BOSTON THEATER REVIEWS

All hell breaks loose in CARRIE THE MUSICAL at SpeakEasy Stage Company thanks to a match made in heaven between The Boston Conservatory's rising junior Elizabeth Erardi and local diva Kerry A. Dowling as the tormented teen and her fanatical mother. Directed by Paul Melone with Musical Direction by...

Feminist fantasy about three time-traveling Victorian-era women who set out to explore 'Terra Incognita' is playwright Eric Overmyer's paean to language and the art of the spoken word. His craftsmanship as a writer is on display in ON THE VERGE, but the quartet of accomplished, committed actors aren...

The Reduced Shakespeare Company finally tackles the subject of comedy, condensing the complete history (abridged) into a concise two-hour package that doesn't miss a trick. From cavemen to clowns, shtick to Stooges, and Seinfeld to the Supreme Court, there's something for everyone in the myriad ske...

Who says arts and academia cannot work hand in hand? Isn't theatre one of the best ways to reach large groups of people and enact change? So why not teach lessons about issues of science and environmental awareness within a theatrical piece?...

GOOD TELEVISION proves that live theater makes everything better, even reality television. First time playwright Rod McLachlan creates complex characters and focuses on their diverse motivations in this authentic take at Zeitgeist Stage Company. Artistic Director David J. Miller seamlessly directs a...

There's something beautifully poetic in juxtaposing two current offerings by small theater companies in Boston. Bad Habit Productions celebrates ambitious women in Caryl Churchill's TOP GIRLS at the Boston Center for the Arts, while Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans are light years removed from ...

Solo performance piece written and performed by James Fluhr (Boston University CFA '11), OUR LADY was created as a response to hate and homophobia, as well as to reveal the author's own coming out story. It is a moving, riveting mixed media theatrical event playing as part of the Next Rep Black Box ...

Huntington Theatre Company playwright-in-residence Melinda Lopez collaborates with Director M. Bevin O'Gara to bring BECOMING CUBA to the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. Rich in historical content, the play is set in Havana in 1897 in the midst of the Cuban War of Independence...

Stoneham Theatre presents the world premiere of Michael Aman's THE UNBLEACHED AMERICAN, a play about Ernest Hogan, the "father of ragtime." A long forgotten African American musical innovator, Hogan attained great success before tumbling into infamy. This important story imagines his relationship wi...

Whistler in the Dark Theatre is calling it a day, but not before staging one final play that will challenge their audience. Concluding their season celebrating Caryl Churchill, the Whistlers are fading out with the dystopian fable FAR AWAY....

Fort Point Theatre Channel pairs Samuel Beckett's KRAPP'S LAST TAPE with THE ARCHIVES by local playwright Skylar Fox for an engaging double bill. Steven Barkhimer in the former and Sally Nutt, Allison Smith, and Karin Trachtenberg in the latter all give quality performances in two one-acts that refl...

In Imaginary Beasts's mission statement, they refer to the art they create as adventurous, non-traditional, and for an eclectic public. I have seen few shows that adhere to their company's mission statement better than this one. This weekend, I attended Imaginary's Beasts's production of Lovers' Qua...

Tony Award-winning composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown is the Blodgett Artist in Residence at the Harvard University Department of Music for the spring term and he gave the equivalent of a master class last night at Oberon. In a seventy-five minute performance, Brown served a buffet of delicious mo...

Merrimack Repertory Theatre cranks up the way back machine to transport the audience to Lebanon, Missouri, on July 4, 1944, in Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winner TALLEY'S FOLLY, but the play chugs along on fumes, despite the best efforts of all parties....

Kate Burton, accomplished Chekhovian actress, plays onstage mother to her son Morgan Ritchie in the Huntington Theatre Company's production of THE SEAGULL, featuring an ensemble of local favorites and Broadway veterans. Director Maria Aitken leads a stellar team of designers to create magic at the B...

There are few things that speak to the resilience and hopefulness of mankind more than the history of Brundibar, currently being performed at the Central Square Theatre. It is an opera for children (which is ambitious in itself), but it was created by Jewish artists and performed in the Terezin conc...

Leave your inhibitions at the door and fasten your seat belt for a musical theater experience that simmers, smolders, and titillates. Bridge Rep gets up close and personal with Michael John LaChiusa's HELLO AGAIN in an immersive, cabaret-style production. Emerson College alum Michael Bello directs a...

Ellen Mclaughlin's TONGUE OF A BIRD is the first show in New Repertory Theatre's inaugural Next Rep Black Box Festival. No one can dispute the intimacy of the venue, or the up-close-and-personal flavor of the production, directed by Emily Ranii and featuring an all-female cast. This band of sisters ...

FLASHDANCE - THE MUSICAL delivers on its promise of electrifying dance, but its story is forgettable and fails to inspire....

Playwright David Valdes Greenwood offers a requiem to explore the randomness of violence, the collateral damage suffered by the community, and the road to reclaiming one's humanity. BULLY DANCE illuminates its unpleasant theme with thoughtful writing, respectful performances, and unexpected beauty....

An homage to Agatha Christie, SOMETHING'S AFOOT rolls along merrily in the hands of a cast of Stoneham Theatre favorites....

Annie Baker takes live theater to the movies in THE FLICK, set in a rundown, second-run Worcester movie house. The audience gets to be like a fly on the wall as the ushers sweep up the detritus and muddle through their existential struggles between shows. Not much happens, but everything changes ove...

Fusing theater, dance, music, and video, ArtsEmerson's MAN IN A CASE is an unusual entertainment, something that has to be seen to be appreciated. At the least, it is an example of thinking outside of the box and an opportunity to see one of the world's greatest dancers onstage; at best, it is an op...

Actors' Shakespeare Project mounts a lighter, accessible version of Anton Chekhov's final play in Founder's Hall at The Dane Estate at Pine Manor College in Brookline. Performing in the round in this stately, dramatic setting, the actors inhabit space and time in a way that allows their characters t...

Arthur Miller's DEATH OF A SALESMAN is sixty-five years old, but unlikely to face the same fate as its tragic protagonist Willy Loman. With Janie E. Howland's marvelously evocative set, Gail Astrid Buckley's period-appropriate costumes, Karen Perlow's lighting effects, and Dewey Dellay's brilliant o...