First Nighter: Joel Drake Johnson's Sly Rasheeda Speaks, Craig muMs Grant's Paradox of the Urban Cliché

Joel Drake Johnson is a sly one. At first, his Rasheeda Speaks -- directed by Cynthia Nixon with her own sly touch in a very impressive directing debut -- looks as if it's going to be a straightforward office comedy. But the play -- at the New Group's current Signature Center base -- slowly transforms into something much deeper: an unflinching delve into entrenched racial prejudice. Ileen (Dianne Wiest) and Jaclyn (Tonya Pinkins), who sometimes agrees to be addressed as Jackie and sometimes does...