Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 38

by Alex Lonati - February 11, 2014

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BWW Review: THE WHIPPING MAN Cuts Deep at New Rep
by Nancy Grossman - January 31, 2014

Playwright Matthew Lopez uses the Passover Seder as a framing device, paralleling the escape of the Jews from bondage in ancient Egypt with the freeing of American slaves at the end of the Civil War. A Jewish Confederate soldier returns home to navigate the new world order with two former slaves in ...

BWW Review: Some Enchanted Evening with Brian Stokes Mitchell at Celebrity Series of Boston
by Nancy Grossman - January 24, 2014

Celebrity Series of Boston celebrates its 75th Anniversary Season and brings in Tony Award-winning baritone Brian Stokes Mitchell for his third appearance. With the virtuosic accompaniment of Tedd Firth on piano, Stokes plays a cast of characters from a range of Broadway musicals, from CAMELOT to CA...

BWW Review: INSIGNIFICANCE at Nora Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - January 20, 2014

INSIGNIFICANCE is a slight play populated with four iconic characters that have held great significance in American culture. Director Daniel Gidron draws impressive performances from his cast without resorting to caricature or imitation. Stacy Fischer is worth the price of admission....

BWW Review: Company One and ArtsEmerson Proudly Take on Genocide
by Nancy Grossman - January 17, 2014

Company One and ArtsEmerson collaborate to present the New England premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury's play WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT A PRESENTATION...about the little known genocide of the Herero of Namibia by German colonialists early in the twentieth century. According to the playwright, "The play ...

BWW Review: VENUS IN FUR Gives Chills and Thrills
by Nancy Grossman - January 14, 2014

Broadway smash and 2012 Tony Award nominee for Best Play VENUS IN FUR is in its Boston premiere at the Huntington Theatre Company. Director Daniel Goldstein and actors Chris Kipiniak and Andrea Syglowski deliver the goods from the mind and pen of playwright David Ives. Venus has come a long way sinc...

BWW Review: THE DEVIL'S MUSIC: THE LIFE AND BLUES OF BESSIE SMITH Brings on January Thaw
by Nancy Grossman - January 13, 2014

The blues may be cool, but Miche Braden and the music are hot in this lively production of playwright Angelo Parra's THE DEVIL'S MUSIC: THE LIVE AND BLUES OF BESSIE SMITH at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell. Even if you don't know much about Smith, you'll walk out of the show feeling as though ...

BWW Reviews: Right Out of a Children's Book in Imaginary Beasts' Winter Panto Production of RUMPELSTILTSKIN
by Alex Lonati - January 13, 2014

A panto, I have learned, is a British tradition of a winter musical comedy for the whole family, incorporating a well known children's story, musical numbers, and vaudeville humor. This production, conceived and directed by Matthew Woods, told the story of Rumpelstiltskin, but focused more on the ev...

BWW Reviews: A Heartbreaking Epic is Speakeasy Stage Company's THE COLOR PURPLE
by Alex Lonati - January 12, 2014

Based on the Alice Walker novel of the same name, The Color Purple spans over thirty years, following a young African-American woman named Celie and her struggles with gender roles, violence, accepting love, and exploring her relationship with God....

BWW Reviews: New England Premiere of IMAGINING MADOFF at New Rep
by Nancy Grossman - January 09, 2014

Convicted swindler Bernard Madoff squares off with a fictional victim of his Ponzi scheme in Deborah Margolin's controversial play in New Rep's Black Box Theater. Under the direction of Elaine Vaan Hogue, on Jon Savage's stunning set, Jeremiah Kissel, Joel Colodner, and Adrianne Krstansky tell this ...

BWW Review: WORKING Tells Our Stories in Song
by Nancy Grossman - January 06, 2014

Stephen Schwartz musical based on Studs Terkel's 1974 mega-tome has been updated to reflect changes in occupations, but continues to tell the stories of the everyday laborers, the unsung and invisible workforce that powers our nation. The eclectic, moving score gets the attention it deserves from Il...

BWW Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL Transfigured by Elements Theatre Company
by Nancy Grossman - December 23, 2013

Over two weekends in December, the Elements Theatre Company in Orleans employed a panoply of sensory stimuli in a Readers' Theatre form of John Mortimer's adaptation of Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL. With vivacity unexpected in a staged reading, Director Sr. Danielle Dwyer and her talented ense...

