NYT>Theater

Diane Paulus, the director of the Public Theater’s revival of“Hair,”takes over as the new artistic director for the American Repertory Theater starting this fall.

Virtually all musicals of any vintage or scale have long been dependent on orchestrators for their aural color and character.

If the televised Olympics are too sanitary and the hole-in-the-wall strip clubs too sleazy for your tastes, then perhaps you’ll find voyeuristic contentment in“Désir.”

There’s a ripping good performance taking place in a barn on West 21st Street in Manhattan. The play is“Elizabeth Rex.”

“PeopleSpeak,”a witty and acerbic play, is the best of Series B of the Summer Shorts 2 festival at 59E59 Theaters.

There’s an R-rated stripper and a foul-mouthed M.C., but the naughty circus-meets-burlesque show“Absinthe”succeeds best at its most innocent.

The melodrama is high, and so is the clichécount in“Noon Day Sun,”an exploration of racial identity and related themes that is as seductive as a soap opera.

“Hattie ... What I Need You to Know”attempts to tackle what it meant that the first African-American to win an Academy Award did so playing a loyal slave.

Reviews of New York International Fringe Festival plays, including“The Alice Complex”and“Zombie.”

The Signature Theater Company offers a smooth revival of“The First Breeze of Summer,”Leslie Lee’s less-than-smooth drama of a denial-plagued family in close quarters.

Thursday’s announcement that Frank Gehry will no longer be a part of the project to rebuild the Theater for a New Audience came as a surprise to the architect.

A professional line-sitter got the boot at the Delacorte Theatre.

THEATER.

Nature takes its course in high style in the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s inspiriting production of“Cymbeline.”

Significant shows at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Festival Fringe considered the anxieties and preoccupations of contemporary youth.

To ensure that no theater reference goes unappreciated in their musical, the creators and two of the co-stars of“[title of show]”created a cheat sheet.

Nicky Silver, a bit less angry, is back with a new play,“Three Changes.”

Second Stage Theater has found the three main dudes for its production of“Boys’Life.”

The New York-bound production of“Vanities—A New Musical”announced Feb. 2 as the date of its first preview.

Hanging out with Hunter Parrish, the newest cast member of“Spring Awakening”on Broadway.