Broadly, energy on stage fits one of three patterns: the fierce, isolated intensity of Ahab, the compliant, but detached skepticism of Starbuck, and the intentionally unfocused direction of the rest of the cast. This tripartite energy division serves the action well.

This script is so strong, in part, because the playwright avoids the prescriptive; instead, he provides four rich characters with whom you genuinely want to spend time.

Don’t be afraid of letting your gaze linger on individual dancers. Choreographer Nicole Helfer has a good sense of what you’ll be looking at — and just as important — what you can’t miss.

Lizzie is like Downton Abbey, Carrie and American Idiot, mashed up. It's the kind of musical that Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick might have collaborated on. The all-female cast performances are bloody unforgettable.

From the high camp of Nancyboy (topped with a fascinator and moving gracefully in towering platforms) riffing off Joel Grey to an exquisitely nuanced “Send in the Clowns,” the artistic caliber of these two hundred and fifty hunky sweaty guys left nothing on the table.

Making parallels between rapacious capitalists and corner store con men is too easy, and Mamet’s too smart to let the story rest there. The heart of this piece isn’t in the ideas as much as it is in the characters – and here O’Connor, Carpenter and Jordan do justice to the work and to their audience.

What might have otherwise been a cheap slice’em, dice ‘em suicidal thriller was rendered into something deeply emotive that probed the dimensions of loyalty and family.

Allison F. Rich (Bonnie) and Cliff McCormick (Clyde) give Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty a run for their money.

Watching Felder’s Bernstein conduct the Vienna Philharmonic play Wagner, you’re immediately in the moment, understanding perhaps, for the first time, Bernstein's take on something so hugely heroic.

Warning: Triassic Parq at Ray of Light Theatre is like certain psychedelics. You'll end up loving everyone - and yourself - a little bit more.