Boston Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 37

BWW REVIEW: Reading Between the Lines in DEAR ELIZABETH
by Jan Nargi - November 05, 2014

Boston's Lyric Stage plumbs the poetry and prose of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell in Sara Ruhl's quietly aching DEAR ELIZABETH, a play in letters that chronicles the 30-year friendship of two lost literary souls....

BWW Reviews: Israeli Stage Thrives and Celebrates
by Nancy Grossman - November 05, 2014

Israeli Stage celebrates its fourth anniversary and looks ahead to its first full theatrical production, in partnership with ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage. Producing Artistic Director Guy Ben-Aharon continues to expand his roster of incredible Boston theater talent, featuring an all-star cast in M...

BWW Reviews IN DARFUR, a Profound Evening of Drama at WAM Theatre
by Larry Murray - November 03, 2014

IN DARFUR is a theatrical experience and a call to arms exploring the act of genocide, and how to bring it to an end....

BWW Reviews: ETHER DOME: A Bloody Good Account of the Bad Old Days
by Nancy Grossman - October 29, 2014

Regardless of your opinion about the Affordable Care Act, you might be interested to know how paying for healthcare started and the reluctant role played by surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital. Set primarily in Hartford and Boston, ETHER DOME has special significance for the local audience, o...

BWW Reviews: Factory Theatre Laid to Rest with LANGUAGE OF ANGELS
by Nancy Grossman - October 24, 2014

Happy Medium Theatre starts its sixth season by ending the run of the Factory Theatre with LANGUAGE OF ANGELS, a testament to the ambience and creative possibilities of the soon-to-be-defunct space. Director Lizette M. Morris does a masterful job of building and prolonging the suspense, with a stron...

BWW Reviews: Wheelock Family Theatre's ALICE Appeals to the Little Ones
by Nancy Grossman - October 21, 2014

Wheelock Family Theatre opens its 34th season with ALICE, a musical reimagining of Lewis Carroll's classics, ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. WFT veteran Andrew Barbato wrote the adaptation and directs the production featuring a garden of flower buds played by ch...

BWW Reviews: This Sparkling ON THE TOWN Traveled From the Berkshires to Broadway
by Larry Murray - October 20, 2014

ON THE TOWN has moments of classic dance, comedy and music, but it's the earthy country sailors who make this musical soar....

BWW Reviews: Mystery of Poet's Death Unresolved in POE
by Nancy Grossman - October 13, 2014

Berkshire Theatre Group presents the world premiere of POE by Eric Hill at the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, imagining the last days of the writer before his untimely death in Baltimore in 1849. In the title role, David Adkins breathes life into the man, but the play needs life support. Kate Magui...

BWW REVIEW: SpeakEasy Stages a Visually Rich FAR FROM HEAVEN
by Jan Nargi - October 11, 2014

The score to Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Off-Broadway musical FAR FROM HEAVEN may be less than memorable, but gorgeous visuals and a superb performance by Jennifer Ellis as Cathy make SpeakEasy Stage's 2014-15 season opener unforgettable....

BWW Reviews: New Rep Takes a Shot With ASSASSINS
by Nancy Grossman - October 11, 2014

Despite all of its violence and disturbing themes, Director Jim Petosa and company find the humor in ASSASSINS and are able to make the characters come alive as people with flaws, rather than monsters. In the controversial Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman musical, the cure for what ails them is to ...

BWW Reviews: AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE Erupts at Barrington Stage Company
by Larry Murray - October 08, 2014

The truth can be explosive as Arthur Miller's adaptation of Ibsen's classic tale of truth vs. politics comes to the stage in the Berkshires with a brilliantly moving production of AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE directed by Julianne Boyd....

BWW REVIEW: NSMT's Swanky New CHICAGO Is a Real Killer
by Jan Nargi - October 05, 2014

Director and choreographer Nick Kenkel has swept through the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass. like a breath of fresh autumn air with his inventive, delightful, and often surprising production of CHICAGO: A Musical Vaudeville. With a less stylized concept than Bob Fosse's 1975 original or ...

BWW REVIEW: A Potent YEAR ZERO Opens Season at Merrimack Rep
by Jan Nargi - October 04, 2014

The Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) in Lowell, Mass. opens its 36th season with the potent new play YEAR ZERO, a taut and touching comedic drama about a first-generation Cambodian-American teenager coming of age as he comes to grips with the death of his mother, a survivor of the horrific genocide...

