Boston

A PLAY THAT’S OUT OF THE BOX Like an acrobat without a net who thrills us with her daring, Iranian-German playwright Nassim Soleimanpour offers a play with virtually no set, no costumes, and an actor doing a cold read of a completely unfamiliar script to keep an audience enthralled with his 75-minute work Nassim. On…

THE LAUGHS ARE IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH, TOO Playwright Alexis Scheer draws on her Colombian-Jewish upbringing in Miami to create this comic celebration of the city’s Wynwood arts scene and the people who make it happen. Directed by another daughter of Miami, Mariela Lopez-Ponce, who, like Scheer, is now based in Boston (is it the…

MIND YOUR PEES AND QUEUES Courtney O’Connor’s masterful direction of the unpleasantly titled Urinetown: The Musical brings together numerous wonderful performances along with great music (Dan Rodriguez, music director) and choreography (Christopher Shin) in this Brechtian examination of economic inequality and environmental degradation. With music and lyrics by Mark Hollman and book and lyrics by…

A TRIUMPHANT SAGA OF A VIENNESE FAMILY The Huntington and director Carey Perloff bring Tom Stoppard‘s beautifully written Leopoldstadt to Boston with engaging performances that make the complex relationships of three generations of an extended family surprisingly easy to follow and appreciate. A cast of over thirty actors, set in four different time periods, portray…

ATMOSPHERIC, MOODY, DARK AND MODERN, ROMEO AND JULIET AT A.R.T. BELONGS TO THE AGES As summer turns to autumn, American Repertory Theater brings a dark and moody interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, to the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge. This production from director Diane Paulus, collaborating with Sidi Larbi…

SUPPLIANT AND DEMAND Looking for a thoroughly pleasant evening on the banks of the Mystic River? Head for Chelsea’s PORT Park and a transfixing performance of The Suppliant Women, by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. Dating back about 2500 years, it’s one of the world’s oldest known plays, brought into the present moment by award-winning playwright…

AS USUAL, THE WOMEN DEAL WITH THE MESS Hub Theatre Company‘s pay-what-you-will production of 46 Plays for America’s First Ladies offers a series of playlets as varied as the women portrayed. There are many surprises in store here. First of all, while the United States has had forty-six presidents, there have been many more First…

IT REALLY IS AN ENCHANTED EVENING I had never seen South Pacific, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s famed and highly successful musical (winner 1950 Pulitzer and numerous Tony awards in 1950 as well as a 2008 Tony for best revival) though I was certainly familiar with the music. I was grateful therefore for the chance…

GREAT F. SCOTT! F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby recently entered the public domain, and as we approach the centenary of this American classic published in 1925, there is a plethora of stage adaptations, including the lavish musical now on Broadway. I haven’t seen any of the others, but I’m willing to wager that Gatsby,…

YOU’LL LEAVE THIS ASTONISHING PRODUCTION POSSESSED It’s not often I would feel compelled to begin a review with mention of the creative team, but director Igor Golyak   — co-adapting with Dr. Rachel Merrill Moss and co-designing sets with Sasha Kuznetsova — in tandem with composition and sound by Fedor Zhuravlev, costume and props by Sasha…

IT MAY BE DATED, BUT IT’S A POIFECT MUSICAL WITH WHICH YOUSE CAN TAKE A DATE Guys and Dolls has long been considered by many to be the perfect musical. Since its premiere in 1950, some have claimed it’s sexist, dated, simplistic, and stereotypical in its depiction of women as property (then again, virtually everything…

MAKING FACES You’ve heard of a play-within-a-play? Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang offers us a play-within-a-play-within-a-play in the semi-autobiographical Yellow Face. Lyric Stage’s production of the Obie-winning play, directed by Ted Hewlett, has much to recommend it — and a few problems. Let’s start by focusing on the play itself. It begins with the outrage…