Brian P. Allen News

The Good Theater presents a fresh take on its annual musical revue, BROADWAY AT THE GOOD: THE TWIN PIANO EDITION, this time honoring six seminal musicals from Broadway’s Golden Age, performed by a sprightly company of nine under the direction of Brian P. Allen, who conceived and directed the show and serves as its charming emcee.

The Good Theater opens its 21st season with a luminous production of Matthew Barber’s poignant 2017 play about the flickers of late-life romance, expertly directed by Brian P. Allen, starring Valerie Perri in a nuanced, delicate and incandescent performance. FIREFLIES, as the title and central metaphor suggest, draws a subtle portrait of the sparks that simmer repressed in a lonely woman’s soul, only to be kindled by the attentions of an erratic, but appealing drifter who comes into her life and enables her to shake off decades of claustrophobic expectations.   Barber draws his four characters with great insight and empathy, and though the ending may be fated from the start, keeps the audience guessing as to the directions the principal pair will choose.  His dialogue is wry, laced with a warm wit and tender pathos, and he manages to infuse every moment of the week-long action with palpable emotion.

Good Theater has announced FIREFLIES by Matthew Barber as the opener of the company's 21st season. Learn more about the show and find out how to get tickets here!

Following a successful 20th anniversary season in 2022 and early 2023, Good Theater has announced the schedule for the 2023/2024 season, as well as an updated rush ticket policy to help make live theater more accessible for all. 

Following a successful 20th anniversary season in 2022 and early 2023, Good Theater has announced the schedule for the 2023/2024 season. 

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s classic, YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU, is eighty-six years young, and the latest revival at Portland’s Good Theater makes a strong case for the work’s perennial appeal. Directed by Brian P. Allen and featuring a cast of eighteen, most Good Theater veterans, this delightfully zany script, filled with wacky but loveable characters, delivers a timeless message about family and the secrets to true happiness.

Good Theater will present the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU as the finale of its 20th anniversary season, running March 29th through April 23rd. See photos from the production!

Good Theater will present the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU as the finale of its 20th anniversary season, running March 29th through April 23rd.

Good Theater will present the world premiere of Lynne McGhee in Killer Comfort, a special theatrical event with three performances only.

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 has Chekovian overtones, as the relatively plotless piece relies on a series of revelations about the past to shape the mordent tragi-comedy.

Good Theater welcomes the new year and continues its 20th anniversary season with Crimes of the Heart, running January 11th through January 29th.

After three seemingly endless years, Maine's theatrical landscape has truly begun to come to life again after the pandemic. I am thrilled to be able to pen this article, having experienced a 2022 that saw the remarkable 'comebacks' of Maine's theatres. While the year was not without continued challenges, these brave, resilient companies managed to produce first-class live theatre for grateful audiences. These are my personal choices of the best in Maine for 2022, grouped by theatre company and show.

The current production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL at the Good Theater represents the realization of a lifelong dream for Executive/Artistic Director Brian P. Allen, and the show that he has conceived and directed is both ambitious and genuinely affecting. Marshalling all the resources that this small company can command, Allen has created a chamber version of this 1945 masterpiece that preserves the heart of the tale and pays homage to what is arguably Rodgers & Hammerstein finest score.

Good Theater will continue its 20th anniversary season with Carousel, running November 9th through December 4th. Based on the play Liliom by Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár, Carousel features a book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Richard Rodgers. Since it premiered on Broadway in 1945, it has seen several Broadway and West End revivals, as well as a 1956 film adaptation, shot primarily in Boothbay Harbor and Camden, ME.

Following a successful return to live theater in 2021 after the COVID-19 crisis darkened stages around the world, Good Theater has announced the schedule for the 2022/2023 season. This season marks Good Theater’s 20th anniversary, and promises to be a yearlong celebration with plenty of laughter, music, and, of course, good theater.

Portland’s Good Theater’s final offering of its nineteenth season is a deliciously zany and stylish production of Peter Kellogg and David Friedman’s 2017 musical comedy, DESPERATE MEASURES, a witty, saucy sendup of Shakespeare’s MEASURE FOR MEASURE set in the Wild West. Directed by Brian P. Allen and Cary Libkin with musical staging by Raymond Marc Dumont, the comedy written in rhyming verse is a rollicking, madcap adventure from start to finish.

The Maine premiere of George Eastman’s HARRY TOWNSEND’s LAST STAND is a sad, sweet, sassy rumination on aging and the fragile communications between father and son as they navigate this daunting process. Despite its poignant and serious underpinnings, Eastman’s play succeeds because of its unsparing humor, uncanny ear for authentic dialogue, the trim direction of Brian P. Allen, and the strong performances of the Good Theater’s stars, Will Rhys and James Noel Hoban.

Good Theater continues its Second Stage series with the return of Shannon Thurston's solo show MEN: THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT. The production will run in repertory with the main stage production, PACK OF LIES.

Good Theater returns for the second half of the 2021/2022 season with the Maine premiere of Harry Townsend's Last Stand by George Eastman.

Good Theater returns for the second half of the 2021/2022 season with the Maine premiere of Harry Townsend's Last Stand by George Eastman. A smash hit off-Broadway in 2019, Harry Townsend's Last Stand stars Good Theater favorites Will Rhys and James Noel Hoban, and is directed by Good Theater Artistic and Executive Director Brian P. Allen. The production opens February 2nd and plays through February 20th, 2022 at Good Theater’s home, the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland.