BOSTON THEATER REVIEWS

With North Korea so much in the news these days, the American Repertory Theater is offering the opportunity to take a virtual trip to that part of the world with its production of Celine Song's new play, ENDLINGS. Set in part on South Korea's remote Man-Jae Island, and in part on the island of Manha...

Pigeon keepers are an interesting and unique, albeit diminishing, subset of humans, and within that group is a subset, presumably small, of people who identify with the birds. Taking it one step further, Birdy, the protagonist in Naomi Wallace's adaptation of William Wharton's novel BIRDY, identifie...

Patrons of the Merrimack Repertory Theatre are quite familiar with playwright Lauren Gunderson, named the most produced playwright in America by American Theatre Magazine in 2017, most recently for the much-lauded MRT December production of MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY which she co-authored ...

Needham native Gerard Alessandrini has been practicing the craft of parody professionally for nearly four decades, ever since FORBIDDEN BROADWAY debuted in New York in 1982. Numerous iterations later, he has pointed his pen at perhaps the biggest target on Broadway, the award-winning juggernaut, Ham...

Eighty years after the Broadway premiere of Lillian Hellman's THE LITTLE FOXES, the Lyric Stage Company production, under the direction of Scott Edmiston, demonstrates that the classic American drama has lost none of its punch. A titanic team of actors portrays the dynamic within the rapacious Hubba...

There is something for everyone in this offering. As the event's title suggests, rather than a single fully produced multi-act production, audience members are served ten small plates, each one running about ten minutes by an ensemble cast of six that includes BSC returnees Peggy Pharr Wilson, Keri...

THE CHRISTIANS by Lucas Hnath takes us into the world of an evangelical megachurch, a place that holds a certain amount of mystery for those of us who practice different religions or lack belief in any faith. Apollinaire Theatre Company and Director Brooks Reeves set the stage with a 16-voice choir...

SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL is bursting with kids, all of them bursting with talent. Based on the 2003 movie starring Jack Black, the stage version is the brainchild of Andrew Lloyd Webber, a guy who knows a thing or two about creating successful musicals. Nominated for four 2016 Tony Awards, the s...

Anita Hollander lost her left leg to cancer in 1977 and channeled her experiences and musical theater skills into writing and performing a solo show, STILL STANDING: A MUSICAL SURIVAL GUIDE FOR LIFE'S CATASTROPHES. With songs, wit, and a powerful message of resilience, Hollander represents something...

The world premiere of Boston playwright Michael Walker's BARE STAGE lands smack in the middle of the zeitgeist, surrounded by the swirling maelstrom of #MeToo and a building movement within the theater arts community to pay attention to the needs of actors when they are at their most vulnerable. Wal...

Bedlam returns to Central Square theater for the third time in five seasons, fresh from a critically-acclaimed production Off-Off-Broadway. A little more than a century after George Bernard Shaw wrote PYGMALION, it continues to resonate in the #MeToo era with its feminist ideology....

In one of the most mesmerizing performances in recent memory, Jade Wheeler answers the question with a stunning interpretation of Eartha Kitt, both as an artist and as a person. With a foundation of creative direction by Cailin Doran, outstanding piano accompaniment by music director Seulah Noh, and...

You might go home hungry, but you'll have your fill of belly laughs at Wendy MacLeod's SLOW FOOD now having its World Premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell. We've all been there, sitting in a restaurant, starving, and waiting what seems like eons before the waiter sashays over to introdu...

HEARTLAND conjures up an image of amber waves of grain and purple mountains majesties. For the part of it that is set in Nebraska, some of that may be appropriate. However, for the portion of it that is set in Afghanistan, it may be nothing more than a mirage. Likewise, the image of the United State...

Around this time last year, Chicago-based theatre troupe Manual Cinema made its debut appearance at ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage with a five-day run of ADA/AVA. Having been a big hit, they have returned for a second visit, presenting THE END OF TV for a two-week run at the Emerson Paramount Cente...

The 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama is a compelling production at the Lyric Stage Company with an all-female team of director, designers, and actors. Focusing on the lives of nine teenage girls, it is played out on a suburban soccer practice field where the challenges of the game are mingled ...

Nearly a century and a half after Nora Helmer walked out on her husband Torvald and their three children in Henrik Ibsen's 1879 classic A DOLL'S HOUSE, playwright Lucas Hnath proposes a well-thought reply to the speculation of what became of her in A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2. Its 2017 Broadway staging r...

The Boston premiere of the US National Tour of Roald Dahl's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY opened at the Boston Opera House this week, just a year after the Broadway production closed. The core of the Broadway creative team brings in a 36-member cast, including the beguiling candy man Willy Wonka...

SpeakEasy Stage Company presents Boston premiere of Bess Wohl's 2015 Off-Broadway comedy with a stellar cast of locals under the masterful direction of M. Bevin O'Gara. A play with limited dialogue challenges the actors to bare their inner personae, while requiring that the audience listen harder an...

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES takes you on a cultural exchange trip across the continent of Africa, with a side journey to the UK, to meet and listen in on communities of men who go to the barber shop for much more than a shave and a haircut. Focusing on the relationships of men with fathers, children, fri...

Playwright Laura Neill is an angry person who channels her fiery passion onto the page and, ultimately, onto the stage. In WINTER PEOPLE, her newest work produced by Boston Playwrights' Theatre and Boston University College of Arts School of Theatre, she takes up the mantle for the underserved famil...

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1776 is a show that appreciates in value and import when viewed in the context of its time. It opened on Broadway in 1969 when Richard Nixon was president, the controversial war in Vietnam raged on, and civil unrest was the domestic order of the day. With that backdrop, it's popularity was unexpecte...

The Front Porch Arts Collective partners with the Lyric Stage Company to start their second season with BREATH & IMAGINATION, Daniel Beaty's musical about Roland Hayes. First-time director Maurice Emmanuel Parent draws tour de force performance from Davron S. Monroe as the acclaimed African-American...

If you like a little horror with your ho-ho-ho, then program your GPS to guide your sleigh to Machine in the Fenway where Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans' 2018 Christmas spectacular is A NIGHTMARE ON ELF STREET, their holiday-themed tribute to '80's slasher films. A Freddy Krueger-like serial ...