Boston Theater Reviews

Review: TORCH SONG at Moonbox Productions
by Nancy Grossman - December 08, 2022

What did our critic think of REVIEW: TORCH SONG at Moonbox Productions?...

Review: LITTLE WOMEN: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL
by Nancy Grossman - December 01, 2022

Have there ever been such devoted sisters as the four March girls, birthed by Louisa May Alcott in her postbellum semi-autobiographical novel LITTLE WOMEN? Director Ilyse Robbins shows her abiding affection for the story with her devotion to its heart and soul on display in the production of the 200...

REVIEW: THE EDGAR ALLAN POE DOUBLEHEADER
by Nancy Grossman - October 28, 2022

If you have yet to reach your fright limit for the Halloween season, you still have two chances to experience chills of the dramatic variety at THT Rep at the BrickBox Theater in Worcester. Reprising the production she created for small, socially-distanced audiences of 20 in the early days of the pa...

REVIEW: THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW
by Nancy Grossman - October 26, 2022

Two hundred years after Washington Irving introduced the little hamlet of Sleepy Hollow and its superstitious denizens to the canon of American literature, the legend remains among the most enduring of stories that capture the imagination of adults and children alike, inspire questions about the sup...

Review: AUGUST WILSON'S JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE
by Nancy Grossman - October 22, 2022

JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE was the first Wilson play produced at the Huntington in 1986, the beginning of a 19-year relationship that saw all ten of his American Century Cycle plays chronicling the African American experience in the 20th century performed on the local stage....

Review: SEASCAPES at Berkshire Theatre Group
by Marc Savitt - October 03, 2022

Typically, I don’t care much for works that fall into the realm of existentialism, theatre of the absurd, and the like. SEASCAPE, however, is different. Perhaps because it is primarily focused on interpersonal communication. Also, the characters, for the most part are dynamic, interesting, and rathe...

Review: GOLDEN LEAF RAGTIME BLUES at Shakespeare & Company
by Marc Savitt - September 29, 2022

GOLDEN LEAF RAGTIME BLUES does provide a pleasant hour and 20 minutes of pleasant entertainment free of politics, angst and the chance to sit back and relax, and focus on something completely different for a bit which most of us can use and appreciate these days....

Review: ALL OF ME at Barrington Stage Company
by Marc Savitt - September 27, 2022

ALL OF ME is all kinds of good. Not good for a show about a particular group or type of people, it’s just good. There is some aspect that should fit or tickle the funny bone for just about everyone. So, as the song with the same title asks: why not take ALL OF ME?...

Review: JERKER at The Provincetown Theater
by Michael Rabice - August 31, 2022

What at first sounds like an evening of gratuitous nudity for the pleasure of gay men actually turns into quite the opposite. In one of it’s final performances this summer, Robert Chesley’s play JERKER proved to be a perfect fit for The Provincetown  Theater’s mission of presenting previously unsee...

Review: WAITING FOR GODOT at Barrington Stage Company
by Marc Savitt - August 28, 2022

Where most productions paint the duo as downtrodden and rather depressed, here the two main characters are painted with s sense of comedic timing and light-heartedness that almost seems choregraphed. A performance harkening back to some of the greatest comedic duos. The likes of Lewis and Martin, ...

Review: MEASURE FOR MEASURE at Shakespeare & Company
by Marc Savitt - August 22, 2022

Each player has moments of strength, weakness, anguish, despair, all presented well individually. I did not, however, feel as if I were watching a cohesive unit, in their element, weaving a tapestry as their lives intertwine. More that of a group of individuals well skilled at delivering Shakespea...

Review: DRACULA at Berkshire Theatre Group
by Marc Savitt - August 21, 2022

As is often the case the BTG production is a high-quality production where seemingly everyone involved has played their role and done their work well. There is, however, one aspect I certainly did not expect. Laughter. At several points throughout the three acts in 2-hours, audience members responde...

Review: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC at Barrington Stage Company
by Marc Savitt - August 14, 2022

There are a few technical glitches that presented themselves to a keen eye, but virtually something for everyone to like.  Overall, BSC’s production of ALITTLE NIGHT MUSIC represents another triumph for both Barrington Stage and the woman who has steered the company’s successful course for the past...

