Nancy Grossman - Page 10

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Steven Maler directed an accomplished cast in Bertolt Brecht's FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH, in a staged reading at Babson College, headlined by notable stage and screen actors Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams.

In celebration of its seventh anniversary, Israeli Stage presents the American premiere of Renana Raz's theatrical event. The staged reading by Nael Nacer, Maureen Keiller, Melinda Lopez, and Lonnie Farmer explores the basic question of freedom of speech as it pertains to an educational setting. Co-translated by Natalie Fainstein and Guy Ben-Aharon, THE HEARING is both thought-provoking and timely.

Boston Playwrights' Theatre presents the Boston premiere of Molly Smith Metzler's own revision of her charming, funny 2011 play ELEMENO PEA. Set at the end of the summer on Martha's Vineyard, a couple of blue collar siblings from Buffalo try to reconnect with each other while caught up in the world of pink pants and new money. Metzler also writes for film and television (ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, SHAMELESS), and this production is ready for prime time.

ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage presents Chilean-born playwright Guillermo Calder n's KISS, a play-within-a-play that delivers a message about cultural ignorance, the danger of living within a comfortable remove, and the potential of artists to change the world. Directed by Co-Artistic Director David Dower and featuring a talented ensemble of protagonists played by Emerson College undergrads, KISS is an unusual and discomfiting piece of theater that is part Syrian soap opera, part improv, and totally worth your time.

The Nora Theatre Company presents Lauren Gunderson's THE REVOLUTIONISTS, a play which loudly and proudly shows the contribution of four badass women to the story of the French Revolution. The play is set in 1793, but these themes echo too loudly in 2017, reminding us that women must persist to resist, to claim their due.

What matters most is the music you hear in your head, according to Florence Foster Jenkins, a passionate music lover who never met a tune she could actually carry. Lyric Stage Company Producing Artistic Director Spiro Veloudos celebrates his 20th season in his post by revisiting one of his favorite productions from a decade ago. Leigh Barrett and Will McGarrahan reprise their roles as the diva and her accompanist, bringing warmth and intimacy to their relationship, while capturing all of the humor and joyful noise as written by playwright Stephen Temperley.

Playwright Ken Urban was commissioned by Epic Theatre Ensemble to write a play about international aid workers, and his interviews with volunteers for Doctors Without Borders inform his new thought-provoking drama, A GUIDE FOR THE HOMESICK, now receiving its world premiere by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Boston Center for the Arts. Flawlessly directed by Colman Domingo, the two-hander features a pair of remarkable, synchronized performances by McKinley Belcher III and Samuel H. Levine.

Twenty-five years after first being produced, David Mamet's OLEANNA remains controversial as an intense drama driven by themes of political correctness, sexual harassment, power, and perception. Johnny Lee Davenport and Obehi Janice, two of Boston's finest actors, give fiery performances in this timely and searing enactment at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown.

Greater Boston Stage Company has a commitment to produce a world premiere play each year, a mission now underwritten by the largesse of a long-time audience member and supporter. The 18th season at the Stoneham theater continues with ALLIGATOR ROAD, the inaugural offering of the Don Fulton New Play Project, by Maine playwright Callie Kimball. Producing Artistic Director Weylin Symes is at the helm of this quirky, slice-of-life-you-don't-see-everyday comedy. Scenic designer Katheryn Monthei steals the spotlight and, thanks to props master Sarah Elizabeth Bedard, there's lots of eye candy to draw your attention throughout the play.

Gloucester Stage Company concludes its 38th season with a thoughtful and thought-provoking production of Harper Lee's American classic, adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel. Directed by Judy Braha, this affecting production is buoyed by guileless child actors and strong performances from a bevy of adult stage veterans.

