This is the closing-- or almost closing weekend for three shows now on stage in town so I thought I'd give you a quick last minute guide in case you are deciding to catch one of the below: IT'S A MOTHER F**KING PLEASURE to recommend this hip, hot satirical take down of identity politics and [...]
Back from vacation as I continue my reviews of the 7 plays I've seen in the last 10 days! In addition to yesterday's Must Sees, here's my take on what to see before they close: L .to R. Anthony Pires, Jr., Sheree Marcelle, Diego Cintron NEXT TO NORMAL: An outstanding, moving, smart production [...]
Otherness. The state of being unlike whoever "we" think we are and all the issues that follow -- fear, power, safety-- are the hyper-relevant themes of two recent plays. Both works challenge the outsize dominance of "whiteness" over the non-white global majority, and one play requires the white minority not only to see itself, but [...]
THREE TO SEE ONSTAGE NOW: "SIX The Musical" at the Emerson Colonial Theatre! I first saw it at the American Repertory Theater in 2019, reviewed it then (read what I said here), and haven't changed my mind about its problems, but this time I enjoyed it more. It's won a pair of Tonys for original [...]
Here's what I've seen onstage lately-- let this be a guide and a warning. DRACULA mounted by The Umbrella Stage Company in Concord, is seasonally appropriate with a twist. This version is playwright Kate Hamill's take on Bram Stoker's original which she dubs "A feminist revenge fantasy, really." I love a little Dracula and some [...]
There are some fabulous shows onstage in Boston, right now! At the top of the list is a kick-ass production of the Tony Award-winning musical AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' The Fats Waller Musical now onstage at Central Square Theater! Trust me-- you don't want to miss this. The joint started jumpin' before the show even began! The [...]
This week is like nothing I've ever in my lifetime experienced. Along with everyone, I have been juggling, re-arranging, shifting everything I am involved in to the virtual world while the arts and cultural world from Broadway to Boston and beyond shuts down. But there is one last show which I've seen that has just [...]
Shakespeare said "All the world's a stage" and that is literally true of the world as William Makepeace Thackeray saw it in VANITY FAIR here adapted by Kate Hamill now gloriously arrayed onstage at Central Square Theater: VANITY FAIR, AN (IM-) MORALITY PLAY. This production presented by Underground Railway Theater with a superb ensemble gives [...]
Head for Central Square and be on CLOUD 9! The Nora Theatre Company's latest production puts you there. An extremely nimble ensemble directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner takes Caryl Churchill's rambunctious, gender-bending, time-warping, traditional and taboo sexual roundelay and skewers white patriarchal oppression from Victorian British Colonial Africa (Act I) to swinging late '70's London [...]
Rounding out the season, I've seen a raft of shows-- here are the ones that floated my boat: Photo/GretjenHelene.com DRAGON MAMA: I was blown away by this one-woman show at Club Oberon part of A.R.T.'s breakout series in Harvard Square, Cambridge. This is a solo memoir and tour de force performance by the extraordinary [...]