Review: PIPPIN: Growing Up Is Hard To Do
by Nancy Grossman - August 08, 2022

The second and final production of Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston’s 2022 season is Stephen Schwartz’s PIPPIN, originally produced on the Broadway stage in 1972 with direction and choreography by Bob Fosse, and revived/reimagined in 2013 by Diane Paulus at the American Repertory Theater befor...

Review: WE ARE CONTINUOUS at Williamstown Theatre Festival
by Marc Savitt - August 07, 2022

Simon and his mother, Ora, have always been close. She’s been his champion, his defender, and his friend. But when a life-changing secret comes to light, can their bond survive? 2020 Foeller Fellow Tyler Thomas directs this exquisitely wrought WTF-commissioned play by Harrison David Rivers that expl...

Review: SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD at Berkshire Theatre Group
by Marc Savitt - August 03, 2022

There is not one single word of spoken dialogue. The driving, exquisitely crafted score is brilliant. It draws you in and in most cases, regardless of who might be performing a given piece, you find yourself caught up in the lyrics feeling as if they could be telling your story or at least a good ...

Review: ANNA IN THE TROPICS at Barrington Stage Company
by Marc Savitt - July 24, 2022

ANNA IN THE TROPICS is something like a well curated and presented collection of themes that are both timeless and universal. Coming quite close to the proverbial, perhaps lofty goal of, having something for everyone. One thing we agreed upon is that ANNA IN THE TROPICS is the latest high caliber ...

Review: A BEAUTIFUL NOISE at The Emerson Colonial Theatre
by Erik Bailey - July 14, 2022

Biographical jukebox musicals are becoming more and more common. They use a singer and/or songwriter’s music to tell that person’s life story. The most recent addition to the cannon is A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL (now playing at the Emerson Colonial Theatre until August 7th). ...

Review: MAN OF GOD at Williamstown Theatre Festival
by Marc Savitt - July 12, 2022

The relevancy to current issues such as Me Too, Feminism, Sexism, Abuse of Power, Patriarchal Systemic Inequality, Masculine Toxicity, My Body – My Rights, See Something – Say Something … abound. Will these dynamic, seemingly “ordinary / normal” young women persist, or give in and conform to the ov...

Review: WEST SIDE STORY: You've got to be taught
by Nancy Grossman - July 11, 2022

What did our critic think of WEST SIDE STORY at Reagle Music Theatre Of Greater Boston: There's a new spring in the step of Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston in Waltham. Award-winning director and choreographer Rachel Bertone takes over as Artistic Director and opens the season with WEST SIDE S...

Review: ABCD at Barrington Stage Company
by Marc Savitt - July 09, 2022

At two very different public schools in the same city — an underserved school on the verge of shutdown, and an elite magnet program nearby — pressure to perform well on standardized tests drives students and teachers to compromise their integrity. Kudos to Artistic Director, Julie Ann Boyd and the ...

Review: American Repertory Theater and Roundabout Theatre Company's 1776 is a Master Class in Musical Theatre Revivals
by Erik Bailey - July 08, 2022

It is no surprise to anyone that we are living in an incredibly politically charged time. One can’t help but wonder if this is the future our Founding Fathers had envisioned for our country. 1776 gives us a look at what may have been going through their minds when leading America to its independence...

Review: A MOMENT WITH MARK ST. GERMAIN at Great Barrington Public Theater
by Adam Cohen - July 08, 2022

Mark St. Germain is a prolific playwright whose works have been performed in New York City, the Berkshires and beyond. He has written the plays CAMPING WITH HENRY AND TOM (Outer Critics Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award), OUT OF GAS ON LOVER'S LEAP and FORGIVING TYPHOID MARY (Time Magazine's 'Ye...

Review: ONCE at Berkshire Theatre Group
by Marc Savitt - July 05, 2022

ONCE is one of those productions that comes along, once in a while, where audience members can truly sit back, relax, get comfortable, and enjoy as a delightful experience sweeps them up, carries them away, and lets them feel all the feels. ONCE continues at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Colonial Theat...

Review: B.R.O.K.E.N CODE B.I.R.D SWITCHING at Berkshire Theatre Group
by Marc Savitt - June 26, 2022

The season opener of Berkshire Theatre Group’s 2022 season B.R.O.K.E.N CODE B.I.R.D SWITCHING is not, as the title might suggest to some, about Native American Communication Specialists during WWII. It is one of those relatively infrequent theatrical experiences in which each of the many individual...