Approximate running times are in parentheses. Theaters are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of current productions, additional listings, showtimes and ticket information are at /theater. A searchable, critical guide to theater is at /events.
‘Cymbeline’ (in previews; opens on Monday) Fear no more the heat o’ the sun. It’ll be dusk by the time the lights rise on Daniel Sullivan’s plein-air production of Shakespeare’s late and less than perfectly plausible romance. The Delacorte Theater all-stars Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe lead a cast including Raúl Esparza, Patrick Page and Kate Burton. Enter the park at 81st Street and Central Park West, 212-539-8500, publictheater.org/cymbeline. (Alexis Soloski)
‘Informed Consent’ (in previews; opens on Aug. 18) In this Primary Stages play, a geneticist (Tina Benko) finds herself caught between a small Native American tribe and the university studying its DNA. The playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer and the director Liesl Tommy explore motherhood, medical ethics and inheritances both genetic and cultural. The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, 646-223-3010, primarystages.org. (Soloski)
Compendium Of Arts & Cultural Services
‘John’ (in previews; opens on Tuesday) In Annie Baker’s new play, directed by Sam Gold, a quarreling couple (Christopher Abbott and Hong Chau) alight at a Gettsysburg, Pa., bed-and-breakfast presided over by a kindly landlady (Georgia Engel). The first play of Ms. Baker’s Signature Theater residence, and apparently a departure from her typical naturalism, it also includes an unsettling accumulation of tchotchkes. Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street, 212-244-7529, signaturetheatre.org. (Soloski)
‘Mercury Fur’ (in previews; opens on Aug. 19) The English playwright Philip Ridley has a lushly macabre sensibility, with monsters everywhere, some fantastical, some ordinary. In this postapocalyptic play, receiving its Off Broadway premiere from the New Group, two brothers throw some very worrying parties. The director Scott Elliott hosts the festivities. Pershing Square Signature Center, Romulus Linney Courtyard Theater, 480 West 42nd Street, 212-279-4200, thenewgroup.org. (Soloski)
‘Whorl Inside a Loop’ (in previews; opens on Aug. 27) Sherie Rene Scott is known for her musical comedy flair and pop soprano belt. But she’ll keep the jazz hands and high notes to a minimum as she stars in this show, which she co-wrote with Dick Scanlan, about an actress who volunteers to lead a personal narratives workshop at a maximum-security prison — for less than altruistic reasons. Second Stage Theater, 305 West 43rd Street, Clinton, 212-246-4422, 2st.com. (Soloski)
Goddess Digital Program
‘Amazing Grace’ The unusual life story of John Newton (a jaunty Josh Young), the Englishman who wrote the lyrics to the titular hymn — he matured from slave trader and scapegrace to fervently religious clergyman — is explored in this earnest but somewhat overstuffed musical with music and lyrics by Christopher Smith and book by Mr. Smith and Arthur Giron (2:30). Nederlander Theater, 208 West 41st Street, 877-250-2929, amazinggracemusical.com. (Charles Isherwood)
★ ‘An American in Paris’ The ballet luminary Christopher Wheeldon makes a triumphant debut as a Broadway director with this rhapsodic stage adaptation of a classic musical with a heavenly Gershwin score. The ballet dancers Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope, as the semi-star-crossed lovers, are radiant, and Max von Essen sings like a dream as an heir who aspires to a nightclub career. Pure joy (2:30). The Palace Theater. 1564 Broadway, at 47th Street, 877-250-2929, ticketmaster.com. (Isherwood)
★ ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ Simon Stephens’s adaptation of Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel, about an autistic boy’s coming-of-age, is one of the most fully immersive works ever to wallop Broadway. Be prepared to have all your emotional and sensory buttons pushed. Marianne Elliott (“War Horse”) directs the excellent cast, led by Alex Sharp, and the dazzling technical team (2:25). Ethel Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, curiousonbroadway.com, 212-239-6200. (Ben Brantley)
Travelxculture: Nyc & Company Launch 'virtual Nyc' To Encourage Digital Exploration Of New York City
‘Finding Neverland’ This musical adaptation of the 2004 biopic about J. M. Barrie, the creator of “Peter Pan, ” heightens the film’s tidy psychologizing and life-affirming messages by thickening their syrup and corn quotients. The show brings to mind those supersize sodas sold in movie theaters. It’s mostly empty calories. Diane Paulus directs a cast led by Matthew Morrison and Kelsey Grammer (2:30). Lunt-Fontanne Theater, 205 West 46th Street, 877-250-2929, ticketmaster.com. (Brantley)
★ ‘Fun Home’ This extraordinary musical memory play about a girl and her father, adapted by Jeanine Tesori (music) and Lisa Kron (book and lyrics) from Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel, occupies that mysterious place where we all grew up — the shifting landscape governed by those contradictory creatures, our parents. Sam Gold directs a nigh-flawless cast in a show that brings fresh oxygen to Broadway (1:40). Circle in the Square Theater, 1633 Broadway, at 50th Street, funhomebroadway.com, 212-239-6200. (Brantley)
