The revival of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, book by Harvey Fierstein, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, starring Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge, now on Broadway, is the epitome of Camp, with very little reality (until the end). Hodge is a great performer, but seems to be mocking the feminine character he is playing rather than being it. He’s lots of fun, a super mugger with great charisma and, for me, undercuts the real sentiment in most of the play. He is a great transvestite, a first rate farceur, but almost never becomes a person. I found his “I Am What I Am” at the end of Act 1 to be hammy rather than the simple statement it really is. It should pull the audience in, rather than reach out to them. Grammer is solid. I believe his acting and he sings well— filling his role with real emotion. It’s a star performance. The chorus, with great zany choreography by Lynne Page, is a camp delight, totally entertaining. And that seems to be the theme of this production-- be totally entertaining. And it is. Robin De Jesus as a Fairy Queen maid is a delight, and so are Veanne Cox and Fred Applegate, both solidly comic in two roles each. A.J. Shively as the son is good-looking, sweet, charming, sings well, and has just a bit too much “hint of mint” for me for the character to contrast with his “parents.” The set by Tim Shortall is terrific, and costumes by Matthew Wright are brilliant— fanciful, exuberant, with great colorful panache. Terry Johnson has directed this non-stop extravaganza with great timing and flair for the comedic. It is, indeed, a very entertaining show, Hodge is hilarious and will probably win awards, and melodies do stick in my head days afterward.

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American IDIOT, music by Green Day, lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong, book by Armstrong and the director Michael Mayer, is an In Your Face (and Ears and Eyes) rock musical with an undercurrent of anger and rebellion, but while filled with references like The War now going on, it seems to be non-specific. The loose-limbed casual dancing seems to be singers dancing rather than dancers singing as it stays within the context of inept youth rebelling. The melodies are simplistic to a simple beat. I know, I know, they sold millions of albums. And the entire audience the night I attended, including my date, an Australian Anthropologist, knew the songs. The singer/actors are all excellent, the music rather engaging. The stunning visuals of the design is what kept me entranced. With myriad TV screens on the four storey high set (designed by Christine Jones), fascinating projections (by Darrel Maloney), and dazzling lighting (by Kevin Adams), I enjoyed the show, although with some of it I found myself to be an observer rather than an empathetic participant in the problems of the angst-ridden youth on the stage who are tempted by The Devil, yea unto becoming a junkie. There is a wonderful flying sequence, some numbers that really work like “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and all-in-all it’s a nice psychedelic trip. And it has the hottest, cutest conductor in town for the band-- Carmel Dean-- who is visible in the wings. Mayer keeps it moving, and the dazzling visuals keep it all exciting.

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SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM is a beautifully done retrospective with Stephen Sondheim himself (on film) narrating, describing his adventures in the world of Musical Theatre as he created some of the most memorable shows on Broadway. It’s a fine piece of theatrical history in a concept that succeeds beyond what you might expect performed by a cast of good singers including the gorgeous Vanessa Williams whose voice is warm and rich, the very solid Tom Wopat, and the wondrous Barbara Cook. Onto the stage walks an overweight white-haired old woman who walks with difficulty. Cook sings, and if you close your eyes you hear the voice of a beautiful young girl. She’s amazing. The other five cast members, including a standout Norm Lewis, are strong singer/actors, and we get not only the familiar songs, but some that were cut from shows and never appeared until now. Show after show is illuminated by imaginative direction by James Lapine, who conceived the show, innovative magical set by Beowulf Boritt, costumes by Susan Hilferty and lighting by Ken Billington. There is a great film pastiche of “Send in the Clowns, terrific staging of a multi-character love story, and Cook’s killer rendition of “....Clowns” near the end. Experiencing the evening with Sondheim, his open communication of the personal as well as the professional-- his work, his life-- the experience is unique, informative, totally entertaining, and not to be missed.