BWW Reviews: Celeste Oliva Makes it Worth RECONSIDERING HANNA(H)
by Nancy Grossman - October 04, 2014

IRNE Award-winning actress Celeste Oliva gives two riveting performances in Deirdre Girard's RECONSIDERING HANNA(H) to open the 2014-2015 season at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. With thoughtful direction by Bridget Kathleen O'Leary, RECONSIDERING HANNA(H) tells two good stories for the price of one, ...

BWW Reviews: High Energy TRACES Leaves Indelible Mark at ArtsEmerson
by Nancy Grossman - October 02, 2014

Les 7 doigts de la main makes a high-flying return to open the fifth season of ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage with TRACES, an energetic mix of acrobatics, skateboarding, basketball, and contemporary dance performed by seven amazingly talented young artists....

BWW REVIEW: GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? Still Has an Edge
by Jan Nargi - September 29, 2014

Boston's Huntington Theatre Company stages Todd Kreidler's funny yet poignant adaptation of the ground-breaking 1967 film about the hidden prejudices that surface when two liberal families are confronted with their children's desire to commit to an interracial marriage....

BWW Reviews: Crazy Russian Adventures in Imaginary Beasts's KNOCK!
by Alex Lonati - September 29, 2014

Imaginary Beasts consistently puts out what they call 'adventurous' and I would call 'ludicrous' theatrical productions, pushing boundaries, disregarding conventions (gender bending is a staple of their shows), and twisting reality. Their most recent production was Knock, a devised premiere combinin...

BWW REVIEW: MacDonald Is a Powerhouse in Stoneham's DOUBT
by Jan Nargi - September 27, 2014

Karen MacDonald fuels Stoneham Theatre's gripping production of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning DOUBT: A PARABLE through September 28....

BWW Reviews: CAROLEE CARMELLO: THE BOSTON CONCERT
by Nancy Grossman - September 23, 2014

Three-time Tony Award nominee Carolee Carmello wowed 'em in a one-night only performance presented by FUDGE Theatre Company Founding Artistic Director Joey DeMita, in association with Matt Phillipps. With her virtuoso piano accompanist/Music Director Phil Reno, the versatile artist stormed through a...

BWW REVIEW: CLOSER THAN EVER Opens Door to Directing for Leigh Barrett
by Jan Nargi - September 22, 2014

Leigh Barrett, one of Boston's most formidable musical theater talents, makes an impressive professional directorial debut with New Repertory Theatre's CLOSER THAN EVER....

BWW Reviews: Latest Tour is LION KING Light
by Nancy Grossman - September 20, 2014

The national tour of THE LION KING returns to kick off the 10th Broadway In Boston season at the Boston Opera House, most fittingly as the musical reopened the venue following its historic renovation in 2004. Some of the effects have diminished over the years, but the opening night audience roared i...

BWW Reviews: All-Star Roster Brings the Bard to Fenway Park
by Nancy Grossman - September 20, 2014

It was a winning night at Fenway Park for the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and the hometown fans as they celebrated with an all-star roster for SHAKESPEARE AT FENWAY. The one-night event had comedy, tragedy, and some extra excitement (not unlike the Red Sox) for a great start to CSC's 20th anniv...

BWW REVIEW: Christopher Chew Is Razor Sharp in Lyric's SWEENEY TODD
by Jan Nargi - September 15, 2014

Revenge is anything but sweet in the Lyric Stage Company of Boston's compelling, often gut-wrenching take on Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's musical masterpiece about Victorian London's notorious demon barber of Fleet Street....

BWW REVIEW: Ogunquit Brews Up Another Winner with WITCHES OF EASTWICK
by Jan Nargi - September 10, 2014

Ogunquit continues its 'high-flying' 82nd season with the American Northeast premiere of Cameron Mackintosh's THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, a musical adaptation based on John Updike's novel and the 1987 Warner Brothers hit motion picture....

BWW Reviews: August Wilson's FENCES Is a Solid Base Hit
by Nancy Grossman - August 27, 2014

Gloucester Stage Company concludes its 35th season with Pulitzer Prize-winning drama FENCES, the sixth in August Wilson's ten-play chronicle of 20th century American history from the perspective of African-Americans. In Director Eric C. Engel's production that strives to illustrate the universal nat...