Stand back– there’s a whole lotta critiquing going on. This is one of the busiest fall theater seasons ever! I’ve just come off of nine shows opening on stages in and around Boston, with more on the immediate horizon. Here’s my take on four of them in order of how soon they will close– so you can see or not see them in time!
Get immediately to PASSENGERS and take an extraordinary ride lead by that circus/theatrical troupe out of Montreal called 7Fingers who kicked off the season at the A.R.T. in Cambridge. This troupe of actor/acrobats, jugglers, dancers, hoop spinners, and silk swingers begin quietly in semi-circle, breathing together like one organism. Then, separately and together, they enact death-defying feats which make us wonder what’s possible, what’s real, for all of us passengers on this journey through time and space. In fact, it culminates in one big thought experiment set to music in an infinite universe of possibility! I know they did all the derring do, but after 90 minutes, no intermission, I was left in disarray– barely breathing, my heart in my mouth. ONLY THROUGH FRIDAY 9/26 !
Paul Melendy as “Featherbaby” / Photo Nile Scott Studios
Then head immediately to GREATER BOSTON STAGE COMPANY in Stoneham to see FEATHERBABY hot off its west coast world premiere! PAUL MELENDY applies his hyper expressive, loose-limbed genius to the title role as a Amazonian parrot who swears and bites his way to an epiphany when his beloved owner and crime-scene photog Angie (Liv Dumaine) leaves Featherbaby in the care of her ex- lover, world class jigsaw puzzler Mason (Gabriel Graetz). Mason and Featherbaby are both missing Angie. Thus has playwright David Templeton crafted a kookie love triangle from the potty-mouthed parrot’s point of view. But this show’s not just for the birds.
Melendy slays in a shiny green suit– looking human with a full range of human emotion — but acting parrot! Bobbing on his feet side to side, swiveling his neck into a deep bow whenever he wants a head scratch, then, with a nasty glint in his eye, Featherbaby sinks his beak into which ever piece of Mason’s flesh is available–all in an effort to get returned to Angie. This manipulative relationship is hilarious at first, and gives us a revelatory, birds-eye view of human behavior. Then in ACT II, something shifts between Mason and Featherbaby and what might have been a gimmicky ROM COM turns into a tough and tender fable about life and death and the bonds possible between all living creatures. Paul Melendy conveys a depth of understanding and emotional reach that makes this almost transcendent. I’m not kidding. The last sweet scene elicited an audible, collective sigh of gladness from the audience who left soaring. Through September 28!!
Now keep heading north to see an excellent production of RENT at NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE, book, music, and lyrics by the late Jonathan Larson who died at age 36 on the eve of RENT’s first preview performance almost 30 years ago. The rest is musical theater history; the show and its brilliant score went on to win the PULITZER and became a smash on B’way and around the world. TRAILER HERE!
The cast of “Rent” at North Shore Music Theatre thru September 28. Photos © Paul Lyden
Sung through and based on Puccini’s opera La Bohème, RENT locates its bohemians in NYC’s East Village at Christmas, right in the middle of a community of queer and straight artists battling aids, addiction, poverty, gentrification, homelessness. NSMT’s production plays wonderfully in the round, the cast spilling onto the stage from all over the theater, voices soaring, haunting melodies in multipart harmonies that seep into your bones. I think the show has gathered impact over time and feels even more relevant now in an era of volatile change, displacement, and alienation which threaten to overwhelm. SEE RENT through September 28!
I couldn’t wait to see Joy Behar’s MY FIRST EX-HUSBAND—and was instantly disappointed. Billed as “a bold and heartfelt adaptation of true stories,” the show promised loads of laughs and wild true tales of marital malfunction. I was ready! Comedienne and co-host of THE VIEW Joy Behar is often pretty funny, doesn’t hold back, and was joined onstage by three other actors who took turns at the podium telling a tale at a time: Veanne Cox, the best actor in the bunch, easily inhabited her tale of woe and were as illuminating as they were funny. Judy Gold’s delivery was infinitely funnier than whatever she was delivering. Tonya Pinkins fought the good fight to bring dull material to life– and lost. The stories were nothing we hadn’t heard before or couldn’t have made up after a few cocktails. The show was 90 minutes long– no intermission– and felt like it. At the Calderwood Pavilion through September 28.
