SpeakEasy Stage Company

Winner of six 2010 Tony Awards including Best Play, Red is a glowing colorful portrait of an artist’s ego, ambition and vulnerability. After he lands the biggest commission in the history of modern art, first generation abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko begins work on a series of large paintings (murals) assisted by a new young artist assistant. What takes place between the two men is a master class on the methods and purpose of art and the dynamic relationship between an artist, his creations and his life purpose.

This week highlights are the not to be missed MFA Christian Marclay’s video: “The Clock”; Central Square Theatre “Women of Will” play; Fenway Theater MET High Definition screening “Anna Bolena”; Harvard Film Archives “Dreamlife of Angels” and ICA Live performance “Knitting Nation Phase 7”.

Tony Award nominee (2010) Next Fall is a relationship play about a mismatched gay couple. They are conflicted by one's conservative Christianity and the other's cynical disbelief. The drama considers fundamentalist faith versus atheism, and what constitutes love and sin in a contemporary tough world. Perhaps compelling to a gay audience, the play attempts to portray a universal authenticity. Unfortunately, it does not make the case.

A winner of five 2006 Tony Awards, this show is a brilliant combination of mayhem, mix-ups and a gay (in the old sense of the word) wedding. It is a loving embrace of traditional and at times hokey broadway extravagances by a die-hard musical fan who plays his favorite cast album, a 1928 obscure musical "The Drowsy Chaperone." The show seamlessly and magically slips back and forth between the harshness of real life and the fantasy of the theatrical moment. This is a must-see show that is filled with surprises, delight and joy. Did I say that the Speakeasy cast is brilliantly talented? Run and get tickets. It does not get more entertaining than this.

Theresa Rebeck's comedy The Understudy will be performed at Boston's Lyric Stage from January 1 to 29. The play stars Kelby. T. Aken, Laura Latreille and Christopher James Webb, and is directed by Larry Coen. It entails a screwed up attempt to stage a text by Kafka.

Our Boston entertainment correspondent, Barbara Brilliant, has tips, links and ticket prices for a range of theatre events. This is a clip and save template for what's going on in November.

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra which is made up of medical professionals will perform at Ozawa Hall in Lenox for the first time. The Boston Jewish Film Festival ENCORES AND MORE will be staged at the Museum of Fine Arts through June 27. Don't miss The Great American Trailer Park Musical at Speakeasy Stage.

The Huntington Theatre Company’s 29th Season will include two world premieres directed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois, an American classic, two Shakespeare plays in repertory, a three-play festival from a breakout writer, and the 2009 winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Based on the 1923 Edgar Rice play by the same name, The Adding Machine follows Mr. Zero through the worst day of his life as he confronts being replaced by new technology. The updated plot sticks to its roots, and we find all the conflicts of the roaring twenties are the same ones we face almost a century later. Speakeasy's New England Premiere boasts a glorious cast, music that never fails to advance the plot, and a surprising amount of spectacle.

David Esbjornson was Arthur Miller's director of choice late in life, staging the premieres of his last two plays. He will bring Miller's classic "All My Sons" to the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston through February 7.

As Berkshire Fine Arts has stretched to cover more Boston theatre, the Elliot Norton Awards have looked westward to honor several of the Berkshire's best.

Like "Porgy and Bess" and "Tommy" before it, this musical parody uses the high art form of operatic theatre, but is down to earth in content. This spunky New England Premiere by the SpeakEasy Stage Company is a jaw dropper, and that is why audiences are flocking to see it.

Fifteen 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.