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Wide-Eyed Productions’ NOAH’S ARKANSAS by Jerrod Bogard is a “Kitchen Sink” drama about a low-level, angry working class family, classic low-IQ “Trailer Trash,” with a feuding husband and wife (the vivid Justin Ness and Kristin Skye Hoffmann) and his borderline psychotic son (Michael Komala), the grandfather (Erik Frandsen), and moronic rural police (Bennett W. Harrel and Judy Merrick). All of the acting is really good, each actor’s character is fully realized, believable, convincing, a real person with an inner life, but these are not people I want to spend much time with. There is an interaction between father and son in Act 1 that has a touching reality, and a really engaging one between the grandfather and the son in Act 2 that has a kind of profundity. Act 2 cooks with action and conflict that grips us. This is a high-level professional production in terms of acting, direction (by Neil Finnell) set (by Joshus David Bishop) lighting (by Ryan Metzler) and costumes (Antonia Ford-Roberts), and Bogard’s take on the life and struggles of these Arkansas people is alive with rural Sturm and Drang with an underlying humanity. Wide-Eyed is an ambitious company, and one of the best in New York. At Wings Theatre thru May 15th.

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THE ADDAMS FAMILY, with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, is an absurdist musical with a moribund conceit performed by two superstars (Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth) a few subsidiary stars (Kevin Chamberlin, Krysta Rodrigues, Jackie Hoffman, Terrence Mann and Carolee Carmello) and a high-steppin’ chorus of ghosts. It’s full-out farce, full of good jokes performed with perfect comic timing on a brilliant active set by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch who also directed (with a save by Jerry Zaks) and who designed the costumes with flair and panache, with zippy choreography by Sergio Trujillo, and creative, perfect lighting by Master Lighter Natasha Katz. There is even some terrific puppetry by Basil Twist. The romantic story propelling the show is weak and simplistic— parents of boy and girl disapprove of the romance-- but the plot is only a vehicle for the jokes, and they are good-- nobody has better comic timing than Lane. Neuwirth is a beautiful, charismatic performer with great physicality, and she’s dazzling in her Tango dance. Chamberlin’s Moon Dance is a show-stopper, and the very partisan audience loved the show from finger-snappin’ opening to final tableau. Yes, it’s “mere entertainment”-- but it’s lots of fun, especially for fans of previous incarnations of T A F.

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Suzana Stankovic has a lithe, strong, sinuous body exquisite in several forms-- ballet, modern, jazz-- but her innovative dance storytelling is unique. She creates mood, atmosphere with her taut, muscular, very feminine dance and acting, all with sexual overtones. Her recent show, “Predestined,” included a couple of tangents: a very funny chubby Richard “Bumper” Walker dancing a “Dance of the Wild Faeries,” and the uncouth, very strong (and funny) standup comic Rocco Chierichella in an amusing section of commentary. An eclectic, but entertaining, evening, with the dance creations by Suzana. aided and abetted by the strong and agile Philip Lakin, Eric Berthoud and Alex Montaldo, the high points.

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Lissa Moira’s new creation THE SEDUCTION OF TIME is a fascinating mixture of text (by Moira performed by her and Zen Mansley), music (by the nimble-fingered Chris Wade- at the piano), song (by a chorus of fine singers) and dance (by five women and one man who plays Time— choreography by Patrick L. Salazar and Harmony Livingston) exploring a personification of the mythic relationship between Nature and Time as they mate. It’s a mystical trip— an engrossing adventure in a fantastic surreal world.

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Seth Barrish’s style of directing his actors to be real and natural shines through in PHOENIX by Scott Organ, a simply-plotted ninety-minute duo performed by the very attractive, very believable DeAnna Lenhart and Dusty Brown who are both able to convey subtle emotional changes and let deep feelings peek out. The interaction, some really cute banter, grows out of a past one-night-stand, and as the problem presented develops towards a solution, there are intellectual philosophical speculations and games as the two get to know each other and we get to know them. The tension sustains as we root for these two likable, appealing, vulnerable people in today’s world. Thru May 3 at 312 W. 36th St. 212/868-4444.

