Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 28

BWW Review: BISTANY'S MYSTERIES Choose-Your-Own Murder Mystery Comedy at ImprovBoston
by Justin J Sacramone - January 26, 2016

When the author greeted the audience at the top of Bistany's Mysteries he explained that when he sat down to give us his latest novel, he realized suddenly he was staring at a partially blank page. Panicked as opening night quickly approached, Mr. Bistany had a brilliant idea: let the audience come ...

BWW Review: Merrimack Repertory Theatre Stages World Premiere of THE WHITE CHIP
by Nancy Grossman - January 25, 2016

MRT stages the first of three world premieres with Artistic Director Sean Daniels' play THE WHITE CHIP, a dark comedy about his own alcoholism and recovery. By sharing his personal story, he hopes to help someone else going through the same thing; by lightening the mood, he makes the story entertain...

BWW Review: SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM in Good Hands at Lyric Stage
by Nancy Grossman - January 22, 2016

There's Sondheim music galore playing at the Lyric Stage Company as Producing Artistic Director and recognized Sondheim expert Spiro Veloudos directs an octet of Boston musical theatre performers in SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. In effect, the composer/lyricist is the ninth member of the ensemble as he appe...

BWW Review: Who You Gonna Call? THE HOUSEKEEPER
by Nancy Grossman - January 20, 2016

Fresh Ink Theatre Company presents the inaugural production of Ginger Lazarus' THE HOUSEKEEPER at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. The four-character drama includes a ghost, but she's less scary than the teenage girl struggling with her grief and growing pains. An inept father relies on the new housekee...

BWW Review: A Bit of Comedy and Conniving Seizes Audiences with DEATHTRAP at APA
by Kristen Morale - January 16, 2016

Directed by Rich McKey, who brings his creative vision of what kind of world Levin's five characters should inhabit as they simultaneously create and avoid their own demise, Deathtrap is a joyride into the minds of maniacal people who think that their plans and intentions will be brought about not o...

BWW Review: The Drowsy Thespian; An Intoxicatingly Frivolous Evening of Classical Theatre in SH*T-FACED SHAKESPEARE
by Justin J Sacramone - January 12, 2016

Actors are superstitious people. I have seen some pretty outrageous rituals in the rehearsal room during my time as an actor. It seems that during every step along the way from casting to opening night, the actor has something to keep them, and the production, safe. Don't speak the name of this play...

BWW Review: The Wonderful WINTER PANTO 2016 Journeys to Oz
by Nancy Grossman - January 11, 2016

Chase the post-holiday blues and January blahs away with a trip to Oz, courtesy of the imaginary beasts' annual WINTER PANTO 2016: THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ. Artistic Director Matthew Woods presents his 13th panto in collaboration with a talented ensemble of actors and an amazing team of designers....

BWW Review: We ALL Want Some More of OLIVER! at CCTC
by Kristen Morale - January 07, 2016

Formerly the Harwich Junior Theater, CCTC may have changed its name but it has hardly lost its niche for bringing the Cape Cod community productions of the utmost quality, and its most recent production of Oliver! has done much more than provide a wonderfully entertaining time for children and adult...

BWW Review: VIA DOLOROSA: On the Road With David Hare
by Nancy Grossman - January 06, 2016

New Repertory Theatre's 3rd Annual Next Rep Black Box Festival presents British playwright David Hare's VIA DOLOROSA as the first of its three shows. Minimal design elements sharpen the focus on David Bryan Jackson's virtuoso performance as the author. Serving as an animated and amiable tour guide, ...

BWW REVIEW: A.R.T. Preps NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET for Broadway
by Jan Nargi - December 22, 2015

If the thought of seeing a contemporary opera based on Tolstoy's War and Peace sends Siberian shivers down your spine, fear not. All that Russian angst and all those convoluted relationships between 'people with nine different names' are brought forth with ingenious musical clarity in NATASHA, PIERR...

BWW Review: Current ONCE Tour Ends in Boston December 27
by Jan Nargi - December 20, 2015

People have been 'Falling Slowly' in love with ONCE ever since composers Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova first enchanted audiences in 2007 with their tender, surprise hit indie romance. Now fans of the film and equally successful Tony Award-winning Broadway musical adaptation have one last chance t...

BWW Review: Make Merry With Tir Na's RETURN OF THE WINEMAKER
by Nancy Grossman - December 13, 2015

RETURN OF THE WINEMAKER: AN IRISH CHRISTMAS COMEDY is a gift of the season from Tir Na Productions. An absurd little dark comedy about the second coming of Jesus, it's not your traditional Christmas show, but it boasts terrific performances by Derry Woodhouse, Colin Hamell, Stephen Russell, and Nanc...

