Lynne Weiss

HATTIE, MAMMY AND OSCAR Playwright LaDarrion Williams has mined a moment in history to explore the human cost of being the first to achieve a milestone in this moving and ultimately affirming exploration of the ambivalence surrounding the first Black person to receive an Academy Award. As many know, Hattie McDaniel, who played Scarlett O’Hara’s…

A SLAM DUNK! The Great Leap opens with hearty humor and carries its audience along in an absorbing story until a profound poignancy begins to permeate the senses. Tyler Simahk plays Manford “the most feared [basketball] player in Chinatown” as a brash and determined 17 year old who opens the action by trying to talk…

SEVEN CHEERS FOR SEVEN GUITARS The Actors Shakespeare Company’s production of Seven Guitars deserves at least seven cheers for this powerful production of August Wilson’s Pulitzer-nominated portrayal of the life and death of a promising blues guitarist.         First cheer: Jon Savage‘s  scenic design and Abe Joyner-Meyers‘ sound design: Entering Hibernian Hall in Boston’s Nubian…

A MAGIC AFTERNOON Beautiful music (Christopher Vu, composer; Bo Jones (Lee) flute; Thomas Barth, cello, and Michael Weinfeld-Zell, percussion) and richly colored projected visuals gave a sold-out and extremely intergenerational audience a magical experience. Pinwheel, an ensemble of classically trained musicians and puppet artists, presented Magic Pearl, an adaptation by Veronica Barron, Max Gaylord, and  Jones…

THE ART OF BURNING WITH RAGE Fast-paced and gripping, laced at times with humor, The Art of Burning opens with an ominous threat: “Sometimes you have to kill the things you love to save them,” Patricia (Adrianne Krstansky) announces, putting the audience on alert. The ominous implications of this statement build when we hear Patricia…

THIS FREEDOM RINGS In a weekend of numerous uplifting events celebrating the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Hear Her Sing for Freedom stood out for bringing forward the life and role of Coretta Scott King, who married Dr. King in 1953. Coretta Scott was a serious vocalist and political…

PRELUDE TO A BREAKTHROUGH The Lyric Stage Company brings powerful performances to Dave Malloy’s remarkable evocation of the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s struggles with a creative block through hypnotherapy. Rachmaninoff himself is portrayed as two characters. One called Rachmaninoff (Dan Rodgriguez) sits at a white baby grand through most of the show, providing a stunning shower…

LET THE REVELS’ SUN SHINE IN TO YOUR HOME Like the waning of the old year and the arrival of the new that it celebrates, The Revels organization has returned to the stage in 2022 with a new name and new elements that express the organization’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion while retaining the…

COME FOR A THEATRICAL EVENT; STAY FOR THE STORY The eye-popping special effects of Life of Pi are reason enough to see this show. When video, lighting, and sound designers Andrzej Goulding, Tim Lutkin, and Carolyn Downing transform the solid stage of at A.R.T. not into dew, but a liquid — a spontaneous gasp and…

BONE-DEEP CHINA Afong Moy was brought to the United States by Boston-born traders known as the Carnes Brothers, merchants who exhibited Moy in a room filled with “Chinese curiosities” including money, musical instruments, and a bell, along with vases, rugs, and other decorative objects that were available for purchase. Moy, believed to be the first…

JOE TURNER’S HERE TO STAY Don’t let this gripping production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone come and go without seeing it yourself. This is classic American theater essential to our collective understanding of who we are, but that doesn’t mean you won’t find moments of pleasure in this adept production. From the…