Theatre
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David Mamet's Romance at American Repertory Theatre
Sex, Satire, Romance and Ducks May 9 to June 7
By: - Apr 24th, 2009There is a long and rich association between the playwright, David Mamet, and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. The A.R.T. season winds down from May 9 through June 7 with a production of "Romance." Arguably they have been saving the best for last.
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Spring Awakening Blossoms at Boston's Zeitgeist Stage
A Very Young Cast Takes on a Very Old Sex Ed Play
By: - Apr 20th, 2009"Spring Awakening: The Play" has arrived in Boston before the musical version. It is given an authentic and daring production for perhaps the first time in its 100 year history by the feisty Zeitgeist Stage Company. In a bold move, director David Miller decided on a cast that would be the same age as the 14 year old characters. Did this casting twist work theatrically?
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Last Chance to See Stephen Karam's Speech & Debate
Hilarious Play at Lyric Stage Through April 25
By: - Apr 14th, 2009For an opportunity to see the new generation of theatre at its best check out "Speech & Deliver" which is having its premiere at Lyric Stage in Boston. The very young Stephen Karam has written an awesomely hilarious play.
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Huntington Theatre Company 2009-2010 Season
Fences by the Late August Wilson Returns to Boston
By: - Apr 07th, 2009The late August Wilson, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award premiered a number of his plays at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. The 2009-2010 Huntington season will highlight a production of his acclaimed "Fences."
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Two Spring Awakenings in Boston This Month
Zeitgeist Offers the Uncut, Uncensored Original Play
By: - Apr 04th, 2009A hundred years have passed since Frank Wedekind wrote the most censored play in history. To this day Boston has never seen it performed as originally written. Now two Spring Awakenings will open within 12 days of each other, the uncut original play, and the popular musical based on the play. David Miller who is directing the play at Zeitgeist Stage spills the beans in a candid interview .
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Trojan Barbie at American Repertory Theatre
World Premiere of Christine Evans Play
By: - Apr 02nd, 2009The Christine Evans play "Trojan Barbie" now in its world premiere at the Amerian Repertory Theatre in Cambridge is an update of the Euripides tragedy "Trojan Women." The ruthless conquering Greek army resembles American troops in Iraq. Somehow a British tourist on holiday, Lotte (Karen MacDonald), is caught up in the mess. It takes a village.
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Dream-Like Sea of Birds Lands at Mass MoCA April 4th
Remixing the Visual and Performing Arts
By: - Mar 31st, 2009Innovative theater artist Sebastienne Mundheim recreates a child's fantasy world at the Hunter Center of Mass MoCA in North Adams, using striking, large kinetic paper sculpture, dancers, live musicians, and video projection in a rich mix of the arts. It is said that Sea of Birds is like "Pan's Labyrinth", only on steroids and in person.
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Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon in Exit the King
First Broadway Revival of Eugene Ionesco Play
By: - Mar 30th, 2009The "dream cast" of Oscar winners, Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon in a revival of Eugene Ionesco's 1962 "Exit the King" was mostly a snore. We know that the 400-year-old King Berenger I is dying within minutes of the first act but the bathos is dragged out through a tortuous evening of Theatre of the Absurd. Indeed.
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The Wrestling Patient: at SpeakEasy Stage Co.
World Premiere of WWII Play about Dutch Writer
By: - Mar 30th, 2009In the last 60 years, Holocaust stories are familiar narratives about good and evil. The SpeakEasy Stage Company is having the World Premiere of a true story that has been little told about a distinctive Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum during the last years of her life.
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Boston Premiere of Speech & Debate at Lyric Stage
Identity, Sexuality and Belonging in the Internet Age
By: - Mar 30th, 2009Lyric Stage is best known for its inspired stagings of the classics, but it has an edgier side as well. Their take on Stephen Karam's 2006 Speech and Debate is a double edged sword. Like a teenager's face, the play is brilliantly fresh and appealing, but it also has a few blemishes.
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Footloose the Musical at the Colonial Theater
Road Show Launches Season in Pittsfield
By: - Mar 20th, 2009The touring company of "Footloose the Musical" appeared for two sold out performances at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield. Our critic titubated down the aisle after a fabulous show.
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Shakespeare & Company Faces Economic Storm Calmly, Creatively
Balances Cuts and Restructuring with Program and Revenue Growth
By: - Mar 17th, 2009Shakespeare & Company is a $5.6 million dollar theatrical operation employing more than 200 people each year in the Berkshires. When the economy took its dip, the company and its Board got into action, readying the survival plans and donning the life preservers for the stormy economic seas in the months ahead.
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Jane Fonda in 33 Variations
Return to Broadway After 46 Year Absence
By: - Mar 14th, 2009In 1991 Jane Fonda announced that she "retired" from acting. But she has appeared in a couple of movies since then. Her last appearance on Broadway was 1963 in "Strange Interlude." After a lapse of 46 years she returned this week to star in "33 Variations" by Moises Kaufman. As Dr. Katherine Brandt she is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease while researching why Beethoven created "33 Variations" on a seemingly trivial waltz by Anton Diabelli.
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Two Men of Florence at Huntington Theatre Co.
