Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 15

BWW Review: 10X10 NEW PLAY FESTIVAL at Barrington Stage Company Serves Up A Theatrical Smorgasbord In The Midst of Winter.
by Marc Savitt - February 19, 2019

There is something for everyone in this offering. As the event's title suggests, rather than a single fully produced multi-act production, audience members are served ten small plates, each one running about ten minutes by an ensemble cast of six that includes BSC returnees Peggy Pharr Wilson, Keri...

BWW Review: THE CHRISTIANS: Come To Jesus At Chelsea Theatre Works
by Nancy Grossman - February 18, 2019

THE CHRISTIANS by Lucas Hnath takes us into the world of an evangelical megachurch, a place that holds a certain amount of mystery for those of us who practice different religions or lack belief in any faith. Apollinaire Theatre Company and Director Brooks Reeves set the stage with a 16-voice choir...

BWW Review: SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL: From Brainiacs to Musical Maniacs
by Nancy Grossman - February 15, 2019

SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL is bursting with kids, all of them bursting with talent. Based on the 2003 movie starring Jack Black, the stage version is the brainchild of Andrew Lloyd Webber, a guy who knows a thing or two about creating successful musicals. Nominated for four 2016 Tony Awards, the s...

BWW Review: STILL STANDING: A MUSICAL SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR LIFE'S CATASTROPHES
by Nancy Grossman - February 13, 2019

Anita Hollander lost her left leg to cancer in 1977 and channeled her experiences and musical theater skills into writing and performing a solo show, STILL STANDING: A MUSICAL SURIVAL GUIDE FOR LIFE'S CATASTROPHES. With songs, wit, and a powerful message of resilience, Hollander represents something...

BWW Review: World Premiere BARE STAGE: A Play for the Zeitgeist
by Nancy Grossman - February 12, 2019

The world premiere of Boston playwright Michael Walker's BARE STAGE lands smack in the middle of the zeitgeist, surrounded by the swirling maelstrom of #MeToo and a building movement within the theater arts community to pay attention to the needs of actors when they are at their most vulnerable. Wal...

BWW Review: BEDLAM'S PYGMALION: The Unsinkable Eliza Doolittle
by Nancy Grossman - February 08, 2019

Bedlam returns to Central Square theater for the third time in five seasons, fresh from a critically-acclaimed production Off-Off-Broadway. A little more than a century after George Bernard Shaw wrote PYGMALION, it continues to resonate in the #MeToo era with its feminist ideology....

BWW Review: WHO IS EARTHA MAE? World Premiere at Bridge Repertory Theater
by Nancy Grossman - February 06, 2019

In one of the most mesmerizing performances in recent memory, Jade Wheeler answers the question with a stunning interpretation of Eartha Kitt, both as an artist and as a person. With a foundation of creative direction by Cailin Doran, outstanding piano accompaniment by music director Seulah Noh, and...

BWW Review: SLOW FOOD World Premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - January 23, 2019

You might go home hungry, but you'll have your fill of belly laughs at Wendy MacLeod's SLOW FOOD now having its World Premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell. We've all been there, sitting in a restaurant, starving, and waiting what seems like eons before the waiter sashays over to introdu...

BWW Review: HEARTLAND: What's Going On?
by Nancy Grossman - January 20, 2019

HEARTLAND conjures up an image of amber waves of grain and purple mountains majesties. For the part of it that is set in Nebraska, some of that may be appropriate. However, for the portion of it that is set in Afghanistan, it may be nothing more than a mirage. Likewise, the image of the United State...

BWW Review: Manual Cinema's THE END OF TV: Silhouettes on the Shade
by Nancy Grossman - January 18, 2019

Around this time last year, Chicago-based theatre troupe Manual Cinema made its debut appearance at ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage with a five-day run of ADA/AVA. Having been a big hit, they have returned for a second visit, presenting THE END OF TV for a two-week run at the Emerson Paramount Cente...

BWW Review: THE WOLVES: Empowered By The Pack
by Nancy Grossman - January 17, 2019

The 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama is a compelling production at the Lyric Stage Company with an all-female team of director, designers, and actors. Focusing on the lives of nine teenage girls, it is played out on a suburban soccer practice field where the challenges of the game are mingled ...

BWW Review: A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2: Nora Drops In, Torvald Drops Jaw
by Nancy Grossman - January 15, 2019

Nearly a century and a half after Nora Helmer walked out on her husband Torvald and their three children in Henrik Ibsen's 1879 classic A DOLL'S HOUSE, playwright Lucas Hnath proposes a well-thought reply to the speculation of what became of her in A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2. Its 2017 Broadway staging r...

