Justin J. Sacramone

Under the direction of Trip Cullman, MOSCOW is a coruscating blend of juxtaposing anachronisms, fearless of being nasty and messy, and shows the heights theatre can reach when a playwright's singular voice is fleshed out by a director's pastiche concept.

Now revived at the Williamstown Theatre Festival under the direction of Tony winner Rebecca Taichman, THE CLEAN HOUSE earned playwright Sarah Ruhl her first recognition as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005. Ruhl's lyrical comedy has been produced at some of the nation's top regional theatres leading THE CLEAN HOUSE to tie as the second most produced play in the 2007-2008 American theatre season.

Mark Medoff's Tony-winning play CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD centers around a state school for the deaf in the 1970's and follows several interwoven faculty/student storylines. While the excitement builds once we learn where Medoff has placed his characters at the top, it's a quick deflation to see he's decided not to dive deeper into any of the interesting dynamics. Instead, his play is more about a relationship with poor communication skills than a focus on the deaf community's struggle to assimilate into the hearing community.

What better way to kick off PRIDE month than with a concert celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the Boston Gay Men's Chorus? Held at Symphony Hall on June 4th and titled ANYTHING GOES, the show featured 175 chorus members and offered a lineup of music ranging from Leonard Bernstein to original work. The evening was topped off with a solo performance by two-time Tony winner Sutton Foster.

One of the latest in this series of revues is SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, a brainchild of frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine, which premiered on Broadway in 2010. Reorchestrated to fit the Boston Pops, SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM played a two-night engagement at Symphony Hall on June 15 and June 16 under the direction of Sarna Lapine and conducted by Keith Lockhart.

Mikhail Bulgakov never finished "Theatrical Novel," his magnum opus about a playwrights backroom negotiations, but Golyak saw the unfinished work's potential and brought it to life on stage in a mysterious and thrilling new production. Now titled as A DEAD MAN'S DIARY: A THEATRICAL NOVEL, we are given the opportunity to experience this philosophical play by considering the turmoil when an artist and their art uncontrollably move further and further away due to commercial and political interests.

The foundation of ARRABAL builds upon Argentina's tumultuous past of decaying democracy and state-sponsored terrorism while focusing on a single family affected by this conflict. The family here is a captured guerrilla fighter-slash-father, a mourning Abuela, and daughter Arrabal on a quest for closure. Despite sounding overstuffed, the title character's undeveloped journey combined with a vague use of dense themes leads to a performance piece begging to be more.