MAINE THEATER REVIEWS

CRIMES OF THE HEART, Beth Henley’s Pulitzer-Prize winning 1981 dark comedy about three sisters and their shared secrets, receives a compelling production, directed by Brian P. Allen, at Portland’s Good Theater. Set in the Mississippi in the mid-twentieth century, Henley’s character-driven play...

What did our critic think of BEAUTIFUL - THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL at Ogunquit Playhouse? The show is a revealing story about pop music icon, Carole King. While many know of her success as a solo vocalist and song writer after releasing the album, 'Tapestry,' few will know about her previous career as...

The Nutty Professor at the Ogunquit Playhouse is a newly retooled world premiere musical based on the 1963 Jerry Lewis film of the same title. A comic flick favorite, The Nutty Professor is a story of a Jekyll and Hyde transformation that takes place for a mild mannered and befuddled college profess...

Imagine yourself going to a concert by performing legend, Cher. Then imagine that she spends the evening telling you about her life story through the difficulties of a struggling career to the transformation that made her an entertainment powerhouse. And she's not aloof on center stage. Throughout t...

Portland Stage closes its 2021-2022 season with a new play with music that is really a chamber opera, SABINA, about the pioneer in psychoanalysis, the muse and lover of Carl Jung and colleague of Sigmund Freud, Sabina Spielrein. Sabina’s story from Jung’s catatonic patient to medical student and...

I loved every minute of the musical, Young Frankenstein, the season closer for what has been an incredible year for the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine's treasured seaside town....

This world premiere is among the best of those presented by Ogunquit Playhouse with a charming, light-hearted story, an incredibly talented cast, costuming that you might still find in the clothes closet in the attic, and a string of 1980s tunes that will have you reminiscing about big hair, neon co...

The Ogunquit Playhouse rolls out the second show of its 2021 season with a performance of Jimmy Buffet's Escape to Margaritaville, a jukebox musical with music and lyrics by (no surprise) Jimmy Buffet and book by Greg Garcia and Mike O'Malley....

After being shuttered from its 2020 theater season, the Ogunquit Playhouse enters 2021 in royal fashion with Monty Python's spoof of the King Arthur legend in Spamalot...

Here's the first thing I thought about when I heard about Menopause the Musical at the Ogunquit Playhouse....

While it might seem sacrilegious to host a non-musical at the famed Ogunquit Playhouse, modern day audiences should know that the early years of the theater hosted a slew of non-musical productions. In fact, it was many years ago that I saw a production of Love Letters and an adaptation of Dracula....

The circumstances have changed since the era portrayed in Lynn Nottage's 'Intimate Apparel.' But the struggles that the characters face remain all too recognizable....

The Theater at Monmouth is spicing up its 50th anniversary season with Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair's wacky whodunnit, Murder for Two. The musical murder mystery is an outrageously funny ode to both the mystery and comedy genres. Under the direction of Adam P. Blais, Monmouth's rendition is an unpr...

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Mad Horse Theatre Company has gained a reputation for producing quirky plays that climb all over any remaining distinction between serious and off-the-wall theatrics. The last play for their 33rd season, therefore, is right in their wheelhouse, to borrow a term from the world of baseball....

Paul Menezes (as Tito Merelli) and Benjamin Monahan-Morang (as Max), the actors who portray opera singers in Ken Ludwig's Lend Me a Tenor, at Community Little Theatre in Auburn do not look a bit similar. Menezes is stocky and bulky to Monahan-Morang's height and slender build. Nevertheless, their ch...

Elf the Musical is the perfect holiday treat. Whether you know the 2003 movie version that featured Will Ferrell or not, it doesn't matter. As a collaborative effort of the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine performed at the charmingly unique Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this show is one of the...

The interesting thing about The Nutcracker at the Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine is just how quickly an audience can settle into it, year after year, like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold night. The venue is packed with an audience of all ages, some dressed in their 'night on the town' finery...

The rise of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons is played out in Jersey Boys....

Based on a film starring Jack Lemmon, Walther Matthau and Ann-Margret that hit movie theaters 25 years ago, Grumpy Old Men the Musical is currently playing at the Ogunquit Playhouse in what is touted as the US premiere of the production....

It may not be among the most highly regarded of Shakespeare's plays. But 'Richard III' has proved to be a popular one. In recent times, big name actors have sought out the lead role and fans have flocked to see how Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Kenneth Branagh and Ian McKellen, for example, have embodied...

Portland's Greek Festival ended a few weeks ago but the spirit of that ancient culture hangs in the air with the latest production from the Fenix Theatre Company. Sarah Ruhl's gentle makeover of the myth of 'Orpheus and Eurydice' is being presented in and around the small wading pools at Deering Oak...

Take the creators of Despicable Me 2 and the 2001 Bubble Boy movie, add a dash of energy, originality and a lot of side splitting humour, and you end up with the toe-tapping, fast paced, crazy hilarious Bubble Boy the Musical....

In 1928, George Gershwin composed 'An American in Paris' inspired by the time he spent there. It wasn't until 1951 that An American in Paris hit the movie screen starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron as directed by Vincente Minnelli....