New and Noteworthy: Theater

Reviewed by Wendy Rosenfield (W.R.), Jim Rutter (J.R.), and Toby Zinman (T.Z.).

Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits (Act II Playhouse) This smart send-up of the Great White Way's musical highlights is nonstop-funny. Through next Sunday. - J.R.

Hands Up: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments (Flashpoint Theatre Company) These short monologues - brutally honest, nuanced, comic, terrifying - answer the question: Why does it always have to be about race? Go. Listen. Hear. Through next Sunday. - J.R.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Lantern Theater) A laugh-out-loud, eye-moppingly funny version of Arthur Conan Doyle's absurdly complicated murder mystery, with three actors playing many (many) parts. Through next Sunday. - T.Z.

How to Write a New Book for the Bible (People's Light and Theatre Company) Strong production of a play in which an 82-year-old woman lives out her final months, and her son confronts the reality of his impending loss. Through next Sunday. - W.R.

I Hate Hamlet (Montgomery Theater) The young actor hates playing Shakespeare's tragic hero - and then he meets the ghost of John Barrymore, who didn't. Through July 12.

I Love a Piano (Walnut Street Theatre's Independence Studio) This delightful revue casts back to an America facing external and economic unrest, united by the music of Irving Berlin. Through next Sunday. - J.R.

Memphis (Walnut Street Theatre) This musically sensational Tony-winning show based on the life of Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s, makes a mess of the facts. Through July 12. - J.R.

My Mother Has 4 Noses (People's Light and Theatre Company) Jonatha Brook's one-woman musical about life with her failing mother. Through next Sunday.

Murder for Two (Philadelphia Theatre Company) One actor plays one character and the other actor plays everybody else in this 13-character madcap mystery. Not a lot of depth, but good, silly fun. Through next Sunday. - W.R.

Passion (Arden Theatre) It takes a while for the seduction of Stephen Sondheim's Passion to take hold, but once it does, there's no turning away. Jennie Eisenhower, married lover of a handsome soldier, and Liz Filios, who obsessively pursues the man, shine as opposing forces. Through next Sunday. - W.R.

Post Haste (Hedgerow Theatre) In 1915, before she was the nation's arbiter of manners, adventuresome Emily Post motored across the United States. Through next Sunday.

The Three Christs of Manhattan (InterAct) Seth Rozin's comic intellectual exercise about a psychiatrist with three patients who claim to be Jesus sports a crack cast but doesn't quite jell. Ends Sunday. - W.R.