BOSTON THEATER REVIEWS

The premise of the play is that a teacher has committed suicide in her own classroom, a horror the children discover returning from recess. A substitute teacher is hired to take her place, and is expected to help them cope with their loss by pretending everything is normal....

PIRATES OF PENZANCE at the American Repertory Theater's Loeb Drama Center is tantamount to a three-ring circus being held at a beach volleyball tournament. There are beach balls, kiddie pools, beach chairs, and a grass cocktail shack. The cast performs as roving troubadours, each proficiently playin...

A show about how complicated raising a child now seems to be with the constant presence of technology, the media, new learning disabilities and disorders, and the fact that everyone is always on the move. Everything is much more complicated, and pure familial values are not always easy to find anymo...

Maurice Hines puts his passion for tap, his late brother Gregory, and classic Big Band music on display in TAPPIN' THRU LIFE: AN EVENING WITH MAURICE HINES. Backed by the Berklee College of Music Select Big Band, under the direction of drummer Sherrie Maricle, Hines tells his story, shows off his vo...

From stem to stern, the crew of Lyric Stage Company's ON THE TOWN serves up a boatload of thrills. Leonard Bernstein's glorious score, book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and Jerome Robbins' idea fuse into a terrific voyage to end the season. Director Spiro Veloudos, Choreographer Ilys...

FROM DENMARK WITH LOVE: A 007/HAMLET MASH-UP may be your poison if you know your James Bond movies and the crux of the Shakespeare tragedy. At times difficult to follow, the two vehicles blend better than you might think, thanks to clear direction and an energetic, fun-loving ensemble. Daniel Jones ...

Virtuosic performances, perfectly orchestrated direction and exquisite period detail render the decadence and divinity beautifully in Peter Shaffer's Tony Award-winning 'Amadeus' at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, Mass....

Zeitgeist Stage Company's production of Simon Stephens' play, inspired by the Columbine shooting, hits very close to home on the heels of the Newtown and Boston Marathon tragedies. Director David J. Miller and an outstanding cast of teens and young adults handle the material responsibly and realisti...

Pippi Longstocking, a story that has been around since the 1940s, tells of a little girl who is left by her pirate father alone with her horse and pet monkey, Mr. Nilsson, to fend for herself and teach the meaning of fun to the rule-following children of the town. Along the way, Pippi fights burglar...

She Kills Monsters has the feel of a comic book, while telling the story of Agnes, an average woman who gets to know her late sister by acting out her created game of Dungeons and Dragons....

Theatre on Fire creates the noir ambiance in the intimate confines of the Charlestown Working Theater, but lethargic pacing and lack of chemistry hamper fine individual acting efforts....

Stefanie Powers is a trouper who stepped into the role of Tallulah Bankhead, which was originated by Valerie Harper, when Harper's untimely diagnosis of brain cancer forced her to withdraw from the national tour of LOOPED. Although the circumstances are bittersweet, Powers' performance is informed b...

David Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play resonates nearly thirty years later in Merrimack Repertory Theatre's crisp, dark, funny, riveting production. In the capable hands of Director Charles Towers and an accomplished group of actors, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS is a total entertainment package and a...

Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans do what they do best…and then some. The troupe's musical theater skills are evolving with every production. Grace Carney is a real boy as the title character. Don't bring your kids, but prepare yourself for a visit with your inner child....

It takes a pretty special production to fully capture my interest for the entirety of a Shakespearean work, particularly given the length of most of his plays.The Actor Shakespeare Project's production of Pericles, performed at the Modern Theatre, is one of these special productions. One of Shakespe...

CATHY RIGBY IS PETER PAN National Tour completes its journey in Boston where it all began for the star in 1989, with the final performance Sunday evening, April 28, at the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre. Rigby gives a magical performance in an imaginative and inspiring production, supporte...

The Siti Company, an ensemble based theatre company created by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki, is famous for its combination of Viewpoints and Suzuki, two very different acting trainings that focus on movement and gesture, and concentration and strength, respectively. This weekend, their production ...

In the case of Lucie Arnaz, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz is a consummate entertainer. Her acting and comedic skills come from her mother, but she owes her music and Latin heritage to her father. AN AFTERNOON WITH LUCIE ARNAZ pays tribute to...

The Huntington Theatre Company world premiere of RYAN LANDRY'S 'M' is a design triumph, but the plot misfires. Karen MacDonald is an anxious menace skulking around the periphery, casting giant shadows, and Larry Coen milks every drop of humor from his multiple roles, but playwright Ryan Landry's sto...

'The Venus Hottentot is dead. There won't be any show tonight.' This is one of the first lines you hear in the opening scene of Venus. You don't know who or what the Venus Hottentot is, or how they died, but you already want to know what happened. You want to know what kind of impact she had on thes...

Imaginary Beasts presents a selection of ten playlets written by Thornton Wilder before his 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning OUR TOWN. An egalitarian ensemble of ten actors and actresses creates a circus-like environment with mime, acrobatics, and clown collars, augmented by atmospheric lighting and orig...

Boston Playwright's Theatre is dedicated to giving life to new works, specifically those written by Boston playwrights, and it provides excellent opportunities for playwrights to workshop their pieces and get them seen. Their current endeavor is Elizabeth Dupre's Thinking of You, a story about a you...

'The Book of Mormon' may be outrageous, irreverent, and puerile in the extreme, but the most offensive thing about this insipid show is its insulting lack of wit....

Boston audiences have one last chance to see both the Huntington Theatre Company's knockout production of Lorraine Hansberry's landmark 1959 drama 'A Raisin in the Sun' and its modern-day follow-up, 'Clybourne Park,' running coincidentally in tandem at SpeakEasy Stage in the Boston Center for the Ar...

A play about a wannabe movie star features a magical blending of live performance with cinematic images in the New England premiere of 2011 Off-Broadway hit BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK. Summer L. Williams makes her Lyric Stage directing debut with Kami Rushell Smith shining at the forefront of a str...