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See it if you have never seen "Marvin's Room" or "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" and you want to feel what it's like to watch a loved one suffer.

Don't see it if you think highly of "The Glass Menagerie" and find it suspicious when a young narrator fills you in on the story.

See it if you love the way Pirandello makes you think about things you never thought about before: what literature, acting and life mean.

Don't see it if you don't enjoy dialogue-centered drama, or aren't willing to sit through the rather overplayed comic segment.

See it if Kristine Nielsen's brilliant acting and the myriad modulations of her voice are reward enough for a problematic script, as they were for me.

Don't see it if you don't like to see the obvious pushed too hard and too long.

Also When I saw this, I guessed it to be an early play of Tennessee Williams, in which he was feeling out characters for the future. Not so, he was 68. It plays like a well-structured draft in need of a lot of cutting and polishing.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to see England, France, and the Papacy duke it out , to feel grief, betrayal, and nobility of spirit through Shakespeare's verse.

Don't see it if three hours of uncut Shakespeare is too much for you and stage combat doesn't make up for it.

See it if you find Sarah Bernhardt's life intriguing enough to enjoy a slice-of-life view of her anxieties about taking on the role of Hamlet.

Don't see it if you don't want to wish you were watching this cast do Shakespeare instead of Rebeck: she inserts a few excellent "Hamlet" scenes.

See it if you like the world that surrounds theater, the history of places like this fabled restaurant and its portraits, talking to an in-house host.

Don't see it if you have no interest in the lives of theater people past, or of theater people present when they're off the stage.

See it if you thrill to Churchill's boisterous and funny satire that belies its 40 years; sit through the tone-deaf Barker shorts, or arrive late.

Don't see it if you don't like to laugh and then realize you've been shown what dire consequences a naive action can have.

Also I'd like to rate the first half 40 and the second half 100, so I've compromised at 79.... Read more Read less

See it if you enjoy seeing a versatile singer and actor, accompanied by guitar, gradually win you over with tales of his life and of Leadbelly.

Don't see it if you need variety and action.

See it if you enjoy good actors playing out intense moral and emotional dilemmas; you are interested in what audiences paid to see 400 years ago.

Don't see it if you don't like to work hard to find the good kernel inside the hard nut.

Also I saw June 13, the first preview, so I trust that cuts will be made to bring the two-hour play down to its intended 90 minutes.

What were the actors saying? The combination of a noisy air system, poor acoustics and in-the-round staging made it sometimes hard to know.

Best to read the plot synopsis online first: otherwise it's hard to recognize that a major character has become a minor character (actors play multiple roles) with no more clue than a costume adjustment.... Read more Read less

See it if you want an engaging guide to walk with you through the Met and make you notice things you'd never noticed before.

Don't see it if you want costumes, stage sets, etc., rather than paintings that let you see how artists addressed theater and acting over the years.

See it if you want to see an exquisitely expressive actress do it all without speech

Don't see it if you're impatient with a second act that loses its way a bit dealing with big issues

See it if you enjoy seeing actors take the ball and run with it, you're okay with being tense, you love language.

Don't see it if you have a short attention span, you want to preserve a high opinion of the human race, you don't like talk about sex.

See it if you like political satire (eased by being Reagan-era, not Trump-era) smoothly delivered by five top actors in musical revue-skit format.

Don't see it if you don't like watching people sing, dance (a little), and impersonate recognizable (as types) political and media personalities.

Also The five Equity actors are almost always all on stage together, and do a great job of singing and swinging as a team, with a couple of numbers featuring outstanding solo singing as well. The dialogue's smart, and the actors are fun to watch. At the same time, there's the impact of thinking about war, thirty years ago or now.... Read more Read less

See it if you're willing to enjoy stage business, marvelous physicality and a little lovely singing without your comprehending half the meaning.

Don't see it if you want to understand everything you see.

Also I had the feeling that many of the skits and references (luckily I knew Bunuel's work) might have had meaning for someone versed in Latin American history and in other works by Aristides Vargas.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to leave the theater physically happy from having laughed so much.

Don't see it if you don't take pleasure in the nuances of language.

Also You begin with Gurney's last short play, fun but mild, then wake up to a perky self-help guru in an early work, and finally revel in a wacky woman wielding literature like a sword, with pacing as deft as any Marx brothers scene.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to see people looking at their lives, trying to see why they're unhappy, and grieving to see others falling into the same traps.

Don't see it if a display of out-of-balance human relationships, and talk about human relationships, doesn't appeal to you.

Also A powerhouse Uncle Vanya is trembling and distraught from the beginning of the play, which extends over a four-month period. The choices of casting and directing draw our eyes always to Vanya and to Chekhov's intentionally attractive Astrov. Elena is a nubile innocent--the cynical observations seem wrong coming from her mouth. Sonya is deliberately non-reactive. To me, the result is off-balance, although still very effective.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to see a bare-bones version of what Pushkin dealt with in his last years, writing amid political repression, racism and slander.

Don't see it if you care more for bright lights and fast pacing than for a sympathetic portrayal of an artist in the midst of troubles.

See it if you like Brecht songs that tell a story, well done by eight actors and a pianist, plus a pot-pourri from poems, statements and plays.

Don't see it if you want some sense of Brecht's life, politics, or theatrical genius, or a narrative arc to the evening.

See it if you want to step away to a kinder, gentler world and revel in the pleasure of watching Bernadette Peters doling out witty physical comedy.

Don't see it if you don't think it's theater if there's no tension or drama.

Also In this 1938 fairy-tale, a tight-fisted gentile is improbably enlightened to love of life and the most humane of Jewish values.... Read more Read less

See it if you like a story well told, with believable people who are a joy to watch.

Don't see it if you don't like being emotionally moved at the theater.

See it if you like learning what religion meant in the lives of show-business people in New York City in the 1920's and later, and what's changed.

Don't see it if you need a lot of visual stimulation and moving around, rather than listening to a welcoming rabbi and seeing photos and precious objects.

See it if you enjoy paying attention to word-play voiced by articulate virtuosic actors, with impeccably timed physical comedy thrown in.

Don't see it if you want to see people bare their souls and plumb the depths of human emotion. This is French farce, not sturm und drang.

See it if you are interested in how to preserve the performing arts for future generations.

Don't see it if you need vivid, hit-me-in-the-face; this is a chance to reflect on the past, and to consider what should be preserved and how.

See it if you want to see characters you care about

Don't see it if you can't tolerate coarse language