Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 22

BWW Review: THE KING AND I: Still Something Wonderful
by Nancy Grossman - April 14, 2017

The National Tour of the Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center Theater production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's THE KING AND I brings its parade of adorable children, a pair of star-crossed lovers, an imperial ruler, and a strong-willed, warm-hearted educator to the Boston Opera House through April 23rd....

BWW Review: GOLDA'S BALCONY: Midwife at the Birth of the State of Israel
by Nancy Grossman - March 30, 2017

Playwright William Gibson chronicles Golda Meir's life and times in GOLDA'S BALCONY, focusing primarily on the period of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, interspersed with flashbacks of her journey to becoming Prime Minister of Israel. Bobbie Steinbach inhabits the role in a tour de force performance that i...

BWW Review: Brookline-Inspired CHILL in World Premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - March 28, 2017

Playwright Eleanor Burgess burrows into her own backyard of Brookline, Massachusetts, to follow four high school friends from the eve of their graduation through a decade of change in CHILL. Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian guides an all-female creative and design team, a first for MRT....

BWW Review: ALTAR BOYZ: Music With a Mission
by Nancy Grossman - March 27, 2017

Boy bands were big in the '90s. Marked by close harmonies, synchronized choreography, and saccharine sex appeal, each had its own image and they were particularly successful with young female audiences. ALTAR BOYZ at the Stoneham Theatre spins the concept, combining it with the popular wave of Chris...

BWW Review: THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND Rings Down the Curtain on Bad Habit Productions
by Nancy Grossman - March 25, 2017

Bad Habit Productions is about to drop the final curtain after ten years of delivering award-winning theater, but they are not taking the easy way out. Director Dawn M. Simmons and an ensemble of eight actors make sense of Tom Stoppard's 1968 comedy whodunnit, THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND, even as they ...

BWW Review: MRS. PACKARD: Nevertheless, She Persisted
by Nancy Grossman - March 21, 2017

Before Senator Elizabeth Warren, another Elizabeth spoke out, despite being warned and threatened with commitment to an insane asylum. Bridge Repertory Theater, in a co-production with Playhouse Creatures, presents Emily Mann's MRS. PACKARD, a drama inspired by true events, chronicling one woman's f...

BWW Review: Haitink Captivates Boston - Again
by Erica Miner - March 20, 2017

Boston Symphony Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink has sustained a mutually respectful relationship with the BSO and its audiences for over 40 years...

BWW Review: World Premiere of Homegrown FINISH LINE
by Nancy Grossman - March 16, 2017

FINISH LINE, a documentary play about the 2013 Boston Marathon, focuses on the people whose lives were impacted by the bombings, allowing their voices to be heard on the stage of the Boch Center Shubert Theatre. The world premiere production features a dozen actors who represent survivors, runners, ...

BWW REVIEW: CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME Shines in Boston
by Jan Nargi - March 16, 2017

The ingenious stage adaptation of Mark Haddon's popular mystery novel THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME invites the audience into the challenging world of 15-year-old Christopher Boone (Adam Langdon on opening night) whose exceptional brain is trapped inside an emotionally stunted bod...

BWW Review: SILENT SKY: Wishing on the Stars
by Nancy Grossman - March 14, 2017

Flat Earth Theatre presents the New England premiere of Lauren Gunderson's SILENT SKY, a historical drama about a trio of women astronomers who charted the heavens at the Harvard Observatory at the turn of the 20th century. Their work was vital, but they were not seen as equals in the workplace and ...

BWW Review: PRECIOUS LITTLE at Nora Theatre Company
by Nancy Grossman - March 10, 2017

Nora Theatre Company presents Madeleine George's PRECIOUS LITTLE, raising many big questions. A research linguist tries to preserve a dying language, even as she faces a crucial decision about her unborn child. Three actresses play eight characters, most of whom are women, and one very smart gorilla...

BWW Review: N.E. Premiere GRAND CONCOURSE at SpeakEasy Stage Company
by Nancy Grossman - March 07, 2017

SpeakEasy Stage Company began 2017 with the irreverent puppet show HAND TO GOD, but treads a decidedly more respectful path with the New England premiere of playwright Heidi Schreck's GRAND CONCOURSE. The questions she raises about faith and forgiveness may be as thorny as the issues considered in H...

BWW REVIEW: A.R.T.'s THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA Marks Life on the Edge
by Jan Nargi - March 02, 2017

The Costa Verde Hotel on the cliffs high above Acapulco might as well be the end of the world for the tourists and American ex-patriots who converge there in Tennessee Williams' haunting and haunted THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA currently receiving a star-studded revival at the A.R.T. in Cambridge, Mass....

