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BWW Review: IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS Festive but Frothy Fare
The stage production of WHITE CHRISTMAS now playing the Providence Performing Arts Center is adapted from the beloved film. While this musical has much to recommend it - familiar songs with excellent orchestrations, fine-quality costumes and sets, snappy choreography, and a top-notch cast full of t...
BWW Review: Trinity Rep's THE HEIDI CHRONICLES is Smart and Charming
THE HEIDI CHRONICLES follows the career, social activities and love life of Heidi Holland, through 1970's & 80's . While hers is not an everywoman story, there is still something that every woman today has gone through or will face in the future, namely, the quest to 'have it all', the question of...
BWW Review: Ocean State Theatre Gives the Gift of Holiday Musical Perfection in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
The holiday season brings many things, including some important seasonal debates. Real tree or fake? Multi-colored lights or just white? Your family, the in-laws or both? And among those yearly discussions is which holiday theatrical production to enjoy. This year, if you choose to see just one holi...
BWW Review: Oh, What Fun! STRAIGHT NO CHASER'S 'New Old Fashioned Tour' Lights Up The VETS
Contemporary a cappella could ask for no finer ambassador than STRAIGHT NO CHASER. The group's impeccable harmonizing and vocal percussion are so sharp and so rich, it sounds as though instrumentalists are backing several songs....
BWW Review: Wilbury Group Finds What's Real in Fantastic PASSING STRANGE
The struggle to find something real, something true or something meaningful, in life is certainly something everyone can relate to. All of us, or most of us, at least, spend some or maybe even all of our lives searching for just that. True love. Meaningful work. Artistic expression that has a real i...
BWW Review: Odd But Funny STORY THEATER
STORY THEATER by Paul Sills is one odd little theatrical experience. It features music by the estimable duo of Atwater and Donnelly and a half-dozen or so actors performing the fables of Aesop and the Brothers Grimm. This piece originally opened on Broadway in 1970 and closed after 243 performances ...
BWW Review: THE BOOK OF MORMON Says 'Hello!' to Providence
One of the most popular and controversial new musicals of the past decade, nine-time Tony Award-winner The Book of Mormon says 'Hello!' to Providence now through Sunday, November 22. The winner of 2011's Tony Award for Best Musical has been praised by critics and fans alike for its nonsensical, unab...
BWW Review: Be On the Lookout for NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
Your intrepid correspondent saw two plays this weekend, Andrew Case's THE RANT at the Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket and NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH by Alan Ayckbourn Upstage at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren. Each of these plays dealt a violent death at the hands of the police. THE RANT is a powerful, drama about t...
BWW Review: Merry CHRISTMAS CAROL Rings in the Season at Trinity Rep
The 2015 CHRISTMAS CAROL, directed by Curt Columbus, is a solid production and quite enjoyable, though small elements keep it from being a fully immersive theatrical experience. While well done overall, the emotional punch of past Trinity CAROLS is lacking in this year's staging....
BWW Review: The Gamm Theatre's THE RANT is Powerful and Timely
THE RANT takes place in Brooklyn, NY, not too long ago--that's what the program says. It feels like it could have easily taken place within the past year, month or week. Denise Reeve's son, a black teenager, was shot to death by a police officer on her front porch while she and her husband ate Eskim...
BWW Review: Epic Theatre Titillates and Thrills with AMERICAN STRIPPERS
AMERICA STRIPPERS is a show that leaves the audience wiping away tears of laughter as it manages to both take one back to childhood while still remaining very adult. Sound overwhelming? It is, but in a very good way....
BWW Review: Inspiring APOLLO and Creative BACH SUITES Take Center Stage at Festival Ballet's UP CLOSE
Festival Ballet Providence once again opens the doors to its studio and rehearsal halls for the company's celebrated UP CLOSE ON HOPE series. The "up close" forum has become a staple of FBP's season and one much anticipated by Rhode Island audiences....
BWW Review: Adventure Awaits in OSTC's Winning, Imaginative AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
With remarkable performances on stage and a top-notch artistic team behind the scenes, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS is a standout production for Ocean State Theatre. The story's edge-of-your-seat race against the clock set against punchy, fast-paced humor makes for a truly entertaining and thoroughl...
BWW Review: MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL Brings the Music to PPAC In All the Best Ways
Any music fan trying to own a copy of every record ever put out by a Motown artists would end up with a very large collection. Or, in this day and age, a very full iPod. Even trying to have copies of the just biggest hits of Motown would lead one to amass a lengthy playlist. There's no denying that ...