BWW Review: Gold Dust Orphans Wish You A LITTLE ORPHAN TRANNY CHRISTMAS
by Nancy Grossman - December 07, 2015

Ryan Landry taps into political and cultural hot topics for the Gold Dust Orphans' new holiday extravaganza. Everyone's favorite villainess Mrs. Grinchley returns, but she has competition from Whitey Bulger and Donald Trump for the most evil character in A LITTLE ORPHAN TRANNY CHRISTMAS. The mash-up...

BWW Review: Laura Nyro's Music Carries On
by Nancy Grossman - December 03, 2015

ONE CHILD BORN: THE MUSIC OF LAURA NYRO is a one-woman cabaret style show that can only be called a labor of love. Co-written by Louis Greenstein and its star Kate Ferber, it grew out of Ferber's own adoration of Nyro since childhood and blossomed into a genuine tribute by including testimonials fro...

BWW Review: Tune in to Christmas on the Radio at Stoneham and Merrimack Rep
by Nancy Grossman - December 02, 2015

In a departure from traditional seasonal fare, two local theater companies are bringing us back to the simpler days of yesteryear, staging live radio productions of Christmas shows set in the 1940s. Stoneham Theatre offers the frothy, musical bagatelle CHRISTMAS ON THE AIR while Merrimack Repertory ...

BWW Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES Dazzles at Cape Rep
by Kristen Morale - November 23, 2015

With a book by Harvey Fierstein, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and under the direction of Maura Hanlon (who must also be recognized and praised for her work on this summer's Failure: A Love Story), Cape Rep's of La Cage Aux Folles allows audiences the privilege of understanding why the original B...

BWW Review: A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES Weighs in at Boston's Huntington Theatre
by Jan Nargi - November 20, 2015

Jeffrey Hatcher's stage adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A CONFERERACY OF DUNCES, now in its world premiere at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, feels like a lost opportunity. Much like its obnoxious and oversized central character Ignatius J. Reilly, a slovenly, unemployed 30-...

BWW Review: STEVEN ISSERLIS & ROBERT LEVIN Entrance at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
by Matt Hanson - November 19, 2015

In the memory of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Steven Isserlis and Robert Levin proved faultless, performing the first of two all-Beethoven programs at Boston's prestigious Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum....

BWW REVIEW: NSMT Presents Joyful SISTER ACT
by Jan Nargi - November 13, 2015

Even though Whoopi Goldberg was the lead producer of SISTER ACT on Broadway, the "Divine Musical" raising the roof at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass. is not the SISTER ACT of Whoopi Goldberg's 1992 hit movie. Yes, the sassy attitude and jubilant spirit of the nightclub singer taking ...

BWW Review: Quill Conquers with AN ILIAD at Buzzards Play Productions
by Kristen Morale - November 13, 2015

Whatever the past is, it is immortal to the person reliving it, and acknowledging the truth of this statement and thus questioning its relevance in the life of Homer's Poet is something the audience is faced with throughout An Iliad. In this beautiful one-man production, the sole man on stage offers...

BWW REVIEW: Holzman's CHOICE Receives World Premiere at Boston's Huntington Theatre
by Jan Nargi - November 11, 2015

This Fall two of Boston's finest theater companies have taken the discussion on abortion out of the public arena and made it much more personal. Last month Company One Theatre explored the devastating reality of do-it-yourself abortions among teenagers in Ruby Rae Spiegel's unflinching new play DRY ...

BWW Review: SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION Lacks Sizzle
by Nancy Grossman - November 10, 2015

Bad Habit Productions continues Season 9: To Face Ourselves with John Guare's 1990 play about the interconnectedness of everyone in the world by a chain of no more than six people. In 2015, the parlor game featuring links with Kevin Bacon feels more relevant....

BWW Review: BEAUTIFUL - THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL is Some Kind of Wonderful
by Nancy Grossman - November 08, 2015

The U.S. National Tour of BEAUTIFUL - THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL plays a two-week engagement at the Boston Opera House. Focusing on King's early life and career, the good-time time machine rolls out the incredible string of hits written by the composing teams of Carole King/Gerry Goffin and Barry Mann/...

BWW Review: SATURDAY NIGHT/SUNDAY MORNING: Women's War Stories
by Nancy Grossman - November 05, 2015

Playwright Katori Hall's lively play about seven African-American women awaiting the end of World War II in a Memphis beauty parlor/boarding house shows a slice of life with authenticity, empathy, and humor. Dawn M. Simmons directs an ensemble of wonderful actors, and the design team brings out the ...

BWW Review: CASA VALENTINA: High-heeled Politics
by Nancy Grossman - November 01, 2015

SpeakEasy Stage Company presents the New England premiere of Harvey Fierstein's 2014 Tony Award nominee for Best Play. CASA VALENTINA invites and initiates the audience into a world where normal is in the eye of the beholder when a group of heterosexual men meet secretly to release the girl within. ...