BWW Review: Marion Steals THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD
by Nancy Grossman - December 22, 2013

Playwright David Farr, inspired by TWELFTH NIGHT, AS YOU LIKE IT, and his own two daughters, has written a nature-infused feminist version of the legend of Robin Hood. Icelandic Director Gisli Örn Gardarsson and his creative team have conjured up an athletic, revolutionary staging brought to life by...

BWW Reviews: A Nice Introduction to the Histories with Actor Shakespeare Project's HENRY VIII
by Alex Lonati - December 23, 2013

This story of a king's obsession with obtaining a male heir is not one of Shakespeare's commonly produced works, but the Actor Shakespeare Project's production was beautifully familiar and accessible....

BWW Review: NOT JENNY World Premiere at Bridge Rep
by Nancy Grossman - December 13, 2013

NOT JENNY is not a holiday show, but its pay-what-you-can admission policy is Bridge Repertory Theater of Boston's gift to the city. MJ Halberstadt's world premiere play is a dark comedy with characters who would be at home in an Edward Albee or Tracy Letts vehicle....

BWW Reviews: IT'S A HORRIBLE LIFE (Adults Only!)
by Nancy Grossman - December 09, 2013

Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans mash-up GREY GARDENS, Mrs. Grinchley, and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE for a new holiday musical parody that is sure to earn its wings. Clever sets, delicious costumes, creative choreography, and new stars join the Orphans regulars to put on a show that is anything but...

BWW Review: MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET Proves the Existence of Santa Claus
by Nancy Grossman - December 02, 2013

The miracle in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET is the ability of Kris Kringle to infuse the holiday with the true spirit of Christmas in the face of raging commercialism, harried shoppers, and cynical doubters. Adapted from the beloved 1947 film, the play at Stoneham Theatre does not fare as well in its stag...

BWW REVIEW: Huntington's COCKTAIL HOUR Served Chilled with a Twist
by Jan Nargi - December 02, 2013

Tony and Olivier Award-winning director Maria Aitken once again brings her deft touch to Boston's Huntington Theatre Company with a taut and tangy production of THE COCKTAIL HOUR, A.R. Gurney's quasi-autobiographical expose of the bitter truths lurking beneath one well-bred WASP family's carefully p...

BWW Review: CAMELOT: Jewels in the Crown
by Nancy Grossman - December 01, 2013

New Repertory Theatre's revival of Lerner and Loewe's 1961 Tony Award-winning musical places the emphasis where it belongs, on the passions of the star-crossed lovers. It evokes an era of youth, hope, and possibility that was embodied in the administration of President John F. Kennedy, whose assassi...

BWW REVIEW: A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE MUSICAL Is a Quirky Family Delight
by Jan Nargi - November 25, 2013

Singing and dancing extravaganza based on the beloved stories of Jean Shepherd gets the eccentric tone just right in this funny and affectionate remembrance of the simple joys of Christmases past....

BWW Reviews: Zeitgeist's THE NORMAL HEART Is Powerful Theatre
by Jan Nargi - November 22, 2013

Be prepared to be enraged, enlightened and deeply moved by the Zeitgeist Stage Company's riveting production of Larry Kramer's autobiographical drama....

BWW Review: Staged Reading TO THE END OF THE LAND
by Nancy Grossman - November 19, 2013

Israeli Stage marks its third birthday with a flurry of staged readings. Producing Artistic Director and Founder Guy Ben-Aharon adapted David Grossman's TO THE END OF THE LAND, presented at Temple Isaiah in Lexington with Jeremiah Kissel and Sheila Stasack....

BWW Review: Theater Uses Its Bully Pulpit in FROM WHITE PLAINS
by Nancy Grossman - November 19, 2013

Michael Perlman's 2012 Off-Off-Broadway play is not your typical anti-bullying polemic; rather it uses its bully pulpit to allow believers of opposing camps to search their souls and have their say. Three-dimensional characters give legitimacy to their conflicting points of view in the heartfelt per...

BWW REVIEW: THE HEAT IS ON IN 'MISS SAIGON' AT NSMT
by Jan Nargi - November 17, 2013

Exceptional cast and direction close North Shore Music Theatre's 2013 season with a stunning production of 'Miss Saigon.'...

BWW Review: Three Hostages and a Captive Audience
by Nancy Grossman - November 15, 2013

Bad Habit Productions stages Frank McGuinness' 1992 play in the intimate confines of Deane Hall in the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. The actors are chained to the set and to each other, and the audience is glued to their seats watching this intense drama about hostages pulli...