Richard Goodwin's Science vs. Religion Smackdown
By: - Mar 13th, 2009Like some sort of metaphorical wrestling match, Richard Goodwin has dramatized the science versus religion controversy of Galileo and Pope Urban VIII as an ongoing dispute between the logic of science and the emotion of religion. However, Galileo is very emotional about his science, and this Pope feels very logical about his religion. The wrestling is a verbal torrent interestingly framed. Even though we side with one over the other intellectually, the problem is whether are not we are made to really care about who actually wins.
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The Big Daddy of Boston's Resident Theatres, Spiro Veloudos
Lyric Stage Hits New Heights Under His Leadership
By: - Mar 07th, 2009Spiro Veloudos has been a fixture on the Boston theatre scene for more than thirty years, and is currently Producing Artistic Director of Lyric Stage. In a revealing conversation, he gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run a Boston theatre company.
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Shakespeare & Company 2009/ 2010 Season
Most Ambitous Schedule Ever for 32-year-old Berkshire Instititution
By: - Mar 04th, 2009For her final season as Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company, Tina Packer has pulled out all the stops for a dense and intense 2009/ 2010 season. Mostly Packer aspired to fully book the first season of the new Evelyn P. Bernstein Theatre. Tony Simotes takes over day to day operation on June 1 and Packer informed the media that "I can't wait." She anticipates a new phase of her career as an actor, writer, teacher and director.
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Blackbird Roosts at Boston's SpeakEasy Stage Company
An Unsettling Exploration of Underage Sex, Secrets and Lies
By: - Mar 03rd, 2009Fifteen years ago Ray and Una had a passionate love affair. She was twelve and he was an adult. He went to jail. She lost her innocence. David Harrower's "Blackbird" was first commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival in 2005, played London's West End in 2007 and debuted later that year in a Manhattan Theatre Club production. It now receives its Boston premiere at the SpeakEasy Stage Company.
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Elizabeth Aspenlieder: Save the Date
Last Chance to See Shakespeare & Company Hit
By: - Mar 01st, 2009Shakespeare & Company took a chance that has really paid off by offering an extended production, January through March 8, of the Theresa Rebeck one woman play "Bad Dates" starring the brilliant actress Elizabeth Aspenlieder.
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Beckett's Elusive Endgame at American Repertory Theatre
Stunning Play Features a Brilliant Cast
By: - Feb 25th, 2009Samuel Beckett was one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th Century. His work is about ambiguity and the human condition. The current production of Endgame at the ART is both skillfully presented and intellectually embracing. The fabulous performances of the four ensemble cast members are among their best ever. This Post Modern play is simply magnificent.
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Cat On A Hot Tin Roof At Lyric Stage
Sizzling Tennessee Williams Classic
By: - Feb 15th, 2009Tennesee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof inhabits a Mississippi Delta plantation world of hypocrisy, greed and mendacity. A disfunctional wealthy family celebrates the birthday of its patriarch in a destructive way. Maggie the Cat, Brick, and Big Daddy all portray a human firestorm caused by addiction to the bottle, desperation to conceive a child, and not so ambiguous feelings toward a late best friend.
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Berkshire Theatre Festival Plans Enticing 2009 Season
Randy Harrison, David Adkins Among Favorites to Return this Summer
By: - Feb 14th, 2009With eight productions and principal casting announced for the Summer 2009 Season, the Berkshire Theatre Fetival continues to deliver a satisfying banquet of comedy, drama and music under the steady leadership of Kate Maguire.
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Williamstown Theatre Festival 2009
A Shortened 55th Season
By: - Feb 13th, 2009Given the poor economy, artistic director, Nicholas Martin, has reduced the number of Nikos Stage productions from five to three plays and shortened the seaon (July 1 through August 23) by two weeks. By making these cuts he has avoided any compromise of the quality of productions for one of the nation's most renowned theatre companies.
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Randy Harrison e Stato Fortunato in Aspettando Godot
Coverage of Berkshire Theatre Festival Production Proves Sticky
By: - Feb 04th, 2009Our coverage of Randy Harrison in last summer's production of "Waiting for Godot" at Berkshire Theatre Festival has proved to be "sticky" on the web. Here we present the review translated into Italian.
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Bread & Puppet Theater's Sourdough Philosophy
Boston Center for The Arts Cyclorama Hosts
By: - Jan 27th, 2009With its creative and politicized winds blowing from the far left, The Bread & Puppet Theater is literally a force of nature. Now celebrating its third year at the Boston Center for the Arts, the Vermont-based multiarts group is led by Peter Schumann with roots in the 1960's. It is still a magical, layered and thought-provoking visual, musical and theatrical experience. And there are the giant puppets and freshly baked bread as well.
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Change of Command at Shakespeare & Company
Tony Simotes to Assume Role of Artistic Director
By: - Jan 22nd, 2009Tony Simotes co-founded Shakespeare & Company with Tina Packer and other dedicated artists in 1978. Packer has led the noted company for thirty years as Artistic Director, and now he will take the helm. Packer will continue to guide the company's long term growth, which includes building a reproduction of the Elizabethan-era Rose Theatre in Lenox.
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