Karen MacDonald News

Tony Award winner Maryann Plunkett has played a wide range of roles in her Broadway career. The Lowell native’s latest, an elderly woman dealing with dementia, in “The Notebook: The Musical,” may be her most personal, however, as she recalls her own mother’s struggle with debilitating memory loss to bring her current character to life.

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Coolidge Corner Theatre present Shakespeare Reimagined: A MIDWINTER’S TALE, a new production written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. This article provides details about the upcoming performance on Thursday, February 29 at 7 PM.

The latest wave of standings have been announced as of Monday, November 20th for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Boston Awards! Don't miss out on making sure that your favorite theatres, stars, and shows get the recognition they deserve!

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” These famous words of Charles Dickens are at the heart of the Merrimack Repertory Theatre's (MRT) beloved retelling of the classic A Christmas Carol, adapted and directed by Courtney Sale.

MRT Gaslight opens its 2324 season with a thrilling production. Get ready for a captivating experience.

The 2022/23 Lyric Stage season concludes with Rooted by Deborah Zoe Laufer and directed by Courtney O'Connor.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) has announced its 2023-2024 Season of five plays, celebrating the company's 45th Anniversary Season bringing the best new plays and musicals from national artists to Lowell and the entire Merrimack Valley region.

The Hanover Theatre Repertory (THT Rep) begins rehearsals this week for its imminent staged reading of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, an iconic American play that dramatizes the Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600s.  

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor. Those words from Charles Dickens ring as true today as when they were written. Dickens' A Christmas Carol will be presented by the Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) for all audiences.

One of Boston’s most iconic actors will take on the holiday season’s most iconic character when Karen MacDonald stars as Ebenezer Scrooge in Courtney Sale’s world premiere adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol from November 30 to December 24 at Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) in Lowell. Sale, the theatre’s Nancy L. Donahue Artistic Director, will also direct.

From September 9 to October 8, 2022, SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the Boston premiere of the provocative drama HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING by Will Arbery.

Broadway performers Tina Fabrique (How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying) and David M. Lutken (Ring of Fire) will headline Merrimack Repertory Theatre’s 43rd Anniversary Gala on Friday, June 17.

The Huntington announces the world premiere of Common Ground Revisited, a new play co-conceived by Obie Award-winning director Melia Bensussen and Obie Award-winning playwright and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Kirsten Greenidge (Our Daughters, Like Pillars; Luck of the Irish; and Milk Like Sugar at The Huntington).

More than 60 nominations in over two dozen categories of outstanding actors, directors, designers, choreographers, musicians, and productions were announced today by the Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) for the 39th Elliot Norton Awards.

Due to the surge in Covid-19 infection rates, Merrimack Repertory Theatre announced today that its upcoming production of Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End will pause after the completion of rehearsals next week, and the comedy will restart with both live and video performances on February 24. This move will cause the theatre to shift Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie to June.

Gales of laughter will boost spirits in Lowell this winter when Merrimack Repertory Theatre celebrates America’s funniest Mom ever with Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End by Allison Engel and Margaret Engel, featuring Karen MacDonald, from January 19 to February 6, according to Artistic Director Courtney Sale and Executive Director Bonnie J. Butkas.

For the first time in 21 months, Merrimack Repertory Theatre will return to The Nancy L. Donahue Theatre for indoor performances when it presents a world premiere holiday comedy, The Rise and Fall of Holly Fudge by Trista Baldwin, from November 26 to December 12, according to Artistic Director Courtney Sale and Executive Director Bonnie J. Butkas.

Two dozen nominations of outstanding actors, directors, designers and ensembles were announced today by The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) for the 38th Annual Elliot Norton Awards.

The Boston premiere of Lucy Kirkwood's 2018 Tony Award-nominated play THE CHILDREN at SpeakEasy Stage Company is an affecting drama, thanks to a combination of the playwright's excellence at her craft, Director Bryn Boice's focus, and the trio of Elliot Norton Award-winning actors whose portrayals constitute a collective master class. Inspired by the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, THE CHILDREN puts issues of climate change, the environment, and a generation's responsibility for stewardship under an unforgiving spotlight, challenging the audience to engage in self-reflection.

From February 28 to March 28, SpeakEasy Stage Company will proudly present the Boston premiere of the acclaimed drama THE CHILDREN by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood.