BOSTON THEATER REVIEWS

ABIGAIL/1702 is playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's exploration of the aftermath of the 1692 Salem witch trials. Merrimack Repertory Theatre and Director Tlaloc Rivas push all the right buttons to give the audience a scary ride. The outstanding design elements create an atmosphere that is spooky on ...

Tight harmonies and an even tighter cast make the first national tour of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER delicious fun. Now at Boston's Citi Center Shubert Theatre through October 23, this totally original musical comedy by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lut...

Did you ever wonder what would happen if the traditional Dracula story was made into something so perfectly absurd that it actually turns itself funny? If what is meant to be a frightening tale of the undead becomes a wacky, Barbie doll- infested, cross-dressing adventure that brings the quest to de...

Stoneham Theatre presents the New England premiere of playwright Thomas Gibbons' UNCANNY VALLEY, a view into the not too distant future when researchers have found a way to extend the human lifespan through artificial intelligence. While it raises more questions than it answers, its rich subtext and...

MAN IN SNOW, Israel Horovitz's newest play, receives its world premiere at Gloucester Stage in a riveting production directed by the playwright. A full-length stage adaptation of an earlier radio play, the seed of the fictional story was sown from a real-life event in Alaska nearly twenty years ago....

Now celebrating its 90th anniversary, The Plough and the Stars has been given a reimagined revival by The Abbey Theatre, Ireland's National Theatre and is on tour at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA until October 9th. This Brechtian inspired production is as alien as it is fresh and r...

Fiddlehead Theatre Company's Boston premiere production of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT dazzles, and it's not just because of the millions of sequins used by Director/Costume Designer Stacey Stephens for the ab-fab fashions of the glamorous drag performers and their entourage. With over 300 costume...

Many of you may be familiar with The Woman in Black due to it being the second longest running play in London's West End (twenty-nine years strong), or perhaps you were pretty spooked by the 2012 film starring Daniel Radcliffe. However you were lured to see this production, Susan Hill's and Stephen ...

SpeakEasy Stage Company is presenting the New England premiere of a new comedy by Joshua Harmon (BAD JEWS) prior to its scheduled Broadway run in February, 2017. Under the insightful direction of Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault, SIGNIFICANT OTHER offers a cornucopia of talented players (...

Music Worcester had a grand opening to its 157th season last night at beautiful Mechanics Hall, a treasure in downtown Worcester, presenting Patti LuPone in her latest solo concert program, DON'T MONKEY WITH BROADWAY. She shared the stage with her fantastic musical director/accompanist Joseph Thalke...

Zeitgeist Stage Company presents a collection of short plays by Tennessee Williams. EIGHT BY TENN has the trademark lyrical writing style that makes Williams Williams, but not all characters are equally developed, posing a challenge for the actors. Artistic Director David J. Miller directs an ensemb...

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE opens the Huntington Theatre Company's 2016-2017 season. Directed by Artistic Director Peter DuBois, with Music Direction by Eric Stern, it features a large and talented ensemble with a mix of Boston theater artists and those with Broadway credits. Jenni Barber is a de...

Stoneham Theatre has a lively hit on its hands with the Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty 1980s musical murder mystery farce, LUCKY STIFF. The rom-com romp stars young company alum Andrew Barbato, with direction by Caitlin Lowans, choreography by Ilyse Robbins, and music direction by Bethany Aiken. It's ...

Producing Artistic Director Spiro Veloudos opens the 2016-2017 Lyric Stage Company season with Stephen Sondheim's ground-breaking concept musical COMPANY. Winner of six Tony Awards in 1971, as well as the 2007 winner for Best Revival of a Musical, don't be surprised to find this modern makeover capt...

New Repertory Theatre presents the Boston area premiere of the final component of Richard Nelson's four-play cycle. Weylin Symes, the producing artistic director of Stoneham Theatre, returns to the helm with the stellar six-member cast of Joel Colodner, Laura Latreille, Karen MacDonald, Paul Melendy...

Alabama Story, which recently opened at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, begins and ends with the simple, child-like need for the characters to both tell and beckon the audience to prepare for a story: a story that tells of the South but deals with much that is not southern in nature, a story th...

Gloucester Stage Company presents the New England premiere of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's THE TOTALITARIANS, an over-the-top satire about an unqualified female political candidate wooing the electorate by promising 'Freedom from Fear.' GSC Managing Director Jeff Zinn makes his local directing debut and k...

With a small yet stellar cast directed by Pamela Hunt and finishing the Playhouse's 90th season as its final full length production of the summer, there is so much to love about this production of Christie's classic The Mousetrap. Honestly, if you don't enjoy it, you really aren't following the stor...

Broadway Bounty Hunter, a new musical which opened at Barrington Stage Company on August 19th, celebrates the history of B-list movies and modern musical theatre by blending them together in hilarious fashion. At the center of this high-antic musical is Joe Iconis' psychedelic score- a surreal compo...

Have you ever been high on what life is and all it throws at you - to become charged by the excitement and wonder of it all, followed by the mayhem, the confusion and the constant need to keep up with the bundles of mess that almost seem too perfectly destined to fall right in your lap? Have you eve...

The truth be told, I have neither read nor seen performed Shakespeare's King Lear, and was therefore as unfamiliar with the plot and its characters as basically anyone can possibly be; I suppose it wasn't mandatory reading when I went to school, for what reason I cannot possibly imagine. Although, I...

Dr. Lyssa Dent Hughes is about to be named Surgeon General of the United States. She has devoted her entire career to the advocacy of women's rights. She married well, has great kids, and surrounds herself with an elite group of accomplished friends. Her confirmation seems likely as the curtain rise...

There's good news and bad news in the Gloucester Stage production of Jason Robert Brown's SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD. The inspiring song cycle from 1995 shows the composer's promise that has been fulfilled, as evidenced by his three Tony Awards, and there is much to enjoy in both the music and lyrics (wh...

This is the wonder of Kander and Ebb's masterpiece that is Cabaret, now brought to the Cape Playhouse in what can only be described, in the words of Fraulein Bowles, as 'perfectly marvelous,' although even that would be an understatement for such a show as this beautiful theater in the heart of Denn...

Bridge Rep dives into its fourth year with the U.S. premiere of Reto Finger's DOG PADDLE (Or, Struggling Inelegantly Against Drowning), translated by Lily Sykes and directed by Israeli Stage founder Guy Ben-Aharon. While maintaining their expected standard of excellence, Bridge Rep expands their ten...