Jan Nargi - Page 8

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.

The Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) in Lowell, Mass. opens its 36th season with the potent new play YEAR ZERO, a taut and touching comedic drama about a first-generation Cambodian-American teenager coming of age as he comes to grips with the death of his mother, a survivor of the horrific genocide of the Khmer Rouge and a woman who held her family together when abandoned by her husband. Set in Long Beach, California in 2003, YEAR ZERO is the only play written thus far that explores the experiences of the children of Cambodian refugees beginning new lives in America.

Boston's Huntington Theatre Company stages Todd Kreidler's funny yet poignant adaptation of the ground-breaking 1967 film about the hidden prejudices that surface when two liberal families are confronted with their children's desire to commit to an interracial marriage.

Karen MacDonald fuels Stoneham Theatre's gripping production of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning DOUBT: A PARABLE through September 28.

Leigh Barrett, one of Boston's most formidable musical theater talents, makes an impressive professional directorial debut with New Repertory Theatre's CLOSER THAN EVER.

Revenge is anything but sweet in the Lyric Stage Company of Boston's compelling, often gut-wrenching take on Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's musical masterpiece about Victorian London's notorious demon barber of Fleet Street.

Ogunquit continues its 'high-flying' 82nd season with the American Northeast premiere of Cameron Mackintosh's THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, a musical adaptation based on John Updike's novel and the 1987 Warner Brothers hit motion picture.

Just as central character J. M. Barrie needs to find his true voice in order to break through the writer's block that is hampering his playwriting career, FINDING NEVERLAND, the new musical about the family that inspired the beleaguered author to create Peter Pan, needs to find its voice, too. Teetering abruptly between empty frivolousness and genuine pathos, FINDING NEVERLAND is an uneven adventure in its current pre-Broadway tryout at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.

Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine is on a roll, following its thrilling, record-breaking production of BILLY ELLIOT with another beloved British musical import, Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's MARY POPPINS. Featuring a terrific cast, crisp, thoughtful direction by Shaun Kerrison, and energetic choreography by Lisa Stevens, this MARY POPPINS is - yes, let's just say it and get it over with - practically perfect in every way.

The Nora Theatre's HER ACHING HEART and Commonwealth Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT are the theatrical equivalents of light summer reading, and both deliver spirited romance for a mid-summer night.