Jan Nargi - Page 4

CITY OF ANGELS, Larry Gelbart, Cy Coleman, and David Zippel's musical romp through the seedy underworld of Hollywood via film noir, would be nothing without its dazzling dames. The same holds true for the production soon ending its run at Boston's Lyric Stage. Without the humor and heat brought by the wonderful Leigh Barrett and Jennifer Ellis, director Spiro Veloudos' CITY OF ANGELS would be all steak and no sizzle.

Creators of the recent failed Broadway musical BIG FISH are testing the waters of regional theater with a more intimate, scaled back version of their splashy father-son story now premiering at Boston's SpeakEasy Stage through April 11.

It feels like it could have been written yesterday, but THE COLORED MUSEUM, now in a rollicking revival at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, Mass., was actually first produced in 1986. Written by the estimable Broadway playwright and director George C. Wolfe (Jelly's Last Jam, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches) and directed here with great panache by Tony Award winner Billy Porter (Kinky Boots), this scathing "black black comedy" marches through 300 years of African American history by way of 11 funny but also penetrating living vignettes.

The gripping undertow of a turbulent past threatens to drown the three main characters in OCEANSIDE, a searing new play by Nick Gandiello currently in its world premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell. Taut, terse and unrelenting, the play ebbs and flows with a deceivingly gentle rhythm until a powerful tsunami all but demolishes each character's carefully constructed new life.

New Repertory Theatre in Watertown revisits Yiddish Theatre with Robert Brustein's new Klezmer musical comedy THE KING OF SECOND AVENUE.

Downton Abbey meets Eugene O'Neill in Ronan Noone's new play THE SECOND GIRL, the story of what goes on in the servants' kitchen while O'Neill's fictional Tyrone family suffer through their very long day's journey into night upstairs.

MOTOWN, Berry Gordy's self-aggrandizing tribute to the independent record label that fused gospel, blues, jazz, doo wop and country into a unique and wildly popular Detroit sound, is currently heating things up at the Boston Opera House through February 15.

An epic story is told on an intimate scale in Suzan-Lori Park's splendid mash-up of Civil War slavery and present-day racial strife.

For thirty-something urban professionals grappling with balancing their personal lives with upwardly mobile careers, Ken Urban's A FUTURE PERFECT may feel timely and relevant. But for Boomers and one-time yuppies who are now the sandwich generation juggling the demands of work, college-bound children and aging parents, the play's conflicts may seem a bit worn.

Boston area stages feature the kick-ass wit of Molly Ivins in RED HOT PATRIOT; Christopher Durang's hilarious mash-up of Chekhov and Snow White in VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE; the modern-day paranoia of cyber spy vs. spy in MUCKRAKERS; and the black comedy of two sons and a funeral in THE BEST BROTHERS.

One person's trash is another person's treasure in Eve Ensler's O.P.C., a socio-political comedy currently enjoying its world premiere at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass.

Young Sirena Abalian of Lexington is the shining standout in an otherwise lackluster production of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, Stoneham Theatre's misguided attempt to stage the bland Broadway version of the classic Judy Garland movie musical.

Illustrious stage and screen actress Penny Fuller brings all of her charm and incandescence to Merrimack Repertory Theatre this holiday season in the lovely one-woman musical 13 THINGS ABOUT ED CARPOLOTTI.

The New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, Mass. harks back to a family classic for this season's holiday fare as THE LITTLE PRINCE takes the audience on an imaginative flight of fancy that teaches gentle lessons along the way.

Too much mishegas makes for a muddled tale of midlife meltdown in Charles Busch's first venture into mainstream comedy now at Boston's Lyric Stage through December 20.

Cicely Tyson reprises her Tony Award-winning role as Carrie Watts in Horton Foote's poignant American classic THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL now in its only east coast engagement at the Emerson/Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston, Mass. The ArtsEmerson World on Stage production continues through December 7.

If watching family members spew venom at each other for 100 uninterrupted minutes is your idea of holiday cheer, then by all means head on over to SpeakEasy Stage Company this Thanksgiving weekend for a visit with BAD JEWS.

Boston's Lyric Stage plumbs the poetry and prose of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell in Sara Ruhl's quietly aching DEAR ELIZABETH, a play in letters that chronicles the 30-year friendship of two lost literary souls.

The score to Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Off-Broadway musical FAR FROM HEAVEN may be less than memorable, but gorgeous visuals and a superb performance by Jennifer Ellis as Cathy make SpeakEasy Stage's 2014-15 season opener unforgettable.

Director and choreographer Nick Kenkel has swept through the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass. like a breath of fresh autumn air with his inventive, delightful, and often surprising production of CHICAGO: A Musical Vaudeville. With a less stylized concept than Bob Fosse's 1975 original or the current long-running Tony Award-winning Walter Bobbie-Ann Reinking revival, Kenkel has injected a relaxed playfulness into his staging that invites the audience to visit this familiar killer musical anew.