★★☆☆☆ As far as Boston theater goes, Hamilton is out and Spamilton is in. Of course, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical juggernaut about the founding fathers is (sadly) far from leaving the public consciousness anytime soon but, a few months after its months-long residency came and went, a new show from the creator of the […]
ENDLINGS DIVES INTO KOREAN-AMERICAN IDENTITY: AN INTERVIEW WITH ACTOR JIEHAE PARK
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 […]
AT NEW REP, HEARTLAND FAILS TO SHOULDER ATLANTEAN BURDEN OF MESSAGE
★★☆☆☆ The impact of American propaganda on Afghani children is admittedly a difficult subject to understand and explain, let alone capture in a 105-minute play. This doesn’t stop Heartland, a Gabriel Jason Dean play directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary, from giving it a shot. But it seems that, just like the conflict […]
SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS
Director Bevin O’Gara Speaks About Play With No Talking For a play in which the characters aren’t allowed to speak, Small Mouth Sounds says a lot. The play, by Bess Wohl, follows its characters on a comedic and poignant journey in self-reflection and mutual understanding at a spiritual retreat. Director Bevin O’Gara, a […]
IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL
Winter People at the Boston Playwrights’ Theater ★★☆☆☆ It’s a particularly East Coast feeling—the eeriness of a summer resort in winter, when February winds blow through the dormant wooden roller coaster at the amusement park or an empty plastic bag blows across the frozen, barren beaches of New Jersey. Laura Neill’s new […]
LAND HO, SO-SO: TWELFTH NIGHT AND SHIPWRECKED! IN REP AT MOONBOX PRODUCTIONS
★★☆☆☆ If Duke Orsino in Shakespeare’s beloved comedy Twelfth Night has picked up his (sometimes misbegotten) ideas of love from hearing enchanting strains of music, Louis de Rougemont, the self-proclaimed narrator/protagonist/hero/villain of Donald Margulies’ Shipwrecked! An Entertainment has gotten his ideas about adventure from books. The Odyssey, Robinson Caruso, Ten Thousand Leagues Under […]
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 […]
ALL BARK, NO BITE IN AKA THEATRE’S IN THE FOREST, SHE GREW FANGS
★★☆☆☆ Once upon a time, there was a play. And in this play, presented by Also Known As Theatre, there was a girl. And a forest. And a grandmother. And a wolf. Stephen Spotswood’s In the Forest, She Grew Fangs, directed by Kelly Smith, tries to play off this classic scenario. A girl […]
