What's a journalist's first duty— to report the atrocities she witnesses, or to try to prevent them? At a time when journalists are dying in Syria, it's a timely question. It's also relevant even for theater critics.

In this excellent revival, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men reminds us again that there are worse things than poverty— loneliness, for example.

After Athol Fugard's racial drama Blood Knot was first performed in South Africa in 1961, he was arrested and his play was banned. To revisit this seminal work today, 18 years after the end of apartheid, is a doubly moving and meaningful experience.

Children's theater has become the tail that wags the dog for some astute theater companies, like the Arden. Worse things could happen.

Tina Howe's Museum, her first play, still has legs in Villanova's revival, smartly and effectively staged by Joanna Rotté. If anything, this witty satire is even more relevant to America's commercialized art culture today, especially in Philadelphia. Museum. By Tina Howe; Joanne Rotté directed. Through February 19, 2012 at the Villanova Theatre, Vasey Hall, Villanova University. (610) 519-7474 or www.villanovatheatre.org.

Anthony Lawton reprises his one-man tour de force adaptation of C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, which explains to a highly misguided world the right way to get to heaven.

In Anthony Lawton's vision, heaven welcomes even murderers as long as they display good manners at the pearly gates. Is this really what C.S. Lewis had in mind?

Clybourne Park deals with changing racial attitudes in a Chicago neighborhood. Unfortunately, playwright Bruce Norris opts for easy wit over genuine substance— and his wit isn't all that witty.

When I first saw this tribute to the Beatles in 2008 I was bothered by its inconsistencies. Now I see that being many things to different people is what Rain is all about.

The theatrical power of the minstrel show framing worked successfully on many levels in The Scottsboro Boys. My criticism with the minstrelsy device here is that it was often too tame, and the play didn't push it much further to heighten the impact of racism's destructiveness and inherent tragedy. The Scottsboro Boys. Music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb; book by David Thompson; Susan Stroman's original direction and choreography recreated by Jeff Whiting. Philadelphia Theater Company production through February 19, 2012 at Suzanne Roberts Theater, 480 S. Broad St. (at Lombard). (215) 985-0420 or www.philadelphiatheatercompany.org.