Off Broadway's Cup Overfloweth

SUPPOSEDLY it’s Broadway’s busiest time of the year, with all those shows scrambling to open before the April 25 deadline for Tony eligibility. But the Off Broadway stages have been just as busy, With stories about gay weddings, unexpected inheritances, child porn addicts, births and deaths (some of them much too close together), 1920s Irish alcoholics who refuse to work and 1930s union organizers who just want to work but can’t seem to beat the corrupt system

A PROPER ENGLISHWOMAN Phoebe Waller-Bridge in “Fleabag,” her solo show, which made its debut at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

FLEABAG

For the first half of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s stunning solo show, I thought it was just a very funny, insistently naughty comedy routine. Happily, Waller-Bridge is a Brit, so when she talks about a handprint on the wall from “when I had a three-way during my period,” it sounds much more dignified than you’d think. Still, I wondered how the London run could have won her an Olivier Award. Soon, I understood. The story is not only about the character’s active sex life; it’s also about the guinea-pig-themed bar she and her gal-pal partner, Boo, ran; Boo’s death (from a deliberate act that was only supposed to injure her and make her boyfriend sorry he’d cheated on her); guilt; culpability; and the horrible sometime irrevocability of people making mistakes. The only time the hip downtown audience gasped? When a male character kicked an animal.

Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, sohoplayhouse.com, 1 hour 5 minutes. Limited run. Closes on April 14.

WHAT HER HUSBAND DID Maddie Corman, the writer and star of “Accidentally Brave,” discussed her play and her personal experience on ABC’s “The View” on March 21.

ACCIDENTALLY BRAVE

Maddie Corman, who wrote and performs this solo show, is a New York actress, wife and mom who got a huge shock a few years ago. Her adorably cute husband, a television director, was arrested on child pornography charges — watching it and sharing it. (Not making it, she absolutely wants us to know.) And as Ms. Corman announces at the beginning of her intelligent one-act, this is her story, not his. It’s as well done as can be. It’s intelligent, it has humor, and she’s a solidly good actress. The only trouble is that we’ve seen this story before. (One distinguishing feature is that she decides to stay with her husband.) But we’re left with the questions she won’t answer: why was this handsome, successful man driven to spend hours on his computer watching children being forced to have sex? How dd she not know? And if he’s “fixed,” how?

DR2 Theater,, 101 East 15th Street, accidentallybrave.com. 1 hour 40 minutes (no intermission). Limited run. Closes on July 14.

SHE’S IN LOVE WITH A WONDERFUL GAL Debra Jo Rupp, left, plays an emotionally torn baker in “The Cake” at City Center. Genevieve Angelson plays her goddaughter.

THE CAKE

A sweet, motherly, sincerely religious baker in Heartland America is asked to do a gay couple’s wedding cake , and she just can’t. Ripped from the headlines! The difference here is that one of the brides is her goddaughter (whose own mother died young) and whom she loves with all her heart. How can this be resolved? The baker is played by Debra Jo Rupp, best known as the sassy mom on “That ‘70s Show” and the sister-in-law who begs Phoebe to carry her artificially inseminated triplets on “Friends.” Actually, my favorite memory of Rupp is as Dr. Ruth in a regional production in Hartford. She’s lovable here, as always, and the drama is entertaining and satisfying if not profound.

City Center, 131 West 55th Street, nycitycenter.org. 1 hour 30 minutes (no intermission) . Limited run. Closed on March 31.

THE CRADLE WILL ROCK

The Classic Stage Company’s revival of “The Cradle Will Rock” is a class act. The show, a sung-through musical about labor strife and corrupt power types in Steeltown U.S.A., probably wouldn’t be as well known if the W.P.A. hadn’t shut it down the first time it tried to open, in 1937. Orson Welles directed. The hero is Larry Foreman, the villain is Mr. Mister, and the tone is deadly serious, which is authentically Depression-era theatrical. Definitely worth seeing for the history, the sentiments, the staging and the costumes.

Lynn F. Angelson Theater, 136 East 13th Street, classicstage.org. 1 hour 30 minutes Limited run. Closes on May 19.

HOME VS. PUB Maryann Plunkett and Ciaran O’Reilly as a financially struggling couple in 1920s Dublin in Sean O’Casey’s classic “Juno and the Paycock.”

JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK

At the beginning of Sean O’Casey’s classic, the Boyle family seems to be in bad shape. Dad is a drunk who manages to avoid work by complaining about pain in his legs. Brother lost his arm in the recent violence and is overcome with constant anger. Sister can’t stand the super-nice guy who loves her. Mom works her arse off, keeping it all together. So you’d think that the news that they’re inheriting a big chunk of money from a cousin should fix everything. But it soooooo doesn’t. A sterling cast attacks a script rich with character observation and pulls it all together. John Keating deserves a special comic-relief award for his portrayal of Joxer, the husband’s drinking buddy. I kept thinking of Art Carney as Ed Norton — if Norton’s favorite adjective had been “darling.”

Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, irishrep.org. 2 hours 15 minutes. Limited run. Closes on May 25.

ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, 1975 John Larroquette, left, and Will Swenson, with a lobster in a cooler, in John Guare’s “Nantucket Sleigh Ride” at Lincoln Center.

NANTUCKET SLEIGH RIDE

It’s a new John Guare play, which is not a small thing. It’s a new John Guare play starring John Larroquette, which is even more promising. The Wall Street Journal called it a “bona fide masterpiece,” and Press Nights agrees. The plot: A flashback to 1975, when a playwright who bought a house in Nantucket as an investment has to go there to check out a possible crime. He comes across a theater-loving cop, a romantic triangle that affects two children and two job offers. One is from Roman Polanski, the other from Disney. (Walt shows up dripping icicles from his cryogenic state.)

Mitzi Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, lct.org, 1 hour 50 minutes. Limited run. Closes on May 5.

LIFESTYLE MAKEOVER Steve Rosen, left, and David Rossmer play the title character in “The Other Josh Cohen.” One is Josh during the show’s action; the other is Josh afterward.

THE OTHER JOSH COHEN

It was the red plaid flannel shirts that did it. I had come to see “The Other Josh Cohen” because it had gotten such great reviews and had been extended. But it took only a few minutes to realize that alas, I’m showing signs of dementia: I’d seen this play before. I’d reviewed this play before. Here’s what I said five years ago when I saw it at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Milburn, N.J., one of my favorite places when I did regional theater reviews for The Times. Loved it then. Loved it now.

Westside Theater, 407 West 43rd Street, otherjoshcohen.com. 1 hour 30 minutes (no intermission). Limited run. Closes on April 7.

ONE GUY AT A TIME Tom Sturridge, left, starred in “Sea Wall” and Jake Gyllenhaal in “A Life” at the Public Theater.

SEA WALL / A LIFE

Wanna know why the people who sat in front of me at this Public production of two one-man one-acts are stupid? They bought tickets, then decided to skip Act I, showing up only for Act II, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. They’ll never know what a stupendous performance they missed: Tom Sturridge is charming, captivating and heartbreaking as a husband and father talking about the horrific life event that proved to him that “anything can happen.” Gyllenhaal, whose drama is also about family, life and death, is quite good too.

Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, publictheater.org. 1 hour 45 minutes. Limited run. Closed on March 31.

NOW CHECK OUT APRIL’S BROADWAY REVIEWS: “KISS ME, KATE” AND “BE MORE CHILL”