They had style, they had grace. Alice Ripley gave good face. As we come to the close of another theatrical year, it’s time to not only name the best productions of the year, but to reflect on the year’s theatrical offerings as a whole. Some years there are trends; some years there aren’t. […]
ALTERING THE COURSE: MOBY-DICK AT THE AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER
★★★★★ Moby-Dick is either a long, elaborate funeral for the American musical as we know it or the birth of a new kind of theatrical language. Which side you come down on will depend on your reaction to this world premiere musical, which runs at the American Repertory Theater through Jan 12. […]
JAGGED LITTLE PILL STILL SAYS TOO LITTLE ABOUT TOO MUCH
★★☆☆☆ “I recommend biting off more than you can chew” is one Alanis Morissette lyric that the team behind Jagged Little Pill appears to have taken far too literally. When the musical—clobbered together from Morissette’s catalogue of hits—premiered at Cambridge’s American Repertory Theater last spring, I wrote in my review that it […]
PEAK ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE: BOSTON’S LARGER STAGES DON’T NEED TO BE MORE LIKE THE MOVIES. THEY NEED TO BE MORE LIKE THE SMALL STAGES.
Boston’s larger stages don’t need to be more like the movies. They need to be more like the small stages. Theater critic Ed Siegel incensed some—and drew applause from others—when he published a divisive, bold essay last week bemoaning the current state of Boston theater. In his piece, which was published by WBUR’s […]
LEARNING TO SEE IN THE DARK: JOMAMA JONES IN BLACK LIGHT
★★★★☆ “What if I told you it’s going to be all right? What if I told you not yet?” It’s this kind of wisdom—sometimes reassuring, sometimes unnerving, but always ominous—that pulses through Black Light, Daniel Alexander Jones’ one-woman mystical cabaret-style show that will run at American Repertory Theater’s OBERON through Sept 29. […]
DIVING DEEP: ENDLINGS AT AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER
★★★★☆ Miss Saigon had the helicopter. Phantom has the chandelier. And Endlings—a daring and audacious new play by Celine Song—has a water tank. Partly set on a small, remote South Korean island, three elderly women are the last of their kind: the final three haenyeos, free divers that harvest seafood 65 feet […]
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 […]
A FRENETIC BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES AT A.R.T.
★★★☆☆ Nigerian playwright Inua Ellams’ Barber Shop Chronicles—a smash in the UK—has been on an American tour since October and has just settled into a month-long run at Cambridge’s American Repertory Theater, where it will run through Jan 5. Directed by Bijan Sheibani, Barber Shop Chronicles is set in six different barber […]
AMOC BRINGING FRESH NOTES TO OPERA AT AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER
When most people think of opera, they imagine a red-faced, sweating man or woman on stage, belting out unintelligible lyrics. Think Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in “What’s Opera, Doc?” or maybe even Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep in the eponymous biopic). While much of opera isn’t this, it does carry the burden […]
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 […]