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OVO, Cirque Du Soleil’s new show now running on Randall’s Island, is a mixture of its theme, Insects, and the gymnastic, acrobatic and circus extravaganza that makes it the most popular live entertainment in the world. It didn’t engage me until the super skills started to appear: marvelous synchronized foot-juggling, a lovely rope dance, the best El Diablo (two sticks, a cord between them, and spinning tops that fly) that I have ever seen, and then a couple of first rate clowns as bugs. There’s a bag dancer you’ll have to see to believe. Act 1 ends with the most spectacular trapeze work imaginable-- it’s amazing and utterly thrilling. The highlight of Act 2 is a combination of trampoline and rock wall-- they bounce, they fly, they cling, you smile with delight. Cirque Du Soleil has access to the best in the word, and here they are from all corners. The entire experience is a fun outing: the water taxi to the island with its views of both sides of the East River, the walk to the big circus tents, the refreshments, the show, and then the water trip back with a night time view of the city. It’s a visit to an extraordinary other world filled with exhibitions of the beauty, strength and possibilities of the human body.

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ALL ABOUT ME, written by Christopher Durang and Barry Humphries (Dame Edna), starring Michael Feinstein and the irrepressible Dame Edna, is a great entertainment as these two stars, wildly opposite in tone, give us, in essence, two shows. Feinstein is a handsome, sweet, charming man who can open up his chops and fill the theatre with his rich melodic voice as he sings Gershwin and other classics. Edna is a full camp outrageous great comedienne whose crisp quips skewer everything in sight. Her interaction with audience members is fast, funny, and non-threatening. So what if they are two different experiences-- each is great, and we get two shows for the price of one and a plausible duet at the end. There are two good-looking athletic male dancers as a chorus, and a big (and I mean BIG) surprise is Jodi Capeless playing the stage manager— classic work clothes and roll of tape- who opens up her voice and delights us with a singing number that fills the house. With the splendid full orchestra upstage center conducted by the impeccable Rob Bowman, outrageous gowns for Dame Edna by Anna Louizos (who also designed the appropriate set), super lighting by Howell Binkley and zippy direction by Casey Nicholaw, this is a show filled with laughs and good music. A good time was had by all. It just closed. What’s the one thing we know for sure about Showbusiness? You never know. Or, as Mersh Greenberg, who ran Silvercup Studios said: “Nobody knows anything.”

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COME FLY AWAY, Twyla Tharp’s ballet-based new dance creation, with elements of ballroom, modern, jazz and acrobatics, is clean, precise, and full of beautiful fully-stretched strong limber bodies that take Adagio to its adagioesque limits. Tharp has access to the world’s best dancers, and here are a bunch of them. With grace, fluidity and a bit of Cirque, each dancer is superb. Especially outstanding are Charlie Neshyba Hodges with the body of a slinky and a comic flair and the captivating Karine Plantadit. The theme in each section is sexual attraction, like in Flamenco. Mostly performed to Frank Sinatra’s singing which is brilliantly integrated with the super live orchestra conducted with exquisite timing by Russ Kassoff, with interspersed vocals by Hilary Gardner and Rosena M. Hill, on a modern cocktail lounge set by James Youmans, with subtle, special-for-dance lighting by Donald Holder and sexy, flowing costumes by Katherine Roth, Tharp’s innovative, intricate choreography is entrancing, exciting, and her dancers are fabulous. It’s a wonderful artistic entertainment in the universal language of dance.

