Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 46

BWW Review: WOODY SEZ Sings For You and Me
by Nancy Grossman - May 16, 2012

You don't have to be an old folkie to appreciate the music and message in WOODY SEZ: THE LIFE & MUSIC OF WOODY GUTHRIE at the A.R.T.'s Loeb Drama Center in Harvard Square. Four talented musicians sketch the life and times that were the foundation of Guthrie's music and made him into an icon of the ...

BWW Review: Club Cafe Now Serving CUPCAKE: A NEW MUSICAL
by Nancy Grossman - May 14, 2012

Inspired by a headline in the Provincetown Banner, Boston-based trio collaborates on world premiere musical about a baker who sells his irresistible cupcakes on the streets of "Summertown," his adoring customers, and the Keystone Cop who tracks his scent....

BWW Review: OPENING NIGHT AT POPS WITH BERNADETTE PETERS
by Nancy Grossman - May 10, 2012

The Boston Pops Orchestra, Keith Lockhart Conducting: Opening Night with Guest Artists Maggie Scott, Michael Chertock, Bernadette Peters; Wednesday, May 9, 2012, at Symphony Hall. ...

BWW Review: New Rep Seeks Blood Donors for Audrey II
by Nancy Grossman - May 10, 2012

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, the third longest-running show in off-Broadway history, has been extended through May 27 at the Charles Mosesian Theater in Watertown. Like the nefarious, carnivorous plant at the center of its story, LITTLE SHOP is on a long, deliberate path to conquer the world…of stage and...

BWW Review: David Sedaris Dishes on Owls, Monkeys, and Colonoscopies at Celebrity Series
by Nancy Grossman - May 07, 2012

The venerable Symphony Hall stage served as ground zero for the humor of David Sedaris as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston on Sunday. Socialized medicine, taxidermy, matchmaking, and foreign idiosyncrasies were only a few of the topics covered in his wide-ranging, hilarious essays....

BWW Review - CHITA RIVERA: MY BROADWAY Showcases a Legend
by Nancy Grossman - May 05, 2012

Boston Youth Moves twelfth annual Swellegance Gala Benefit presented one-night only performance by walking, singing, dancing icon of the Golden Age of Broadway musicals at Citi Shubert Theatre....

Boston Benefits from THE LUCK OF THE IRISH
by Jan Nargi - May 04, 2012

The Huntington Theatre Company of Boston presents the world premiere of a haunting new play by Kirsten Greenidge which illuminates subtle but lingering racial issues involving opportunity, belonging, and the American Dream...

BWW Review: Hershey Felder in MAESTRO: LEONARD BERNSTEIN
by Nancy Grossman - May 03, 2012

Hershey Felder projects the persona of Leonard Bernstein and delves into the man behind the music, examining the musical and personal influences that shaped the great American composer/conductor. The musical selections begin and end with WEST SIDE STORY, and feature songs from his other Broadway sho...

BWW Review: MARY POPPERS Is Pure Gold Dust
by Nancy Grossman - May 01, 2012

The latest offering from Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans simultaneously displays irreverence and pays loving homage to Disney's Mary with clever repartee, flights of the imagination, and kickin' production numbers....

BWW Review: Haunting GHOST-WRITER Concludes MRT Season
by Nancy Grossman - April 27, 2012

Playwright Michael Hollinger pulls the audience into the drama and challenges us to decide for ourselves whether or not we believe in ghosts in Merrimack Repertory Theatre's haunting production....

BWW Review: YESTERDAY HAPPENED More Science Than Art
by Nancy Grossman - April 21, 2012

YESTERDAY HAPPENED: REMEMBERING H.M. is a memory play with a distinct handicap in that the protagonist, Henry Molaison (the H.M. of the title) has no memory. The result is a loose collection of scenes and encounters that disseminate a lot of fascinating scientific information, but don't add up to th...

BWW Review: TIGERS BE STILL Handles Depression With Care and Comedy
by Nancy Grossman - April 17, 2012

Boston area premiere at Zeitgeist Stage Company is billed as a "comedy about depression." But wait a day or two and the real impact will sneak up on you…like a tiger....

BWW Review: FLOYD COLLINS Marks Moonbox Anniversary
by Nancy Grossman - April 11, 2012

Moonbox Productions marks its first anniversary with a moving production of Adam Guettel's FLOYD COLLINS at the Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. The composer-lyricist was in the house for the Easter Sunday press opening and talk-back. ...

