Sell/Buy/Date *** B

It’s hard to believe that 12 years have passed since I first saw the incredibly talented Sarah Jones perform “Bridge & Tunnel,” her love letter to the immigrants of New York City, in which she created about a dozen characters of different ethnicities. It moved to Broadway and was awarded a special Tony. Since then, Ms. Jones has been busy with a variety of activities, including serving as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and advocating for women in the sex industry. When Manhattan Theatre Club announced her long-awaited return to the New York stage, it was cause for celebration. Once again Ms. Jones plays multiple characters, loosely connected by some involvement in selling or buying sex. The framing device has a British professor at some future time giving a lecture on changing attitudes toward sex work over the decades. Her lecture is enhanced by BERT (bio-empathetic resonant technology) which presents her students (and the audience, of course) with not only the words, but also the emotions and memories of each research subject. Most of the characters are vividly created and some of the points they make are thought-provoking. The lecture is punctuated by several interruptions during which the professor attempts to resolve a problem that is delaying her appointment as head of a new department. I thought this subplot undercut rather than enhanced the main idea. Dane Laffrey’s elegantly simple set is beautifully lit by Eric Southern. Carolyn Cantor is the director. While is was a great pleasure to see Sarah Jones again, I was slightly disappointed by the material. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.

Indian Summer **

Gregory S. Moss’s new play at Playwrights Horizons has a lot going for it -- three appealing young actors — Owen Campbell, Elise Kibler and Joe Tippett — and a first-rate production with an attractive set design by Dane Laffrey featuring an inviting beach, apt costumes by Kaye Voyce, great lighting by Eric Southern and smooth direction by Carolyn Cantor. There’s a fourth actor, Jonathan Hadary, whom I usually find annoying, but in this case appropriately so, because his character is also annoying. Daniel (Campbell) is an awkward scrawny 16-year-old whose mother has dumped him for an indefinite period on his step-grandfather George (Hadary) a recently widowed eccentric, who lives in a shack in a small Rhode Island beach town. On the beach, Daniel meets Izzy, a scrappy, sexy townie. It is obvious that their initial hostility will soon change. Izzy’s boyfriend Jeremy, 10 years her senior, is a martial arts master who has developed his own private philosophy. Fortunately, Jeremy is played by Tippett (Familiar), who brings humanity to a cartoonish role. As Izzy, the stunningly gorgeous Kibler knows how to hold our attention even as the lines she must spout become increasingly implausible. I wish that the actors had not been forced to struggle with a Rhode Island accent. What starts as a simple summer idyll goes seriously off course in the second act with a bizarre scene between George and Izzy. George’s hijacking of the play’s ending is the final misstep that wiped out my early good feelings. The mostly-subscriber audience, probably relieved at not having to confront anything too edgy, loved it. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Good Television ***

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A TV reality show called "Rehabilitation" might seem too easy a target, but Rod McLachlan's off-Broadway debut play in previews at Atlantic Stage 2 generally avoids easy satire. Bernice (Talia Balsam) is the cynical show runner. Connie (Kelly McAndrew) is the senior producer responsible for selecting which addicts will be cast for the show and, thereby, get a family intervention and a chance for free rehab. Tara (Jessica Cummings) is the idealistic new hire fresh out of film school (and the boss's cousin). Ethan (Andrew Stewart-Jones) is brought in to run the show when Bernice bails for an infotainment show on Fox. The production team must decide whether to cast Clemson MacAddy (John Magaro) of Aiken, SC, a teen-aged meth addict, for the show. His sister Brittany (Zoe Perry) is a single mom struggling to care for her kids, her dying mother and her addict younger brother. Their older brother Mackson (Luke Robertson) is rarely around to help, but shows up as soon as he sniffs opportunity. Their long-absent abusive father (Ned Van Zandt) puts in an appearance too. When film crew and MacAddy family meet in Act Two, things do not go smoothly -- to put it mildly. All the actors are good, but McAndrew and Perry are superb. The bond that grows between their characters is the play's backbone. Eric Southern's set, Theresa Squire's costumes and Bob Krakower's direction are all fine. The play raises interesting ethical questions: who is deserving vs. who is likely to yield "good television?" What, if any, are the differences between documentary and reality show? Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes including intermission. Note: Avoid Row A at Atlantic Stage 2. It is actually the second row and not raised above the front row.

Buyer and Cellar ****

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Jonathan Tolins' one-person comedy in previews at the Rattlestick Theater is a guilty pleasure. It's sheer fluff, but what delightful fluff. The premise is so wacky that I just gave into it to see where it would lead: a certain superstar, whose first name is Barbra, has built an underground mall beneath the barn on her Malibu estate to house the many possessions she has acquired over the years. She likes to visit her stash, but doesn't like to be alone, so she hires an unemployed actor, Alex More, to impersonate a salesperson and be on call for her visits. Luckily for us, Alex is played by the talented Michael Urie, who also portrays Alex's cynical screenwriter boyfriend Barry, Barbra, her personal assistant Sharon and hubby James Brolin. A series of scenes in which Barbra haggles to buy a doll (which she of course already owns) is hilarious. Will Alex ever be invited upstairs to see her home? Will Barbra ever play Mama Rose on film? If you are a fan of divas in general or Barbra in particular, or a Urie fan or a lover of musicals or an unemployed actor or all of the above, you will have a good time. Andrew Boyce's simple set is greatly enhanced by Eric Southern's excellent lighting and Alex Koch's projections. Director Stephen Brackett might want to consider trimming a few minutes. Running time: 90 minutes without intermission.