Theater: New and Noteworthy
New This Week Every Brilliant Thing (Arden Theatre Company). An audience-participation heartbreaker. What makes life worth living? Make a list. Starring Scott Greer. Thursday through Dec. 10.
New This Week
Every Brilliant Thing
(Arden Theatre Company). An audience-participation heartbreaker. What makes life worth living? Make a list. Starring Scott Greer. Thursday through Dec. 10.
The Fantasticks (Eagle Theatre, Hammonton, N.J.). Durable, popular tunefest about two neighboring dads who create a love match. Friday through Dec. 10.
Forever Plaid (Montgomery Theatre, Souderton). Holiday version of Stuart Ross' Plaid Tidings by four guys in plaid ties. Thursday through Dec. 3.
The Manor (Greystone Hall, West Chester). Reenactment of a notorious 1929 incident; walk through rooms as the play unfolds. Sunday and Nov. 9-10 and 12.
The New World (Bucks County Playhouse, New Hope). World-premiere musical. Indigenous Americans are enjoying a gluten-free, low-carb, happy life when they are invaded by the land's first immigrants: pilgrims. There goes the neighborhood. Tuesday through Dec. 2.
Phantom of the Opera (Academy of Music). A new staging, an African American phantom, and modern Surroundsound. Ends next Sunday.
Riot Antigone (Goodheart Hall, Bryn Mawr College). Riot-grrrl producer Seonjae Kim's reworking of Sophocles. Friday through Sunday and Nov. 16-18.
Continuing
Reviewed by Tirdad Derakhshani (T.D.), Julia M. Klein (J.M.K.), John Timpane (J.T.), and Toby Zinman (T.Z.).
Blood Wedding (Wilma Theater). A brilliant, splendid dance/performance art version of a fiery 20th-century masterpiece by Federico García Lorca. Through Nov. 19.
Broken Stones (InterAct Theatre Company). Priceless artifacts are looted from Baghdad museum during the Iraq war; a reservist is sent in to investigate. Through Nov. 19.
By the Bog of Cats (Irish Heritage Theatre). The fiery tragedy of Medea transplanted to the midlands Ireland. Through Nov. 18.
Dare to Be Black (Delaware Theatre Company, Wilmington). The saga of boxer Jack Johnson, whose success spurred the search for a Great White Hope. Ends next Sunday.
The Gap (Azuka Theatre/The Theaters at the Drake). World premiere of Emma Goidel's play about two sisters, the space between them, and the quest to close it. Through Nov. 19.
Ideation (Theatre Exile). Stressed-out consultants meet to plan their presentation of a mysterious, shady project. Fast, funny, frightening, with great performances and a worthwhile theme. Ends Sunday. - T.Z.
Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole (People's Light, Malvern). World premiere. Dulé Hill (West Wing, Psych) stars as Cole on the last night of his 1950s TV show. Hill shines, as does Daniel J. Watts as Sammy Davis Jr. Through Dec. 3. - J.T.
My Son the Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy (Penn's Landing Playhouse). Brad Zimmerman's comic tale of long-term (and we do mean long-term) perseverance in pursuit of an artistic dream. Through Nov. 19.
Our Town (Gateway Playhouse, Somers Point, N.J.). The Gateway's first full-on show in its comeback season, courtesy of Fool Moon Productions. Through next Sunday.
Outside Mullingar (Cape May Stage). John Patrick Shanley's tale of Irish farmers, one shy, one amorous. Ends Friday.
Quartet (Bristol Riverside Theatre). Ronald Harwood's play, basis of the popular film: a famed opera singer visits a singers' retirement home. Through Nov. 19.
Red Herring (Act II Playhouse, Ambler). Michael Hollinger's noir comedy about love, mystery, and nuclear espionage. Tight, well-paced, full of very funny one-liners. Through Nov. 19. - J.T.
Return of the Phantom: A New Musical (Broadway Theatre of Pitman, N.J.). Twenty years later, a new opera debuts at the Paris Opera - and an older Phantom returns. Through Nov. 19.
TouchTones (Arden Theatre Company). World premiere of Michael Hollinger and Robert Maggio's musical about intimacy (or is it?) in the communications age. Racy, quirky, engaging, and ultimately romantic. Through Dec. 3. - J.M.K.
Two Gentlemen of Verona (EgoPo Classic Theatre/Latvian Society Theatre). John Guare's Tony-winning musical reworking of Shakespeare's play. This cabaret-style performance kicks off EgoPo's season-long John Guare Festival. Thursday through next Sunday.
The Winter's Tale (Drama Group/First United Methodist Church of Germantown). This wild, tragic, wacky, mystical tale might be the Shakespeare play whose rep is rising fastest. Fridays and Saturdays, Nov. 10-25.
Wrestling Jerusalem (Philadelphia Theatre Company). Aaron Davidman's one-man show exploring many viewpoints of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Thoughtful, with moments of passion. Ends next Sunday. - J.T.