BWW Review: Boston Opera House Welcomes CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY National Tour
by Nancy Grossman - January 11, 2019

The Boston premiere of the US National Tour of Roald Dahl's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY opened at the Boston Opera House this week, just a year after the Broadway production closed. The core of the Broadway creative team brings in a 36-member cast, including the beguiling candy man Willy Wonka...

BWW Review: Sounds of Silence Resonate in SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS
by Nancy Grossman - January 08, 2019

SpeakEasy Stage Company presents Boston premiere of Bess Wohl's 2015 Off-Broadway comedy with a stellar cast of locals under the masterful direction of M. Bevin O'Gara. A play with limited dialogue challenges the actors to bare their inner personae, while requiring that the audience listen harder an...

BWW Review: BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES: Conversations and Coiffures
by Nancy Grossman - December 13, 2018

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES takes you on a cultural exchange trip across the continent of Africa, with a side journey to the UK, to meet and listen in on communities of men who go to the barber shop for much more than a shave and a haircut. Focusing on the relationships of men with fathers, children, fri...

BWW Review: WINTER PEOPLE: Burn It Down
by Nancy Grossman - December 10, 2018

Playwright Laura Neill is an angry person who channels her fiery passion onto the page and, ultimately, onto the stage. In WINTER PEOPLE, her newest work produced by Boston Playwrights' Theatre and Boston University College of Arts School of Theatre, she takes up the mantle for the underserved famil...

BWW Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at North Shore Music Theatre
by David Tompkins - December 08, 2018

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BWW Review: 1776: A Musical For The Ages
by Nancy Grossman - December 06, 2018

1776 is a show that appreciates in value and import when viewed in the context of its time. It opened on Broadway in 1969 when Richard Nixon was president, the controversial war in Vietnam raged on, and civil unrest was the domestic order of the day. With that backdrop, it's popularity was unexpecte...

BWW Review: BREATH & IMAGINATION: Inspired Launch For The Front Porch Arts Collective
by Nancy Grossman - December 04, 2018

The Front Porch Arts Collective partners with the Lyric Stage Company to start their second season with BREATH & IMAGINATION, Daniel Beaty's musical about Roland Hayes. First-time director Maurice Emmanuel Parent draws tour de force performance from Davron S. Monroe as the acclaimed African-American...

BWW Review: Ryan Landry Scares Up A NIGHTMARE ON ELF STREET
by Nancy Grossman - December 04, 2018

If you like a little horror with your ho-ho-ho, then program your GPS to guide your sleigh to Machine in the Fenway where Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans' 2018 Christmas spectacular is A NIGHTMARE ON ELF STREET, their holiday-themed tribute to '80's slasher films. A Freddy Krueger-like serial ...

BWW Review: MAN IN THE RING Goes The Distance
by Nancy Grossman - December 01, 2018

MAN IN THE RING deserves better than to be described with boxing cliches, but the Huntington Theatre Company production of Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cristofer's play is a knockout. Its complex structure, authentic dialogue, and poignant portrayals by an outstanding cast of actors make this biogr...

BWW Review: EXTRAORDINARY: Celebrating 10 Years of Musical Theater at A.R.T.
by Nancy Grossman - November 21, 2018

The American Repertory Theater looks very different in 2018 after ten years with Artistic Director Diane Paulus at the helm. She has changed the institution with her vision and creativity, sculpting, in her words, a 'legacy of boundary-breaking musical theater.' In celebration of the past decade, wh...

BWW Review: Caryl Churchill Two-fer by Commonwealth Shakespeare at Babson College
by Nancy Grossman - November 16, 2018

Renowned British playwright Caryl Churchill is the author of a pair of one-act plays merged into Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's UNIVERSE RUSHING APART: BLUE KETTLE and HERE WE GO, playing through the weekend in the Black Box Theater at Babson College's Sorenson Center for the Arts in Wellesley. ...

BWW Review: You Can't Go Wrong With THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG
by Nancy Grossman - November 15, 2018

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG gives new meaning to the phrase "brings down the house." An incredible ensemble, seamless direction, and a Tony Award-winning set combine for non-stop, laugh-inducing antics that make this night of theater an absolute delight....

BWW Review: EQUIVOCATION at Actors' Shakespeare Project
by David Tompkins - November 04, 2018

At the Saturday afternoon Matinee, at the United Parish Church, Brookline, MA, The Actor's Shakespeare Project presented Bill Cain's Play Equivocation. The result was a success in every way. This was my first viewing of this play and while it is a lot to take in, (more about that later) I thoroughly...