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TIME STANDS STILL by Donald Marglies is about the impact, physical and emotional, of the war in the Middle East on a couple and their relationship: a woman war photographer, the very strong and compelling Laura Linney, and a convincing writer/correspondent, Brian D’Arcy James. They’re both terrific. A counterbalance is a second couple: Eric Bobosian as an editor and Alicia Silverstone as his much younger somewhat dingy girlfriend. Their life is here in town, not on the battlefields on the other side of the world. Bogosian is solid. Silverstone just about steals the show-- her performance is sincere, totally believable, and her charm fills the theatre. We learn a lot about the process of exposing the horror of war, the burnout that can result, and the question of whether this exposure is doing any good. The play becomes a domestic drama as the two principals reach a fork in the road and each has to choose the right personal path. As directed by Daniel Sullivan this is a dynamic piece of engrossing Theatre with powerful performances, a fine set by John Lee Beatty and some of the best, subtle lighting in town by Peter Kaczorowski.

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WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING by Australian writer Andrew Bovell is a dreary jigsaw puzzle of a play about a family’s history in Australia and England, jumping back and forth in time, with much thunder and rain (powerful sound by Fitz Patton) and it’s hard to tell where some of the pieces fit in this intergenerational angst-ridden play filled with shadowy figures fading on and off the stage as the tricky double turntable set by David Korins does slow or fast counter-turns (and sometimes the actors do nothing). Starting with a monologue by an ineffective miserable man full of pain and anguish (the very effective actor Michael Siberry) with whom I couldn’t identify, to a group of miserable people who, contrary to human nature, have not a speck of irony or a touch of lightness. The play seems to be a demonstration: rain and thunder, poses of poverty is several eras-- and they all eat fish soup. There are recountings of natural disasters through the ages with intellectual philosophical analyses lectured by a female character stopping the non-action of the play. Lots of exposition instead of interaction in a confusing mix of who is who at what age. Sometimes there is more action in the contrasting turntables than in the play of these losers in a lost world drenched in (I suppose) the effects of Global Warming in a near future. I thought God promised Noah that that was the last wipe-out by flood. Then-- OK, let’s abandon premise and make a main character a child molester, provoking the move to Australia. The play is full of repetitions, many painful soliloquies, long slow moments of people standing like statues. The actors, all effective professionals, are all quite good, and they give it a go. The lighting by Tyler Micoleau and costumes by Clint Ramos support the dim drearyness, and direction by David Cromer sustains it.

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SHARON McNIGHT will knock your socks off in a mixture of styles: straight ahead belt, country, romantic ballad, raunchy comedic. It’s a salad of songs, with many tasty dishes. She’s a vivid, great cabaret personality who fills the room with voice and humor— a star singer who can hold and delight an audience. Her brilliant rendition of ALL the voices in “The Wizard of Oz” is one of the greatest turns I have ever seen. It’s a privilege to experience Sharon McNight. She’ll be at The Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd St. thru March 22nd— a comfortable cabaret room with a classic Jazz atmosphere.

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Martin McDonagh is mad, poetic, outrageous, inflammatory, and sentimental as he pushes linguistic boundaries beyond Mamet in his A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE, now on Broadway. Profanity splashes, sloshes and drips, inundating the stage with the crude images of lower class expression as a modern Diogenes, Christopher Walken, searches for the hand he lost forty-seven years ago. He is a perfect embodiment of McDonagh’s irony, an actor with great subtlety in the nuances of his madness, which grows and amplifies into beyond absurd. Zoe Kazan and Anthony Mackie are lively and convincing as his con artist victims, and Sam Rockwell is vivid as an idiot hotel clerk. He holds his own in the scenes with Walken, who is a flaming torch of an actor even when sitting in silence. Scott Pask’s marvelous set design of a decayed sleazy hotel room, stained ceiling and all, even carries over into the torn, disgusting front curtain, and his costumes take a tiny step beyond the ordinary. John Crowley has directed with extraordinary timing that takes even the most serious into a comedic absurdity. This play needs to be named a new genre: Absurdist Dramady. And Walken does something that American actors don’t do (the only one I saw do it was Luther Adler in “Fiddler... “ a long time ago)— he played his most dramatic scene with his full back to the audience, addressing Rockwell over his shoulder with his face in profile. Bravo! If you saw McDonagh’s “The Lieutenant of Innishmore,” you’ll find cat irony in this spellbinding piece of Theatre.

