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Lynne Weiss
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Book Review: TOM AND HUCK SITTING IN A TREE (A Novella by Gregory Fletcher)
WHAT THE HUCK! Author Gregory Fletcher has had a bit of fun with Mark Twain’s classic tales of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and readers are likely to share in the romp. Fletcher has repurposed many of the characters and situations from Twain’s original: the characters are a little older, and some of the situations…
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Theater Review: A STRANGE LOOP (SpeakEasy Stage Company and Front Porch Arts Collective)
A THEATRICAL LOOP-DE-LOOP Playwright Michael R. Jackson’s acclaimed A Strange Loop (winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2022 Tony Award for Best Musical) is a shocking work of genius, beautifully brought to Boston’s Wimberly Theatre by SpeakEasy Stage and Front Porch Collective and director Maurice Emmanuel Parent, starring Kai Clifton as Usher, “a fat American…
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Theater Review: MERMAID HOUR (Moonbox in Cambridge, MA)
THE HOUR HAS COME Playwright David Valdes offers a touching insight into the complexities of family life for a transitioning teen in Mermaid Hour. The New England premiere of this 2016 Finalist in the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights’ Festival is directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary. It’s well overdue: playwright Valdes sets the play in Boston…
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Theater Review: TOUCHING THE VOID (Apollinaire Theatre Company in Chelsea, MA)
THE MOUNT EVEREST OF PLAYS It’s hard to say what is the most breathtaking aspect of the Apollinaire Theatre Company’s masterful production of Touching the Void: Is it David Greig’s deeply satisfying script based on Joe Simpson’s memoir of the same title? Is it the fantastic acting by Patrick O’Konis (amazing as climber Joe), the…
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Theater Review: SOLO: A SHOW ABOUT FRIENDSHIP (Gabe Mollica at Calderwood Pavilion in Boston and on Tour)
THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR Up-and-coming storyteller Gabe Mollica has brought his “sweet not sappy” 90-minute Solo: A Show About Friendship to Boston after 80 Off-Broadway performances and an excerpt on This American Life, the NPR radio show and podcast. Directed by noted monologist and queer disability activist Greg Walloch, and written as well as…
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Event Review: AN EVENING WITH DAVID SEDARIS (Tour)
WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN SEDARIS Storyteller and humorist David Sedaris began by “walking us through” his outfit: a pair of plaid culottes and a jacket that “looks like I lost a fight with a bear.” It did indeed consist of a lot of strips, like a wearable vertical blind. He then introduced the ASL…
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Concert Review: YO-YO MA, CELLO; KATHRYN STOTT, PIANO (Tour Reviewed at Symphony Hall, Boston)
AN EVENING WITH FRIENDS Yo-Yo Ma, superstar of the cello and more importantly, of bringing together music of disparate cultures, performed with his long-time musical partner Kathryn Stott at Boston’s Symphony Hall last night. Stott has announced her intention to retire from performing at the end of the year, so this was likely the last…
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Book Reviews: OTHER PEOPLE’S CRAZY / OTHER PEOPLE’S DRAMA (Gregory Fletcher)
GO, BRANDON! If you have a young teen in your life, or if you hanker after some inspirational reading about said demographic, you’ll love Gregory Fletcher’s two-book series, Other People’s Crazy and Other People’s Drama. Protagonist Brandon Filips, age 15 and a high school sophomore when Other People’s Crazy begins, is the biggest kid in…
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Theater Review: THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Lyric Stage)
FOUR WEDDINGS AND A MUSICAL Adore Broadway musicals? Hate Broadway musicals? Either way, you will love Lyric Stage’s flip and frothy production of The Drowsy Chaperone. Director and choreographer Larry Sousa maximizes the intimate yet perfectly appointed Lyric stage to present what feels like a full-scale Broadway musical with singing, dancing, skating, and tap-dancing from…
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Concert Review: PATTI LUPONE: A LIFE IN NOTES (Tour)
A NIGHT OF HIGH NOTES The beloved and versatile award-winning musical theater star Patti LuPone delighted those who packed Boston’s Symphony Hall last evening with a series of high notes, low notes, and everything in between with her musical memoir, A Life in Notes, conceived and directed by Scott Wittman and written by Jeffrey Richman. Accompanied…
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Concert Series Review: STAVE SESSIONS (Celebrity Series of Boston at the Crystal Ballroom in Somerville)
LIGHTS! SOUND! MUSIC! Now in its eighth season, Celebrity Series of Boston offered four nights of innovative music in Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom with the Stave Sessions. Each evening offered a single intermission-free ninety minute performance. The first three evenings included virtuoso real-time performances of singing, flute, guitar, and keyboards mixed with impressive light shows, electronic…
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Cabaret Review: MAX RAABE & PALAST ORCHESTER (“Dream a Little Dream” Tour at Symphony Hall, Boston & Carnegie Hall NY)
SMOOTH AS SILK Max Raabe & Palast Orchester brought its “Dream a Little Dream” tour to Boston last night, transporting the Symphony Hall audience to an era of Big Band swing and “hot jazz” in the Berlin and beyond of the 1920s and 1930s. (The show hits Carnegie Hall on March 21.) Bandleader Raabe, who…
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Cabaret Review: ALAN CUMMING IS NOT ACTING HIS AGE (Tour; Cumming to Broadway on March 25)
CUMMING OR GOING, YOU’LL WANT TO SEE THIS ONE Man of many parts, Alan Cumming discusses life’s big issues: death, love, and, yes, the size of his scrotum in Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age, a cabaret that started on the West End and will soon be returning to Broadway’s Studio 54. Accompanied by…
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Theater Review: COST OF LIVING (SpeakEasy Stage Company at Calderwood Pavilion in Boston)
FINDING NEW ABILITIES Cost of Living is full of surprises, and I don’t mean inflation or unexpected banking fees. Speakeasy Stage Company brings the Pulitzer-winning play from playwright Martyna Majok to Boston in an affecting and satisfying production directed by Alex Lonati that made an hour and three-quarters of intermission-free time fly by. Cost of…
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Theater Review: KING HEDLEY II (Actors’ Shakespeare Project at Hibernian Hall, Boston)
KING HEDLEY II: A CROWNING PRODUCTION The Actors’ Shakespeare Project production of King Hedley II follows ASP’s acclaimed Seven Guitars of last season, once again bringing a work by August Wilson, sometimes known as America’s Shakespeare, to Boston audiences. Wonderfully directed by Summer L. Williams, the ninth play in Wilson’s American Century Cycle demands a…
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Theater Review: MY MOTHER HAD TWO FACES (The Rockwell in Somerville, MA; then touring)
HER MOTHER, HERSELF It’s a truism that many women fear “becoming their mother,” and that’s certainly the implied starting point of Karin Trachtenberg’s one-woman show, My Mother Had Two Faces. The performance opens with a recording of Marlene Dietrich singing “Mutter, Kannst Du Mich Vergeben” (“Mother, Can you Forgive Me”) — an interesting choice in…
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Summer Concerts: PROVINCETOWN SUMMER 2024 SEASON (Mark Cortale Presents)
Indigo Girls, Jinkx Monsoon, Bianca Del Rio, Marilyn Maye, HBO’s Gilded Age Stars Denée Benton and Claybourne Elder Will Play Provincetown Town Hall This Summer and Broadway Stars Cheyenne Jackson & Melissa Errico, Announced at Provincetown Theater Producer Mark Cortale has announced a star-studded music and comedy season for the summer of 2024 at Provincetown’s largest entertainment venue,…
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Theater Review: BECOMING A MAN (World Premiere at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA)
CAN THIS MARRIAGE BE SAVED? The creative and absorbing world premiere of P. Carl’s Becoming a Man at A.R.T. brings the joys and challenges of gender transition for one person and those who love him. Based on playwright P. Carl’s memoir of the same name, this world premiere theatrical adaptation which opened last night is…
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Theater Review: JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN (Huntington Theatre in Boston)
GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE POWER Kimberly Belflower’s riveting John Proctor is the Villain, which had its world-premiere at Studio Theatre in D.C. in 2022, opened last night at The Huntington. It is a work of profound inspiration, and — with spot-on direction by Margot Bordelon (…what the end will be for Roundabout) and a knockout nine-member…
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Theater Review: LITTLE PEASANTS (Food Tank at The Burren Backroom in Somerville, MA)
SOLIDARITY FOREVER The workshop reading of Food Tank’s Little Peasants at The Burren Backroom, a venue known more for Irish, Bluegrass, Appalachian, Roots, Jazz, and Blues than theater, is all the more engrossing for being rough around the edges. With a tight script by Bernard Pollack, dramaturgy and production by Elena Morris, and the excellent…
Theater Review: THE GREAT GATSBY (National Tour)
by Lynne Weiss | July 12, 2026
in Boston, TheaterOff-Broadway Review: PORTRAITS OF GAYS IN DESPAIR (HB Playwrights Theatre)
by Kevin Hautigan | July 11, 2026
in New York, TheaterOff-Broadway Review: GIULIA: THE POISON QUEEN OF PALERMO (PAC NYC)
by Gregory Fletcher | July 10, 2026
in New York, TheaterTheater Review: CRAZY FOR YOU (Goodspeed Opera House / East Haddam, CT)
by Rob Lester | July 10, 2026
in Regional, TheaterTheater Review: SUFFS (First National Tour)
by Emma S. Rund | July 9, 2026
in Chicago, Theater, Tours
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