Theater blooms in April,‘Broadway by the Year’

If you’re an avid theatergoer you already know that the current season is the most prolific in memory. It’s not “what should I see?” as much as “How does one fit in the current crunch of new and newly revived shows that signal the annual New York theater awards season is on the very near horizons?”
The Public Theater’s “Hamilton,” Lin Manuel Miranda’s wildly clever hip-hop, pop and R & B retelling of how the founding fathers lived it up, down and dirty while formulating the birth of a nation has chosen not to move to Broadway until the 2015-16 season begins. The current listings offer Alison Bechdel’s memoir (Jeanine Tesori, music and Lisa Kron, book and lyrics) of her own “coming out” and her father’s refusal to do the same with wrenching consequences for all in “Fun Home.” The audacious “Hand to God” has finally been thrust up where it belongs in Robert Askins’ raucous, irreverent tale of a hand puppet from Hell!
There’s always room for another “Hamlet” when it’s Peter Sarsgaard as the benighted Dane in Classic Stage Company’s new off-Broadway revival of Shakespeare’s haunting tragedy. From abroad, the much anticipated “Wolf Hall,” Parts 1 and 2” bring us the Royal Shakespeare’s gripping tale of treason, incest, and more misbehavior drawn from the pages of actual British history. And, in “Skylight” Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan reprise their ballyhooed London roles from last year in a tale of former lovers in David Hares 1995 exploration of one very long nights journey into reminiscence