BOSTON THEATER REVIEWS

In response to the unprecedented challenges the last year brought, WTF embarked upon an innovative artistic endeavor that ensured the voices of their artists could be heard loudly and clearly around the globe. Four of the seven offerings in the 2020 WTF Season on Audible Theatre are World Premiers i...

There is a lot good about Enigma Chamber Opera’s new meta-comedy adaptation of Mozart’s The Impresario, but the highest praise must be reserved for its formatting as a highly scroll-able hour-long entertainment (mainly because it is actually at most a 20 minute performance trapped inside a redun...

WISH YOU WERE HERE presents a reality which, on the surface, might seem rather different than our own, but below is far more similar.  In the final scenes / moments, it also pointed out, to me, how relatively “good” Americans have it.  Then again, like all works of art, what it says to you wil...

WTF Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield’s choice to revive PARADISE BLUE is another of many highly relevant selections given prevailing racial tensions.  It also demonstrates that a new play, 'born' at Williamstown, that the New York Times suggested was “unlikely to be final” in its form can ...

Streaming this weekend, Boston Experimental Theatre Company’s latest offering, Zahhak, the Legend of the Serpent King! is another sample of a paired down performance that actually works....

THE CONJURORS' CLUB is an immersive virtual experience in which the audience gets to see their fellow patrons on the zoom screen, try their hand at sleight of hand, and have a close-up view of the tricks and illusions as the magicians ply their trade live. It may be the best opportunity you could ev...

“Who knew when we started our 10x10 New Play Festival ten years ago that it would become one of our most popular events of the year?” said Artistic Director Julianne Boyd. “We started with two weeks of performances and as of last year, we ran our 10x10 Plays for one month in the middle of the ...

Before the shutdown, the final piece I reviewed for Broadway World was Boston Ballet’s rEVOLUTION which included Glass Pieces, a hypnotic embrace of the geometrics of a theatre space by Phillip Glass and Jerome Robbins....

In 1891, years before Sigmund Freud would revolutionize the way the human mind is perceived and the significance of symbolism, childhood and sexuality on a person’s psyche, German playwright Frank Wedekind challenged the taboos around the sexual tension of young people with a play that would chall...

These characters and the circumstances that bring them together are different. While different can be nice, it sure isn’t pretty.  Pretty is not really what CHONBURI INTERNATIONAL HOTEL & BUTTERFLY CLUB is about.  Its about keeping or perhaps, making it real.  About making one’s way in the ...

Alan H. Green, Alysha Umphress, and Joel Waggoner display ample skill and talent as they present viewers with a selection of 18 musical numbers (credited, although I counted a few uncredited bonus tunes) that are fun, often campy, poignant, tender, notably well- balanced, and entertaining....

Directed by Obie Award Winner, Whitney White, the piece is billed as a comedy that “marches into the muddy intersection of romantic entanglement, identity, pride, and survival.”  For me the piece is something like the theatrical (verbal) equivalent of a mixed doubles tennis match. There are lo...

PHOTOGRAPH 51, the second offering in Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 2020 season on Audible Theater is a biographical piece.  It focuses on Rosalind Franklin (Anna Chlumsky) a chemist at England’s King's College and her work in the early 1950s. ...

The presentation of the 2020 season at this time, in the audio only format, represents a creative approach to keeping the arts alive during the pandemic.  The innovative solution, a collaboration spearheaded by WTF Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield, and Audible Artistic Producer Kate Navin provide...

After registering for a performance by Zoom Theatre, you get an automated email which explains that you will be able to be heard by the actors and other audience members during this virtual performance....

When performance spaces were shuttered, many companies shuttered their imaginations in solidarity with the rows of seats, choosing to hibernate until they could return to live, in-person events and allowing both to collect dust in the meantime....

the audience was sincerely and repeatedly thanked for the opportunity to share music that is a?oejust not the same as sitting at homea??. Smiles on the masked faces as the sun set and many were no doubt whistling a happy tune as they returned to their cars suggested that although there are most ce...

Dold demonstrates mastery of an overwhelming amount of dialogue and the nuance necessary to present a total of some 19 characters. Dold navigates the thin line between perception and reality so adeptly, the line blurs and we find ourselves questioning whether the character knows exactly what he is ...

With director Vahdat Yeganeh and a team of artists streaming in live from around the globe, Boston Experimental Theatre has perfectly divined that piece of performance art that neither begrudgingly embraces its virtual form nor coyly alludes to its obvious limits, but rather exists in a way that cou...

There are many good reasons you might choose to see GODSPELL under the tent at Berkshire Theatre Group's Colonial Theatre. Whatever the motivation, you will experience a new, fresh, relevant, powerful, topical, and most certainly different production. You will also be making history as part of what ...

TC Squared's Volume Up series of virtual one act plays is posed to convince audiences they are up for the task of taking their programs to the digital realm for the time being. After logging in to their YouTube stream, one is met with a smooth, animated countdown set to a quiescent techno beat by Ka...

In Women Behind the Curtain, Michael Lin weaves a narrative about a French spy, Renee, on a mission in Cold War Moscow. When a suspiciously-invested secretary, Aleksandra, joins her in her covert travels, the two are set on an action-packed journey through mistrusted informants, double agents, and s...

Fresh on the heels of a solid showing at the virtual 38th Annual Elliot Norton Awards, where the Boston Theater Critics Association recognized their achievements during the abbreviated 2019-2020 season with ten nominations and four wins, the Arlekin Players Theatre boldly launches a new production i...

My immediate response to this reading of the play, which had its premiere at Tufts University unfortunately canceled, is that I would love to see how it would change were the actors cast actually artists who use they/them pronouns in their lives....

The score is catchy, folksy, and declamatory in a way that fuses rock sounds with medieval sensibilities, and Kaedon Gray as the prophet, Samuel, begins the show with an expository narration worthy of a mystery play. The stage is set and we launch into the familiar story of King Saul, Jonathan, Davi...