Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 27

BWW Review: Patti LuPone: No Monkeying Around in Worcester
by Nancy Grossman - September 21, 2016

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...

BWW Review: EIGHT BY TENN: Alas, a Menagerie
by Nancy Grossman - September 17, 2016

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...

BWW Review: SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE Opens Huntington Theatre Company Season
by Nancy Grossman - September 16, 2016

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...

BWW Review: LUCKY STIFF: Loosey-goosey Fun For All
by Nancy Grossman - September 13, 2016

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 ...

BWW Review: In Very Good COMPANY
by Nancy Grossman - September 11, 2016

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...

BWW Review: REGULAR SINGING: The Apple Family's Last Supper
by Nancy Grossman - September 08, 2016

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...

BWW Review: ALABAMA STORY Brings an Intriguing Southern Tale to WHAT
by Kristen Morale - September 08, 2016

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...

BWW Review: THE TOTALITARIANS: Too True to be Good
by Nancy Grossman - September 07, 2016

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...

BWW Review: Watch It Ensnare Us All with THE MOUSETRAP at Cape Playhouse
by Kristen Morale - August 28, 2016

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...

BWW Review: Annie Golden stars as Annie Golden in BROADWAY BOUNTY HUNTER
by Justin J Sacramone - August 25, 2016

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...

BWW Review: Raise a Glass High to Monomoy's JOHNNY ON A SPOT
by Kristen Morale - August 25, 2016

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...

BWW Review: A True King Rises with KING LEAR at Elements Theatre
by Kristen Morale - August 17, 2016

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...

BWW Review: Wendy Wasserstein's AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER Returns Fresher 20 Years Later
by Justin J Sacramone - August 15, 2016

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...

BWW Review: SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD at Gloucester Stage
by Nancy Grossman - August 12, 2016

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...

BWW Review: All the World's a Stage in CABARET at the Cape Playhouse
by Kristen Morale - August 12, 2016

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...

BWW Review: Bridge Rep Revamps Swimmingly With DOG PADDLE
by Nancy Grossman - August 11, 2016

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...

BWW Review: Kate Baldwin & Graham Rowat Chart Out CONSTELLATIONS at Berkshire Theatre Group
by Justin J Sacramone - August 11, 2016

Nick Payne's Constellations uses the hypothetical existence of a multiverse and applies it to the coupling of Marianne and Roland over and over again. A multiverse is the scientific theory that challenges physics and suggests all consequences of our lives are living symmetrically on a plane and the ...

BWW Review: Crazy For CRAZY FOR YOU
by Nancy Grossman - August 09, 2016

Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston brings back the original sets, costumes, and choreography for its fourth production of the 1992 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical. CRAZY FOR YOU could be subtitled "Gershwin's Greatest Hits," with eighteen musical treats splendidly played by a 15-piece orchest...

BWW Review: Shake It to the Sound of HAIRSPRAY at Cape Rep
by Kristen Morale - August 07, 2016

With a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman and now directed by Scott Ripley, Cape Rep's production of Hairspray: The Broadway Musical has already imaginably caused quite the stir since its opening on Wednesday. This musical has a ...

BWW Review: THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE at Barrington Stage Company
by Justin J Sacramone - August 06, 2016

The Pirates of Penzance is possibly the most popular comic operetta and its history of adoration has been consistent since its premier in 1879. Revivals of The Pirates of Penzance were ubiquitous throughout the 20th Century with Joseph Papp's production in 1980 becoming the most lauded. This version...

BWW REVIEW: Voices and Emotions Soar in Ogunquit's HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
by Jan Nargi - August 01, 2016

The Ogunquit Playhouse in southern Maine has been setting the bar higher and higher with each new production under Bradford T. Kenney, artistic director. What used to be a quintessential ocean-side summer stock house now operates from May through November, often mounting New England, and occasionall...

BWW Review: The Phenomenal Force of THE FANTASTICKS at Monomoy Theatre
by Kristen Morale - July 31, 2016

Arriving on the Monomoy stage under the direction of Alan Rust, The Fantasticks is the first production of this show I have seen, and I believe it to be the most utterly captivating production that has been on this theater's - rather any I have seen this summer - stage in quite some time. This is no...

BWW Review: A Riveting MAY QUEEN Arrives at the Cape Playhouse
by Kristen Morale - July 29, 2016

Premiering at the Cape Playhouse, The May Queen, written by Molly Smith Metzler and now directed by Amanda Charlton, comes to the stage and brings with it the sort of office lethargy that almost comes too close to the real thing. If you've ever worked in an office setting before, the moment David wa...

BWW Review: Joyful Praise for UNEXPECTED JOY at WHAT
by Kristen Morale - July 28, 2016

This, in addition to the almost absurd talent of the cast and crew that is Unexpected Joy, is why you should all take a visit to WHAT as soon as you possibly can to witness the world premiere of this beautiful show. In association with Jim Kierstead, with a book and lyrics by Bill Russell, music by ...

BWW Review: GREASE Plays it Cool at The Academy Playhouse
by Kristen Morale - July 26, 2016

Right on the heels of A Chorus Line's final performance last weekend, Grease continues a wonderful summer season at the Playhouse by bringing youthful energy and pizazz to a show that is on almost everyone's list of favorite musicals. This production brings together a rather large cast whose energy ...