A theatrical look at race in America
THE BEST PRODUCTIONS OF 2019
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. […]
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 […]
BOYS TO MEN: AN ASTOUNDING ENSEMBLE GIVES LIFE TO CHOIR BOY
★★★★☆ A 2019 Tony Award nominee for Best Play, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy is receiving a spirited, well-acted New England premiere at Boston’s SpeakEasy Stage Company, where it will run through Oct 12. McCraney, best known as the Oscar-winning co-writer of Moonlight, mines similar territory here—young black men coming of age while […]
SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY AT SPEAKEASY STAGE
★★★★★ Putting a new twist on the age-old trope of the mean but secretly insecure queen bee and her gaggle of devoted followers, Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play is currently receiving its New England premiere in a SpeakEasy Stage production directed by Summer L. Williams. This production, […]
THE UNIMAGINABLE BEAUTY OF ONCE AT SPEAKEASY STAGE
★★★★★ No modern musical captures the essence of tender love quite like Once, the Academy Award-winning sleeper hit film of 2007 that was adapted for the stage in 2012, sweeping that year’s Tony Awards. It isn’t only the lightning-in-a-bottle romance at the core of Once that has spellbound audiences for over a […]
BEST OF BOSTON THEATER: 2018 EDITION
This 2018 edition of the best of Boston theater is the fourth time I’ve sat down to compile such a list but the first time I haven’t struggled to fill it. Last year, I capped the list at seven because the thought of shoving things in just to get to 10 hurt my soul. […]
A SOARING FUN HOME AT SPEAKEASY STAGE
★★★★☆ Based on the 2006 best-selling graphic memoir of the same title by Alison Bechdel, Fun Home recreates Bechdel’s childhood and adolescent memories: how she loved drawing and despised dresses, how she came out in college, and how, a few months after revealing her sexuality to her parents, her father killed himself by […]
ALLEGIANCE FAILS TO COMMAND AT SPEAKEASY STAGE
★★☆☆☆ It’s hard not to at least try to root for Allegiance, the awfully bad but well-intentioned musical that is currently limping through its East Coast regional premiere at SpeakEasy Stage. The musical, which opened on Broadway in 2015 after a 2012 world premiere in San Diego, received mixed reviews and shuttered […]
ALLEGIANCE AND NINJAS AND PORNSTARS, OH MY!
A candid take with George Takei As an actor, director, author, and activist, George Takei has led more lives than the coolest of cool cats. While he is perhaps most well-known for playing USS Enterprise helmsman Mr. Sulu from the legendary Star Trek series, Takei himself has become a pop cultural icon in […]
