BOSTON THEATER REVIEWS

Whether you know 'whodunnit' or not, you're bound to enjoy this rollicking MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS adapted by Ken Ludwig at the Ogunquit Playhouse. Fans of Agatha Christie, or murder mysteries in general, will find plenty of false identities, red herrings and over-the-top suspense to keep them ...

Felder's performance is sublime. Watching his hands manipulate the keys of the Steinway Concert Grand Piano is a thing of beauty almost like watching the seemingly effortless movements of Gene Kelly and Syd Charise in American In Paris. So much so, it felt as if I were floating, gliding, and soari...

Sometimes all you need to lift your spirits is a good old-fashioned star-driven musical comedy, and, boy, does the national tour of HELLO, DOLLY! with Betty Buckley deliver. Keeping all of the Tony Award-winning revival's energy and joyful spirit intact, this high-stepping celebration of life, love ...

One should plant their tongue firmly in cheek for this one. It is over-the-top, exaggerated, and farcical in the way of Urinetown, The Book of Mormon, and Something Rotten. The original music is quite good and rather entertaining. The content seems to be split between two camps some directed at t...

The brothers reflect on their lives revealing bad parenting, neglect, abandonment and a series of life events that have left the two relatively young men badly broken. When Lincoln suffers yet another setback, he returns to his previous vices and the life lessons each of the brothers has learned wel...

The cast includes Martin Jason Asprey (Mr. Frank Ford), Steven Barkhimer (George Page), Gregory Boover (Master Fenton), MaConnia Chesser (Meg Page), Jordan Cobb (Anne Page), Tobias Goodman (Pistol/Simple), Nigel Gore (Sir John Falstaff), Cloteal L. Horne (Mistress Quickly), Jennie M. Jadow (Alice Fo...

Directed by Gregg Edelman, this production features Carla Duren (Colleen Haran), Carson Elrod (Glen Geer), Penny Fuller (Lucinda Royal Scott), Samantha Hill (Summer Oliver), Dee Hoty (Joan Stern), and Count Stoval (Hal Polick). As they present the one-act plays, we can clearly see that, as their re...

In the summer of 1983, Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein put on a show that was light years ahead of the zeitgeist, vis-a-vis the awareness and acceptance of LGBTQ people in America, and about twenty years before the legalization of same-sex marriage. Yet, after a successful tryout at the Colonial T...

Yes, the setting and backdrop for the events that play out is recovery. And, yes, along the way we learn about the steps, but Bock's heartfelt and often humorous material is about people. Not, those people or a?oeYOU peoplea?? a?' all people. More specifically, how people are more alike than differe...

This production with the new translation is notably fresh and remarkably relevant. To WTF's Artistic Director, Mandy Greenfield's credit it is another excellent inclusion in a rich and diverse season. The language is contemporary and easy to follow, understand, and relate to. The subject matter, w...

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Jersey Boys opened this week to one of the most enthusiastic welcomes I have ever witnessed at NSMT. The show stopping ovations were so heartfelt & sustained that the actors literally had to stop, numerous times, to wait for the applause to finish before continuing, and the show deserved the adorati...

Gloucester Stage Company presents the Boston area premiere of Richard Strand's BEN BUTLER, a Union army general who was a settler of Gloucester's Bayview neighborhood, a presidential candidate, and the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts. Those achievements came after he retired from the military, where ...

There are a few slower moving moments in Tony Award winning (Book of Dear Evan Hansen) playwright Steven Levonson's work but there is plenty of pathos as well as lots of levity and laughter in IF I FORGET. The ensemble cast is very strong and extremely well balanced. So much so that at some poin...

There's no doubt that dark times are ahead for the people of Berlin in this faithful recreation of the tawdry 1998 Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of CABARET. Using the original Broadway sets by Robert Brill and costumes by William Ivey Long, this Ogunquit Playhouse version, running now through ...

There is quite a lot to like about this exemplary Williamstown Theatre Festival Commission and recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. I've discussed the play with several people who've seen it.  They all enjoyed and spoke highly of the experience, but each focused on a different aspe...

With book by Zoe Bradford and Michael Hammond, and music and lyrics by Adam Brooks, PARAGON PARK: THE MUSICAL is a lovingly-crafted reflection of a moment in time that spans eight decades. There's more than enough small town politics, quirky characters, and human interest in the overstuffed book, bu...

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BSC Artistic Director, Julieanne Boyd, Directed the ambitious endeavor. This play represents quite an undertaking on many levels and on most them, this production succeeds....

In this musical exploration of 26 people from various walks of life and how people's relationships to their work ultimately reveal key aspects of their humanity you will meet and learn about your friends, neighbors, service providers, and maybe even yourself....

How much one enjoys THE LIGHTNING THIEF, The Percy Jackson Musical, currently at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston through July 28, may correlate directly with one's familiarity with the source material. On opening night, the large number of teens and tweens in the audience - who were clearly...

DEAR EVAN HANSEN, the 2017 Tony Award-winning musical currently at the Boston Opera House through August 4, is that rare teen angst story that neither trivializes nor over dramatizes the challenges of coming of age in modern America. Rather, this at times funny, at times penetrating, and always tend...

The sometimes confusing, amusing, and thought-provoking play premiered in 1942. This production has been freshened up a bit and includes modern references some of which are particularly relevant to the Berkshires. The main characters are George and Maggie Antrobus, their two children, Henry and Gla...

SELLING KABUL is a powerful, raw, riveting and highly relevant new drama that connects on a level seldom seen and rarely felt. The world premiere run continues on the Nikos Stage at Williamstown Theatre Festival through July 20....

If there's one thing that summer theater should be, it's fun, and Gloucester Stage Company's production of THE 39 STEPS happily fulfills the requirement. Actually, it is more than fun - it is laugh out loud funny, thanks to the witty script, the crisp direction by Artistic Director Robert Walsh, and...