Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 48

BWW Reviews: THE FARM: Riveting Spy Play at Boston Playwrights' Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - October 18, 2011

Walt McGough's new play feels both fresh and broken in, thanks to nurturing collaboration with Director David R. Gammons and talented team of actors and designers. ...

Ogunquit's 'Miss Saigon' Pulses with Urgency of Life and Death
by Jan Nargi - October 14, 2011

Riveting revival of 1990s pop opera 'Miss Saigon' feels fresh and new in a breathtaking production at Maine's Ogunquit Playhouse...

BWW Reviews: Zeitgeist Stage Offers Ample Feast With 'Tiny Kushner'
by Nancy Grossman - October 11, 2011

'Tiny Kushner: An Evening of Short Plays by Tony Kushner' opens the Zeitgeist Stage Company 2011-2012 season with a tasting menu of five short plays by the prize-winning playwright. Richard Nixon's analyst and Laura Bush are just two of the amazing real life characters who transition from the headli...

BWW Reviews: Celebrity Series of Boston Presents Audra McDonald in Concert
by Nancy Grossman - October 04, 2011

In addition to the range, power, and magnificence of her incredible vocal instrument, it is Audra McDonald's stunning capacity for storytelling in her singing that places her in the upper stratum of concert performers....

BWW Reviews: Huntington's 'Candide' Is Quite Possibly the Best of All Possible
by Jan Nargi - October 02, 2011

Director/adapter Mary Zimmerman brings Leonard Bernstein's gloriously satirical musical of blind faith and unblinking optimism to life with vivid clarity, joyful exuberance, and thrilling poignancy in a pitch-perfect production at Boston's Huntington Theatre...

BWW Reviews - SOUTH PACIFIC Feels 'South Pathetic'
by Jan Nargi - September 29, 2011

National tour of 2008 Broadway revival now in Boston is a lame facsimile of the Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center Theatre production lauded as 'some enchanted evening'...

BWW Reviews: SpeakEasy Stages a Crisp NEXT FALL
by Jan Nargi - September 27, 2011

Religion and homosexuality make strange bed fellows in SpeakEasy Stage's tender and taut production of Geoffrey Nauffts compelling 'Next Fall'...

BWW Reviews: RENT Retains Its Relevance
by Nancy Grossman - September 14, 2011

At the end of the millennium, 'Rent' was a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner that went on to run for twelve years and 5,124 performances, making it the ninth-longest running Broadway musical. New Repertory Theatre stages an intimate and powerful production that shows the rock opera is still relev...

BWW Reviews: Book Passage on Big-hearted 'Big River'
by Nancy Grossman - September 06, 2011

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston makes a big splash with the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' the stories of an adventure-seeking boy and a runaway slave as they journey down the mighty Mississippi River....

BWW Reviews: Norm Lewis and Audra McDonald Illuminate PORGY & BESS at A.R.T.
by Jan Nargi - September 02, 2011

A.R.T.'s soaring pre-Broadway revision of 'The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess' offers many grace notes and an exquisite cast...

BWW Reviews: Laughter is Unavoidable in UNNECESSARY FARCE
by Nancy Grossman - August 25, 2011

Farcical final production of Cape Playhouse's 85th season features a cast of summer stock regulars whose crack timing infuses Paul Slade Smith's play with laughter, warmth, and surprises....

BWW REVIEWS: TEN CENTS A DANCE- More Song Than Dance
by Nancy Grossman - August 17, 2011

Williamstown Theatre Festival presents the American premiere of Tony Award-winner John Doyle's newest musical featuring dozens of unforgettable songs from the catalogue of Rodgers and Hart. Tony Award-winner Donna McKechnie and Malcolm Gets lead a stellar ensemble of actor-musicians who tell a roman...

BWW REVIEWS: No Wrong Notes in Orfeo's 'LOVE SONG'
by Nancy Grossman - August 10, 2011

John Kolvenbach's 2007 Olivier-nominated feel-good play underscores the importance of human connection and the magical powers of falling in love....

