NEW YORK—Books, movies, people, and events can all be seen differently with the passage of time. Some rise in stature while others are brought down by changing attitudes and the perspective of hindsight. This premise serves as the starting point for Richard Hellesen’s one-person drama, “Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground,” now at Theatre at St….

NEW YORK —The fictional worlds of Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lovingly collide in playwright Mark Shanahan’s not-at-all humbug, “A Sherlock Carol” at New World Stages. This delightful mash-up features beloved literary characters, one from the Dickens’ novella “A Christmas Carol” and various elements from Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories—in particular, the only Holmes tale Doyle set during Christmas: “The…

NEW YORK—”There is a way to be good again” is the most telling phrase uttered during the Broadway drama “The Kite Runner.” Adapted by Matthew Spangler and based on Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel, the show is an involving, if somewhat flawed, tale of friendship, betrayal, familial relationships and rivalry, and class distinctions. In 1975, Amir…

NEW YORK—Is there anywhere in the world that’s truly safe? This is the question at the heart of Joshua Harmon’s drama “Prayer for the French Republic,” a tale that focuses on cultural identity and the reality of how the more things change, the more they stay the same. The play is now at Manhattan Theatre…

NEW YORK—Red Bull Theater puts the axiom that people get exactly what they deserve squarely in their sights with Jeffrey Hatcher’s biting adaptation of Ben Johnson’s 17th-century comedy “The Alchemist,” now at New World Stages. It’s 1610 and London has been ravaged by a great plague, which has caused those with means to flee to…

NEW YORK—No matter how old you may be, there’s something magical in touching a floating bubble and then feeling it softly burst. Serbian-born bubble artist Deni Yang taps into this inner wonder in the enjoyable and interactive “The Gazillion Bubble Show,” making a triumphant return to Off-Broadway’s New World Stages. Yang is one of several performers…

NEW YORK—In a very modest dwelling in Cork City, Ireland, two 30-somethng siblings wrestle with a long-standing problem: The problem lumbers noisily about upstairs. It is their old codger of a dad, getting more and more difficult by the day to care for. This is the gist of Kevin Barry’s “Autumn Royal,” the Irish Repertory…

CHICAGO—For regular theatergoers, Windy City Playhouse’s aptly named “A Recipe for Disaster” may not be what they’re accustomed to. The production lacks the stage and auditorium of a typical theater. Instead it’s a live immersive experience that takes place in Petterino’s banquet space in downtown Chicago. It’s a logical location for a presentation that takes…

For someone who has been acting in plays since he “was knee-high to a grasshopper,” the 91 years-young John Cullum has lost none of his love for performing. That is evident in “John Cullum: An Accidental Star.” Conceived by Cullum and Jeff Berger and written by David Thompson, the show is a vehicle for the…

Get set for a terrific two-hour virtual production on YouTube. The scene is a middle-class home in St. Louis in the year 1903. The Smith family eagerly awaits the arrival of the World’s Fair the following year. Charlotte Moore, artistic director of the Irish Repertory Theatre has adapted the story (based on “The Kensington Stories”…