STAGE

Lighting a Fire: “Substance of Fire,” a new play by 29-year-old Los Angeles playwright Jon Robin Baitz, opened Sunday at Playwrights’ Horizons Off Broadway to mostly positive reviews, both for the author and the play, which focuses on a steely publisher who survived the Holocaust without learning anything about compassion. Wrote the New York Times’ Frank Rich: “Line by line, insight by insight, scene by scene, his writing is already so articulate, witty and true that it’s only a matter of time before his theatrical know-how . . . catches up with his talent.” Newsday’s Jan Stuart called it “a remarkably intelligent drama,” while Howard Kissel of the Daily News found it “splendidly designed, sensitively directed.” Conceding that Baitz is “an interesting young playwright,” the New York Post’s Clive Barnes chided him for spending more time on the leading character than the play.