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T.S. Eliot’s THE COCKTAIL PARTY is given a crackling-good presentation by The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row. How can this intellectual play, concerning commonplace domestic situations, written as poetry, crackle? With the fine cast, even the shallow banter at the beginning is intriguing and engaging as the discussions become more complex in an ironic marital situation. There is a mystery, an exploration of psychiatric interpretation, descriptions and analysis of complex goals in life. Eliot’s keen analytic mind, his weird sense of humor, and his underlying Catholic mysticism with a fatalistic view of life in which you have to choose and face the consequences, becomes more and more fascinating. There is even a symbolic Trinity. Cool. It is really well directed, with perfect timing, by Scott Alan Evans, and period (1950) costumes by David Toser enhance the play. The set by Andrew Liebermann and Laura Jellinek is simple and quite stark, and its concept of gradually opening up doors and windows as the conflicts spill out doesn’t quite work for me, nor does the transparent ceiling with light shining through it. In that opening Act, when the actors are downstage, they are in shadow. Lighting by Aaron Copp is clear in Part Two, and gives a bit too much illumination in Part Three as plot is illuminated. The text would have been enough. TACT is one of the finest ensembles in this city, and THE COCKTAIL PARTY is an intellectually stimulating, quite entertaining piece of Theatre that will provoke thought, conversation and argument well into the night.

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LOOPED by Matthew Lombardo is an invented take on Tallulah Bankhead— a made up situation in which the actress has to loop (repeat on tape) one line from her final movie, and it takes two hours filled with comic invention based on characteristics and foibles of the star. Valerie Harper, a gifted comic actress, plays all the variations on degrees of inebriation that Tallulah goes through as she confronts the poor, sensitive soul, Brian Hutchison, whose job it is to record her. She’s vivid. Being an invention, Lombardo can riff on the character and create jokes-- and there are lots of them, performed with perfect timing. Harper is also terrific as she flashes back to her performance as Blanche in “Streetcar...” Set by Adrian W. Jones, lighting by Ken Billington and costumes by William Ivey Long enhance everything. Director Rob Ruggiero keeps the play active, and has the nerve (correctly) to place his star upstage, facing the audience, with Hutchison downstage facing her. He’s right— Tallulah (Harper) is whom we want to see. This is a very entertaining show with a great comic performance of a wild, brash, uninhibited character whom some of us actually remember— and quite fondly.

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The Red Fern Theatre Company had an interesting fancy: plays that show how New York City might be in 30 years, and presents seven of them, each engaging in its own way, in +30 NYC —thru March 21 at Center Stage. There is a diversity of depths in terms of believability and reality in the writing and acting from trying to be funny as in a sit-com to a sense of truth. Most of the actors are quite good, and all are enthusiastic. But with seven writers and six directors, what’s missing is consistency of style in performance. It runs from presentational shrieking in one play to a solid sense of reality in another, as in the performance of the totally believable Corinna May in “Thirty Story Masterpiece” by Tommy Smith, Directed by Jessi D. Hill. Themes are: styles of living, romance, cryo-preservation, taller buildings with smaller apartments, pollution, global warming, etc. All of the plays foresee a negative future-- no joy or happiness or fulfillment extrapolated ahead as a result of conditions today. Most interesting (and sometimes incomprehensible because of shotgun delivery of strange words) is “In the Zone” by Michael John Carcés, directed by Portia Krieger, which creates its own futuristic slang (as per ‘Clockwork Orange’) in a hungry, flooded world where sex is cyber, where an actual book is of great value. It’s well performed by Richard Gallagher, Nalini Sharma, Maria-Christian Oliveras, and the dynamic Ian Quinlan. This entire project was a bold undertaking obviously carried out with energy and care by a large group of talented hard-working Theatre people, and, as a totality, quite successful as an experimental evening of Theatre. I look forward to Red Fern’s next undertaking.

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