Approximate running times are in parentheses. Theaters are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of current shows, additional listings, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/theater.‘BLITHE SPIRIT’ Previews start on Thursday. Opens on March 15. The Tony-winning Michael Blakemore directs this revival of Noël Coward’s comedy, starring Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole, Jayne Atkinson and Rupert Everett. Shubert Theater, 225 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200.
‘DISTRACTED’ In previews; opens on March 4. Lisa Loomer, author of “Living Out” and “The Waiting Room,” explores parental angst in this new work about a mother trying to figure out if her son suffers from attention deficit disorder. Cynthia Nixon stars. Laura Pels Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300.
‘GUYS AND DOLLS’ In previews; opens on March 1. Based on Damon Runyon stories, this classic musical returns to Broadway with Craig Bierko, Oliver Platt and Lauren Graham leading the way. Nederlander Theater, 208 West 41st Street, (212) 307-4100.
‘HEROES’ Previews start on Tuesday. Opens on March 8. Keen Company presents Gerald Sibleyras’s comedy about three World War I veterans living in a home. Translated from the French by Tom Stoppard. Keen Company at the Clurman Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, (212) 279-4200.
‘HUMOR ABUSE’ In previews; opens on March 10. Lorenzo Pisoni wrote and stars in this solo play about his upbringing as the youngest member of the Bay Area Pickle Family Circus. Manhattan Theater Club at City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212.
‘MABOU MINES DOLLHOUSE’ Size matters in this Ibsen revival in which the male actors stand between 40 and 53 inches tall. Mabou Mines’s well-reviewed production returns for a limited run. St. Ann’s Warehouse, 38 Water Street, at Dock Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn, (718) 254-8779.
‘OTHELLO’ In previews; opens on Sunday. The trusty Theater for a New Audience presents a new 11-
actor revival of Shakespeare’s tragedy. The Duke at 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, (646) 223-3010.
‘OUR TOWN’ In previews; opens on Thursday. After rave reviews in Chicago, this revival of the Thornton Wilder standard, staged around the audience by David Cromer, moves to New York. Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, West Village, (212) 868-4444.
‘THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION’ In previews; opens on March 3. When a Roman Catholic spinster admits a door-to-door Pentecostal missionary into her home, her faith begins to waver in this drama by Evan Smith. Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200.
‘TALES OF AN URBAN INDIAN’ Previews start on Friday. Opens on March 1. This semi-autobiographical solo show by the Canadian actor and comedian Darrell Dennis returns to the Public Theater after a successful run in the Native Theater Festival (1:30). Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555.
‘THAT PRETTY PRETTY; OR, THE RAPE PLAY’ In previews; opens on Monday. A screenwriter bases his macho new film on real-life serial killers on a rampage to murder anti-abortion activists, in a satire by Sheila Callaghan. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, at Perry Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 868-4444.
‘33 VARIATIONS’ In previews; opens on March 9. Jane Fonda returns to Broadway in this new work as a woman who sets out to discover the roots of Beethoven’s obsession with a trivial waltz. Eugene O’Neill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200.
‘THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY’ In previews; opens on Sunday. The increasingly ambitious company the Civilians (“Gone Missing”) explores the boom of the evangelical movement in its new piece, developed through interviews in Colorado Springs. Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, (212) 353-0303.
‘WEST SIDE STORY’ Previews start on Monday. Opens on March 19. Arthur Laurents directs the long-anticipated revival of this beloved modern spin on “Romeo and Juliet.” Palace Theater, 1564 Broadway, (212) 307-4100.
‘THE WIDOWING OF MRS. HOLROYD’ In previews; opens on March 1. The Mint unearths this revival of D. H. Lawrence’s play about a troubled family in a coal mining village. Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, third floor, Clinton, (212) 315-0231.
‘THE WINTER’S TALE’ In previews; opens on Friday. Sam Mendes directs a trans-Atlantic cast led by Simon Russell Beale in this new revival of Shakespeare’s late romance. Harvey Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100.
