Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 45

BWW Review: Get a Grip on A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE
by Nancy Grossman - October 16, 2012

Theatre on Fire opens eighth season at Charlestown Working Theater with Martin McDonagh's funny, dark comedy about one man's search for his long-lost appendage....

BWW REVIEWS: It's a Hard Knock Life on Boston Stages
by Jan Nargi - October 13, 2012

It's your last chance to catch scintillating Boston area premieres of two recent Broadway hits about hope in the midst of hardscrabble lives - 'The Motherf**ker with the Hat' at SpeakEasy Stage and 'Good People' at the Huntington. Both end this weekend....

BWW Review: THE COMPANY WE KEEP Snaps, Crackles, and Pops
by Nancy Grossman - October 11, 2012

Boston Playwrights' Theatre's THE COMPANY WE KEEP is a cross between WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF and BOB AND CAROL AND TED AND ALICE and, like the blurb says, Jaclyn Villano's well-crafted new play is surprising and shocking....

BWW Review: N.E. Premiere A BRIGHT NEW BOISE
by Nancy Grossman - October 03, 2012

Zeitgeist Stage Company begins its season with the New England premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's Obie-winning A BRIGHT NEW BOISE, melding themes of religious scandal, father/son relationships, spirituality, and big-box retailing. It will dare you to laugh and challenge you to think....

BWW REVIEW: Cast, Direction Keep KITE RUNNER Aloft
by Jan Nargi - October 02, 2012

'The Kite Runner' at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown provides uplift and hope by charting the very personal - and painful - journey of an imperfect but redeemable hero....

BWW Review: A Bad Day at the Office
by Nancy Grossman - October 01, 2012

Feeling nostalgic for the 1980s? The North Shore Music Theatre reminds us what office life was like back then in '9 to 5: The Musical,' based on the film and the Dolly Parton hit song. The production is acted and staged extremely well, but the songs are forgettable and the book is tough to swallow i...

BWW Review: THE FAKUS: A NOIR at BCA
by Nancy Grossman - September 27, 2012

The Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts is the ideal venue for Centastage's atmospheric world premiere of THE FAKUS: A NOIR by Joe Byers. The small, dark space is tailor-made for the mysterious story involving $100,000, visions of the Virgin Mary, and questions about who can be trusted. ...

BWW REVIEW: MARIE ANTOINETTE Sheds Light on Royal Pain
by Jan Nargi - September 18, 2012

A.R.T.'s world premiere of David Adjmi's dark comedy 'Marie Antoinette' explores the complex woman beneath the myth while drawing parallels between the infamously over-privileged French monarchy and America's 1%...

BWW Review: A Melange of Musical Theatre and Opera in THE MIKADO
by Nancy Grossman - September 17, 2012

The Lyric Stage Company opens its 39th season with an energetic and virtuosic production of Gilbert and Sullivan's beloved operetta, directed by Spiro Veloudos and music directed by Jonathan Goldberg, with an ensemble of fifteen outstanding vocal talents....

BWW Review: Crossing Paths at HOMESTEAD CROSSING
by Nancy Grossman - September 11, 2012

Merrimack Repertory Theatre celebrates its rebirth with world premiere of Massachusetts playwright William Donnelly's HOMESTEAD CROSSING in co-production with Berkshire Theatre Group and Portland Stage Company....

Sally Struthers Punches into Ogunquit's '9 to 5'
by Jan Nargi - September 10, 2012

Veteran television comedienne Sally Struthers is working overtime to bring much needed laughs to an otherwise hit or miss production of Dolly Parton's '9 to 5: The Musical' at Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine...

BWW Review: Southern Family Drama in CRIMES OF THE HEART
by Nancy Grossman - September 04, 2012

Gloucester Stage Company concludes its season of plays about our need for home and community with 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winner by Beth Henley. Solid directing and strong individual performances aren't quite enough to achieve liftoff, but wit and warmth abound....

BWW Reviews: 9 CIRCLES at Gloucester Stage is Stunning Evening of Theater
by Charles Shubow - August 22, 2012

Award winning play ends short run August 26, 2012...

BILLY ELLIOT Rises and Shines in Boston
by Jan Nargi - August 17, 2012

National tour of Broadway's Tony Award-winning 'Billy Elliot' retains all the power and punch of the original...

BWW Review: GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE
by Nancy Grossman - August 14, 2012

Bad Habit Productions opens its sixth season, themed "Sex and Politics," with Moises Kaufman's play about the fall from grace of Oscar Wilde, and the social and political ramifications that echo more than a century later....

BWW Review: CHAD DEITY Is A Body Slam
by Nancy Grossman - August 01, 2012

Grab a ringside seat at Company One's production of Kristoffer Diaz's Obie Award-winning play to find out just how much professional wrestling has in common with the theater arts. Not for the faint of heart!...

Love and War Take on New Meaning in Ogunquit’s SOUTH PACIFIC
by Jan Nargi - July 09, 2012

Maine's Ogunquit Playhouse presents a magnificent production of this classic musical masterpiece based on the 2008 Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center Theater revival...

PRIVATE LIVES Sparkles at the Huntington
by Jan Nargi - June 22, 2012

Drink in this effervescent Noel Coward champagne cocktail during its final weekend at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston...

BWW Review: A CHORUS LINE at Reagle Music Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - June 18, 2012

Lorenzo Lamas gets top billing as Zach in the 44th season opener at Reagle Music Theatre in Waltham. He is joined by a stellar cast of twenty-six young people vying for their place on the line. This is a worthy production in the annals of the groundbreaking 1975 Tony Award-winning Best Musical....

BWW Review: KRISTIN CHENOWETH TAKES BOSTON BY STORM
by Nancy Grossman - June 11, 2012

IN CONCERT KRISTIN CHENOWETH National Tour blew into the Boston Opera House on the heels of a wind and rain-driven thunder squall for one night only. Backed by an 11-piece orchestra and a trio of triple-threat performers, the diminutive star of stage, screen, and soundtrack put on a tight, well-pace...

XANADU Ends SpeakEasy Stage Season on a Roll
by Jan Nargi - June 06, 2012

SpeakEasy Stage Company of Boston puts its own twisted spin on Douglas Carter Beane musical spoof of disastrous 1980 roller disco film XANADU...

BWW Review: Company One's Multilingual LOVE PERSON Inclusive and Engaging
by Nancy Grossman - May 31, 2012

Playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil's multilingual (English, Sanskrit, American Sign Language, and email) love story is having its Boston premiere at the Boston Center for the Arts. This play with little action focuses on and gives special significance to language, facial expressions, and the complicati...

BWW Review: WW II Love Story: AND A NIGHTINGALE SANG
by Nancy Grossman - May 27, 2012

Wellesley Summer Theatre Company has a knack for creating the world of its plays and this love story within a war story is no exception. It is funny and dramatic, like life, and infused with earnest warmth by this solid ensemble. Playwright C.P. Taylor gives us characters to care about with flaws th...

BWW Review: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood of AVENUE Q
by Nancy Grossman - May 25, 2012

The Lyric Stage Company production of AVENUE Q rivals the national tour that passed this way four years ago. The run has been extended (twice) by popular demand to July 1st. Director Spiro Veloudos has assembled one of the best musical ensemble casts of the season....

Boston Theater Critics Association Spreads Love to Hometown Talent with 30th Annual Norton Awards
by Nancy Grossman - May 22, 2012

The annual party known as the Elliot Norton Awards was held at the Paramount Center, bringing the Boston theater community together to celebrate achievements of a lifetime, as well as of the past year. Individuals singled out for recognition included song-and-dance man extraordinaire Tommy Tune, Bro...