BOSTON THEATER REVIEWS

MAN IN THE RING deserves better than to be described with boxing cliches, but the Huntington Theatre Company production of Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cristofer's play is a knockout. Its complex structure, authentic dialogue, and poignant portrayals by an outstanding cast of actors make this biogr...

The American Repertory Theater looks very different in 2018 after ten years with Artistic Director Diane Paulus at the helm. She has changed the institution with her vision and creativity, sculpting, in her words, a 'legacy of boundary-breaking musical theater.' In celebration of the past decade, wh...

Renowned British playwright Caryl Churchill is the author of a pair of one-act plays merged into Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's UNIVERSE RUSHING APART: BLUE KETTLE and HERE WE GO, playing through the weekend in the Black Box Theater at Babson College's Sorenson Center for the Arts in Wellesley. ...

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG gives new meaning to the phrase "brings down the house." An incredible ensemble, seamless direction, and a Tony Award-winning set combine for non-stop, laugh-inducing antics that make this night of theater an absolute delight....

At the Saturday afternoon Matinee, at the United Parish Church, Brookline, MA, The Actor's Shakespeare Project presented Bill Cain's Play Equivocation. The result was a success in every way. This was my first viewing of this play and while it is a lot to take in, (more about that later) I thoroughly...

In Saturday Night's performance of Macbeth at The United Parish Church, Brookline, MA, Nael Nacer as Macbeth, (and in an inspired bit of casting as Macduff's son), was truly outstanding, backed by a strong company of actors. This production of Macbeth is the world premiere of a new verse translation...

The 2003 Broadway Musical Hairspray, with a Tony Award-winning book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan and a Tony Award-winning score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman featuring the hit songs 'Welcome To The '60s,' 'You Can't Stop The Beat,' 'Mamma, I'm A Big Girl Now,' 'I Know Where I've Boon,' ...

It is probably an unintended coincidence that the Lyric Stage Company's production of Jen Silverman's two-hander, THE ROOMMATE, passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors, even as FUN HOME, based on Alison Bechdel's graphic novel/memoir is onstage down the street at the Boston Center for the Arts. F...

The Emerson String Quartet's concert on Sunday, October 21, 2018 was a rich and satisfying chamber music feast....

FUN HOME is a true story about real people, and Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault's production at SpeakEasy Stage Company, the Boston regional premiere of the 2015 Tony Award-winning musical, will make a believer out of anyone who sets foot in the Roberts Studio Theatre. Based on Alison Be...

Inspired by her experiences working in the recreation department at a youth residential care facility in the Lone Star State, Kira Rockwell has written a fictional story about five adolescent girls that portrays their back stories, personalities, and behaviors with authenticity, while trying to eras...

New Repertory Theatre's mission is "to produce plays that speak powerfully to the vital ideas of our time," a statement which they adhere to vigorously. In this season, under the theme of "Awakening," New Rep presents the New England premiere of WE WILL NOT BE SILENT, a docudrama by playwright David...

Simon Geller and WVCA-FM, his one-man classical music radio station, were part of the local color of Gloucester, Massachusetts, for 24 years. From 1964 until he retired in 1988, Geller lived, breathed, ate, and slept to single-handedly produce commercial-free broadcasts from his in-home studio, doin...

Theater Uncorked returned to the First Church Cambridge this past weekend for two performances of a staged reading of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, a 1963 play by Dale Wasserman, based on the novel of the same name by Ken Kesey. Lest the inmates run the asylum, the strong directorial hand of Bob...

The Central Square Theater, in conjunction with Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, has a corner on the market of blending art and science. It is no easy task to create intelligent, dramatic entertainment that can live up to their mission and put across its message with clarity, as well as artistry. However...

Thanks to Julianne Boyd and the team at Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire audiences can be transported back to a 'simpler time' through THE GLASS MENAGERIE....

A year ago, almost to the day, Alan Cumming made his debut with the Celebrity Series of Boston, performing his touring show SINGS SAPPY SONGS at Sanders Theatre. This time around, Cumming and his quartet of crack musicians took the stage Sunday night at the considerably larger Symphony Hall, wowing ...

Playwright/director Michael Gaucher and Bitter Bitch Productions bring a live edition of the beloved sitcom to the stage at Club Cafe. DIRTY SECRETS: A GOLDEN GIRLS LOST EPISODE is your chance to get up close and personal with the other Fab Four in Gaucher's original story, complete with song, dance...

There is much fun afoot in this cleverly written, earnestly acted, and crisply directed play being revived on the main stage at the Huntington Theatre Company. SHERLOCK'S LAST CASE had its world premiere in 1984 in Los Angeles before transferring to Broadway for a short run in 1987 with Frank Langel...

At each turn, characters undergo significant changes in personality, demeanor, and motivation. It can be both exhilarating and at times slightly confusing for audience members to watch the characters twist along with the plot. It is rewarding, however, as we are entertained by an exploration of th...

Embarking on its 28th season, SpeakEasy Stage Company presents the New England premiere of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning play BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY by Stephen Adly Guirgis. Director Tiffany Nichole Greene is the navigator and masterfully guides a stellar cast on this journey. From the openin...

Jekyll & Hyde opened last night at North Shore Music theatre (NSMT) to yet another standing ovation and thunderous applause. Overall the evening was a winner....

Merrimack Repertory Theatre opens it 40th anniversary season with NATIVE GARDENS, #8 on American Theatre magazine's list of the top 10 most-produced plays of 2018-2019. With a dozen theaters mounting Karen Zacarias' delightful tale that pits a millennial, Latinx couple against a white, baby boomer c...

In news recently reported, the 2018-2019 season will be Zeitgeist Stage Company's last, after seventeen years of notable productions as an acclaimed stalwart of the Boston fringe theater scene. Artistic Director David J. Miller has never shied away from plays that deal with controversial or highly c...

What happens when you take an Oscar Wilde classic play from the Naughty Nineties, add about a dozen original musical numbers, and update the story and setting to London's swinging Carnaby Street in the sixties? Well, if you put it in the hands of Director/Choreographer Ilyse Robbins and Music Direct...