Broadway
★ ‘THE AMERICAN PLAN’ Richard Greenberg’s elegant and incisive 1990 play about fear and loving in the Catskills in 1960 has been given the revival it deserves. David Grindley’s production, starring a masterly Mercedes Ruehl and Lily Rabe, is both subtle and shimmeringly clear. Samuel J. Friedman Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200.
(Ben Brantley)
★ ‘BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL’ An exultant exploration of the urge to dance that both artfully anatomizes and brazenly exploits the fundamental appeal of musicals themselves. This film-based tale of a coal miner’s son with ballet dreams has been staged with prodigious inventiveness by the director Stephen Daldry and the choreographer Peter Darling, with soulful music by Elton John (2:50). Imperial Theater, 249 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley)
‘HEDDA GABLER’ The talented Ian Rickson directs the talented Mary-Louise Parker in the title role of Ibsen’s drama — to bizarrely disastrous effect (2:15). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley)
* ‘IN THE HEIGHTS’ Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the bubbly Latin pop score for this musical about barrio life, also gives a captivating performance as the owner of a bodega who dispenses good cheer along with café con leche. Zesty choreography and a host of lively performers are among its other assets; its fundamental flaw is a vivid streak of sentimentality (2:20). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Charles Isherwood)
‘PAL JOEY’ Joe Mantello’s joyless revival of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart classic seems to be in mourning for its own lifelessness. Matthew Risch, Stockard Channing and Martha Plimpton star in a production with no detectable pulse (2:20). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley)
‘SHREK THE MUSICAL’ This musical cavalcade of storybook effigies, adapted from the animated film of the same title, can feel like 40 blocks’ worth of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, accompanied by an exhaustingly jokey commentary. But Brian d’Arcy James and the hypertalented Sutton Foster find a sweet, goofy chemistry as an ogre and a princess (2:30). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley)
* ‘SOUTH PACIFIC’ Bartlett Sher’s rapturous revival of this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic recreates the unabashed, unquestioning romance American theatergoers once had with the American book musical. Kelli O’Hara and Paulo Szot are the revelatory stars of a pitch-perfect cast. (2:50). Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley)
‘YOU’RE WELCOME AMERICA. A FINAL NIGHT WITH GEORGE W BUSH’ Will Ferrell offers a critic-proof demonstration of the art of acting stupid, shrewdly, for fun and profit. Adam McKay directed this sometimes very funny, sometimes saggy, uh, celebration of the 43rd president (1:25). Cort Theater, 136 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley)
Off Broadway
★ ‘ARISTOCRATS’ A first-rate revival of Brian Friel’s elegiac play about the decline and decay of Ballybeg Hall and the family of Irish Catholic aristocracy that occupied it, as a clan gathering for a wedding turns into a wake for a way of life that might not even have existed (2:00). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737.
(Wilborn Hampton)
★ ‘BECKY SHAW’ Gina Gionfriddo’s sharp-elbowed comedy of bad manners is a cautionary tale about a fix-up with toxic ramifications for both the couple involved and the married friends trying to get them together. Playing a money manager armored head to toe in cynicism, David Wilson Barnes gets the choicest of Ms. Gionfriddo’s acerbic observations about love, sex and ethics, but the whole cast, including Annie Parisse as the shrinking violet with sharp thorns, is terrific under Peter DuBois’s incisive direction (2:00). Second Stage Theater, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 246-4422. (Isherwood)
‘BLANCHE SURVIVES KATRINA IN A FEMA TRAILER NAMED DESIRE’ Mark Sam Rosenthal’s affably wacky one-man show about the fading heroine of “A Streetcar Named Desire” (mysteriously no older after six decades) really captures Blanche DuBois’s dreamy Southern voice and plays out some enjoyable scenarios, but never fully takes shape (1:10). SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, South Village, (212) 691-1555. (Anita Gates)
‘THE CASTLE’ Four ex-convicts tell how they returned to society in this simple and fascinating, if at times overearnest, production. In this nation of overcrowded prisons, its message that we reconsider our treatment of ex-felons is well worth considering (1:00). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Andy Webster)
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