BWW Review: Wilbury Theatre Group's Uneven CAIN + ABEL
CAIN + ABEL, the Wilbury Theatre's new production by Resident Playwright Ben Jolivet re-examines the familiar bible story of the two brothers, the role of god, legacy and relationships in a play that blends levity, philosophy and tragedy. The concept of the play is interesting and the story, which...
BWW Review: Festival Ballet's Underwhelming BALLET RUSSES REINVENTED
Festival Ballet Providence kicks off their 2015-2016 season with a somewhat underwhelming Ballet Russes Reinvented. The program, which features three shorter pieces and a longer section from The Firebird focuses on classical pieces from Russian ballet, particularly the work of Nijinsky and tries t...
BWW Review: Extra! Extra! NEWSIES Tour Makes Headlines at Providence Performing Arts Center
The stage production of NEWSIES, now playing a limited run at the Providence Performing Arts Center, features the same stirring and beloved songs that captured the hearts of moviegoers, as well as newly choreographed, high-octane dance numbers that dazzle with gravity-defying leaps and spins....
BWW Review: Let the BUYER & CELLAR Beware
Jonathan Tolins' BUYER AND CELLAR is being performed at Downstage, which is appropriately a cellar, at 2d Story Theater in Warren, RI. I have to admit I have been putting off writing this review. In this eighty-minute one-man show directed by the estimable Lara Hakeem and featuring the multi-talente...
BWW Review: Josh Groban's Superlative STAGES Tour Graces Providence Performing Arts Center
Josh Groban's THE STAGES TOUR played to a standing-room-only house at the Providence Performing Arts Center, and this brilliant concert was one of the most impressive and enjoyable to grace the PPAC stage in recent memory....
BWW Review: Ocean State Theatre Kicks Off Season with Frightfully Disappointing THE ADDAMS FAMILY
There are certainly no perfect formulas for creating the perfect musical. Lately, it seems that many new shows are following one of two "tried and true" formulas for success, both of which can actually lead to pretty epic failure. One is trying to turn something like a movie, television show, cartoo...
BWW Review: BWW Suggests You Avoid This DANGEROUS CORNER
J.B Priestley's DANGERUOUS CORNER is the season opener at 2nd Story Theater in Warren, and I have to say I was disappointed. Theater requires a 'willing suspension of disbelief,' to steal a phrase from William Taylor Coleridge, and this production did not facilitate that end. Trevor Elliot's set was...
BWW Review: LEGEND OF ZELDA, SYMPHONY OF THE GODDESSES Thunders into PPAC
Going to see a symphony play songs from video games may seem like an odd way to spend an evening, but ZELDA--SYMPHONY OF THE GODDESSES, works surprisingly well, and creates a powerful experience both for fans of the video game or fans of classical music....
BWW Review: Wilbury Theatre Delivers Raw and Real DRY LAND
DRY LAND is a play that is both shocking and probably resonant with more people that you would necessarily think. Themes of life, death, friendship and ambition are woven together to create a snapshot of life that feels incredibly real and intimate. It's a play intended to challenge the audience...
BWW Review: Gamm Theatre Kicks off the 2015-2016 Season with a Stunning A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is one of those plays that is so ubiquitous it's almost become a cliche. Like one-liners from Casablanca or references to Citizen Kane, we become so used to the shorthand, it's almost easy to forget the masterpiece that embedded those lines and images into everyone's brain. ...
BWW Review: A BEAUTIFUL Life in Song – Carole King Musical Opens National Tour in Providence
BEAUTIFUL'S national tour kicks off in Providence, and even in the first days of performance, the cast proves the depth of its talent and ability....
Videos
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A Christmas Carol The Arctic Playhouse (12/03-12/20) |
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FirstWorks Summer Beats Concerts: The GroovaLottos Roger Williams Park Boathouse Lawn (7/24-7/24) |
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Almost, Maine The Arctic Playhouse (11/05-11/22) |
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Bell, Book and Candle The Arctic Playhouse (8/27-9/13) |
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The Secret Garden The Firebarn: Little Theatre of Fall River (2/04-2/14) |
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Plaza Suite The Firebarn: Little Theatre of Fall River (4/15-4/25) |
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Burbage Theatre Co presents MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Shakespeare's darkest comedy Burbage Theatre Company (5/14-6/07) |
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Irving Berlin's White Christmas The Firebarn: Little Theatre of Fall River (12/03-12/13) |
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13 The Narrows Center for the Arts (6/19-6/20) |
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The Moors The Contemporary Theater Company (5/01-5/28) |
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