Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 43

BWW Review: Bridge Repertory Theater of Boston Premieres with Pinter
by Nancy Grossman - March 04, 2013

Bridge Repertory Theater of Boston shows promise with Director Shana Gozansky helming Pinter's THE LOVER. Joe Short and 5-time IRNE Award nominee McCaela Donovan give virtuosic performances in the cozy confines of Deane Hall at the Boston Center for the Arts....

BWW Review: STONES IN HIS POCKETS a Showcase for Acting Duo
by Nancy Grossman - February 25, 2013

Daniel Berger-Jones and Phil Tayler play more than a dozen characters between them in Marie Jones' 2001 Olivier Award-winner for Best New Comedy. They make it look easy, but their achievement is no small feat as they breathe life into the citizens of a rural Irish village in County Kerry who vie for...

BWW Review: Varla Jean Merman Is MILDRED FIERCE
by Nancy Grossman - February 23, 2013

Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans take on Joan Crawford (and Bette Davis) in the noir musical MILDRED FIERCE. Add this one to a long string of hilarious productions recognized by their clever irreverence, dazzling costumes, done-on-a-dime sets, and multi-talented ensembles. Varla Jean Merman is ...

BWW REVIEW: A.R.T.'s 'GLASS MENAGERIE' IS A DELICATE BALANCE OF POWER AND POETRY
by Jan Nargi - February 21, 2013

Tony Award-winning director John Tiffany blends the strength and delicacy of Tennessee Williams' haunting memory play The Glass Menagerie into a heart-breaking metaphor for the fragility of dreams...

BWW Review: LUNGS Pits Babies vs. The Planet
by Nancy Grossman - February 20, 2013

A liberal, thinking couple must weigh their desire to have a baby against their view of themselves as good people who care about the planet's survival. Duncan Macmillan's LUNGS is in its Boston premiere at New Repertory Theatre's Black Box Theater, featuring Liz Hayes and Nael Nacer, under the direc...

BWW Reviews: 10X10 NEW PLAY FESTIVAL at Barrington Stage Co
by Larry Murray - February 20, 2013

Ten new dramas and comedies, absorbing and entertaining, are featured in the second year of the Barrington Stage 10X10 NEW PLAY FESTIVAL. Ten minutes each and playing for just ten days, the offers provide a tasty sample of what is new in the regional theatre community today....

BWW Review: LEGALLY DEAD: Certifiably Funny
by Nancy Grossman - February 16, 2013

Boston Playwrights' Theatre final new play of the season is Dan Hunter's LEGALLY DEAD, a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family deciding how to deal with its missing Dad. The wacky, scary characters are immensely entertaining, but you wouldn't want them on your family tree....

BWW Review: Zeitgeist Stage Company Sticks With Ayckbourn
by Nancy Grossman - February 12, 2013

For the fourth year in a row, Zeitgeist Stage Company produces an Alan Ayckbourn play. The East Coast premiere of LIFE OF RILEY features a cast of Zeitgeist regulars under the direction of David J. Miller....

Shakespeare & Company performs THE LIAR by David Ives
by Larry Murray - February 11, 2013

With classic wordplay to delight the intellect, and on-stage farcical situations to provoke the belly laughs, THE LIAR at Shakespeaere & Company is welcome relief from the Winter storms in the currently dormant Berkshires of Massachusetts. It runs until March 24 in Lenox, MA....

BWW Student Center Review: Magnet Theater's EVERY YEAR, EVERY DAY, I AM WALKING is a Journey
by BWW News Desk - February 06, 2013

As a white, middle-class female from small town America, I have had only a few small hardships in my life. Nothing I have been through compared to what I witnessed on stage at the Rand Theatre at UMass Amherst the night of January 30th, 2013....

BWW Review: FIRE ON EARTH Scorches the Church
by Nancy Grossman - February 05, 2013

Fresh Ink Theatre stages new play by Patrick Gabridge about the illegal translation of the Bible into English in the early part of the 16th century. Based on a true story, FIRE ON EARTH chronicles the struggle between the powerful Catholic Church and the Army of Reformers willing to challenge the st...

BWW Review: FRANK MCCOURT'S THE IRISH...AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY
by Nancy Grossman - February 03, 2013

A little bit of Irish history and a lot of Irish music comprise THE IRISH...AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY at the Davis Square Theatre in Somerville. A multi-talented ensemble of three women and three men sing and dance their way through Frank McCourt's wide swath of history on both sides of the pond....

