Andrew Garman (Michael) and Crystal Finn (Jeanie) in Anne Washburn's Anon, directed by Anne Kauffman at MCC Theater. Photo: Monique Carboni Setting a play entirely around a kitchen table is not in itself remarkable. When the author is Anne Washburn, however, it is. In fact, the decision is juicily provocative because no one would ever expect that of her. Far from being spartan, domestic, or kitchen-sink realistic (theater’s usual contexts for kitchen tables), Washburn’s plays

Zoë Winters, Eli Gelb, Molly Ranson, Nate Mann, and Hale Appleman in Jonathan Spector's Birthright, directed by Teddy Bergman at MCC Theater. Photo: Emilio Madrid Jonathan Spector’s new play Birthright—just opened at MCC Theater in a sharp, superbly acted production directed by Teddy Bergman—is way more absorbing than you might expect from an incessantly talky and disputatious, 3 ½-hour drama about American Jewish identity. This astute and remarkably moving work follows 6 Jew

(l. to r. foreground) LaChanze (Lady Capulet), Glenn Fleshler (Lord Capulet), Jessica Pimentel (Prince Escalus), Jason Manuel Olazabal (Lord Montague), Mariand Torres (Lady Montague) in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, directed by Saheem Ali, Delacorte Theater. Photo: Joan Marcus. For the second time in two years, a flashy, big-budget Romeo and Juliet has opened in New York that’s so bent on pleasing one particular target audience with shallowly conceived staging gimmicks that i