Jennifer Skura Boutell

What did our critic think of A TALE OF TWO CITIES at The Alliance?

What did our critic think of NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 at Horizon Theatre Company?

The Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition 20th competition winner FURLOUGH’S PARADISE written by a.k. payne and directed by Tinashe Kajese-Bolden has its world premiere on the Hertz Stage at Alliance Theatre Jan 31 – Mar 3, 2024.

What did our critic think of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY at Stage Door Theatre?

Praised by The New York Times as 'wonderful, and a welcome anomaly on Broadway,' PASSING STRANGE Mark Stewart (who wrote book, lyrics, and in collaboration with Heidi Rodewald, music), begins Theatrical Outfit's 2023/24 season running until October 22nd, 2023. A rock musical about growing up and getting wise, PASSING STRANGE looks at the artist as art and the ways that our explorations through personal discovery has rippling effects.

What did our critic think of ENGLISH at The Alliance? Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and praised by New York Theater Guide as 'a lively comedy and a profound exploration of the essence of communication and understanding,' ENGLISH by Sanaz Toossi, kicks off Alliance Theatre's 2023/24 season on the Hertz Stage until September 17th, 2023. A comedy of miscommunication, ENGLISH explores the crossroads of how we use language to communicate belonging and identify.

If you missed the Alliance Theatre’s THE HOT WING KING, you missed a once-in-a-lifetime regional premiere of a play the Pulitzer board described as a “deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family.”

The Alliance Theatre's annual production of the Charles Dickens classic, A CHRISTMAS CAROL adapted by David H. Bell and directed by Leora Morris, runs on the Coca-Cola Stage until December 24, 2022. Described as 'one of Atlanta's most treasured holiday traditions,' this production is Alliance’s 34th. It is also a remount of last year's reimagined staging, design, and performance features 'stunning new costumes, beautiful live music, exciting puppetry, and a reconceived set design.' It's easy to say Alliance's A CHRISTMAS CAROL is a holiday gift in itself. The story is a timeless reminder of what a little kindness, generosity, and gratitude can do to not only change your own life, but also your community that surrounds you.

What did our critic think of EVERYBODY at The Alliance?Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's EVERYBODY is a beautiful reminder that in the end, even with your faculties about you, your deeds and your love are all that go with you to the grave—that is, if you can manage to accept them.

What did our critic think of THE OUTRAGE MACHINE BY DANIEL CARTER BROWN at West End Performing Arts Center?

City Springs Theatre Company presents THE COLOR PURPLE Directed by Kamilah Long is based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and the Warner Bros./Amblin Entertainment motion picture. This musical about love plays May 6 - 22, 2022 in the Byers Theatre at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center. THE COLOR PURPLE was adapted for the stage by Pulitzer Prize and Tony® Award winner Marsha Norman, with music and lyrics by Grammy® Award winners Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray.

The Children's Theatre Company and Alliance Theatre's World Premiere Co-Production of Lloyd Suh's BINA'S SIX APPLES directed by Eric Ting runs on The Coca-Cola Stage through March 27th, 2022.

A co-production with Milwaukee Repertory Theater on the Coca-Cola Stage until February 27, 2022, Alliance Theatre shares that TONI STONE is considered 'the 'Best New Play of 2019' by The Wall Street Journal,' and 'is a funny and fascinating story of race, gender, and raw ambition… and an unheralded superstar you’ll never forget.' 

A New Musical About Making a New Musical #TootsieATL #BroadwayAtlanta #atthefox

DR. SEUSS’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS THE MUSICAL played to a delighted Atlanta audience for ten performances at the Fox Theatre earlier this month as part of the Broadway in Atlanta's 40th Anniversary Season. The New York Times describes the show as “100 times better than any bedtime story,” and has been enchanting adults and children alike. “We’re greatly optimistic about the return of Broadway to the city of Atlanta and thrilled to share the news that shows previously announced for the 40th Anniversary season will remain available to patrons under a revised schedule,” said Vice President of Broadway in Atlanta Russ Belin. And for that, Atlanta thanks you.

Theatrical Outfit’s production of Ken Ludwig’s BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY (directed by Shannon Eubanks) is a fast-pace and humorous play that takes audiences from England’s Baker Street to the haunted Dartmoor.

HANDS UP features individual monologues written by seven Black playwrights and expresses them through the creative compositions made by an ensemble cast. HANDS UP is co-directed by Spelman Professor Keith Arthur Bolden and Spelman Alumna and former Alliance Spelman Fellow Alexis Woodard. Woodard and Bolden worked on productions of HANDS UP previously as student and professor at Spelman College and beyond.

In Owolabi's production of THE BLUEST EYE at Synchronicity Theatre, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, Award-winning American Playwright Lydia R. Diamond, and Pecola Breedlove, the novel’s protagonist, seem to share a mutual legacy—this significance adds magnetism of this production, to say the least. 

Shakespeare’s infamous four-plot adventure is braided with precision by Laura Cole’s thoughtful and expertly timed hands. With festive, personality-invoking costumes, clever fight choreography, and astute music/sound design, the double, sometimes triple duty, cast is more than adept at switching in and out of characters.