BWW Reviews: Take a Temperamental Journey at Lyric Stage
by Nancy Grossman - April 03, 2012

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston presents the Boston premiere of Jon Marans' Off-Broadway hit THE TEMPERAMENTALS, a chronicle of the love story between Harry Hay and Rudi Gernreich, founders of the Mattachine Society in 1950s Los Angeles. Director Jeremy Johnson's vision employs techniques of film ...

BWW Reviews: FUTURITY: Musical Powered by a Steam Brain
by Nancy Grossman - March 27, 2012

Oberon hosts world premiere of ambitious Civil War musical that combines history, science fiction, technology, and imagination, but its reach exceeds its grasp. The book is muddled, but the music stands on its own....

SpeakEasy's NEXT TO NORMAL Struggles with the Highs and Lows of Mental Illness
by Jan Nargi - March 26, 2012

SpeakEasy Stage Company of Boston mounts a stirring, if not completely satisfying, production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical that explores an average family's attempts to deal with the shattering effects of mental illness...

BWW Reviews: Huntington Hits For the Cycle With MA RAINEY
by Nancy Grossman - March 25, 2012

The Huntington Theatre Company's production of MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM completes August Wilson's Century Cycle, ten plays that reflect the African-American experience in America by the decade throughout the 20th century. Yvette Freeman (NBC's ER) is a force of nature in the title role, and local ac...

BWW Reviews: MRS. WHITNEY Follows Her Heart
by Nancy Grossman - March 19, 2012

Merrimack Repertory Theatre presents John Kolvenbach's MRS. WHITNEY, an unsentimental and humorous look at the lengths to which people will go in pursuit of romance as the antidote to isolation....

RECENT TRAGIC EVENTS: Destiny or Free Will?
by Nancy Grossman - March 13, 2012

Whistler in the Dark Theatre presents Craig Wright's 2002 play about the aftermath of 9/11 as a young woman on a blind date in Minneapolis awaits word from her identical twin sister in New York City. Director Bridget Kathleen O'Leary and her cohesive ensemble cast overcome the challenges inherent in...

THE PLAY ABOUT THE BABY: An Albee Allegory
by Nancy Grossman - March 10, 2012

Exquisite Corps Theatre's mission is to tell stories and draw the audience into the world of the play. The Plaza Black Box Theatre is the ideal venue for this intimate look at what is true and what isn't, what is real and what isn't, and who are you without wounds? ...

REFLECTIONS OF A ROCK LOBSTER: A Story for Our Times
by Nancy Grossman - March 06, 2012

Boston Children's Theatre comes of age with important growing up gay story based on the 1980 landmark civil rights case of Cumberland, Rhode Island, teen Aaron Fricke who sued to take his boyfriend to the senior prom....

MONSTERS! A MIDLIFE MUSICAL MELTDOWN Mirrors and Mimics Milestone Birthday
by Nancy Grossman - February 28, 2012

Original musical comedy by local artists focuses on the demons we all need to conquer to live a meaningful life. Apathy, Fear, Body issues, and even overbearing mothers are best dealt with in song and dance. MONSTERS! is a charmer and a step in the right direction for regional theater....

TIME STANDS STILL: Lives Out of Focus and Frozen by War
by Jan Nargi - February 27, 2012

Lyric Stage in Boston sharpens the focus on Donald Margulies' meandering play about a photo journalist and foreign correspondent damaged by life and the ravages of the Iraq War...

Zeitgeist Stage: My Dinner With Ayckbourn
by Nancy Grossman - February 24, 2012

Dinner theater takes on a new dimension with Zeitgeist Stage production of Sir Alan Ayckbourn's 'Time of My Life.' A family birthday celebration kicks off a series of life-changing events that play out simultaneously in the past, present, and future....

Rachel York and Brent Barrett Bring Spark and Sizzle to ISN'T IT ROMANTIC?
by Nancy Grossman - February 20, 2012

Broadway musical theater stars Rachel York, a Drama Desk and two-time IRNE Award winner, and Brent Barrett, an LA Drama Critics Award winner and Olivier Award nominee, performed their favorite love songs from stage and screen as part of the Celebrity Concert Series to kick off the 44th season of Rea...