Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 14

BWW Review: THE EBONIC WOMAN: Gold Dust Orphans Superheroes Restore American Values
by Nancy Grossman - May 06, 2019

Never mind all those Marvel heroes and the new bladder buster movie 'Avengers: Endgame,' if you want to see a real heroine in action, line up for the Gold Dust Orphans' final show at the soon-to-be repurposed Machine Nightclub. Kiki Samko takes the director's reins and wrangles all of the players in...

BWW Review: INDECENT: A Work of Art, A Story of Love
by Nancy Grossman - May 03, 2019

INDECENT is a beautiful work of art that exists in a realm above and beyond the conventional category of a play, or, in this case, a play with music. It has an ethereal quality that suggests an oil painting in motion, with every movement and every utterance in service to telling a story that cannot ...

BWW Review: BECOMING DR. RUTH: Rising From The Ashes to Washington Heights
by Nancy Grossman - May 01, 2019

New Repertory Theatre presents BECOMING DR. RUTH, Mark St. Germain's (FREUD'S LAST SESSION) biographical comedy that tells you everything you didn't even know you wanted to know about Dr. Ruth, but were glad the playwright asked. Set in her Washington Heights, NY, apartment with a panoramic view ove...

BWW Review: CRY IT OUT Concludes Merrimack Rep's 40th Season
by Nancy Grossman - April 30, 2019

Merrimack Repertory Theatre concludes its 40th season with Molly Smith Metzler's CRY IT OUT, a delightful human comedy that surfs along on the waves of a burgeoning friendship between a pair of mothers of newborn babies, while also acknowledging the myriad challenges that lurk beneath the surface. T...

BWW Review: MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET: Rock 'n' Roll Is Here To Stay
by Nancy Grossman - April 28, 2019

On December 4, 1956, at Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, a great moment in rock 'n' roll history occurred, almost by chance. Record producer Sam Phillips, sometimes referred to as the "Father of Rock 'n' Roll," brought together the past, present, and future artists of his recording company ...

BWW Review: CAROLINE, OR CHANGE at Moonbox Productions
by Nancy Grossman - April 24, 2019

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE is Tony Kushner's (book and lyrics) semi-autobiographical, sung-through musical, with music by Jeanine Tesori (FUN HOME), that had its origins Off-Broadway in 2003, before transferring to Broadway in 2004 for 136 performances and receiving six Tony nominations. In the ensuing yea...

BWW Review: Boston Playwrights' Theatre Concludes Season of New Plays With DEAD HOUSE
by Nancy Grossman - April 22, 2019

The Boston theater community is enriched by the presence of Boston Playwrights' Theatre, founded in 1981 at Boston University by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. The BU New Play Initiative is an element of the Boston University College of Fine Arts which fosters a commitment to the School of Theatre's ...

BWW Review: SYLVIA: The Lady Is A Tramp
by Nancy Grossman - April 20, 2019

Theater UnCorked drains the bottle of its inaugural season this weekend with a fully-staged production of SYLVIA, prolific playwright A.R. Gurney's homage to man's best friend. Hilarious and heartwarming in equal measure, the play is a welcome respite from the spate of heftier, more serious dramatic...

BWW Review: Zeitgeist Stage Company Cements Its Imprint With World Premiere of TRIGGER WARNING
by Nancy Grossman - April 15, 2019

The world may end with a whimper, but Zeitgeist Stage Company goes out with a bang, presenting the world premiere of Jacques Lamarre's TRIGGER WARNING. David J. Miller and company bring down the curtain after eighteen seasons on the Boston theater scene, leaving a void that will not be soon or easil...

BWW REVIEW: Testosterone Fuels Riveting TAP DOGS at Hanover Theatre in Worcester
by Jan Nargi - April 12, 2019

There are times when the percussion in TAP DOGS, the testosterone-fueled tap dance extravaganza now at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester through April 14, is so penetrating that your diaphragm literally pulses in rhythm to the beat. A workman-themed sound and dance performance that seems like the lov...

BWW Review: A BRONX TALE: Standin' On The Corner
by Nancy Grossman - April 05, 2019

The North American tour of A BRONX TALE doo-wops its way into the Citizens Bank Opera House through April 14th as part of the 2018-2019 Lexus Broadway In Boston Season. It is at once a nostalgic stroll down memory lane with an original rock 'n' roll score, a gritty depiction of urban turf wars, and ...

BWW Review: EXTREMITIES - Also Known As Theatre
by David Tompkins - March 30, 2019

In 1982, Extremities, by playwright William Mastrosimone, premiered at Westside Arts in New York starring Susan Sarandon, and later the play was adapted into a movie starring Farrah Fawcett, the final actress to play the role of Marjorie in the Broadway production....

