Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 27

BWW Review: THE SOUND OF MUSIC Breathes New Life Into the Hills
by Nancy Grossman - April 04, 2016

The National Touring Production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien, breathes new life into the venerable hills and introduces a star-in-the-making. Vivacious and talented Kerstin Anderson captivates us from the opening strains of the title song, and her pass...

BWW Review: BLACKBERRY WINTER: Spring is Sure to Follow
by Nancy Grossman - March 31, 2016

New Repertory Theatre participates in the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Steve Yockey's BLACKBERRY WINTER, a thoughtful, poignant take on one woman's coming to terms with her mother's diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease. Director Bridget Kathleen O'Leary and Adrianne Krstansky brin...

BWW Review: THE REALNESS: A BREAK BEAT PLAY in World Premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - March 22, 2016

Idris Goodwin's second break beat play is a love story set in the world of hip-hop, exploring one young man's search for authenticity and identity when he moves from the suburbs to the urban environment. Hoping to immerse himself in the culture of the hip-hop music world, T.O. learns important life ...

BWW Review: BOOTYCANDY: Shock Therapy
by Nancy Grossman - March 18, 2016

The New England premiere of Robert O'Hara's BOOTYCANDY at SpeakEasy Stage Company is based on the author's own experiences of growing up black and gay in America. Similar in structure and tone to THE COLORED MUSEUM, it is a series of loosely connected vignettes that rely on humor and satire to confr...

BWW Review: TALES OF A FOURTH GRADE LESBO: Don't Ask, Do Tell
by Nancy Grossman - March 16, 2016

Flat Earth Theatre opens their tenth anniversary season with the East Coast premier of Gina Young's cheeky exploration of growing up queer in the 90s. An ensemble cast of seven women and four men portray girls and boys of varying ages and personality types, but you will recognize all of these kids a...

BWW Review: THE LAUNCH PRIZE World Premiere at Bridge Rep
by Nancy Grossman - March 14, 2016

Bridge Repertory Theater of Boston presents the world premiere of local playwright MJ Halberstadt's THE LAUNCH PRIZE under the direction of Tiffany Nichole Greene. A quartet of visual arts graduate students anxiously awaits the announcement of the prize winner and their friendship is challenged by t...

BWW Review: FAST COMPANY: The Art of the Con
by Nancy Grossman - March 08, 2016

Described as a theatrical crime caper, FAST COMPANY explores a major con gone wrong and digs into the dynamics of the family Kwan. It's a fun ride when the game is being plotted and executed, but slows considerably when the focus is on the family. The actors do what they can to get inside their char...

BWW Review: YOURS, ANNE: Eventide's Momentous Ode to a Fallen Hero
by Kristen Morale - March 08, 2016

The Eventide Theatre Company has made a bold choice in sharing Frank's story with a Cape Cod audience through means of a score depicting her feelings while fearfully secluded in the "Secret Annex," with certain lyrics molded from actual quotes made by the young prisoner. It is safe to say that Event...

BWW Review: RHINOCEROS: Collective Psychosis or The People's Choice?
by Nancy Grossman - March 05, 2016

The Suffolk University/Boston Playwrights' Theatre co-production of RHINOCEROS, newly adapted by Wesley Savick from Derek Prouse's translation, features a Boston setting, but maintains the themes of Eugene Ionesco's 1959 classic play from the Cold War era. Things being as they are, that sort of feel...

BWW Review: Brown Box Theatre and Icaro Theatro Presents a Series of Latin American Short Plays in FROM WATER TO DUST
by Justin J Sacramone - March 05, 2016

Brown Box Theatre Project and Icaro Theatro presents Boxer Shorts: A Cycle of Short Plays. From Water to Dust (del auga al polvo), playing at Boston's Atlantic Wharf through March 4th. This is Brown Box's second year presenting an evening of short plays. This year, the Project brings us four plays f...

BWW Review: There's No Place like the Academy Playhouse for THE WIZARD OF OZ
by Kristen Morale - March 03, 2016

There is so much about the heartwarming nature complete with a simple lesson learned and the sheer magic involved in making that happen that have brought many to profess their love of The Wizard of Oz, which is, in essence, a wonderful story that tugs at the heartstrings ever so slightly. From an ad...

BWW Review: CAKEWALK Lacking Nutritional Value
by Nancy Grossman - March 01, 2016

In a departure from its more substantial recent fare, Zeitgeist Stage Company offers up a sugary confection about a cake baking competition in a small Vermont town. Although widely-produced in Canada and the United States, including a run Off-Off Broadway, CAKEWALK is a slight story that is slow to ...

