Seat Filler: 's Guide to New York Theater

  Shadow Boxing
One of three British solo shows performed in rep as part of the 2011 Brits Off Broadway festival, James Gaddas’s lean and muscular monologue is a knockout under Donald Pulford’s punchy direction. The appealing Jonny Collis-Scurll stars as Flynn, a dedicated boxer and son of a much less successful fighter. As he does push-ups and pummels unseen opponents, we also learn that Flynn is also a gay man who overcame childhood bullying.
59E59 Theatres, through November 20.

 Burning
Graphic unsafe sex scenes and full-frontal nudity eclipse all else in Thomas Bradshaw’s provocative moral satire — helmed by New Group’s out artistic director Scott Elliott — about icky folks like incestuous neo-Nazi siblings. In an ’80s-set storyline, an orphaned 14-year-old is taken in by an older gay couple who shamelessly sleep with him until he contracts HIV from another adult and grows up to indulge his own id with a black youth.
Acorn Theatre, through December 17.

  Asuncion
Racial perceptions are challenged when a Filipina — is she a mail-order sex slave? — moves in with a pair of liberal roommates. The unhealthy heart of this likable lightweight comedy, which was written by The Social Network’s Jesse Eisenberg, is the lopsided bromance between neurotic weirdo Edgar (Eisenberg) and sleazebag stoner Vinny (Justin Bartha). During a bad acid trip, Edgar offers Vinny oral sex to prove his love and loyalty.
Cherry Lane Theatre, through December 18.