I had a catch in my throat from the first song. DOGFIGHT was instantly, emotionally stirring, from its poignant opening ballad, wise book, smart, rousing choreography, perfect cast and chemistry-- to its tender, heartbreaking conclusion. The Award-winning Off-Broadway musical having its Boston professional premiere at SpeakEasy Stage is a deeply moving coming of age tale with two young lovers at the heart of a world [...]
MOTHER'S DAY is overflowing with the milk of human diversity-- of the Hollywood kind. It's chock full of big names and plot lines, kids, parents, grandparents, adoptees looking for their mothers, mothers looking for their cast-offspring, couples married, co-habiting, divorced and widowed, gay, straight, mixed raced, and one British accent. Jennifer Aniston is Sandy, who first appears wrapped in a towel, her skin glowing [...]
What could be more fun than watching a bunch of fops, gossips, degenerates and cheats tattling and prattling in powdered wigs, slicing and dicing anyone and everyone in their horrid little circle? Well not much, as this devilishly delightful Actors' Shakespeare Project production of "School For Scandal," Richard Brinsley Sheridan's still relevant 18th century satire on the scandalmongering among us, [...]
The news was nothing short of devastating to me. I cannot tell you HOW MUCH I adored PRINCE. Everything about him. For me, HE was the consummate artist/entertainer/performer/musician. There was NO ONE I would rather see onstage than PRINCE. I was just saying this last week in a conversation about who I'd pay to see. [...]
I was tearing up within minutes of Obehi Janice being onstage, hearing her tell the story of a strange and lonely uncle who "hated" himself to sleep with the words, "I'm a piece of shit." Suddenly, I'm welling up. Who hasn't felt this way? But this show sets out to be a healing balm and the formula is familiar: misery loves [...]
OH GOD--A man walks into a psychologist's office. He needs to talk and she's the one. Oh...and he's God. As in the deity. As in The Word--first, last, and always. Presented by Israeli Stage and written by the late Anat Gov in a season of all female playwrights, "Oh God" cracks open this borderline blasphemous exclamation and releases [...]
Drama Critic Elliot Norton It's "NORTIE" time! The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) of which I am president is pleased to announce its nominations for the 34th Annual Elliot Norton Awards! For one night--Monday May 23, 2016, on one stage--Boston's Citi Shubert Theatre, the greater Boston theater community will celebrate in the name of the late great [...]
I adore Melissa McCarthy, her perfect timing, her nuanced--yes nuanced--characters, her improvisational flair. I find just about everything she does hysterically funny even when she's appearing in a movie that demeans her comedic gifts. Such is the case in the number one movie at the box office this week: THE BOSS which finds McCarthy compromised by the adolescent boy sensibilities driving this crude vehicle. [...]
The 34th Annual Elliot Norton Awards Ceremony is set for Monday May 23 at Boston’s Citi Shubert Theatre and will honor Award-winning actress Mary Louise Wilson! Here's her hilarious acceptance speech after receiving Broadway's 2007 Tony Award as best featured actress in a musical for her performance in "Grey Gardens": The curtain goes up at 7PM and the ceremony will feature [...]
These young musicians from Japan have arrived in Boston and have made the most beautiful music out of a catastrophe, wringing hope out of disaster through the power of art. LISTEN and WATCH. Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta - Music from Fukushima in Boston - from The Japan Society of Boston on Vimeo. The Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta, [...]
