Boston

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…