Jun 03

Laughing at the Horror of it All: “The Mystery of Irma Vep”

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Paul Melendy & Gabriel Graetz. Photo: Maggie Hall Photography.

Presented by Central Square Theater
By Charles Ludlam
Directed by David R. Gammons
Cast: Gabriel Graetz (Jane Twisden, Lord Edgar Hillcrest, et al), Paul Melendy (Nicodemus Underwood, Lady Enid Hillcrest, Alcazar, et al)

May 28 – June 21, 2026
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139

Review by Craig Idlebrook

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Theater is full of silly mashup plays that provide ample opportunity for cartoonish violence and rapid costume changes, but few, I would argue, can help us laugh at the terror of our times as well as the 1984 comedy of The Mystery of Irma Vep, expertly staged at Central Square Theater in Cambridge. The play bear-hugs the penny dreadful genre, with homages to creature features of Victorian vampires, mummies, werewolves, departed former wives and more. Nods to Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde (and probably 15 other references I didn’t catch) are thrown in for good measure. Continue reading →

May 28

The Algorithm is Smarter than the Heart but Not the Stomach: “My Home on the Moon”

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Photo by Ken Yotsukura Photography.

East Coast Premiere presented by Chuang Stage
By Minna Lee
Directed by cara hinh

May 23 – June 13, 2026
Boston Center for the Arts
Plaza Theatre

Article by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Gentrification murders culture in the name of progress. Gentrification isn’t the same as healthy renovation of and fiscal investment in an historically underserved neighborhood (say, Dorchester and Chelsea, MA). Rather, gentrification steals political and fiscal autonomy from longtime residents and bestows it upon rich people. If you can pay the rent, you can remove the people who’ve lived in and loved in an area for generations without a second thought for where The Poors will go once they’re kicked out. 

Chuang Stage’s My Home on the Moon by Minna Lee packages the horrors of gentrification-in-the-name-of-progress with a heaping dose of aptly uncanny A.I. It is a timely science fiction morality tale cum fever dream told through bowls of pho and other Vietnamese dishes. Mai (strong but grouchy Belle Le) wants to feed people well. She’s ready to serve pho to her community at Pho Lan, her boss Lan’s (Christina R Chan, perky and resilient) restaurant. Continue reading →

May 16

Always and Forever, Each Moment with You: “Oedipus El Rey”

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L to R: Victor Almanzar, Javier David, Juan Arturo,Gabe Martínez in Oedipus El Rey; directed by Loretta Greco; photo by Marc J. Franklin

Presented by The Huntington
By Luis Alfaro
Directed by Loretta Greco
Dramaturgy by Sonia Fernandez and Ynika Yuagg
Fight direction and intimacy coaching by Jesse Hinson 
Voice and dialect coaching by Adi Cabral

May 7 – Sunday, June 14, 2026
The Roberts Studio
Calderwood Pavilion 
Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, 02116

Online Playbill

The show contains full but brief nudity. Do with that information what you will. Check out the warnings HERE. 

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Audience members were activated on Wednesday night’s performance of Oedipus El Rey (now extended through June 14!) in the Calderwood Pavilion. The room buzzed with the conversation of friends greeting friends, ushers finding seats, Latin music played; it was the general hubbub of pre-performance excitement. No matter what happened on the stage, the atmosphere welcomed a good time for most of us.

I say most, because The Huntington’s Oedipus El Rey was written with the LA Chicano community in mind. Alfaro’s play borrows heavily from Chicano stereotypes, such as illiterate criminals and hypersexualized women. Alfaro’s work then grants personhood to some of them.  Continue reading →

May 13

Meaning-making across language and time: “Translations”

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Image via the Longwood Players Facebook page.

Presented by The Longwood Players
By Brian Friel
Directed by Rose Carlson
Produced by Michael Tricca and Kaitlyn Chantry
Set Design by Jessica Algard
Dialect coaching by Mark Hessler
Featuring: Matthew Feldman, Dasha Artemchuk, Jimmy Jack, Via Gould, David Kleinman, Melinda Kalanzis, Anthony Mullin, Raj Bhuva, Carlos Fruzzetti, Gabriel O. Pagán-González

May 8 – 16
Chelsea Theatre Works
189 Winnisimmet St, Chelsea, MA 02150

Review by Maegan Clearwood

CHELSEA— In 1833, the villagers of Baile Beag are content: they teach each other Latin and Greek, go about their farmwork and household chores, host dances and celebrate christenings. This peaceability is tempered, however, by a palpable unease. The villagers whisper about looming political violence, about phantom sweet potato smells – they are haunted, not by Ireland’s past, but by its future. Continue reading →

May 07

“Something Rotten!” at Lyric Stage passes the smell test.

