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BWW Reviews: Versatile BECK Brings Endless Energy to Spectacular PPAC Concert
In the name of full disclosure, I will admit to having no idea what to expect upon arriving at Providence Performing Arts Center on Saturday night for Beck's one-night-only appearance. Beck's songs had certainly been part of the soundtrack of my early college years, back in the mid-to-late 1990s. Si...
BWW Reviews: Perfectly Entertaining Mystery at 2nd Story Theatre's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
If there was an award for Rhode Island's current busiest man in show business, one of the nominees would absolutely have to be 2nd Story Theatre's Ed Shea. The company's Artistic Director is currently performing in the Downstage production of Freud's Last Session. Last night, in the Upstage space, h...
BWW Reviews: 2nd Story's HAY FEVER Frothy Summer Farce
HAY FEVER is the latest summertime offering to play 2nd Story Theatre's UpStage space. It is, by far, the lightest and most comedic production on the company's bill, featuring over-the-top characters and nearly nonstop antics. Though HAY FEVER has some truly laugh-out-loud moments, there are some ...
BWW Reviews: Ocean State Theatre Company Rolls the Dice on GUYS AND DOLLS
Ocean State Theatre's production of GUYS AND DOLLS is sure to be a summertime hit for the Company. This staging has a solid foundation in the well-known tunes and colorful characters of Frank Loesser's Tony-Award-winning musical, and OSTC builds from there with a talented cast, sharp choreography, ...
BWW Reviews: Ringo's Stellar ALL-STARR BAND Shines Brightly at PPAC
Ringo Starr makes three promises at the top of his 2014 tour: fun, good music, and great songs. Without a doubt, he and his 'All Starrs' deliver on that pledge, performing two non-stop hours of chart-topping hits and brand-new songs with undeniably exceptional musicianship....
BWW Reviews: Touching and Hilarious ANGELS IN AMERICA: PERESTROIKA at Epic
Go see 'Angels in America: Perestroika' at Epic Theatre Company. There isn't a more straightforward way to say it. The possibly lesser known 2nd Half of Tony Kushner's Epic play about the AIDS epidemic in 1980's New York is playing currently at Epic's larger space at 82 Rolfe Square in Cranston, a...
BWW Reviews: Spot-On Impersonations in SANDY HACKETT'S RAT PACK SHOW at Theatre-By-The-Sea
The premise is that God, as played by the disembodied voice of the legendary Buddy Hackett, has decided to send the Rat Pack back to earth for one final show. From there, it's an impersonation game, with standards and jokes straight through....
BWW Reviews: Il Divo's Masterful MUSICAL AFFAIR Garners Enthusiastic Ovations in Providence
Il Divo's A MUSICAL AFFAIR lives up to its promise and brings impressed and appreciative audience members enthusiastically to their feet. The Providence show marked the final stop on Il Divo's North American tour and, rather fittingly, this "love letter" to musical theater graced PPAC's stage on t...
BWW Reviews: Ocean State Theatre Kicks Off Summer with Pitch-Perfect ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE
Summer is the time when theatrical offerings often turn to lighter fare. Smaller, more serious dramas and tragedies give way to big, boisterous musicals filled with colors and costumes and eye-popping spectacle. Of course, there are countless toe-tapping show tunes to go along with all the family-fr...
BWW Reviews: Trinity Rep Ends Fiftieth Season with Uneven A LIE OF THE MIND
As the summer arrives, and many theater companies either end their season or switch to lighter, summer-friendly fare, one can look back and reflect on the theatrical offerings of the past year. There have without doubt been many weighty, dark, serious and thought-provoking plays on our area stages ...
BWW Reviews: Welles and Olivier Battle in Burbage's Superb ORSON'S SHADOW
Burbage Theatre Company is proving to be a gem of a small company. Last season's "The Liar" was one of the funnier, tighter, and most professional shows I saw all of last year, and this Spring's production of "Orson's Shadow" by Austin Pendleton is every bit as good. The show is the 2nd in a short...
Wilbury Group's CABARET is a Surpisingly Dull, Disappointing Season Ender
Since the earliest shows produced by The Wilbury Group, the company has grown by leaps and bounds, becoming a force in the Rhode Island theater scene. They've established themselves a fine young professional theater company and arrive now at the end of a theatrical season they can and should be prou...
BWW Reviews: 2nd Story's BECKY'S NEW CAR Provides a Bumpy but Entertaining Ride
The two shows currently playing at 2nd Story Theater in Warren, RI were not originally scheduled as part of this year's season. They are both replacement shows, chosen by Artistic Director Ed Shea, who is quoted as saying that he wanted audiences to "have fun" and leave the theater "feeling joyful."...
