Celine Song’s Endlings, which has its world premiere next month at Cambridge’s American Repertory Theater, is a strange, fantastical work with a lot on its mind. It centers on three aging haenyeoes—female divers from a centuries-old Korean tradition—on the rather desolate island of Man-Jae and on Ha Young, a Korean-Canadian playwright in Manhattan struggling […]
THE LITTLE FOXES CREW MAKES CASE FOR HELLMAN
Lyric Stage considers Lillian Hellman’s opus and legacy The Little Foxes cuts straight into the heart of American morality at a time when the nation is at a turning point. With women striving for recognition, shifting racial politics creating visible friction and powerful businesses taking over smaller ones through unsavory deals, 1900 was […]
CHRISTINE EBERSOLE IS READY TO BE SURPRISED: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINE EBERSOLE
Christine Ebersole was driving to White Plains, New York, when she called me. The two-time Tony Winner (42nd Street and Grey Gardens), best known for her work in musical theater, has been busy organizing concerts and cabaret engagements, like the ones she’ll be performing this weekend with the Huntington Theatre Company. Hosted by noted […]
THE WOLVES SCORE BIG AT LYRIC STAGE
★★★★★ “Maybe we shouldn’t use the B-word?” The ways a group of teenage girls treat each other is often at the forefront of The Wolves. In the Lyric Stage production of Sarah DeLappe’s one-act play about a girl’s indoor soccer team, they often argue about what they like and don’t like being […]
SEEDS OF MISTRUST IN A.R.T.’S OTHELLO
★★★★☆ Othello, William Shakespeare’s quintessential tale of race-baiting political treachery, has more connections to contemporary society than one might care to admit (or write down). As observed in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production, now in performance at the American Repertory Theater, the story of a virtuous black leader brought down by the vindictive […]
THE END OF TV, LIVE AND IN COLOR
★★★★☆ The demise of television, it appears, happened before the medium even began. The End of TV, a multimedia theater piece mounted by the Manual Cinema troupe, filters shadow puppets, cardboard cutouts, and good old-fashioned pantomime through live cameras to depict the alienating effects of a consumer culture gone terribly wrong. The […]
HUNTINGTON’S MAN IN THE RING A TOTAL KNOCKOUT
★★★★★ A gentle Caribbean breeze gets caught in a storm of violent masculinity in Man in the Ring, Michael Cristofer’s play about the life of boxer Emile Griffith. In a first-rate production directed by Michael Greif (Dear Evan Hansen; Rent), the legendary prizefighter’s past, present, and future battle it out in an unforgiving […]
FRONT PORCH PUSHES THEATRICAL DIVERSITY
A new black-led Boston theater company prepares its inaugural season The hard truth about Boston is that it’s a fairly racist city. It’s evident in its social dynamics and made painfully (in)visible in its cultural scene. At least Dawn M. Simmons, the artistic director of the city’s first black-led professional theater company in […]
A.R.T. CHEERS ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ DECADE
★★★★☆ It seems the folks over at the American Repertory Theater have racked up a lot to be thankful for in the decade since Diane Paulus became the company’s artistic director. ExtraOrdinary, a collection of songs and talents from the 30-some musicals produced during her tenure, revels in a contagious self-satisfaction that’s hard […]
MICHAEL GREIF, IN THE RING
The A-list director readies Man in the Ring at Huntington Theatre Company For Michael Greif, it’s all about context. The four-time Tony Award-nominated director behind shows like Rent and Dear Evan Hansen is no stranger to creating works that define generations, both onstage and off. In town working on Man in the Ring […]
