Family Matters

Alexander Chaplin and Mia Barron in Knickerbocker.

Jonathan Marc Sherman's new play about expectant parenthood, Knickerbocker, isn't exactly a bundle of joy, even if you're familiar with the parent-child themes he digs into in previous works like Women and Wallace. The program note from the Public Theater's usually effusive artistic director, Oskar Eustis, even seemed tentative. But at least you get to keep company with stage notables such as Christina Kirk, Bob Dishy and Zak Orth.

Sister Act

The Shaggs creative team: Joy Gregory, Gunnar Madsen and John Langs.

‎"They’re sort of tortured by music, and they can’t make it come out of themselves the way that they want to — what a great idea for a show!" So says Joy Gregory, book writer of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, a musical about the worst band in history, in my Time Out New York preview piece.

Speaking of previews, I caught an an excerpt of the show at the Guggenheim as part of its Works in Progress series last month and was reminded of another dark, intriguing musical that I saw at Playwrights Horizons a few years ago — Grey Gardens.

Wonder Widow

Jill Eikenberry and Wrenn Schmidt in Be a Good Little Widow.

Amid all the Broadway openings of late I caught this charming little play at Ars Nova about a young woman coming to terms with widowhood, Be a Good Little Widow.