BWW Review: Mwah! Love and Kisses to STAGE KISS
by Nancy Grossman - March 01, 2017

Playwright Sarah Ruhl's STAGE KISS is a rom-com that turns the world on with its smiles, laughs, and an abundance of kisses. Director Courtney O'Connor helps an ensemble cast of seven slide easily in and out of the world of the play and the play-within-a-play, and the chemistry between Celeste Oliva...

BWW Review: N.E. Premiere of Ike Holter's EXIT STRATEGY: This is Not a Drill
by Nancy Grossman - February 22, 2017

Zeitgeist Stage Company joins the ranks of prescient Boston theater companies with Ike Holter's EXIT STRATEGY, a play about the impending closing of a failing inner-city Chicago school, how it impacts the faculty and students, and the measures they take to fight back....

BWW Review: Suspenseful New Drama THE HONEY TRAP at Boston Playwrights' Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - February 21, 2017

Belfast native playwright Leo McGann and Director Adam Kassim have crafted a ready-for-prime-time taut, suspenseful drama about memories and guilt decades after the Troubles in Ireland. The cast is anchored by Boston theater pros Barlow Adamson and Maureen Keiller, along with an eager quartet of Bos...

BWW Review: THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE: Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears a Crown
by Nancy Grossman - February 17, 2017

ArtsEmerson presents the Druid Theatre Company production of Martin McDonagh's THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE, directed by Tony Award-winner Garry Hynes and featuring Tony Award-winner Marie Mullen. Rounding out the stellar cast are Aisling O' Sullivan, Marty Rea, and Aaron Monaghan. This is a powerful...

BWW Review: World Premiere DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP at Fresh Ink Theatre Company
by Nancy Grossman - February 13, 2017

DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP invokes gender-bending, magical realism, and a real-life war hero, but has trouble staying afloat when the narrative jumps back and forth between two centuries. A pair of good performances in the roles of well-drawn characters aren't enough to keep this ship on course....

BWW Review: New Rep's Prophetic Portraits Series: BRECHT ON BRECHT
by Nancy Grossman - February 08, 2017

BRECHT ON BRECHT is the second in New Rep's series of Prophetic Portraits, following Johnny Lee Davenport's acclaimed portrayal in last month's THURGOOD. Brecht's art focuses on his experiences in Berlin, his flight from Nazism, and his life as an expatriate in America, where he faced accusation by ...

BWW Review: CABARET: Goosebumps and Goose-steps
by Nancy Grossman - February 04, 2017

Roundabout Theatre Company's North American tour of its award-winning CABARET revival is a stunning production that stands out in high relief to the theatrics playing in our nation's capital. Fifty years after the pre-Broadway Kander and Ebb musical tried out in Boston, the show still packs a punch....

BWW Review: Georgia Lyman is THE ATHEIST: I'm a Believer
by Nancy Grossman - January 30, 2017

Ronan Noone is both an alumnus and adjunct assistant professor of the M.F.A. Playwriting Program at Boston University. He has written a revision of his play THE ATHEIST, reimagining the satirical comedy with a female protagonist. At Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Georgia Lyman gives a robust, multi-di...

BWW Review: INTIMATE EXCHANGES Reinforces the Idea That the Future is Unknowable
by Nancy Grossman - January 26, 2017

Character-driven Alan Ayckbourn play is a complex sequence of branching storylines, leading to numerous endings, with multiple characters played by two actors. Olivia D'Ambrosio directs fine performances by Sarah Elizabeth Bedard and Jade Ziane at the Nora Theatre Company at Central Square Theater....

BWW Review: SOMETHING ROTTEN! National Tour Starts Here!
by Nancy Grossman - January 23, 2017

With nine Tony Award nominations under its belt, SOMETHING ROTTEN! closed on Broadway on January 1, 2017, and barely took a breather before hitting the road with three of its principal players reprising their roles. Director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw brings Rob McClure, Adam Pascal, and Josh Gris...

BWW Review: They're Ba-a-a-ack: It's Winter Panto-time!
by Nancy Grossman - January 19, 2017

WINTER PANTO 2017: THE PRINCESS & THE PEA is served with a generous portion of political satire. What better villains than orange-haired Queen Clump and her alt-right hand man Stompundstammer? The best jokes go over their heads, but definitely bring the kids to this loosey-goosey fantasy world of fu...