2.5 out of 5 stars

In "Laowang: A Chinatown King Lear," playwright Alex Lin refashions Shakespeare's tragedy into the modern story of a grandmother with three heirs vying to take control of her legacy, a beloved Chinatown restaurant. That's fine; so is converting Lear's conflict-driven descent into madness into a rather clinical depiction of dementia. What's missing is the original poetry and depth of character. The three siblings, bickering repetitively, come off as shallow archetypes. (The seduction of two of them by a plotting nemesis runs off the rails in this version.) Their grandmother, too, remains largely a cipher even before her memory sadly fades. — Adam Z. Horvath

Presented by Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters, through Dec. 14, 2025. (Review date: Nov. 19, 2025)