★ ‘Hand to God’ Robert Askins’s black comedy, about a mild Christian boy whose hand puppet may (or may not) be possessed by the Devil, is as outlandishly funny as it is seriously spooky. Steven Boyer gives a bravura performance as the troubled teenager with the evil imp on his arm, and Geneva Carr is moving as his addled, newly widowed mother. The play, previously seen in two Off Broadway runs, has grown even sharper, and more disturbing, in its move uptown to Broadway (2:00). Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, 212-239-6200, handtogodbroadway.com. (Isherwood)
Review: The Book Club Play At Village Theatre
★ ‘The King and I’ Bartlett Sher’s resplendent revival of this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, set in the royal court of 19th-century Siam, is both panoramic and personal, balancing epic sweep with intimate sensibility, lavish set pieces with exquisitely sung soliloquies. Kelli O’Hara’s Anna Leonowens is something wonderful indeed (2:50). Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, 212-239-6200, lct.org. (Brantley)
★ ‘On the Town’ John Rando’s take on this merry mating dance of a musical from 1944, about sailors on shore leave, feels as fresh as first sunlight. With airborne choreography by Joshua Bergasse, the production presents a parallel-universe New York where hectic urban life acquires the grace of a storybook ballet. It’s a bustling, jostling cartoon that floats like a swan (2:35). Lyric Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, 800-982-2787, ticketmaster.com. (Brantley)
‘Penn & Teller on Broadway’ At the Marquis Theater. See photo highlight. Despite being in a cavernous theater, this entertaining populist exercise in hocus-pocus feels as intimate as a sidewalk game of three-card monte. Though they have worked together for four decades, Penn and Teller are looking very of-the-moment in this age of skepticism, as they remind us that their astonishing magic act is as bogus as it is irresistible (1:30). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, 877-250-2929, pennandtelleronbroadway.com. (Brantley)
Talking Horse Productions Celebrates Five Years
‘Something Rotten!’ This rambunctious show, which weds the Elizabethan theater and the brassy Broadway musical, dances dangerously on the linebetween tireless and tedious. But the large cast, which includes Brian D’Arcy James and Christian Borle, remains as wired as Adderall-popping sophomores during exam week. Casey Nicholaw directed this exhausting frolic from Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick, and John O’Farrell (2:20). St. James Theater, 246 West 44th Street, 212-239-6200, rottenbroadway.com. (Brantley)
★ ‘The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey’ In James Lecesne’s enchanting solo show, the friends of a happily flamboyant 14-year-old New Jersey boy turn to the police after he disappears. With great heart and humor, Mr. Lecesne portrays more than a dozen characters in this sweet, sad, Dickensian show that returns to the stage after a run at Dixon Place earlier this year. Westside Theater, 407 West 43rd Street, absolutebrightnessplay.com, 212-239-6200. (Isherwood)
‘The Dreamer Examines His Pillow’ John Patrick Shanley’s early work about two young lovers with a penchant for arguing in florid prose gets a revival by the Attic Theater Company. The play features two uneven performances and one very fine one from Dennis Parlato as the father of the female half of the couple. Mr. Parlato contributes just the right melancholy advice to set up a delightful final scene in which this wordy work is revealed to be a play about overcoming the fear of commitment (1:30). Flea Theater, 41 White Street, TriBeCa, 866-811-411, theflea.org. (Neil Genzlinger)
Public Works Administration Digital Art Gallery Nyc
★ ‘The Flick’ Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about the beauty and sadness in the lives of three workers in a run-down movie theater has been remounted with the sublime original cast intact, under the deeply focused direction of Sam Gold. Moving, funny, unforgettable, but definitely a polarizing night at the theater, thanks to Ms. Baker’s quietly observational pacing (3:10). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, 212-868-4444, barrowstreettheatre.com. (Isherwood)
‘King Liz’ A commanding performance by Karen Pittman, as a powerful sports agent in a mostly white male field, provides the juice for Fernanda Coppel’s engrossing if sometimes formulaic drama (2:00). McGinn/Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, 212-246-4422, 2st.com. (Isherwood)
‘My Son the Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy’ Brad Zimmerman’s solo show about almost three decades of working in restaurants while not becoming a famous actor, and his Jewish mother’s shame, is low-key, half-familiar, half-mordant and pretty delicious (1:30). Stage 72, 158 West 72nd Street, 212-868-4444, mysonthewaiter.com. (Anita Gates)
Spotify For Podcasters
‘Odd Birdz’ Oddball characters materialize fully formed in this sketch-comedy show by the clever young Israeli ensemble Tziporela, whose other great strength is physical humor. The show contains some hoary, squirm-inducing bits aimed at the lowest comedic denominator, but much of the rest is funny, and the exuberance of
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