Nancy Grossman - Page 16

Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning singer and actress Audra McDonald returned for her 7th appearance with the Celebrity Series on Friday night at Symphony Hall. Accompanied by a virtuoso trio of Brian Hertz on piano, Mark Vanderpoel on bass, and Gene Lewin on drums, she held the audience in her sway for close to 100 sublime, uninterrupted minutes.

Director Scott Edmiston has to thank the guy who wrote a taut adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning play ANNA CHRISTIE, thus positioning him to lead a seamless production which combines inventive stagecraft, stunning design elements, and a group of actors who seem born to their roles. The fact that Edmiston is that guy who Lyric Stage Company enlisted to adapt the play is a tribute to his depth of knowledge about O'Neill and his ability to stay true to the playwright's themes, while making the work both accessible and relevant to a modern audience.

The Greater Boston Stage Company production of Christopher M. Walsh's MISS HOLMES is chock full of delightful elements. Producing Artistic Director Weylin Symes integrates minimalist and inventive stagecraft with a cast combining the usual suspects and a few first offenders for a spellbinding theatrical experience.

THE BAKELITE MASTERPIECE is the Boston area premiere of Kate Cayley's two-hander, directed by Jim Petosa, with stellar performances by Benjamin Evett and Laura Latreille. It is based on the true story of Dutch artist Han van Meegeren, a noted forger accused of treason for selling a long-lost Vermeer painting to the Nazis. He can only avoid death by proving that he is guilty of fraud.

THE THREEPENNY OPERA is a 20th century classic that is rarely performed by a professional opera company. Boston Lyric Opera and Director James Darrah have brought together an ensemble of artists whose acting skills and stellar vocal talents distinctively portray the cast of memorable characters and beautifully render Kurt Weill's jazzy score.

The National Tour of the 2016 Tony Award-winning play THE HUMANS makes its Boston debut at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre. Playwright Stephen Karam, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, is well-known to local theater audiences from his dark comedy SONS OF THE PROPHET, and SPEECH AND DEBATE. With humor and heart, THE HUMANS offers an in-depth look at the foibles and fears of the members of one family and how they help each other survive in an increasingly unforgiving world.

SpeakEasy Stage Company presents Boston premiere of British playwright Duncan Macmillan's one-person show that explores depression with humor. Marianna Bassham directs Adrianne Krstansky in a brilliant performance as the daughter of a suicidal mother, who copes by creating a list of things worth living for. Audience engagement is part of the charm of this uplifting, life-affirming theatrical experience.

According to AMERICAN THEATRE magazine, Dominique Morisseau's SKELETON CREW is the third most-widely produced play of the 2017-2018 season at regional theaters nationwide. Huntington Theatre Company stages the timely final chapter of the playwright's Detroit trilogy, a powerful drama about the hardships suffered in the Motor City after the 2008 economic recession. Directed with care and great attention to detail by Megan Sandberg-Zakian, the family of workers at an auto plant try to stand their ground against the inevitable while maintaining their dignity and their connections to one another. Outstanding performances by Patricia R. Floyd, Jonathan Louis Dent, Toccarra Cash, and Maurice Emmanuel Parent.

STEVE is a character-driven play in which not much happens, but it is a humorous treatise on the lives of a couple of middle-aged gay couples who are exploring ways to enliven their 'post-passion' relationships. Right about now, we can all use a shot of humor, and whether one is gay or straight, there's much to recognize and connect with in the quotidian routines of these characters. In his first play, Mark Gerrard puts the spotlight on four good friends who face the challenges of kids, in-laws, boredom, infidelity, and mortality with various strategies and mixed results.

In the world premiere of BRAWLER at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Walt McGough places the action in a hockey arena to explore what happens to an 'enforcer' who is demoted from the Boston Bruins to the minor league team in Providence. Can the former hero of the ice rink find an outlet for his violent urges and reclaim his life?

ArtsEmerson and the American Repertory Theater present the world premiere of THE WHITE CARD by playwright and poet Claudia Rankine. The groundbreaking piece of theater begins a conversation and challenges us to stay in the room to talk about race in America. It suggests that society cannot progress if whiteness stays invisible and unexamined. At the end of the play, Act II encourages the audience to participate in the dialogue with facilitators guiding the process.

Nearly three years after it premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, and while still enjoying a successful run on Broadway, the national tour of WAITRESS is serving customers at the Boston Opera House as part of the Lexus Broadway In Boston 2017-2018 season. The Diane Paulus-driven and directed production is adapted from the 2007 motion picture of the same name written by Adrienne Shelly, with book by Jessie Nelson, and music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles. The Broadway designers are on board to bring the same creative elements to the tour, and a handful of the cast has also performed with the show on the Great White Way.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of LOST LAUGHS: THE SLAPSTICK TRAGEDY OF FATTY ARBUCKLE, bringing to life the story of one of the great comics of silent films. A century ago, he was Hollywood's first million-dollar man, but fell from grace when charged with murder. Despite his eventual acquittal, Arbuckle was never able to reclaim his place at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. LOST LAUGHS features memorable performances by co-writer Aaron Muñoz and Kristen Mengelkoch, under the direction of Nathan Keepers.

BAD DATES remount at Huntington Theatre Company reunites Director Jessica Stone and actor Haneefah Wood who worked together in HTC's VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE (2015). Put aside any qualms you may have about one-person plays because Theresa Rebeck has conjured up a character with a multitude of sparkly facets and Wood is luminous while bringing her to life. Performances have been extended to March 3rd.

New Repertory Theatre and Boston Center for American Performance team up to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Steven Dietz's LONELY PLANET, a story of friendship, loss, and hope during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Artistic Director Jim Petosa directs with a smooth ebb and flow, keeping our focus on the relationship between two friends portrayed by Michael Kaye and Tim Spears.

World premiere production of Kira Rockwell's NOMAD AMERICANA introduces the eccentric Echo family, whose vagabond lifestyle allows them the freedom to be who they are while looking for the magic in the universe. The play is a gently meandering character study and a breath of fresh air.

Chilean author Ariel Dorfman's 1990 play DEATH AND THE MAIDEN is set in an unnamed country that is probably Chile as it emerges from a long period of dictatorship and adjusts to life under a fledgling democratic government. Even as the nation struggles to reinvent itself, one woman's road to recovery from captivity and torture is strewn with psychological obstacles that threaten her husband's career, their marriage, and her very sanity. Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Steven Maler's taut direction of Flora Diaz, Mickey Solis, and Mark Torres results in a riveting production in the Sorenson Center's blackbox theater.

The North American tour of LOVE NEVER DIES brings the musical to the United States for the first time since its 2010 London premiere, and is playing at the Boston Opera House through February 11th as part of the 2017-2018 Lexus Broadway in Boston Season.

The Lyric Stage Company continues to meander through the works of Stephen Sondheim with ROAD SHOW, his most recent collaboration with librettist John Weidman. While not in the upper echelon of Sondheim's works, the score and the Lyric production make it worthwhile. This musical travelogue about the Mizner Brothers, a pair of entrepreneurs and con men who sought their fortunes in escapades from Alaska to New York to Florida in the early 20th century, is the story of their successes, failures, and the art of the deal, fitting right in with our American zeitgeist.

On the occasion of what would have been her 75th birthday, A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN opened a two-night engagement at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre, sharing with Boston the spirit of Janis and the blues vocalists who inspired her. Newton native Kelly McIntyre evokes Joplin with her body language, a rapid verbal patter, and a powerhouse voice that can go from zero to sixty. The show is at its best when focusing on the musical numbers, a generous offering from the singer's canon of hits.