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This production comes complete with town bullies, a frozen flag pole and a very commanding school teacher (Kayla Boye). This is a larger than life production on a fairly small stage and yet the cast of 26 pulled it off seamlessly. Creative use of the staging takes us into the kitchen most of the time after all, that is where most of the action is happening. The most exciting of holiday dinners gets destroyed when disaster strikes and they end up eating out at a Chinese restaurant which the only place open in town. Who knew that little brother Randy liked noodles so much?

After many changes, Finding Neverland, opened on Broadway in March 15, 2015 and closed on August 15, 2015 playing to 62% of capacity – losing much of the $20 million production cost. Upon closing, Finding Neverland played 33 previews and 565 performances. Executive produced Harvey Weinstein (the film producer of many hit films) makes his lead producer debut on Broadway with Finding Neverland. After only a four month run it is now touring the USA and is now playing at the Palace Theatre until December 4, 2016. While there are some fine moments, especially with the four boys, Finding Neverland comes of as an over-staged and over-produced musical filled with unremarkable and unmemorable songs in a overlong show (2hours, 40 minutes) filled with sentimental fluff.

To bring us all up to Electra: prior to Electra, Agamemnon, to appease the goddess Artemis in order to allow his troops to reach Troy, sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia (Iphigenia at Aulis); then, to avenge the death of her daughter (and because she had, during Agamemnon’s 10-year absence, taken up an adulterous affair with Aegisthus, Agamemnon’s cousin and rival to the House of Atreus), Clytemnestra murders Agamemnon, prompting Electra to send her brother, Orestes, into hiding (lest her mother should murder him, too), until the time when he might return to avenge his father’s death (Agamemnon).

The storyline is wacky as it plays out as a long “so what moment.” Molly (Emily Tate0 is a housewife whose world is very small. She spends her days with her tender aged two children. She has her kids watch PBS nature documentaries such as those about turtles. At night she watches TV with her husband Sloan (Drew Johnson), a good loving guy and a moderate Republican. Molly follows politics but she is not obsessed as her Republican in-laws. Molly is content with her life – she appears a happy person in her small world.

We meet the outspoken, studious, and ever-dependable Mary Bennet (the spirited Emily Berman). Miss Bennet is the middle sister who’d rather read a scientific book that socialize. She doesn’t have any of the romantic escapades that her sisters enjoy. That Christmas, Mary meets a nerdy, studious young Lord, Arthur de Bourgh (a fabulous tern by Erik Hellman) who mirrors Mary’s interests and lifestyle. Is de Bourgh only an intellectual match for Miss Bennet or is there love in the air?

British playwright Mike Bartlett’s very British comedy-drama, King Charles III, is both a ‘could happen’ future history and a satire of the British monarchy. This compelling play appeals more to the English than to American audience sensibilities. Bartlett imitates Shakespeare’s language with blank verse and rhymed couplets in contemporary words. He finds ways to match his characters as classic Shakespearean players. Written in 2014 before major events in England (and the current US election) King Charles III opens with the death of Queen Elizabeth II after a more than 60 year reign.