Impressionism

The producers of Impressionism have delayed the opening because they feel that the play needs work. They are right. Since I saw an early preview, and since I didn't stay for the second act, I am not going to review the show as a whole. However, I must mention that the show's depiction of a native of Tanzania is amazingly racist and retrograde, not to mention completely embarrassing. Coincidentally, I was in Tanzania exactly a year ago, and I met smart, dignified, proud, hard-working people. I didn't meet a single person who danced around like some sort of wise native Tinkerbell with a soupçon of Mammy thrown in.

Universal Robots

Sometimes the second a show begins you know you're in good hands. I felt that way at the beginning of Universal Robots, and the rest of the show more than lived up to that initial impression. Using Karel Čapek's classic play R.U.R. as a starting point, playwright Mac Rogers and director Rosemary Andress have created an evening of theatre that makes me wish that the Tony Award people would recognize Off-Off-Broadway shows. Presented as a ritual of remembrance ("The year is 2009. The last human being died in 1971. Each year we gather together to tell the story that we never ever forget."), Universal Robots tells a story of pride, foolishness, love, and the corruption of power and reconsiders the meaning of the words "human" and "humane." It does this in an amazingly entertaining three hours that fly by as poets and scientists try to improve the world, robots are created and "perfected," people fall in love, and the human race manages to commit suicide in a method that is chillingly believable. The brilliant ten-person cast makes you feel like you've seen a cast of hundreds, all excellent. Jason Howard as Radius, a robot who gradually develops a soul, gives as good a performance as I've ever seen. The other wonderful actors are Esther Barlow, David Lamberton, David Ian Lee, Michelle O'Connor, Ridley Parson, Nancy Sirianni, Tarantino Smith, Ben Sulzbach, and Jennifer Gordon Thomas.

Happiness

wHappiness, currently in previews at the Lincoln Center Theatre, has excellent bloodlines; its book is by John Weidman (Pacific Overtures, Assassins) and its music and lyrics are by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie (Grey Gardens). But it does not live up to its creators' earlier works. The book is illogical (I'm not referring to its overall premise), and the characters thin. While some of the music is nice, there are no standouts at the level of "Will You," "Revolutionary Costume," or "Another Winter in a Summer Town" from Grey Gardens. For all I know, the lyrics may be wonderful, but they were frequently unintelligible due to murky sound and some iffy enunciation.

(Spoilers ahead!) The characters are dead people choosing a perfect moment in which to spend eternity. But Weidman, Frankel, and Korie seem more interested in being inclusive (which I support!) than in being believable (which I don't). I don't believe that Ken Page's character would choose to spend eternity in a moment when his boyfriend was desperately ill. I also don't buy that Joanna Gleason's character went from being a hippie doing good works to a nasty right-wing homophobe because at a reunion she discovered that her classmates made more money than she did (a twist that manages to insult both hippies and right-wing homophobes!). More importantly, I was not touched by anyone's story, and from the response of the audience (tepid), I was not alone.

Despite all this, I feel that the show has potential. I guess I just can't rule out those bloodlines.

Rock-It Science Festival

First, full disclosure: one of my closest friends produced this one-night event at the Highline Ballroom, in which noted scientists who happen to rock and roll were on the bill with science-friendly musicians. The show was thrillingly eclectic (and at 25 bucks the bargain of the century): there's surely never been an event before where you could see one of the world's most important neuro-scientists stradding a guitar one minute and hear downtown entertainer Anna Cabana play "Enter Sandman" on the xylophone the next. The evening was anchored by a stunning thirty minute set by Rufus Wainwright that opened with "Grey Gardens" and included top-drawer gems like "The Art Teacher" and "Going To A Town". Other science-friendly acts included elegant jazz singer Pamela Luss, a house band featuring Lenny Kaye and Steve Wynn, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and the three Broadway leads of Rock of Ages on stage together for the first time. First on their feet in the audience to rock out old school for Dee Snider's set, Constantine Maroulis and Amy Spanger soared spectacularly through a hair band ballad before introducing James Carpinello, who tore up Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive" like a genuine rock star.

Distracted

Essentially, Lisa Loomer's dramedy is a topical issue play - as a suburban mom narrator susses out whether she should medicate her ADD-addled son, we're presented with even amounts of argument on either side. (Arguably, the play avoids clearly advocating one or the other, it doesn't pull a Next To Normal and hard-sell some naive easy answer.) What saves the play from dull, well-meaning Lifetime movie status is that the playwright has hyped it up with dynamic meta business - the kid announces the scene changes, the mom tells other actors to take on multiple roles, etc. - as if pitched to an audience that is itself attention disordered. The production design follows suit, with a two leveled sensory overloaded unit set. The show is lucky to have Cynthia Nixon as the mom: she can play the character's earnest concern without making her come off like a drip, and she gives the fourth-wall breaking narration an easy charm. Although it is more topical than deep and doesn't engage much emotion, the play goes down easily as light entertainment.

God of Carnage

In God of Carnage, by Yasmina Reza (Art), two couples get together to discuss, in a civilized manner, an incident between their 11-year-old sons that left one boy without his incisors. I saw an early preview, so some things are likely to change.

• Here is what will likely get even better: the performances of Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, and James Gandolfini.
• Here is what will likely remain the same, unfortunately, since this play already had a successful run in London: characters who keep saying they're going to leave when you know they can't because then the play would end; unconvincing revelations of personality that seem like devices to keep the plot moving; echos of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf that only serve to emphasize God of Carnage's weaknesses; and a forced comparison to violence in Africa that attempts to give the play a weight it hasn't earned.
• And here's why much of this may not matter: the show has some very funny moments; the actors are so good that they frequently rise above the material; and much of the audience gave the show a standing O (unless they were standing for Tony Soprano, which is completely possible).