BOSTON THEATER REVIEWS

ArtsEmerson presents the New England premiere of BORN FOR THIS - A NEW MUSICAL, based on the life story of Bebe Winans and his sister Cece Winans, offspring of a spiritual, musical Detroit family, who made a huge splash as teenagers on the Praise the Lord network of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in the ...

Barrington Theatre Company's (BSC) 2018 Season opening production 'The Royal Family of Broadway', is a wacky, wonderful, and highly entertaining 1920's era madcap musical romp....

The 133rd spring season of The Boston Pops Orchestra at Symphony Hall is winding down, but the final week is a whirlwind of activity, culminating in three performances of WEST SIDE STORY: In Concert, and an appearance by two of the stars of the groundbreaking HAMILTON: AN AMERICAN MUSICAL. Tony Awar...

Greater Boston Stage Company has lined up a dream ensemble for their season finale, CALENDAR GIRLS, based on the 2003 Miramax motion picture. Under the direction of Nancy E. Carroll, a formidable actor in her own right, Maureen Brennan, Sarah deLima, Mary Potts Dennis, Kerry A. Dowling, Karen MacDo...

Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston, celebrating its 50th Anniversary Summer Season, was still in its first decade when A CHORUS LINE opened on Broadway in 1975, kicking off its run of 6,137 performances. The groundbreaking musical was nominated for twelve Tony Awards, winning nine, and took home...

The classic Musical 'Mame' opened the 2018 season last night at NSMT. The Musical by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, with Lyrics by Jerry Herman, and based on the book by Patrick Dennis, is a 1966 Musical Theatre warhorse that has starred such luminaries as, Rosalind Russell, Angela Landsbury, an...

Artistic Director Lee Mikeska Gardner embraces the mission of The Nora Theatre Company to "promote the feminine voice" with an all-male production of LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, Christopher Hampton's 1985 adaptation from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos. Perhaps best known from the 1988 film DANGEROUS...

Boston's newest small theater company christened its inaugural season with a one-night only, pop-up musical benefit performance of SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET IN CONCERT on Saturday, June 2nd, at First Church Cambridge. The brain-child and labor of love of Producing Artistic Direc...

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller was renowned and celebrated for his masterpiece DEATH OF A SALESMAN, as well as ALL MY SONS and THE CRUCIBLE, plays in which issues of morality took center stage. He refused to name names when called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, s...

There's a lot to digest in the American Repertory Theater (ART) premiere of the new musical JAGGED LITTLE PILL, billed as a story of 'pain, healing, and empowerment' based on Alanis Morissette's landmark rock album of the same name. Directed and choreographed - sometimes too aggressively - by Diane ...

An unequivocal hit is currently heating up the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine in preparation for its transfer Off-Broadway to Stage 42 in NYC July 6. Featuring a veritable goldmine of 40, count 'em, rock 'n' roll, blues, and R&B classics, SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE: The Songs of Lieber and Stoller is ...

FDR called the attack on Pearl Harbor "a day that will live in infamy." Equally ignominious, though, was his knee-jerk response: the decision to authorize the incarceration of 110,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps - without cause, trials, or hearings - for close to the duration of WWII. The...

Colorful and imaginative costumes, other-worldly lighting and sound effects, and a scenic design that combines magic with urban details, serve as the playground for the Lyric Stage Company's production of the 1975 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, THE WIZ, under the direction of Dawn M. Simmons. Help...

The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) celebrated more than two dozen outstanding actors, directors, designers, and ensembles at The 36th Annual Elliot Norton Awards ceremony at the Huntington Avenue Theatre last night. The coveted Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence was presented to...

Israeli playwright Joshua Sobol, unable to find a theater in his home country, stages the world premiere production of THE LAST ACT at Boston's Israeli Stage Company. Producing Artistic Director Guy Ben-Aharon asserts the importance of engaging with the audience to spark thought and conversation, re...

Heart & Dagger Productions concludes its 8th season with Katie Bender's STILL, NOW, a mind-bending, non-linear play directed by Amy Meyer and providing a showcase for the talents of Kiki Samko. A young woman navigating the trials and tribulations of a stage four cancer diagnosis falls back on her ex...

Greater Boston Stage Company in Stoneham presents the Boston premiere of THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE, a play with music about a not-so-great Elvis impersonator who finds success with a new calling involving lipstick, sequins, high heels, and specially-padded undergarments. If you subscribe to the ...

LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! by Terrence McNally won the 1995 Tony Award for Best Play and, although much has changed in the ensuing twenty-four years since it opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club, as a slice of gay life, it withstands the test of time. On each of the three major summer weekends, eight...

Ryan Landry mines the Old West and Old Hollywood for his new Gold Dust Orphans springtime musical. It's a fast ride on a runaway train with more kicks than a buckin' bronco. Old Orphans and new rally around Director Robin JaVonne Smith, stepping into the big boots of the late, beloved Larry Coen, an...

Tony Award-nominated director Liesl Tommy (A RAISIN IN THE SUN, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, RUINED) returns to the Huntington Theatre Company to lead a stellar, diverse cast in prolific British playwright Caryl Churchill's TOP GIRLS. Written in 1982 as a diatribe against Prime Minister Margaret Thatch...

Boston Playwrights' Theatre hosted the North American premiere of THE ROSENBERGS (AN OPERA) the past two weekends. It moves to Spingold Theater Center at Brandeis University for three performances next weekend. A co-production of Boston University and Brandeis, the opera features music by Joachim Ho...

CABARET has stood the test of time and Moonbox Productions puts a time stamp on the 1966 musical that brings it into the here and now. Director/choreographer Rachel Bertone and Music Director Dan Rodriguez whip a kick-ass kick line of high steppers into a precision machine to evoke the seedy Kit Kat...

In a brief engagement at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, Mass. (which ended this Sunday), the national tour of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's southern musical BRIGHT STAR flickers between down-home country charm and maudlin storytelling. Strong performances and a kickin' on-stage bluegrass band,...

Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning singer and actress Audra McDonald returned for her 7th appearance with the Celebrity Series on Friday night at Symphony Hall. Accompanied by a virtuoso trio of Brian Hertz on piano, Mark Vanderpoel on bass, and Gene Lewin on drums, she held the audience in her sw...

Director Scott Edmiston has to thank the guy who wrote a taut adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning play ANNA CHRISTIE, thus positioning him to lead a seamless production which combines inventive stagecraft, stunning design elements, and a group of actors who seem born to their roles...