Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 30

BWW Review: FAST COMPANY: The Art of the Con
by Nancy Grossman - March 08, 2016

Described as a theatrical crime caper, FAST COMPANY explores a major con gone wrong and digs into the dynamics of the family Kwan. It's a fun ride when the game is being plotted and executed, but slows considerably when the focus is on the family. The actors do what they can to get inside their char...

BWW Review: YOURS, ANNE: Eventide's Momentous Ode to a Fallen Hero
by Kristen Morale - March 08, 2016

The Eventide Theatre Company has made a bold choice in sharing Frank's story with a Cape Cod audience through means of a score depicting her feelings while fearfully secluded in the "Secret Annex," with certain lyrics molded from actual quotes made by the young prisoner. It is safe to say that Event...

BWW Review: RHINOCEROS: Collective Psychosis or The People's Choice?
by Nancy Grossman - March 05, 2016

The Suffolk University/Boston Playwrights' Theatre co-production of RHINOCEROS, newly adapted by Wesley Savick from Derek Prouse's translation, features a Boston setting, but maintains the themes of Eugene Ionesco's 1959 classic play from the Cold War era. Things being as they are, that sort of feel...

BWW Review: Brown Box Theatre and Icaro Theatro Presents a Series of Latin American Short Plays in FROM WATER TO DUST
by Justin J Sacramone - March 05, 2016

Brown Box Theatre Project and Icaro Theatro presents Boxer Shorts: A Cycle of Short Plays. From Water to Dust (del auga al polvo), playing at Boston's Atlantic Wharf through March 4th. This is Brown Box's second year presenting an evening of short plays. This year, the Project brings us four plays f...

BWW Review: There's No Place like the Academy Playhouse for THE WIZARD OF OZ
by Kristen Morale - March 03, 2016

There is so much about the heartwarming nature complete with a simple lesson learned and the sheer magic involved in making that happen that have brought many to profess their love of The Wizard of Oz, which is, in essence, a wonderful story that tugs at the heartstrings ever so slightly. From an ad...

BWW Review: CAKEWALK Lacking Nutritional Value
by Nancy Grossman - March 01, 2016

In a departure from its more substantial recent fare, Zeitgeist Stage Company offers up a sugary confection about a cake baking competition in a small Vermont town. Although widely-produced in Canada and the United States, including a run Off-Off Broadway, CAKEWALK is a slight story that is slow to ...

BWW REVIEW: What's Scarier than George Orwell's 1984? Politics in 2016.
by Jan Nargi - February 26, 2016

The horrific future depicted in George Orwell's cautionary tale '1984' feels that much more frightening in 2016 because so much of the oligarchical world predicted by the visionary author in his dystopian 1949 novel has come to fruition. The power gap between the haves and the have-nots is alarming....

BWW REVIEW: Teen Dreams Are as Empty as the Calories in MILK LIKE SUGAR
by Jan Nargi - February 26, 2016

There's not much hope for the girls at the center of MILK LIKE SUGAR, Kirsten Greenidge's Obie Award-winning play about teenagers seeking fulfillment through pregnancy. Though the writing can be cliched at times, portrayals and direction are truthful. Thanks to excellent performances throughout, the...

BWW REVIEW: AN OCTOROON Takes Race Relations down the Rabbit Hole
by Jan Nargi - February 24, 2016

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has assaulted the fourth wall and countless racial stereotypes in his funny and audacious new play AN OCTOROON. Adapted from an 1859 melodrama titled "The Octoroon" by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault, Jenkins' piece weaves a biting contemporary narrative within Bou...

BWW Review: Try Getting Over this Ogre of a Show at CCTC's SHREK
by Kristen Morale - February 23, 2016

The Cape Cod Theatre Company, home of the Harwich Junior Theatre, brings a stunning production of Shrek: The Musical to a Cape Cod stage and does an absolutely fine job of making sure audiences will see all the wonder to be found in this show. I am like a broken record when it comes to my praise of ...

BWW Review: Can You Hear Me Now? Touch Performance Art Presents SEARCHING FOR SIGNAL
by Justin J Sacramone - February 23, 2016

Identity and the search for it is a common thread that binds us. No other generation is currently battling with defining their own identity more than Millennials. It's ironic that the group of people on the front lines of electing the nation's first African-American president and fighting for social...

BWW Review: TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE: You Gotta Have Heart
by Nancy Grossman - February 19, 2016

Merrimack Repertory Theatre hosts the regional premiere of Mat Smart's TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE, a play for die-hard baseball fans. Focused on a mother and daughter who bond over their shared love of the Chicago Cubs, it resonates with members of Red Sox Nation who understand the roller coaster emo...

