Nancy Grossman - Page 27

Are we at a sufficient remove from the last decade of wars in the Middle East to be able to step back and take an analytical view that is balanced or unbiased? In BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO, Rajiv Joseph's 2010 Pulitzer Prize Finalist play having its Boston premiere at Company One, the playwright addresses this challenge by asking a lot of questions without professing to know the answers. He leaves it to each member of the audience to draw their own conclusions.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre presents Kathleen Tolan's MEMORY HOUSE, a sweet play about a highly-charged emotional evening. An age-old tug of war is taking place between a divorced mother and her adopted teenage daughter as the latter struggles to complete her college application essay before the midnight deadline. Their journey down a slippery slope of family memories will cause some emotional bumps and bruises along the way, but ultimately take them to the place where they both need to be.

Spiro Veloudos chooses wisely when it comes to telling good stories and finding good directors to tell them. Daniel Gidron respects the religious and scholarly aspects of the book and delves deeply into the emotional intelligence of the characters and the richness of their relationships.

New England premiere at Stoneham Theatre owes top billing to designers for creating noir atmosphere, but the acting can't match the vitality of iconic screen figures.

If you haven't had enough of the real life political drama going on around you, take a nostalgic trip back to the 2008 election in the American premiere of Christopher Shinn's NOW OR LATER by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion.

New Repertory Theatre performs David Mamet's RACE with precision, thanks to direction by Robert Walsh and spot on cast of Kenneth Cheeseman, Miranda Craigwell, Cliff Odle, and Patrick Shea.

Theatre on Fire opens eighth season at Charlestown Working Theater with Martin McDonagh's funny, dark comedy about one man's search for his long-lost appendage.

Boston Playwrights' Theatre's THE COMPANY WE KEEP is a cross between WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF and BOB AND CAROL AND TED AND ALICE and, like the blurb says, Jaclyn Villano's well-crafted new play is surprising and shocking.

Zeitgeist Stage Company begins its season with the New England premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's Obie-winning A BRIGHT NEW BOISE, melding themes of religious scandal, father/son relationships, spirituality, and big-box retailing. It will dare you to laugh and challenge you to think.

Feeling nostalgic for the 1980s? The North Shore Music Theatre reminds us what office life was like back then in '9 to 5: The Musical,' based on the film and the Dolly Parton hit song. The production is acted and staged extremely well, but the songs are forgettable and the book is tough to swallow in our era of cynicism.

The Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts is the ideal venue for Centastage's atmospheric world premiere of THE FAKUS: A NOIR by Joe Byers. The small, dark space is tailor-made for the mysterious story involving $100,000, visions of the Virgin Mary, and questions about who can be trusted. Dark shadows and red herrings abound.

The Lyric Stage Company opens its 39th season with an energetic and virtuosic production of Gilbert and Sullivan's beloved operetta, directed by Spiro Veloudos and music directed by Jonathan Goldberg, with an ensemble of fifteen outstanding vocal talents.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre celebrates its rebirth with world premiere of Massachusetts playwright William Donnelly's HOMESTEAD CROSSING in co-production with Berkshire Theatre Group and Portland Stage Company.

Gloucester Stage Company concludes its season of plays about our need for home and community with 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winner by Beth Henley. Solid directing and strong individual performances aren't quite enough to achieve liftoff, but wit and warmth abound.

Bad Habit Productions opens its sixth season, themed "Sex and Politics," with Moises Kaufman's play about the fall from grace of Oscar Wilde, and the social and political ramifications that echo more than a century later.

Grab a ringside seat at Company One's production of Kristoffer Diaz's Obie Award-winning play to find out just how much professional wrestling has in common with the theater arts. Not for the faint of heart!

Lorenzo Lamas gets top billing as Zach in the 44th season opener at Reagle Music Theatre in Waltham. He is joined by a stellar cast of twenty-six young people vying for their place on the line. This is a worthy production in the annals of the groundbreaking 1975 Tony Award-winning Best Musical.

IN CONCERT KRISTIN CHENOWETH National Tour blew into the Boston Opera House on the heels of a wind and rain-driven thunder squall for one night only. Backed by an 11-piece orchestra and a trio of triple-threat performers, the diminutive star of stage, screen, and soundtrack put on a tight, well-paced production displaying her vocal versatility and comedic chops.

Playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil's multilingual (English, Sanskrit, American Sign Language, and email) love story is having its Boston premiere at the Boston Center for the Arts. This play with little action focuses on and gives special significance to language, facial expressions, and the complications that sometimes develop in relationships when we're not paying enough attention. Director M. Bevin O'Gara does an amazing job with the challenges inherent in staging Kapil's play, and draws authentic performances from the cast of hearing and Deaf actors.

Wellesley Summer Theatre Company has a knack for creating the world of its plays and this love story within a war story is no exception. It is funny and dramatic, like life, and infused with earnest warmth by this solid ensemble. Playwright C.P. Taylor gives us characters to care about with flaws that make them interesting and human, and his charming dialogue is steeped in colloquial expressions that are peculiar to the British wordscape.