Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 14

BWW Review: New England Premiere of TRAYF: You Don't Have To Be Jewish
by Nancy Grossman - October 16, 2019

Playwright Lindsay Joelle introduces us to the unique world of the Rebbe's loyal foot soldiers who travel around Manhattan in a Mitzvah Tank, performing good deeds and spreading the gospel of the Chabad-Lubavitch to non-observant and alienated Jews. In its New England premiere at New Repertory Theat...

BWW Review: AMERICAN UNDERGROUND at Barrington Stage Company A Profound New Drama That Asks Us To Examine Where We've Been, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going.
by Marc Savitt - October 08, 2019

This production is, in a word - 'tight'. The many facets and elements of the script, costuming, sound, lighting, sets, direction, and cast are all notable in their own right. This is a case where they come together and the whole is, indeed, greater than the sum of the parts. The result is 90-minu...

BWW Review: 42ND STREET: Thunderous Opening For The Umbrella Stage Company
by Nancy Grossman - October 02, 2019

The red velvet curtain rises on about a dozen pairs of feet tapping up a storm, but there are a few hundred more dancing their way out of the Umbrella Community Arts Center after they pay a visit to 42ND STREET, the blockbuster grand opening production of the Umbrella Stage Company, Greater Boston's...

BWW Review: WHAT THE JEWS BELIEVE at Berkshire Theatre Group Leaves Audiences With Lots to Think About.
by Marc Savitt - October 01, 2019

At it's core, WHAT THE JEWS BELIEVE is a poignant story about the loss of faith and the journey to find it. Moreover, it is about life. The joys, sadness, fears, and many of the overwhelming number of questions that come with it. To his credit, playwright, Mark Harelik, goes to great lengths to p...

BWW Review: SUNSET BOULEVARD: Alice Ripley Puts Her Stamp on Norma Desmond
by Nancy Grossman - September 30, 2019

In the annals of musical theater, Norma Desmond is one of those larger than life characters, like Mame Dennis, Dolly Levi, and Eva Peron, who cries out for an actor with a specific and rare combination of skills to play the role. Tony Award-winner Alice Ripley ascends to playing the faded silent-scr...

BWW Review: BEAUTIFUL at Hanover Theatre In Worcester, MA
by Jan Nargi - September 28, 2019

While the Earth didn't exactly move during the national tour stop of BEAUTIFUL at the Hanover Theater in Worcester this week, this more successful than most biographical jukebox musical did set off an occasional temblor. No surprise, those moments came when the show's legendary subject, Carole King,...

BWW Review: TIME STANDS STILL at Shakespeare & Company Examines Change and Choice.
by Marc Savitt - September 26, 2019

Over the span of two hours, TIME STANDS STILL explores the relationship between the individuals and the two couples at a crucial juncture in each of their lives. Their desire to move forward in conflict with the comfort of clinging to the past. Will they fight, challenge, accept, reject, change, or...

BWW Review: CHOIR BOY IS PITCH PERFECT at SpeakEasy Stage In Boston
by Jan Nargi - September 23, 2019

Just as the centuries-old spirituals sung by American slaves created community and gave voice to the thoughts and emotions they were forced to repress, so too the music in CHOIR BOY serves to give hope and healing to the young men struggling to find and express their true identities at a boarding sc...

BWW Review: THE PURISTS at Huntington Theatre Company In Boston
by Jan Nargi - September 19, 2019

There's more gray than black and white in the scintillating new play THE PURISTS written by Dan McCabe and directed by Billy Porter. Receiving its rollicking world premiere at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, this rap versus Broadway battle for musical purity between an ex-rapper, a hip-hop...

BWW Review: TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS: 'Dear Sugar' Dispenses Joy at MRT
by Nancy Grossman - September 17, 2019

TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS is a play that will make you laugh, tug at your heartstrings, teach you to appreciate little things while not sweating the small stuff, and, ultimately, make you glad you decided to spend 85 minutes at the theater. The season-opener at Merrimack Repertory Theatre is based on th...

BWW Review: THE AMERICA PLAYS: World Premiere at Mount Auburn Cemetery
by Nancy Grossman - September 15, 2019

Playwright Patrick Gabridge, the 2018-2019 Mount Auburn Cemetery Artist-In-Residence, is presenting THE AMERICA PLAYS, the second series of site-specific plays, following THE NATURE PLAYS produced in June. Whereas the earlier work explored the richness of the natural environment at the Cemetery, thi...

BWW Review: LAST NIGHT AT BOWL-MOR LANES: Carroll and Plum Play Out the String
by Nancy Grossman - September 09, 2019

LAST NIGHT AT BOWL-MOR LANES is a nostalgia piece in more ways than one. Now having its world premiere to open Greater Boston Stage Company in Stoneham's 20th season, the play by Producing Artistic Director Weylin Symes imparts a feeling of community, close friendships, and enjoyment of simple pursu...

BWW Review: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: This Plant's No Shrinking Violet
by Nancy Grossman - September 05, 2019

Rachel Bertone has set the bar high for the 45th anniversary season of the Lyric Stage Company with her pitch perfect production of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Assuming the mantle of both director and choreographer, with the dependable Dan Rodriguez as music director by her side, Bertone and her design ...