Boston Playwrights' Theatre opens its 36th season with Cliff Odle's ode to jazz and its place in the transitional period of the late 1950s to early 1960s. Director Diego Arciniegas does a first-rate job of translating Odle's play with music into a living, breathing entity with a rhythmic ebb and flow. An ensemble of seven actors and three live musicians give the play a real-life, real time quality that makes us feel like we are in Mitzy's Jazz Kitchen in Harlem in 1959.

In his touring show which stopped in at Sanders Theatre on Friday evening, Alan Cumming displays an eclectic array of entertaining abilities, including singing, movement, and story-telling, and proves to be a loquacious bon vivant. His personalized renditions of pop songs were accompanied by Music Director/pianist Lance Horne, cellist Eleanor Norton, and drummer Darcy Macrae.

Flat Earth Theatre open its 12th season with Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Tony Kushner's 1987 play, a juxtaposition of the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany with the Reagan administration's neglect of the AIDS crisis in America. In 2017, there are lessons to heed from these watershed moments.

The world premiere production of WARHOLCAPOTE: A Non-Fiction Invention at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge exposes us to never-before-heard conversations between these two icons, brought vividly to life by Stephen Spinella and Dan Butler. Adaptor Rob Roth used their own words to enlighten us about their connection and outline their commonalities.

Zeitgeist Stage Company begins its 17th season with the East Coast premiere of Selina Fillinger's FACELESS, a play with a storyline that sits smack in the middle of the national zeitgeist. It pits a sheltered 18-year old white girl against a Harvard Law School graduate and practicing Muslim in a taut courtroom drama that is about much more than the charges being litigated. Terrorism and ISIS are on trial, but the face of a young American woman is symbolic of how the enemy is expanding its reach into our homeland via social media, and the attorney in the hijab is the unlikely government crusader chosen to fight back.

Actors' Shakespeare Project opens its 14th season, The Downfall of Despots, with a comedy about a narcissistic despot who is having difficulty accepting his mortality. Director Dmitry Troyanovsky has the good fortune to work with a stellar ensemble, lead by the inimitable Richard Snee, and Sarah Newhouse and Jesse Hinson as his two dissimilar wives. Rounding out the cast are Dayenne Walters, Rachel Belleman, and Gunnar Manchester.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre rings the bell for the start of its 39th season with the New England premiere of Marco Ramirez's award-winning play inspired by the life of Jack Johnson, the first black man to fight for the title of World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. THE ROYALE is a beautifully-written and acted story about a man's quest to get his due and make a difference, about the unforeseen consequences of his actions and the damage he leaves in his wake, and a stunning commentary on the rending of the American social fabric that continues to threaten our peace and tranquility.

SpeakEasy Stage Company opens its 27th season with the Boston-area premiere of MEN ON BOATS, directed by Dawn Simmons, and featuring an all-female design team and a racially diverse, non-male cast. The playwright specifies in the script that the actors are to be female-identifying, trans-identifying, gender fluid, and/or non-gender-conforming, but no cisgender white males. Even as she bases the play on the known history and Major John Wesley Powell's own journal of the events on his 1869 expedition, Jaclyn Backhaus flips the narrative by altering the nature of the cast of characters.

Gloucester Stage Company presents the world premiere of playwright Jim Frangione's FLIGHT OF THE MONARCH following an overwhelming audience response to a reading last fall. Managing Director Jeff Zinn is at the controls, with a fine pair of collaborators in Nancy E. Carroll and J. Tucker Smith as a pair of middle-aged siblings who rely on each other as ports in the storm of life.

DAMES AT SEA is a welcome escape from the upheaval of the moment, if only for a couple of hours. The six-member cast shines with an abundance of smiles, vocal belts, and tap routines that they make look easy. Ephie Aardema, who has previously made a few splashes on this stage (HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, 42ND STREET), is back after a stint on Broadway to play Ruby, that starstruck girl based on the lead character in 42ND STREET. Wearing both the director's hat and the choreographer's character shoes, Associate Artistic Director Ilyse Robbins puts her traditional feel-good imprint on the show. Book your passage now!