BWW Reviews: The Gamm Ends Season With Exceptional, Breathtaking BLACKBIRD
Recently, Yankee Magazine, in their Editors' Choice Best of New England 2014 issue, awarded the title of "Best Intimate Theatre" to Rhode Island's own Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre. The Gamm's home in Pawtucket is intimate, there's no argument about that, a perfectly sized and perfectly utilized the...
BWW Reviews: GOD OF CARNAGE a Strong Showing to Open New Space for MMT
"God of Carnage," the newest production from Mixed Magic Theatre, is the perfect way to christen the company's new space in Lorraine Mills. The space itself is smaller than their old one in the Hope Artiste Village, but is deceptively large: the seating, which is raked in a near-stadium style fashi...
BWW Reviews: PPAC Ends Its Season on Heavenly Note with THE BOOK OF MORMON
It's difficult to argue with anyone who says that Providence Performing Arts Center has had a spectacular season. You'd be hard pressed to find such an impressive collection of musical productions brought together during a single season anywhere. Of course, this is just what organizations like PPAC ...
BWW Reviews: Toe-Tapping 42ND STREET Closes Ocean State Theatre's 2013-14 Season
The Ocean State Theatre Company closes its first full year of performances on a celebratory note with a staging of the quintessential song-and-dance show 42ND STREET....
BWW Reviews: Counter-Productions Presents a Perfectly Delightful PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE
Lately, it seems as if there's been something in the air in the Rhode Island theatre scene. Or maybe something in the drinking water. Something rather dark. There are a number of plays that have just ended, are running currently, or are about to open, which deal with very dark, disturbing or depress...
BWW Reviews: WE WILL ROCK YOU at PPAC Lives Up to Its Title
It's not every rock band or musical act that could successfully create musical based on its many widely varying songs. There has to be a certain uniformity, power and resonance to the music, all of the music, carrying through many songs, rather than just one or two 'greatest hits.' And they have to ...
BWW Reviews: Great Performances Can't Save Epic Theatre's Tedious HURLYBURLY
David Rabe's Hurlyburly, currently presented by Epic Theatre Company at Theatre 82 in Cranston, explores some well-known territory. It's Los Angeles in the 1980s. We're in the apartment of a couple of wanna-be Hollywood players. Vulgar, crude, rough-around-the edges guys who are trying to make it bi...
BWW Reviews: Trinity Rep's VERONICA MEADOWS Turns Into a Confounding, Disappointing Mystery
On some occasions, perhaps many, a great idea or concept almost effortlessly becomes a great play, movie, television show, etc. It's just the right combination of elements, brought together in exactly the right way, creating a perfect storm kind of event. On the other hand, there are many times when...
BWW Reviews: Ocean State Theatre Company Puts on Powerhouse Production of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK
When Anne Frank wrote in her diary, she was not just expressing her honest and true feelings about her daily observations and experiences. She was recording for posterity a harrowing tale of how a group of people tried against all odds to survive one of the most terrible times in history. Anne's fam...
BWW Reviews: 2nd Story Presents Fantastic, Fanciful Farce with LE DINDON
There's no denying it, it's been an awful winter. There are likely a number of scientific studies to back up that fact. It's been cold and grey and dismal for quite a while and the snow and ice are just now, at the end of March, starting to vanish completely. What better way is there to shrug off th...
BWW Reviews: PPAC Flashes Back to the '80s with Touring FLASHDANCE: THE MUSICAL
When adapting movies into Broadway musicals, it certainly helps to start with a movie that revolves around singing and dancing. Or, at least, a movie that includes some kind of singing or dancing as a major part of the story or plot. That way, adding more singing and dancing should at least have a s...
BWW Reviews: The Wilbury Group Stages a Fearless, Brutally Honest Production of BLASTED
As an art form, theater is many things. It is entertaining. It is inspiring. It is thought-provoking. It can also be disturbing, challenging, provocative and divisive. Some might argue that this is exactly what theater should be and is meant to be. Something that elicits powerful emotions, both posi...
Videos
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The Lion King Providence Performing Arts Center (5/20-6/07) |
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The Moors The Contemporary Theater Company (5/01-5/28) |
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MTV Unplugged Tribute Band at THE MET RI On June 14, 2026 The Met (6/14-6/14) |
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NEW JERSEY AND NEW ENGLAND GUITAR ORCHESTRAS IN CONCERT Music Mansion (6/21-6/21) |
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13 The Narrows Center for the Arts (6/19-6/20) |
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The Hope of Loving: Music for Chorus, String Quartet, and Piano Saint Mary of the Bay (5/30-5/30) |
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The Hope of Loving: Music for Chorus, String Quartet, and Piano Grace Episcopal Church (5/31-5/31) |
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Arsenic and Old Lace The Arctic Playhouse (5/21-6/07) |
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Love! Valour! Compassion! The Firebarn: Little Theatre of Fall River (6/17-6/27) |
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Bell, Book and Candle The Arctic Playhouse (8/27-9/13) |
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