BWW Review: Celebrity Series of Boston Presents AN EVENING WITH CHRISTINE EBERSOLE
by Nancy Grossman - January 27, 2013

Two-time Tony Award-winning actress Christine Ebersole made her Celebrity Series of Boston debut at Sanders Theatre with an intimate cabaret performance that brought much-needed warmth to a cold January night. The former "Not Ready for Prime Time" player on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE is now the toast of Br...

BWW Reviews: SISTER ACT Makes a Joyful Noise
by Nancy Grossman - January 25, 2013

Direct from Broadway, the National Tour of the five-time Tony-nominated SISTER ACT is in town, featuring an original score by award-winning composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater, and a book by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner with additional book material by Douglas Carter Beane. Based on the To...

BWW Review: N.E. Premiere of YOU FOR ME FOR YOU
by Nancy Grossman - January 23, 2013

Company One presents the New England premiere of Providence playwright Mia Chung's YOU FOR ME FOR YOU, an imaginative tale of two North Korean sisters who contemplate fleeing their homeland. The story relies heavily on magical realism and suspension of disbelief; not for the cynics in the audience....

BWW Review: OTHER DESERT CITIES Showcases Trio of Actresses
by Nancy Grossman - January 21, 2013

New England premiere of acclaimed Broadway play at SpeakEasy Stage Company is a complex comedy-drama about the generational and cultural divide in one family plagued by secrets. Scott Edmiston directs a stellar ensemble....

BWW Review: Underground Railway Theater Scales THE MOUNTAINTOP
by Nancy Grossman - January 18, 2013

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, URT brings a powerful and riveting production of Katori Hall's award-winning play to Central Square Theater. Bravura performances by Maurice Emmanuel Parent and Kami Rushell Smith....

BWW Review: SHAKESPEARE'S WILL: The Other Anne Hathaway
by Nancy Grossman - January 16, 2013

Vern Thiessen's play at Merrimack Repertory Theatre is a one-woman show about Shakespeare's wife and the strange bequest he left her in his will. Seana McKenna, lead actress of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, gives a riveting performance under the direction of Miles Potter....

BWW Review: Relaxing HOLIDAY in Wellesley
by Nancy Grossman - January 15, 2013

The Wellesley Summer Theatre Company does what it does best with a familiar cast and a couple of fresh faces in the 1928 comedy of manners, Philip Barry's HOLIDAY....

BWW Review: INVISIBLE MAN in New England Debut at Huntington Theatre Company
by Nancy Grossman - January 12, 2013

Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel has been called a masterpiece that changed the shape of American literature. Adapted into a play by Oren Jacoby, INVISIBLE MAN is having its New England premiere at Huntington Theatre Company with an epic performance by Teagle F. Bougere, under the direction of Christopher...

BWW Review: 33 VARIATIONS Star Vehicle for Paula Plum
by Nancy Grossman - January 10, 2013

Casting Paula Plum as Katherine Brandt in Moisés Kaufman's 33 VARIATIONS was a no-brainer for Lyric Stage Artistic Director Spiro Veloudos. Her performance is courageous and heartfelt, and she and pianist Catherine Stornetta are the linchpins that give the play its heart and its soul....

BWW Reviews: A.R.T. PIPPIN Talkback Coverage
by Marakay Rogers - January 10, 2013

At the January 9 talkback at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, cast members and Diane Paulus covered their thoughts on the show, on their interest in cross-training skills, and on the move to Broadway....

BWW REVIEW: PIPPIN Comes of Age in A.R.T. Revival
by Jan Nargi - January 08, 2013

Dazzling acrobatics, insightful direction, shrewd performances, and rich new orchestrations make this creaky 1970s pop musical a timely and timeless exploration of personal fulfillment and existential angst...

BWW Review: A Musical Revue of Sondheim Rejects at New Repertory Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - January 08, 2013

The concept of MARRY ME A LITTLE, an easy to take musical revue at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, is a loosely-themed program of Stephen Sondheim rejects. Seventeen of the maestro's songs that have been cut from well-known shows or drawn from never-produced works are performed by a talented qua...

BWW Review: Gabriel Kuttner Gives His All in FULLY COMMITTED
by Nancy Grossman - December 21, 2012

Gabriel Kuttner revisits his 2010 IRNE Award-winning portrayal of thirty-plus characters in Becky Mode's one act, one person comedy at New Repertory Theatre....