Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 49

'42nd Street' Diverts in Downtown Stoneham
by Nancy Grossman - May 22, 2011

Ilyse Robbins adds Director to her resumé with impressive staging of classic Broadway musical. Her choreography is well-served by a talented troupe of tapping chorus boys and girls. Local favorite Kathy St. George gives leading lady Dorothy Brock a makeover....

Groucho and Harpo Give 'Animal Crackers' Its Bite
by Nancy Grossman - May 18, 2011

Marx Brothers 1928 Broadway musical can still make 'em laugh, but is at its best when Minnie's boys are upstaging everyone else....

The Boston Pops and Linda Eder Pay Tribute to Judy Garland For Season Opener
by Nancy Grossman - May 12, 2011

A sure sign of spring in Boston is the opening of the 126th season of the Boston Pops Orchestra at Symphony Hall...

A Toast to 'The Drowsy Chaperone!'
by Nancy Grossman - May 10, 2011

SpeakEasy Stage Company concludes its 20th anniversary season with regional premiere of 2006 Tony Award-winning musical within a comedy. Thanks to a who's who of local talent, it is one hour and forty minutes of entertainment that will make you anything but drowsy. ...

Paula Plum Rules as Cleopatra
by Nancy Grossman - May 04, 2011

Actors' Shakespeare Project inaugurates The Modern Theatre with William Shakespeare's Antony & Cleopatra, a treatise for the ages on love, passion, greatness, and political folly....

'A Picasso' Searches for Authenticity
by Nancy Grossman - April 26, 2011

Merrimack Repertory Theatre wraps up 32nd season with regional premiere which imagines a confrontation between the famous painter and a Nazi functionary bent on destroying his work....

'The Book of Grace' Is a Worthy Tome
by Nancy Grossman - April 23, 2011

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzanne Lori-Parks asks you to examine your own 'Book of Grace' and look for the evidence of good things in your life. This Company One production is one of them....

Eruptions Abound in 'Walking the Volcano'
by Nancy Grossman - April 19, 2011

Jon Lipsky's final play staged with honest, compelling performances by Boston Playwrights' Theatre and Boston Center for American Performance...

Kurz, Gleason Sparkle in 'Sons of the Prophet'
by Nancy Grossman - April 15, 2011

New play by Stephen Karam worthy of hoopla in Huntington Theatre Company world premiere production at Calderwood Pavilion, directed by Peter DuBois...

'9 Circles' Concludes Run at Publick Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - April 10, 2011

Award-winning play by Bill Cain, the founder of the Boston Shakespeare Company, featured tour de force performance by Jimi Stanton with strong support from Will McGarrahan and Amanda Collins, under the direction of Eric Engel....

Celebrity Series of Boston Presents Patti LuPone, 'The Gypsy in My Soul'
by Nancy Grossman - April 04, 2011

You've seen her Tony Award-winning performances on the Broadway stage; you've watched her on the small screen; you've read her best-selling autobiography, 'Patti LuPone: A Memoir;' big thanks to the Celebrity Series of Boston for bringing her to Symphony Hall...

'BROKE-OLOGY' - A Study of a Family
by Nancy Grossman - March 28, 2011

Lyric Stage Company's Boston premiere of first play by up-and-comer Nathan Louis Jackson purports to be about the science of being financially broke, but exposes the fault lines within a loving African-American family and turns out to be about all of us....

Let Your Freak Flag Fly at 'Hair' at Colonial Theatre
by Nancy Grossman - March 26, 2011

The overall experience of seeing 'Hair' is exhilarating, as if some pent-up emotion lying dormant for decades is finally being let out into the air, but this revival feels inauthentic, a little like the Disney ride version of the decade and cultural upheaval that changed our society in so many impor...

'Educating Rita' Merits High Grades
by Nancy Grossman - March 17, 2011

Award-winning Director Maria Aitken returns to the Huntington Theatre Company with Willy Russell's award-winning comedy about a working-class hairdresser seeking a university education and her frustrated poet/professor charged with helping her change her life. Both are transformed in unexpected ways...

Neil LaBute Creates Reasons to Feel Yucky
by Nancy Grossman - March 16, 2011

SpeakEasy Stage Company completes LaBute's "Beauty Trilogy" with New England premiere of 'reasons to be pretty.' Director Paul Melone is a master of these character-driven dramas, leaving no stone unturned to portray the unattractive obsessions of four young beauty-seekers....

'My Wonderful Day' Vintage Ayckbourn
by Nancy Grossman - March 07, 2011

Zeitgeist Stage Company presents New England premiere of playwright Alan Ayckbourn's 70th play. Lead by 10-year old Hyacinth Tauriac (alternating with Alanna Logan) in a star turn, talented ensemble portrays adults behaving badly, as seen through the eyes of a child who puts it all down in her homew...

New Rep's 'Dollhouse' Solidly Constructed
by Nancy Grossman - March 04, 2011

Theresa Rebeck's contemporary adaptation of Ibsen classic is rich with timely themes, and features solid direction, smart design elements, and compelling performances...

Unusual Guests at 'The Hotel Nepenthe'
by Nancy Grossman - March 01, 2011

Playwright John Kuntz challenges you to connect the dots in his new one-act play, the second of three in Actors' Shakespeare Project's Winter Festival at The Storefront in Davis Square....

'My Name is Asher Lev' in N.E. Premiere at Lyric Stage
by Nancy Grossman - February 20, 2011

Adherence to tradition or pursuit of passion? Adapted from the 1972 Chaim Potok novel, the semi-autobiographical story shows the struggle for the heart and mind of an observant Jew who tries to reconcile his devotion to his upbringing with his passion for his artistic gift. ...

SpeakEasy's 'Nine' Is Delizioso
by Jan Nargi - February 17, 2011

SpeakEasy Stage in Boston delivers a lush and lively production of Kopit and Yeston's rich musical adaption of Fellini's autobiographical film '8 1/2'...

'The Exceptionals' World Premiere at Merrimack Rep
by Nancy Grossman - February 16, 2011

Bob Clyman's smart, funny new play raises difficult issues in the debate about raising exceptional children. Should parents or scientists determine the course of a child's education? And what is society's interest in the outcome? In between the laughs,it will make you think....

Hope Amidst the 'Ruined'
by Jan Nargi - February 01, 2011

Huntington Theatre Company presents a gripping production of Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play that takes an unflinching look at the savagery of war and sees survival...

Company One Wants You to Meet the 'Neighbors'
by Nancy Grossman - January 17, 2011

And Archie Bunker thought he had it bad! Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins introduces the families Crow and Patterson, more similar than you might think, in this irreverent post-racial look at stereotypes and racial struggles....

'Tryst' With a Twist
by Nancy Grossman - January 11, 2011

Karoline Leach combines sleight and misdirection into a taut, thrilling love story, and Merrimack Repertory Theatre production gives 'Tryst' its due...

'The Understudy' Merits Top Billing
by Nancy Grossman - January 05, 2011

Boston premiere of Theresa Rebeck play-within-a-play examines the Broadway zeitgeist of celebrity casting and offers a spot on peek backstage at how the lives of the actors are affected....