Flippant delivery misses completely in the elegiac, ironic passages — which, sadly, are the only decent writing in Something Cloudy, Something Clear.

Is there even an audience in the U.S. for this piece of historical marginalia?

But Menagerie is so much more: funny, tragic and, best of all, sly.

Tolan's script is all arch moments, with nothing to pull them together.

There's an invigorating energy to the short, punchy vignettes — energy also found in Rozin's lightening-fast direction.

Playwright David Davalos has fun with the clash of religious beliefs, and manages to riff cleverly on Shakespeare, history, pop culture and most of all, life in academia.

Embedded deep in MMI is an homage to Knoxville: Summer of 1915, James Agee's beautiful prose-poem that is itself a reminiscence of boyhood and outsider-ness. Investigation reveals Albee's dazzlingly virtuosic plays on Agee and his images, including puns palindromic and homophonous.

Some of what Hwang achieves is terrific. But ultimately, M. Butterfly doesn't quite fulfill its promise.

Avenue Q, the fabulously imaginative puppet musical, isn't really for kids. It is, however, a very original show that will delight adults and young adults, especially those raised on Sesame Street, to which Avenue Q plays mischievous homage.

If this Fantasticks were in a small community theater, I could happily praise it as full of energy and good will, likely to enchant the friends, parents and local folks in attendance, and well worth the (undoubtedly inexpensive) ticket prices.