Lynne Weiss

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS Strong performances and eerie stage effects cannot entirely clarify a mystery that depends on carefully controlled deception A terrific performance by Crystin Gilmore as the stern, Bible-thumping, yet guilt-ridden Mama, along with evocative special effects, makes Covenant, a Southern Gothic about the battle between good and evil, a riveting…

THE POLITICAL IS PERSONAL Purpose is an exciting and morally complex opening to the Huntington’s 2026-2027 season Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins‘ Purpose is an intriguing family drama that gives us a narrator with unconventional sexuality and social needs in the context of a prominent and deeply troubled family of origin. Omari K. Chancellor shines as Nazareth…

A MUSICAL WORTH ROOTING FOR Four likable friends chase Broadway dreams in this clever and thoroughly enjoyable production A clever script and engaging performances offer an impressive rendition of [title of show] at Chelsea Theatre Works. The 90-minute show, with music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen and book by Hunter Bell, tells the story of…

BEFORE SHE WAS MRS. DALLOWAY A beautifully written and well-performed prequel imagines the summer when Clarissa Perry begins choosing a life of her own Our first look at Dalloway: First Love is a magnificent thick-trunked tree full of nooks and crannies, gnarled and fissured with steadying footholds and reaching roots and seeking branches that dominates…

SOME ENCHANTMENT REQUIRED Thirty years on, Commonwealth Shakespeare still knows how to charm a crowd A lot is unknown about William Shakespeare, including the order and dates in which he wrote Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. What is clear, however, is that the two plays serve as mirrors to one another: in…

GREAT LOOKS, LITTLE GATSBY Too loud, too repetitive, and nowhere near the Jazz Age The touring production of The Great Gatsby, now at the Citizens Opera House in Boston, gives us Linda Cho‘s Tony Award-winning costumes and great sets by Paul Tate dePoo III, but neither the book by Kait Kerrigan nor the score by…

THE TIES THAT STRAIN A hurricane traps a family already under siege. S. Asher Gelman’s emotionally gripping new play, The Zionists: A Family Storm, now at Barrington Stage Company in Miami New Drama‘s world-premiere production, is full of the best kind of talk—talk that demands to be heard. Ruth (Joanna Glushak) and Mitchell (Adam Grupper),…

ABSURDLY EVER AFTER A turtle and a snail walk into a war… Igor Golyak, director of Arlekin Players Theatre‘s Delirium, has never seen a production of Eugène Ionesco’s Frenzy for Two (Délire à deux), one of his many challenging plays exploring the meaninglessness left in the wake of World War II—and, he says, few others…

SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE A “charming bulldozer” meets a wall of resistance Anyone who has had a home renovation knows the way a contractor can take over one’s life. Suddenly, strange men (usually men) clomp around in heavy boots in the early morning, tearing up floors and tearing down walls. There is noise and dust and…

TO BAN OR NOT TO BAN Who decides what children are allowed to read? Playwrights are among the many who are struggling to reconcile the escalating conflicts among different factions of our society. Huntington Theatre’s Eureka Day portrays the executive board of a progressive private school at odds with itself when a mumps outbreak pits…