Here's three to see beginning with the Lyric Stage Company's smart and funny production of STAGE KISS by Sarah Ruhl ("The Clean House," "In the Next Room or the vibrator play")whose surface lightness illuminates real life in surprising and important ways. In "Stage Kiss" an actress called simply "She"(the consistently marvelous Celeste Oliva who hits the [...]
Shakespeare's tragic Prince of indecision, HAMLET, is having a grand staging at Church of the Covenant at the hands of Actors' Shakespeare Project! I've seen the play set everywhere, but this is an inspired venue. Doug Lockwood's direction rises to the challenge and opportunity of the space; though pivoting in my seat to follow the [...]
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, [...]
ALERT!!! MORE really good things to see onstage in Boston! First, brush up your physics and prepare to play with Schrodinger's cat as you head over to Central Square Theater in Cambridge (Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Programs) to take in one of my favorite plays, Michael Frayn's brilliant COPENHAGEN! This is the best production of the play in recent memory, and it [...]
Duke of Gloucester (Allyn Burrows*), Duchess Eleanor (Marya Lowry*), King Henry (Jesse Hinson*), and Queen Margaret (Jennie Israel*) Photo Courtesy Stratton McCrady Photography 2015. I was exhausted after a long day; could I really drive into town at rush hour, and make it through a two hour 45 minute Shakespeare History play-- namely HENRY VI, PART 2? It [...]
I saw GOD'S EAR in Somerville this weekend-- and I'm hearing what she's hearing. Jenny Schwartz's play presented by Actors'Shakespeare Project is a fleet, funny, soul-searing tour de force by a nimble cast and a wise, witty director Thomas Derrah. Imagine the accidental death of a child--and the shattering explosion of [...]
To see OR not to see? That is the question I will answer about what's onstage around town right now. To see: AS YOU LIKE IT presented by Actors' Shakespeare Project at the Springstep Building in Medford! Full disclosure: my husband the brilliant architect Andrew Cohen of ACTWO Architects designed the building, and it has [...]
What do THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD and Shakespeare's HENRY VIII have in common? They're both onstage in the area right now, and both involve decapitation. I lost my head over one, but not the other. I'll begin with the one that also left me breathless, that timeless Sherwood Forest caper excitingly re-imagined over at [...]
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET--is worth maybe $100,000. Now onstage at the Colonial (the video above features a different cast) the show speculates on what actually happened the night of Dec. 4, 1956 when Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis met at producer Sam Phillips studio and improvised an historic jam session, later dubbed [...]
Christie Brinkley, Jack Kerouac, Andrew Jackson, and a beloved "war horse"-- all trod the boards this Fall! Here's what I'm looking forward to: WAR HORSE* I saw “the horse” in preview and I still can’t believe that three men, some sticks, and a bunch of metal and fabric brought the animal to life before my [...]
