Theater: “Toros” @ Second Stage Uptown

Juan Castano is one of those hard-working journeyman actors who is so good, you can’t believe he’s not making a gazillion dollars a year in the next “Avengers” spin-off. We’ve been watching him for years off-Bway and it is our consensus that he slays every part he gets.

In Lucy Thurber’s “Transfers” (MCC) he played a poor kid from the Bronx who was a fish out of water in a New England prep school. He also was excellent as the non-speaking ripped Mexican handyman in Bruce Norris’s “Parallelogram”’ (2nd Stage).

Now New Yorkers can see him this summer as Juan, a Madrileno stoner in Danny Tejera’s new play “Toros” (2nd Stage uptown). Juan and his contemporaries are late-20-year-olds who, as the playwright put it, “grew up belonging to the super-rich-international-money class, children of bankers and diplomats—but who are also bored, lonely, lacking in a stable identity, and unable to believe in any version of reality.” Spot on.

“b” (yes that is her stage name) is hilarious as Andrea, a cynical, cigarette-rolling kindergarten teacher, and Tony-Award-winning Frank Wood is wonderful in both his roles, one of which is a lame dog that periodically hobbles across the stage and likes to have his belly scratched.

If you remember and liked the original production of Lonergan’s “This is Our Youth,” starring a heretofore unknown actor named Mark Ruffalo, you’ll love the subtlety of “Toros,” which begins as a simmer then develops into a four-alarm fire. Hopefully, Juan Castano, who has a big role in the upcoming “Red, White and Royal Blue” will also catch fire and get the attention he richly deserves.