, Ms. Chin grew [...]

Anyone with inflamed performance-anxiety issues may want to think twice before attending ''Take Care,'' a willfully weird, highly interactive theater piece that uses a series of playful but ominous sketches [...]

CORRECTION APPENDEDThe theater critics of The New York Times -- Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood -- share their picks for the best shows of the year. Ben Brantley Astonish me, [...]

Anyone with inflamed performance-anxiety issues may want to think twice before attending ''Take Care,'' a willfully weird, highly interactive theater piece that uses a series of playful but ominous sketches [...]

Julia Wolfe's galvanizing score -- alternately clamorous, haunting, exhilarating and sometimes all three simultaneously -- provides a sturdy musical spine for ''Steel Hammer,'' a theatrical meditation on the legend of [...]

When faced with a personal crisis -- the chilly reception he gets from his church in New York when he tells the pastor that he's gay -- Griffin, the black [...]

When Griffin Matthews, a New York actor in his 20s tired of the usual audition-audition-rejection routine, decided to head to Uganda as a volunteer for a charity, he didn't have [...]

CORRECTION APPENDED Milliners -- all 12 of you still practicing that noble craft -- should not get too excited about ''Important Hats of the Twentieth Century,'' a new comedy by [...]