BWW Review: World Premiere THE HAUNTED LIFE: Kerouac's Back in Lowell
by Nancy Grossman - March 30, 2019

It's a different time and a different war, but the protagonist in this coming of age story faces many of the same challenges as would a young person today. What do I want to do with my life? Where do I fit in the world? How can I make my mark? Meanwhile, set in the City of Lowell in 1941-2, as it is...

BWW Review: New England Premiere of CARDBOARD PIANO at New Repertory Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - March 28, 2019

What does God want, and who truly knows? Who gets to decide what is right? These are just a couple of the questions raised in Hansol Jung's wrenching new play, CARDBOARD PIANO, in its New England premiere at New Repertory Theatre. Set in Northern Uganda at the turn of the millennium, a forbidden lov...

BWW Review: NOT MEDEA: Motherhood Gone Awry
by Nancy Grossman - March 20, 2019

Playwright Allison Gregory combines myth and magic to craft a non-linear narrative about betrayal, death, motherhood, and the darkest tragedy. It is to her credit that she weaves a great deal of humor and humanity through the play, and Juliet Bowler is adept at playing both sides of the character. T...

BWW Review: ONEGIN: Russian Romantic Collusion
by Nancy Grossman - March 19, 2019

The Greater Boston Stage Company presents the U.S. premiere of a new musical by Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille, based on the poem by Pushkin and the opera by Tchaikovsky. The pop rock score takes flight, but the sung-through libretto doesn't rise to the same lofty level as the music. Depending on yo...

BWW Review: AN INSPECTOR CALLS: Gripping Revival Rings True
by Nancy Grossman - March 17, 2019

The U.S. tour of the National Theatre's multiple award-winning production of J.B. Priestley's classic thriller, AN INSPECTOR CALLS, presented by ArtsEmerson at Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, features masterful direction by Stephen Daldry (who also directed the 1992 West End revival), Ian MacNeil's...

BWW Review: ROMEO AND JULIET: Capturing the Zeitgeist
by Nancy Grossman - March 09, 2019

The Huntington Theatre Company digs into the William Shakespeare canon and pulls out a plum written more than four centuries ago. After dusting it off and giving it a spin in the time machine, Artistic Director Peter DuBois has crafted a contemporary, muscular version of the romantic tragedy ROMEO A...

BWW Review: ONCE: Guy and Girl Extend Their Stay at SpeakEasy Stage
by Nancy Grossman - March 07, 2019

Once upon a time, a guy and a girl meet on the streets of Dublin, bond over their shared passion for music, enrich each other's lives, and find the way forward to the separate paths that their lives were meant to follow. With its current homegrown production of ONCE, SpeakEasy Stage Company demonstr...

BWW Review: THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY: A Great Escape
by Nancy Grossman - March 07, 2019

THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY can make you forget your troubles and get happy for a couple of hours. From start to finish, the six-member team of multi-talented performers takes turns completing stunning works of prestidigitation, illusion, and daring, mixed with charm, comedy, and extraordi...

BWW Review: ENDLINGS World Premiere at American Repertory Theater
by Nancy Grossman - March 04, 2019

With North Korea so much in the news these days, the American Repertory Theater is offering the opportunity to take a virtual trip to that part of the world with its production of Celine Song's new play, ENDLINGS. Set in part on South Korea's remote Man-Jae Island, and in part on the island of Manha...

BWW Review: BIRDY: Timeless Story of War and Friendship Achieves Liftoff at CommShakes
by Nancy Grossman - March 02, 2019

Pigeon keepers are an interesting and unique, albeit diminishing, subset of humans, and within that group is a subset, presumably small, of people who identify with the birds. Taking it one step further, Birdy, the protagonist in Naomi Wallace's adaptation of William Wharton's novel BIRDY, identifie...

BWW Review: World Premiere of Lauren Gunderson's THE HEATH at Merrimack Rep
by Nancy Grossman - February 27, 2019

Patrons of the Merrimack Repertory Theatre are quite familiar with playwright Lauren Gunderson, named the most produced playwright in America by American Theatre Magazine in 2017, most recently for the much-lauded MRT December production of MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY which she co-authored ...

BWW Review: SPAMILTON: AN AMERICAN PARODY National Tour Extends at Huntington Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - February 22, 2019

Needham native Gerard Alessandrini has been practicing the craft of parody professionally for nearly four decades, ever since FORBIDDEN BROADWAY debuted in New York in 1982. Numerous iterations later, he has pointed his pen at perhaps the biggest target on Broadway, the award-winning juggernaut, Ham...

BWW Review: THE LITTLE FOXES: Lillian Hellman's Classic Bares Its Fangs At Lyric Stage
by Nancy Grossman - February 20, 2019

Eighty years after the Broadway premiere of Lillian Hellman's THE LITTLE FOXES, the Lyric Stage Company production, under the direction of Scott Edmiston, demonstrates that the classic American drama has lost none of its punch. A titanic team of actors portrays the dynamic within the rapacious Hubba...