BWW Review: BACK THE NIGHT Clouded by Doubt
by Nancy Grossman - February 11, 2016

Boston Playwrights' Theatre mounts BACK THE NIGHT, Melinda Lopez's new play that explores violence against women on a college campus. When a feminist blogger is attacked, there are plenty of aspersions to go around as her enemies list is a long one. Her best friend, fraternity brothers, college offi...

BWW REVIEW: PIPPIN Brings Its Magic Back to Boston
by Jan Nargi - February 10, 2016

The extraordinary journey of the Broadway revival of PIPPIN began at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge a few years back, and now that triumphant Tony Award-winning musical, directed by Diane Paulus, is back in Boston via the national tour. While some tweaks have since been made to the prod...

BWW Review: A Battle of Beliefs in Danai Gurira's THE CONVERT at Central Square Theatre
by Justin J Sacramone - February 08, 2016

In a blackout we hear shouting. The front door of a minister's house is kicked opened. Enter a man dragging in a native woman wearing rags. He hands her off to the housekeeper. The housekeeper barks a few commands and forces her into a back room. The opening scene of Underground Railway Theatre's mu...

BWW Review: Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal Together In A.R. Gurney's LOVE LETTERS
by Justin J Sacramone - February 05, 2016

Storytelling is theatre in its' purest form, but a story can often become secondary or lost when faced with spectacle. In a culture where overproduced mega musicals dominate the box office, it is refreshing to see A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters," a delightful bare bones, two person play with a single f...

BWW Review: There's Something About Mary
by Nancy Grossman - February 02, 2016

New Repertory Theatre continues its third annual Next Rep Black Box Festival with Colm Toibin's THE TESTAMENT OF MARY, a controversial one-woman play that reimagines the life and attitudes of Mary some twenty years after the crucifixion of her son. Artistic Director Jim Petosa directs Paula Langton ...

BWW REVIEW: A.R.T. Hooks Mark Rylance's NICE FISH Before NYC Run
by Jan Nargi - February 01, 2016

If the homespun humor and quirky philosophizing that comes to you live from Lake Woebegone via A Prairie Home Companion warms you up on a cold winter's night, then NICE FISH is your cup of cocoa. The brainchild of Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins, based on Jenkins' offbeat down home prose poems writte...

BWW REVIEWS: DISGRACED and VIOLET Kick Off 2016 Strongly in Boston
by Jan Nargi - January 31, 2016

DISGRACED and VIOLET heat up the winter with power and grace as the Huntington Theatre Company and SpeakEasy Stage enter the second half of their 2015-2016 seasons with winners....

BWW Review: BISTANY'S MYSTERIES Choose-Your-Own Murder Mystery Comedy at ImprovBoston
by Justin J Sacramone - January 26, 2016

When the author greeted the audience at the top of Bistany's Mysteries he explained that when he sat down to give us his latest novel, he realized suddenly he was staring at a partially blank page. Panicked as opening night quickly approached, Mr. Bistany had a brilliant idea: let the audience come ...

BWW Review: Merrimack Repertory Theatre Stages World Premiere of THE WHITE CHIP
by Nancy Grossman - January 25, 2016

MRT stages the first of three world premieres with Artistic Director Sean Daniels' play THE WHITE CHIP, a dark comedy about his own alcoholism and recovery. By sharing his personal story, he hopes to help someone else going through the same thing; by lightening the mood, he makes the story entertain...

BWW Review: SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM in Good Hands at Lyric Stage
by Nancy Grossman - January 22, 2016

There's Sondheim music galore playing at the Lyric Stage Company as Producing Artistic Director and recognized Sondheim expert Spiro Veloudos directs an octet of Boston musical theatre performers in SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. In effect, the composer/lyricist is the ninth member of the ensemble as he appe...

BWW Review: Who You Gonna Call? THE HOUSEKEEPER
by Nancy Grossman - January 20, 2016

Fresh Ink Theatre Company presents the inaugural production of Ginger Lazarus' THE HOUSEKEEPER at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. The four-character drama includes a ghost, but she's less scary than the teenage girl struggling with her grief and growing pains. An inept father relies on the new housekee...

BWW Review: A Bit of Comedy and Conniving Seizes Audiences with DEATHTRAP at APA
by Kristen Morale - January 16, 2016

Directed by Rich McKey, who brings his creative vision of what kind of world Levin's five characters should inhabit as they simultaneously create and avoid their own demise, Deathtrap is a joyride into the minds of maniacal people who think that their plans and intentions will be brought about not o...

BWW Review: The Drowsy Thespian; An Intoxicatingly Frivolous Evening of Classical Theatre in SH*T-FACED SHAKESPEARE
by Justin J Sacramone - January 12, 2016

Actors are superstitious people. I have seen some pretty outrageous rituals in the rehearsal room during my time as an actor. It seems that during every step along the way from casting to opening night, the actor has something to keep them, and the production, safe. Don't speak the name of this play...