Liberal Jews unhappy about the results of an election. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A gentrifying neighborhood with rising rents.

I’ll begin this review with two digressions. I recently saw Zachary Quinto on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and totally enjoyed the interview. I’ve admired Quinto as an actor — loved him in “The Glass Menagerie” and his film and TV roles and he was a witty and self-effacing guest. Then the topic of his role in Smokefall came up and the phrase “magical realism” was used...

The four characters who make up the cast of Smart People like to pontificate. They definitely are book smart, but not necessarily smart in dealing with friends and lovers.

Noises Off  unfolds at breakneck speed with carefully choreographed carelessness. The incomparable Andrea Martin plays the female lead who has problems with a plate of sardines, Megan Hilty is the wonderfully wooden ingenue who can’t act and definitely can’t improvise and other stand-outs include Daniel Davis and Jeremy Shamos.

I think there may be an unwritten law when discussing theater in 2016 that you have to somehow reference “Hamilton.” So I’ll do so — the revival of Fiddler on the Roof reminds me of the story of the founding fathers.

We all know the story — man likes woman, woman likes man, woman is engaged to another man, yet another (disfigured) man lusts after the woman. She has him commit murder and complications ensue.

We’ve reviewed plays that open windows into cultures we’re unfamiliar with. Often we’re left to wonder if what we’re seeing on stage is really representative of that culture, a broadly played interpretation or just the figment of a playwright’s imagination. After seeing Steve, I was left wondering, and not in a productive way, if gay men of a certain age all really have threeways, if there has to be one wise-cracking lesbian in the group, and what do gay men have against Amy Adams?

There are certain plays where I’d like to have been privy to the prologue. What was George doing Saturday before he went to the park on Sunday? Was the fiddler on the balcony before he made his way up to the roof? And was there a funny baby before there was a Funny Girl?

The best theater is thought-provoking. Sure, there are escapist musicals which we all need (now more than ever). But walking out of a theater, whether you’ve been laughing or crying, humming tunes or remembering a particular phrase, the show and performances stick with you, challenge you and leave a lasting impression — that is more than worth the (rising) cost of admission.