BWW REVIEW: What's Scarier than George Orwell's 1984? Politics in 2016.
by Jan Nargi - February 26, 2016

The horrific future depicted in George Orwell's cautionary tale '1984' feels that much more frightening in 2016 because so much of the oligarchical world predicted by the visionary author in his dystopian 1949 novel has come to fruition. The power gap between the haves and the have-nots is alarming....

BWW REVIEW: Teen Dreams Are as Empty as the Calories in MILK LIKE SUGAR
by Jan Nargi - February 26, 2016

There's not much hope for the girls at the center of MILK LIKE SUGAR, Kirsten Greenidge's Obie Award-winning play about teenagers seeking fulfillment through pregnancy. Though the writing can be cliched at times, portrayals and direction are truthful. Thanks to excellent performances throughout, the...

BWW REVIEW: AN OCTOROON Takes Race Relations down the Rabbit Hole
by Jan Nargi - February 24, 2016

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has assaulted the fourth wall and countless racial stereotypes in his funny and audacious new play AN OCTOROON. Adapted from an 1859 melodrama titled "The Octoroon" by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault, Jenkins' piece weaves a biting contemporary narrative within Bou...

BWW Review: Try Getting Over this Ogre of a Show at CCTC's SHREK
by Kristen Morale - February 23, 2016

The Cape Cod Theatre Company, home of the Harwich Junior Theatre, brings a stunning production of Shrek: The Musical to a Cape Cod stage and does an absolutely fine job of making sure audiences will see all the wonder to be found in this show. I am like a broken record when it comes to my praise of ...

BWW Review: Can You Hear Me Now? Touch Performance Art Presents SEARCHING FOR SIGNAL
by Justin J Sacramone - February 23, 2016

Identity and the search for it is a common thread that binds us. No other generation is currently battling with defining their own identity more than Millennials. It's ironic that the group of people on the front lines of electing the nation's first African-American president and fighting for social...

BWW Review: TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE: You Gotta Have Heart
by Nancy Grossman - February 19, 2016

Merrimack Repertory Theatre hosts the regional premiere of Mat Smart's TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE, a play for die-hard baseball fans. Focused on a mother and daughter who bond over their shared love of the Chicago Cubs, it resonates with members of Red Sox Nation who understand the roller coaster emo...

BWW Review: BACK THE NIGHT Clouded by Doubt
by Nancy Grossman - February 11, 2016

Boston Playwrights' Theatre mounts BACK THE NIGHT, Melinda Lopez's new play that explores violence against women on a college campus. When a feminist blogger is attacked, there are plenty of aspersions to go around as her enemies list is a long one. Her best friend, fraternity brothers, college offi...

BWW REVIEW: PIPPIN Brings Its Magic Back to Boston
by Jan Nargi - February 10, 2016

The extraordinary journey of the Broadway revival of PIPPIN began at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge a few years back, and now that triumphant Tony Award-winning musical, directed by Diane Paulus, is back in Boston via the national tour. While some tweaks have since been made to the prod...

BWW Review: A Battle of Beliefs in Danai Gurira's THE CONVERT at Central Square Theatre
by Justin J Sacramone - February 08, 2016

In a blackout we hear shouting. The front door of a minister's house is kicked opened. Enter a man dragging in a native woman wearing rags. He hands her off to the housekeeper. The housekeeper barks a few commands and forces her into a back room. The opening scene of Underground Railway Theatre's mu...

BWW Review: Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal Together In A.R. Gurney's LOVE LETTERS
by Justin J Sacramone - February 05, 2016

Storytelling is theatre in its' purest form, but a story can often become secondary or lost when faced with spectacle. In a culture where overproduced mega musicals dominate the box office, it is refreshing to see A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters," a delightful bare bones, two person play with a single f...

BWW Review: There's Something About Mary
by Nancy Grossman - February 02, 2016

New Repertory Theatre continues its third annual Next Rep Black Box Festival with Colm Toibin's THE TESTAMENT OF MARY, a controversial one-woman play that reimagines the life and attitudes of Mary some twenty years after the crucifixion of her son. Artistic Director Jim Petosa directs Paula Langton ...

BWW REVIEW: A.R.T. Hooks Mark Rylance's NICE FISH Before NYC Run
by Jan Nargi - February 01, 2016

If the homespun humor and quirky philosophizing that comes to you live from Lake Woebegone via A Prairie Home Companion warms you up on a cold winter's night, then NICE FISH is your cup of cocoa. The brainchild of Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins, based on Jenkins' offbeat down home prose poems writte...

BWW REVIEWS: DISGRACED and VIOLET Kick Off 2016 Strongly in Boston
by Jan Nargi - January 31, 2016

DISGRACED and VIOLET heat up the winter with power and grace as the Huntington Theatre Company and SpeakEasy Stage enter the second half of their 2015-2016 seasons with winners....