I've been thinking about the musical SWEPT AWAY ever since I saw its New England premiere capping off SpeakEasy Stage's 35th Anniversary season, its first destination since an acclaimed Broadway sojourn. Director Jeremy Johnson runs a tight ship: 90 minutes from stem to stern! Though the set design is merely serviceable, what happens on that [...]
I have been at the theater every night this week and sometimes twice a day. Here are two of the best of what I've seen and how I see it: STEREOPHONIC: A masterpiece--from concept to execution. It's what happens when you lock a 70's rock band and two engineers in a recording studio until they [...]
What to consider while you're digging out and planning your next theater outing! Josephine Moshiri Elwood and Dennis Trainor, Jr. Photo: Benjamin Rose Photography. JOB--MUST SEE THIS at SpeakEasy Stage! Buckle up- the opening scenes of this psychological thriller might give you a heart attack. One set. Two actors. 80 minutes. No intermission. It's [...]
Here's PART III of my take on the rush of fall theater season openers in and around Boston, in order of how long they are open to help you plan! Photo: Ken Yotsukura If you thought your wedding was hard to plan-- this one's a load. THE CEREMONY is a world premiere and [...]
It's THE BEST SHOW IN TOWN right now: JAJA'S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING the Tony-nominated New England premiere now onstage. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage at the Calderwood, this comedy /drama by Jocelyn Bioh hits home at a hair salon on a hot Harlem summer day. Summer L.Williams directs an exceptional cast: Crystin Gilmore, MarHadoo Effeh, Kwezi [...]
Buckle up buttercup and get ready for the most courageous and outrageous show I've seen so far this year. AIN'T NO MO' presented by SpeakEasy Stage and Front Porch Arts Collective, a winner of six Tony nominations including Best Play 2023, written by the youngest Black American Playwright nominated for a Tony Award, Jordan E. [...]
Prudence Payne is a critic on the cusp of dementia. I trembled at the premise and buckled up for PRU PAYNE a Boston Theater Critics CRITICS' PICK now having its East Coast premiere at SPEAKEASY STAGE directed by Paul Daigneault. As soon as Karen MacDonald hits the stage I know I'm in good hands—her Pru [...]
If that title doesn't grab you in these grey days of existential crisis, global conflict, divisive politics, economic uncertainty, and a myriad other things--maybe my review will. SpeakEasy Stage's production of A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD starts humbly and quietly as one man approaches another seeking a bank loan. What starts as a [...]
THE BAND'S VISIT is a profoundly beautiful production by two of Boston’s best companies. It goes where only the arts and theater can go—straight to the heart of what unites us. This is "must-see" theater for everyone at this time in our world. A co-production by The Huntington where it was performed, and SpeakEasy Stage, [...]
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 [...]
