★★★★★ Only about once—maybe twice—a year does a production come along that makes me feel as if I’ve been ignited from the inside out. It takes a special kind of vision—along with all the different theatrical stars lining up just right—to turn a long and (forgive me) boring Chekhov play into the most […]
A CACOPHONY OF CHINTZ: SPONGEBOB SINKS AT THE WANG
★★☆☆☆ When it was announced in 2015 that Nickelodeon would be bringing a SpongeBob musical to Broadway, you can imagine how many people reacted with a giant eye roll, particularly those of us who had PTSD from the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid, which had sea creatures “swimming” around the stage on […]
NOPE-DA-DOO: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS LIMPS AT LYRIC STAGE
★★★☆☆ If ever there was a musical that embodied the notion of “the little musical that could,” it would be Little Shop of Horrors, the kooky 1982 Off-Broadway musical that rightfully earned its place among musical theater’s most beloved comedies, thanks mostly to the terrific 1986 Frank Oz film that allowed the story […]
NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO BE BELIEVED: CYMBELINE SPUTTERS ON THE BOSTON COMMON
★★☆☆☆ Confusing. Haphazard. Far-Fetched. Convoluted. For centuries, such words have been used repeatedly to describe Cymbeline, Shakespeare’s rarely staged late tragicomedy that is being performed on the Boston Common by Commonwealth Shakespeare Company through Aug 4. George Bernard Shaw even famously called it “stagy trash.” Trash, I’m not sure, but it […]
A GODDESS IN OUR MIDST: FAYE DUNAWAY IN TEA AT FIVE
★★★☆☆ In the spirit of total transparency, it must be said that I would pay money to sit and watch Faye Dunaway do just about anything. Or, for that matter, absolutely nothing. My love for her runs deep. So it was very much with that same sense of adoration and awe that I […]
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, […]
THEATER REVIEW: VIETGONE AT COMPANY ONE THEATRE
★★★★☆ One of the many things I’ve learned while reviewing theater in Boston over the last several years is that if a production is bold, exciting, and makes me feel alive, chances are it’s a Company One production. Even the imperfect productions—and there are almost as many at C1 as there are […]
THE STRANGE UNDOING OF PRUDENCIA HART AT APOLLINAIRE THEATRE
★★★★☆ It may be that no local theater company does weird as well as Apollinaire, and Danielle Fauteux Jacques’s atmospheric and good-natured production of David Greig’s bizarre The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart is another strange feather in their one-of-a-kind cap. Immersively staged in a Scottish pub on the Scottish borders (also […]
THE CHOICE MAY HAVE BEEN MISTAKEN: ONEGIN AT GREATER BOSTON STAGE COMPANY
★★☆☆☆ That Eugene Onegin (both the Pushkin poem and the Tchaikovsky opera) would be considered a tale ripe for musical theaterization is not all that surprising. Oozing with romance and the ache of lost love, there are a great many innately dramatic things about the rise and fall of a cocky Russian playboy […]
SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING NEW: SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO AND JULIET AT HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY
★★★★★ Walking into the Huntington Avenue Theatre to take your seat at its current production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, you might be reminded of your middle school field trip to the United Nations. You might also remember the American Repertory Theater’s recent staging of Othello, where TV screens and army barracks aimed […]
