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Theater Review: TONI STONE (Huntington Theatre Company)
BLACK IN THE GAME Toni Stone is as much about storytelling as it is about the story it is telling. Thanks to the inspiring source material by Martha Ackmann and this resulting play poignantly written and directed by Lydia R. Diamond, this important piece of history is vividly brought to life in its regional premiere…
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Theater Recommendation: BOSTON NEW WORKS FESTIVAL, 2024 (Moonbox Productions at Calderwood Pavilion and the Boston Center for the Arts)
The 3rd Annual Boston New Works Festival — a new Boston tradition — is a weekend-long festival celebrating new original plays by local playwrights. The eight original plays selected for this year’s festival will be performed on six different stages at the Calderwood Pavilion and the Boston Center for the Arts. Moonbox Production’s request for…
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Theater Review: ROMEO AND JULIET (Actors’ Shakespeare Project at Calderwood Pavilion in Boston)
GET THEE TO SEE ASP’S R&J “Romeo. Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?” Did you know this means, “Why are you Romeo?” Language becomes the thing as Shakespearean dialogue positively blossoms into wonderful clarity. Everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet — but not everyone knows the Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s interpretation, playing at the…
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Cabaret Theater Review: LEGAYLLY BLONDE: THE DRAGSICAL (Moonshine Room at Club Café)
A SHOW SO FUN, IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAYL Welcome to Legally Blonde, wrapped in a rainbow flag. Yep, LeGAYlly Blonde: The Dragsical is the story of Elle Woods with a gay twist, and at last night’s opening, fun simply festooned the Moonshine Room at Club Café. This is not a preachy appropriation; it’s simply a…
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Art Exhibit Review: AUSCHWITZ. NOT LONG AGO. NOT FAR AWAY. (International Tour at The Castle in Boston)
INCONCEIVABLE. SHOCKING. NECESSARY. Visitors to the exhibit Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. — now stopping at The Saunders Castle at Park Plaza in Boston as part of a world tour — are able to view more than 700 artifacts, photographs, personal stories, and other information on display. Among the artifacts are hundreds of…
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Jazz Concert Review: DUETS: DIANNE REEVES, CHUCHO VALDÉS, JOE LOVANO (International Tour at Berklee)
TWO MEN AND A LADY: JAZZ ROYALTY TIMES THREE Celebrity Series of Boston’s 2023–2024 season is drawing to a close and among the final performances was the excellent Duets, featuring Dianne Reeves (vocals), Chucho Valdés (piano), and Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone). The evening began with Valdés alone with his grand piano on the stage of…
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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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Opera Review: DON GIOVANNI (Boston Baroque)
MY OPERA EXPERIENCE WAS DARKEST BEFORE THIS DON Don Giovanni seduced me — in a manner of speaking — when I attended last night’s opening of Mozart’s Don Giovanni by Boston Baroque. I’ve covered theater for quite some time, but this was the first opera I’ve seen live. And I’ve got news for anyone timid…
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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: THE SECRET COMEDY OF WOMEN (National Tour at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA)
SECRET COMEDY IS NO SECRET ANYMORE In The Secret Comedy of Women, directors, writers and stars Barbra Gehring and Linda Klein are two women who you would swear were besties from childhood. They shared similar passions and interests in comedy, crafting and collecting — and they also both kept childhood diaries. One day while reading…
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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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Theater Review: BURN THIS (Hub Theatre Company of Boston)
FLAMES CAN BURN IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE Last weekend, Hub Theatre Company of Boston began its own smoldering revival of Lanford Wilson‘s Burn This, a show filled with intertwined emotion, unanswered questions, and refusals to see and accept answers. In the aftermath of a tragic accident that has killed Robbie, a gay young dancer/choreographer…
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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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