BWW Review: “SIX” IS MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS at A.R.T. In Cambridge
by Jan Nargi - September 03, 2019

Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. That's how the six wives of Henry VIII snidely introduce themselves in a?oeEx-Wives,a?? the rocking opening number of the rollicking new 80-minute musical concert SIX by newcomers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Fusing patriarchal history from 500 y...

BWW Review: THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT: Regional Premiere at Gloucester Stage Company
by Nancy Grossman - September 02, 2019

Gloucester Stage Company is the first theater in the country to produce THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT following its SRO limited run on Broadway. Based on the 2012 essay/book co-written by John D'Agata and Jim Fingal, the play explores the conflict between an unorthodox author (D'Agata) and the young fact-c...

BWW Review: Peregrine Theatre Ensemble's CABARET Is Stunning
by Michele Clarke - August 30, 2019

Director-choreographer Kyle Pleasant is back with Peregrine Theatre Ensemble's main stage summer show – and he has not come to play. Pleasant's CABARET gives you a hundred clues of what's to come. Yet this ending is leaving audiences speechless. Once again, Pleasant's thoughtful twists on a classic ...

BWW Review: MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS at Ogunquit Playhouse
by Jan Nargi - August 27, 2019

Whether you know 'whodunnit' or not, you're bound to enjoy this rollicking MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS adapted by Ken Ludwig at the Ogunquit Playhouse. Fans of Agatha Christie, or murder mysteries in general, will find plenty of false identities, red herrings and over-the-top suspense to keep them ...

BWW Review: HERSHEY FELDER AS GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE at Berkshire Theatre Group is S'wonderful, S'Marvelous, and Magnificent.
by Marc Savitt - August 25, 2019

Felder's performance is sublime. Watching his hands manipulate the keys of the Steinway Concert Grand Piano is a thing of beauty almost like watching the seemingly effortless movements of Gene Kelly and Syd Charise in American In Paris. So much so, it felt as if I were floating, gliding, and soari...

BWW Review: BETTY BUCKLEY TAKES HER FINAL BOW IN HELLO, DOLLY! at Boston's Opera House
by Jan Nargi - August 21, 2019

Sometimes all you need to lift your spirits is a good old-fashioned star-driven musical comedy, and, boy, does the national tour of HELLO, DOLLY! with Betty Buckley deliver. Keeping all of the Tony Award-winning revival's energy and joyful spirit intact, this high-stepping celebration of life, love ...

BWW Review: FALL SPRINGS at Barrington Stage Company Proves that Environmental Consciousness Can Be FUN
by Marc Savitt - August 20, 2019

One should plant their tongue firmly in cheek for this one. It is over-the-top, exaggerated, and farcical in the way of Urinetown, The Book of Mormon, and Something Rotten. The original music is quite good and rather entertaining. The content seems to be split between two camps some directed at t...

BWW Review: TOPDOG / UNDERDOG at Shakespeare & Company – A Powerful Drama That Asks Does The Show Stop or Does The Show Go On When No One Is Watching?
by Marc Savitt - August 17, 2019

The brothers reflect on their lives revealing bad parenting, neglect, abandonment and a series of life events that have left the two relatively young men badly broken. When Lincoln suffers yet another setback, he returns to his previous vices and the life lessons each of the brothers has learned wel...

BWW Review: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR at Shakespeare & Company Leaves Berkshire Audiences Laughing Out Loud.
by Marc Savitt - August 15, 2019

The cast includes Martin Jason Asprey (Mr. Frank Ford), Steven Barkhimer (George Page), Gregory Boover (Master Fenton), MaConnia Chesser (Meg Page), Jordan Cobb (Anne Page), Tobias Goodman (Pistol/Simple), Nigel Gore (Sir John Falstaff), Cloteal L. Horne (Mistress Quickly), Jennie M. Jadow (Alice Fo...

BWW Review: WHAT WE MAY BE at Berkshire Theatre Group
by Marc Savitt - August 12, 2019

Directed by Gregg Edelman, this production features Carla Duren (Colleen Haran), Carson Elrod (Glen Geer), Penny Fuller (Lucinda Royal Scott), Samantha Hill (Summer Oliver), Dee Hoty (Joan Stern), and Count Stoval (Hal Polick). As they present the one-act plays, we can clearly see that, as their re...

BWW Review: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES: The Best of Times at Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston
by Nancy Grossman - August 12, 2019

In the summer of 1983, Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein put on a show that was light years ahead of the zeitgeist, vis-a-vis the awareness and acceptance of LGBTQ people in America, and about twenty years before the legalization of same-sex marriage. Yet, after a successful tryout at the Colonial T...

BWW Review: BEFORE THE MEETING at Williamstown Theatre Festival Shares Some Laughs, Some Tears, and Some Important Messages.
by Marc Savitt - August 12, 2019

Yes, the setting and backdrop for the events that play out is recovery. And, yes, along the way we learn about the steps, but Bock's heartfelt and often humorous material is about people. Not, those people or a?oeYOU peoplea?? a?' all people. More specifically, how people are more alike than differe...