September 6, 2018 | About Last Night

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:
• The Band’s Visit (musical, PG-13, virtually all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Dear Evan Hansen (musical, PG-13, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• My Fair Lady (musical, G, nearly all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• Be More Chill (musical, PG-13, closes Sept. 30, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN EAST HADDAM, CONN.:
• Oliver! (musical, PG-13, closes Sept. 13, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN CAPE MAY, N.J.:
• The Lion in Winter (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 14, reviewed here)

CLOSING TONIGHT OFF BROADWAY:
• On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (musical, G, too complex for children, reviewed here)

“I own any form of humor shows fear and inferiority. Irony is simply a kind of guardedness. So is a twinkle. It keeps the reader from criticism. Whittier, when he shows any style at all is probably a greater person than Longfellow as he is lifted priestlike above consideration of the scornful. Belief is better than anything else, and it is best when rapt, above paying its respects to anybody’s doubt whatsoever. At bottom the world isn’t a joke. We only joke about it to avoid an issue with someone to let someone know that we know he’s there with his questions: to disarm him by seeming to have heard and done justice to this side of the standing argument. Humor is the most engaging cowardice.”