4.5 out of 5 stars

The universe is so vast that stars appearing near one another are actually separated by hundreds of light years. That fact becomes a telling metaphor in Samuel D. Hunter’s “Little Bear Ridge Road,” a wondrously realistic play that explores the bond between a cancer-stricken woman (a perfectly cantankerous Laurie Metcalf) and her struggling-to-find-himself nephew (an aptly aloof Micah Stock). These are people tied by blood and eventually by something deeper, but who are solitary and guarded -- that near-and-distant thing. The production takes time to hit its stride, but when it does, it fully delivers on a gut level. — Charles Passy

At the Booth Theatre; littlebearridgeroad.com. (Review date: Oct. 30, 2025)