BWW Reviews: LAST DAY Needs Blood Transfusion
by Nancy Grossman - July 26, 2011

World premiere of Richard Vetere's play at Gloucester Stage is chock full of buried secrets, red herrings, and blind alleys. ...

BWW Reviews: Staging, Dance Give This MUSIC MAN Spark at Ogunquit
by Jan Nargi - July 25, 2011

Director Ray Roderick, choreographer Jeffry Denman, and a delicious ensemble cast breathe exuberant life into Ogunquit Playhouse's fun-filled 'Music Man'...

BWW Reviews: '1001:' A Tangled Web
by Nancy Grossman - July 22, 2011

In '1001,' now in its Boston premiere at Company One, playwright Jason Grote reinvents the collected works of 'One Thousand and One Nights' and creates a mash-up of two worlds, time-traveling between ancient Persia and 21st-century America in the throes of the 9/11 attack....

BWW Reviews: Prescription for Good SummerTheatre: Call Doc Simon
by Nancy Grossman - July 19, 2011

The Independent Drama Society closes shop after four years with 'The Good Doctor,' Neil Simon's 1973 play that marries his intelligence and wit with the realistic style of the stories of Anton Chekhov....

Revamped 'Tarzan' Still a Jungle of Contradictions
by Jan Nargi - July 15, 2011

David Henry Hwang's revised 'Tarzan: The Stage Musical,' getting its world premiere at North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass., needs more time on the vine...

BWW Reviews: PSY Inspires Awe at ArtsEmerson
by Nancy Grossman - July 15, 2011

Back for a return engagement, the Montreal-based troupe Les 7 Doigts de la Main performs jaw-dropping acrobatics and circus stunts that illustrate a variety of mental maladies....

BWW Reviews: SONGS FOR A SUMMER'S NIGHT at New Rep
by Nancy Grossman - July 15, 2011

Kander and Ebb musical revue 'The World Goes Round' is perfect entertainment for a warm summer night. Director/choreographer Ilyse Robbins puts a quintet of local favorites through their paces on a stroll down a memory lane lined with Broadway classics....

BWW Reviews: Joyful HAPPY FELLA at Gloucester Stage
by Nancy Grossman - July 09, 2011

Frank Loesser's 1956 operatic musical, overflowing with melodic tunes and outstanding performances, is a showcase for the ways that a small, intimate stage can add depth and heart to an old chestnut....

BWW Reviews: THE AUERBACH DYNASTY - A Slice of Boston Sports History
by Nancy Grossman - June 27, 2011

A labor of love and a wonderful homage to the man who was an institution in Boston, Ken Dooley's 'The Auerbach Dynasty' offers a hefty helping of nostalgia alongside a strong portrayal of Arnold 'Red' Auerbach by Jeff Gill in a solo performance as the first coach of the Boston Celtics....

Soaring Dancers Tell 'West Side Story'
by Nancy Grossman - June 19, 2011

Excitement pulses through The Colonial Theatre from the opening notes of the Prologue and song after classic song by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. With revamped book by Arthur Laurents and Jerome Robbins' choreography, the National Tour of the 2009 Broadway revival that ran for 748 perform...

BWW Reviews: Broadway Divas Block and Murney at Boston Pops
by Nancy Grossman - June 17, 2011

There is nothin' like a dame and two of the best belters on Broadway are mixing it up with the Boston Pops Orchestra for two performances only under the baton of The New York Pops Music Director Steven Reineke. Stephanie J. Block and Julia Murney, affectionately tagged as 'Broadway Divas,' take turn...

BWW Reviews: Company One Brings Puppets and Magic of PigPen Theatre to Boston
by Nancy Grossman - June 14, 2011

Innovative ensemble supplies a breath of fresh air and innocence with the world premiere of 'The Mountain Song,' an original folk tale that blends live music, puppetry, shadow play, and clever lighting effects for a family-friendly theatrical entertainment....