SUMMER: Nothing Bad Girl About It Despite its potential, SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL not only takes the jukebox musical backwards but also renders as uninteresting as possible the life of the Queen of Disco, who plays a larger role in American pop culture than this show is willing to take on. And a trio of immensely talented women, who play Summer at different stages of her life each with astounding vocal power and authority, cannot compensate for a dismal book, cred

If a great play is defined as the dramatization of private, internalized conflict both among and within characters where that conflict is both informed by and reflective of their public, external environment, Athol Fugard’s A LESSON FROM ALOES, first performed at Yale Rep in 1978, qualifies and then some. And, under the impeccable direction of Darko Tresnjak, with a superb cast, there might not be a finer production than what is poignantly achieved at the Hartford Stage.

INTERESTING, BUT.... THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE at the Vineyard Theatre The reliable finesse of choreography and direction of Susan Stroman can’t compensate for the clunky, labored book by David Thompson of THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE, billed as a “dance play” adapted from the Henry James novella, now at the Vineyard Theatre. An aging, internationally successful New York art dealer John Marcher (played by Peter Friedman) acquires a Matisse study of the La Dans (the famous dance