“Othello,” unique among Shakespeare’s tragedies, is lean. (It’s even leaner in this production, thanks to some judicious cutting.) It has fewer major characters than most, and fewer sideshows ...

Denzel Washington is the star of the show but he plays his Othello with a remoteness that can throw off the play.

The actor injects notes of ingratiating charm into his character's evil ... can generate heat. Key dialogue is treated almost disposably, nowhere more so than in Othello's "It is the cause ...