The fall theater season is back up and running! I had high hopes for American Repertory Theater's season opener Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"! Alas, this most tragic and romantic tale of young lovers caught in the crossfire of their feuding families left me wanting-- but not for lack of trying. The set was beautiful and [...]
What could be more fitting for this summer's FREE annual Commonwealth Shakespeare production on the common, than THE TEMPEST? In a season of storms: climatic, pandemic, and politic, and their cross currents: moral ambiguity, familial friction, and racial strife, the brilliant John Douglas Thompson and company deliver a masterpiece of rough magic and earthy wisdom [...]
This weekend is a mixed bag and involves Mick Jagger and William Shakespeare. If only they had worked together. I couldn't wait to see the THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY a Sony Classics release beginning August 7 at West Newton Theater. For this movie critic/arts reporter, what could be better than an art heist film starring [...]
I can always tell when a production hits the sweet spot for me. Words for my reviews start running through my head and I can't stop them. This week there are TWO such productions which you MUST SEE, both Shakespearean-- one a splendid production of his most popular play, and the other a searing one-man [...]
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 [...]
From the best nanny to the last Schwartz, Shakespearean lovers to LGBTQ rendez-vous's--there's a lot worth your while as you while away these midsummer nights. FIRST, pack a picnic and head down to the heart of Boston to see Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's latest FREE Shakespeare on the common. This is one of their best productions ever! Now until August 7 don't [...]
It's BEDLAM out there and I am referring to the rambunctious and fantastically subversive theater troupe out of NYC who takes a hearty bite out of Shakespeare, or rather two bites of the same juicy apple. The Bard called his gender-bending comedy of love, manners, and female empowerment TWELFTH NIGHT OR WHAT YOU WILL. BEDLAM takes the title literally and [...]
We are in the golden age of documentaries and a new one just released is an absolute masterwork. LISTEN TO ME MARLON gives us a piercingly intimate look inside the actor who changed everything about acting for all time, Marlon Brando. It turns out that this most enigmatic and provocative of stars left us quite a map to his [...]
There's a whole lotta theater goin' on-- here's my take in short: ETHER DOME presented by The Huntington Theatre Company at BU is neither a gas, nor did it put me to sleep. Billed as a medical thriller about the very first surgery performed under anesthesia in 1846 under the "dome" at MGH, the real story is fascinating, but the [...]
The best theatre I've seen lately was a rambunctious KING LEAR presented by ARTS EMERSON and SHAKEPEARE's GLOBE ON TOUR over at the Paramount. Shakespeare's tragedy of a father who is blind to himself and the truth about his daughters-- twin vipers Goneril and Regan (wily performances by Gwendolen Chatfield and Shanaya Rafaat)-- and the true blue [...]
