Nancy Grossman - Page 36

The real Jeremy Jordan took to the stage at the Sorenson Center for the Arts on the campus of Babson College in his Boston concert debut, JEREMY JORDAN: BREAKING CHARACTER. Known for iconic roles on Broadway, television, and film, his appreciative fans discovered that Jordan is an interesting character on his own terms, even when he is not portraying a character, and greeted his original song compositions with enthusiasm equal to that for his better-known show tunes.

Israeli Stage, in association with ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage, presents its first full production with the North American premiere of Gilad Evron's ULYSSES ON BOTTLES in the Jackie Liebergott Black Box at the Paramount Center. Producing Artistic Director and Founder of Israeli Stage Guy Ben-Aharon directs a stellar cast of top-shelf Boston actors in this important play examining conflicting values around the plight of Palestinians living in the embargoed Gaza Strip and Israel's rights and responsibilities in the highly-charged situation.

NEVILLE'S ISLAND is a fish out of water story about four guys trying to bond and survive on a corporate team building excursion gone awry. Strong performances from Jim Loutzenhiser, Alexander Platt, Brooks Reeves, and Brandon Whitehead can't rescue them from playwright Tim Firth's overlong comedy trying to be a psychological thriller.

Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans mash-up THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and the politics of oil and the Middle East in their latest side-splitting musical, THOROUGHLY MUSLIM MILLIE. Scott Martino's to-die-for costumes and scenic design aesthetic are on display, along with a cast made up of long-time favorites and fresh talent, singing and dancing to a batch of borrowed musical theater gems. Put on your harem pants and belly dance down to Machine in the Fenway.

Huntington Theatre Company presents William Inge's sixty-five year old classic American drama, but it is nowhere near ready to be retired. Under the direction of David Cromer, it is a first rate production with incisive writing, design realism, and honest, raw performances.

New Repertory Theatre concludes the Second Annual Next Rep Black Box Festival, celebrating the powerful voices of women theatremakers, with GOD BOX, Antonia Lassar's seriocomic solo show directed by Christine Hamel. When the quintessential Jewish mother discovers that her recently-deceased daughter had been on a journey to explore various religious beliefs, she decides to follow in the same footsteps for her own enlightenment. Lassar is a wonderful storyteller and her performance is like spiritual comfort food.

Moonbox Productions stages David Lindsay-Abaire's black comedy about a sixteen-year old girl with a rare disease that ages her rapidly. Allison Olivia Choat directs a cast of five who humanize these quirky, dysfunctional characters and allow us to feel how they live with the specter of doom hanging in the balance.

Actors' Shakespeare Project takes a break from the Bard to stage the first Boston area production of Jenny Schwartz's linguistically-rich play GOD'S EAR. Thomas Derrah directs and draws authentic, heartbreaking performances from Tamara Hickey and Gabriel Kuttner as a married couple grieving the tragic loss of their son. Humor and hope rise to the surface from the depths of their suffering.

Hub Theatre Company of Boston starts its third season with LOOT, an irreverent, dark comedy by British playwright Joe Orton (WHAT THE BUTLER SAW, ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE) at the First Church in Boston. Daniel Bourque directs a cast of six live actors and one dormant dummy that is handled with reckless abandon. Part detective story, part farce, LOOT is reminiscent of plays staged by high school drama clubs in the 1960s, giving everyone a chance to chew lots of scenery.

Playwright/performer Alice Manning tells cathartic, deeply personal family story with humor and pathos, but always moving toward the light and, ultimately, choosing love.

Boston Public Works Theater Company, a playwrights' collective, presents its second production, the east coast premiere of FROM THE DEEP, Cassie M. Seinuk's award-winning play about two prisoners in existential captivity. A young Israeli soldier and a Boston University student share the space for two hours, conveying the tedium and tension in their unfolding drama.

Argos Productions and Happy Medium Theatre collaborate to present a cast of experienced fringe actors in LIFERS by John Shea and Maureen Cornell. A comedy about change set in a family restaurant in the summer of 2004, one week before the no smoking law goes into effect in Massachusetts, the slice of life story gives us something to chew on with characters we can care about.

New Repertory Theatre's second annual Next Rep Black Box Festival celebrates the work of women theater artists, starting with Jessica Dickey's THE AMISH PROJECT. A fictionalized account of the 2006 shooting of Amish schoolgirls in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, the one-woman show features Danielle Kellermann in a riveting and haunting portrayal of seven distinctive characters.

If you like Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, then Company One's SHOCKHEADED PETER is for you. With musical mayhem provided by Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys, the New England premiere at Suffolk University's Modern Theatre is dark, twisted, funny, and never dull. It is not for the faint of heart, those who are easily shocked, or anyone prone to nightmares.

INTIMATE APPAREL is one woman's story of courage and resilience set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing America in early 20th century New York City. Under the direction of Summer L. Williams, who also directed Lynn Nottage's BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK at the Lyric Stage Company, INTIMATE APPAREL offers a realistic depiction of the human drama inherent in the journeys of half a dozen individuals who have more in common than it first appears.

The first of four APPLE FAMILY PLAYS to be staged in collaboration between Stoneham Theatre and Gloucester Stage Company, THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING has six quality Boston area actors who will stay with the project for the duration, but one hopes that the nutritional value of the plays going forward will change. The expected political zingers fail to materialize and this family spends more time eating than anything else.

Celeste Oliva gives a riveting, tour de force performance as The Pilot in George Brant's GROUNDED at the Nora Theatre Company, under the astute direction of Artistic Director Lee Mikeska Gardner. George Brant's play examines the life of one woman, prohibited from flying due to an unexpected pregnancy, and the impact that her reassignment to the unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) "chair force" has on her psyche and sense of self.

Audra McDonald has picked up two more Tony Awards since her last appearance at the Celebrity Series of Boston in 2011. Accompanied by her music director Andy Einhorn on piano, Gene Lewin on drums, and Dave Phillips on bass, McDonald gave the sold-out Symphony Hall audience an evening of stars, moon, and rainbow.

The Boston Center for American Performance and Boston Playwrights' Theatre co-production of Michael Hammond's comedy UNCLE JACK is a modern-day retelling of Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA relocated to a small summer theater in the Berkshire hills.

THE BIG MEAL, the Boston area premiere of Dan LeFranc's play about the interactions of five generations of an extended family, is the kind of show that Zeitgeist Stage Company and Artistic Director David J. Miller feast upon - a character-driven ensemble piece that showcases the range of the actors, as well as Miller's ability to transfer the playwright's vision from page to stage.