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Here are our thoughts on this season’s inadvertent (and possibly advertent) snubs, delightful (or mystifying) surprises and other notable anomalies. A melancholy morning for ‘Vanya.’Television stars are considered good box office but not always good Tony bait. This year’s crop, including Sarah Paulson, Jeremy Strong, Steve Carell and William Jackson Harper, complicates that wisdom. Spreading all that love helped take the show to Number One with a Bullet — the most nominated play in Broadway history. On the other hand, the superb ensemble casts of “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” and “Illinoise” were skunked.

Persons: “, ‘ Vanya, ’, Tony, Sarah Paulson, Jeremy Strong, Steve Carell, William Jackson Harper, Paulson, Carell, Harper, Uncle Vanya, ”, Chekhov, David Adjmi’s, Tom Pecinka, Sarah Pidgeon, Juliana Canfield, Will Brill, Eli Gelb, Illinoise Organizations: Broadway, Lincoln Center Theater

☆ 10 Performances That Pushed Emotional Limits
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-03 | by ( Maya Phillips | More About Maya Phillips | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’Even if the hairstyles in this play weren’t as fabulous as they were, Jocelyn Bioh’s “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” about a day in the life of African immigrants working in a Harlem hair-braiding shop, would still be a sparkling Broadway delight. That’s thanks to Bioh’s colorful characters and brisk, playful dialogue. I didn’t know until I saw David Adjmi’s “Stereophonic,” which kept me fully engaged through its full three-hour running time. We learn about the characters through the parts they play in making and performing this music — which, by the way, is amazing, and written by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire. (Read our review of “Flex.”)

Persons: ‘, Jocelyn Bioh’s “, Whitney, it’s, guiltily, Daisy Jones, ”, Fleetwood Mac, David Adjmi’s, Will Butler, David Zinn’s, Ryan, you’re, Erica Matthews, Mitzi E, Newhouse, “, Lileana Blain Organizations: Broadway, Center Theater Locations: Harlem, Arkansas

☆ For Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Hair Is Rooted in Pride
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Martha Schwendener | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Black hair has been a rousing topic for politicians, comedians and artists for decades. Malcolm X argued that straightening Black hair to conform to white beauty standards was a form of racist brainwashing. Regina Kimbell made a documentary with the brilliant title “My Nappy Roots: A Journey Through Black Hair-itage” (2010) and the comedian Chris Rock made a similar documentary, “Good Hair” (2009), about the Black hair industry (and, of course, got in trouble at the Oscars for mentioning a Black actress’s lack of hair). Now a Broadway play, “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” written by Jocelyn Bioh, celebrates the “masterpieces” created by West African immigrants on women’s heads in a Harlem braiding shop. What’s often missing from the Black hair narrative is the experience of Black nonbinary people.

Persons: Malcolm X, Regina Kimbell, ”, Chris Rock, “, Jocelyn Bioh, What’s, Black, Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s Organizations: West Locations: Harlem, Philadelphia

☆ When a Seat in the Theater Means a Seat in the Salon
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Maya Phillips | More About Maya Phillips | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In a scene in Jocelyn Bioh’s “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” a man rolls in a cart of items to sell to the clients and stylists at the titular salon. I wasn’t the only one: A small contingency of the audience at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater started snickering and laughing before he had even fully stepped onstage. “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” draws its comedy from this world — a world familiar to many Black women audience members like me. Bioh’s salon isn’t an abstraction or callback; it’s a Black business set in modern-day Harlem. Bioh’s writing captures the quirks of a Black hair salon, and the characters who populate it: the unfortunate early-bird client who’s first to arrive when the shop’s late to open, the internal salon politics of stylists competing for clients, the inappropriate gossip, the sense of community.

Persons: Jocelyn Bioh’s “, ”, Samuel J, “, Whitney White, it’s Organizations: Friedman Locations: Harlem, Jaja’s

Alongside the comedy and drama, “Jaja’s” features a multitude of strand mastery, as Bioh and the director Whitney White (“Our Dear Dead Drug Lord”) were determined to show a range of hairdos coming to life onstage. To pull this off, most of these styles are executed in real time with a little stage magic courtesy of wigs constructed by the hair and wig designer Nikiya Mathis. Cast members, who braid hair onstage, practiced during rehearsals on wigs she designed for the performance. “There are so many moving pieces to the show that involve hair, and it’s not just me backstage,” Mathis said. “It’s also the actors onstage, it’s what Jocelyn has written, and it’s what Whitney will be helping us to reveal.”“Part of that,” she continued, “is going to be the magic of figuring out how we’re going to construct the wigs and how to potentially take them apart.”

Persons: Whitney White, ”, Nikiya Mathis, it’s, ” Mathis, “ It’s, Jocelyn, Whitney

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