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The cast; photo by @nilescottstudios

Presented by Lyric Stage
Music and Lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick & Karey Kirkpatrick
Book by Karey Kirkpatrick & John O’Farrell
Directed by Ilana Ransom Toeplitz
Music Directed by Katya Stanislavskaya
Choreographed by Christopher Shin
Dramaturgy by Bindi Kang
Intimacy direction by Samantha Richert

May 1 – June 7, 2026
Lyric Stage Theatre
140 Clarendon Street
Boston, MA 02116

Runtime: 2 hours and 25 minutes including intermission.

Review by Helen Ganley

BOSTON — Something Rotten! The name itself is pithy—the vague and anachronistic “something” paired with “rotten,” a word associated with withered fruit and moldy bread. Accompanying this duo is, inexplicably, an exclamation point, leading to a questionable feeling of excitement after such a combination. Continue reading →

May 06

Brevity is the Soul of Wit: “Jeeves & Wooster: Hijinks and Shenanigans”

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Presented by The Post-Meridian Radio Players
From stories by P.G. Wodehouse
“Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind,” Adapted by Jeremy Branton Holstein and Phoebe Roberts. Directed by Jeremy Branton Holstein.
“Right Ho, Jeeves,” Adapted and directed by Jaimie Carlson.
“Jeeves Takes Charge,” Adapted and directed by Phoebe Roberts.
Producer: Karen Sarao
Stage Manager: Jaclyn Wilson
Foley Coordinator: Meg Wickham
Board Op: Ray Zaslow
Sound Engineer: Chris Cebelenski

Performed at two locations:
April 16-18, 2026
204 Elm St
Davis Square, Somerville, MA
April 24 – 25, 2026
The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts
Watertown, MA

Review by Craig Idlebrook

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — At some point, someone studying 20th century comedy will make a case that the sitcom Seinfeld was a meanspirited rip-off of the effervescent short stories and book series about the unflappable and omniscient valet Reginald Jeeves.

Jeeves first appeared in publication at the tail end of WWI and his service to the daft, irresponsible, and well-off Bertie Wooster lasted until 1975, with every one of the pair’s misadventures written by British humorist P.G. Wodehouse. Continue reading →

May 05

Sweeping Visuals Despite a Flawed Text: “Swept Away”

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Peter DiMaggio & ensemble. Photo: Nile Scott Studios

Presented by Speakeasy Stage
Music and lyrics by The Avett Brothers
Book by John Logan
Directed by Jeremy Johnson
Choreographed by Ilyse Robbins
Music directed by Paul S. Katz
Scenic Design by Janie E. Howland
Lighting by Karen Perlow
Featuring: Christopher Chew, Max Connor, Peter DiMaggio, Bishop Levesque

April 24 – May 23, 2026
Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street, Boston, 02116

Review by Maegan Clearwood

BOSTON — Swept Away is ambitious in theme and scope: it calls for sweeping, spectacular design choices, attempting to explore existential ideas about guilt, grief, death, and despair. Speakeasy Stage, like the Broadway premiere two years ago, takes a fittingly larger-than-life approach to the visuals and performances. Unfortunately (again, like the Broadway premiere), Speakeasy can’t overcome the musical’s dramaturgical flaws.

Swept Away is a jukebox musical, featuring indie-folk-Americana-pop-rock songs by The Avett Brothers. It features many hallmark jukebox musical flaws: musical numbers that feel shoehorned in rather than plot-driven; a thematically uneven throughline; inconsistent character arcs. John Logan’s book crams songs into a story inspired by a real 1884 shipwreck of The Mignonette. It’s a grisly tale, an exploration of the spirit’s ability (or lack thereof) to survive in the face of abject horror, but the script is too bogged down by cliches to uncover any novel truths about the human condition. Continue reading →

Apr 27

Absurdism, Profundity, Religiosity: “Church”

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The cast. Photo by Jason Grow.

Presented by Lanes Coven Theater Company
By Young Jean Lee
Directed by Justin Genna
Featuring: Alex Highsmith, Lily Narbonne, Cheryl D. Singleton, Hannah Young

April 24 – May 10
American Legion Post 3
8 Washington Street
Gloucester, MA 01930

Review by Maegan Clearwood

GLOUCESTER, Mass. – Church opens in emptiness: a lone voice carries over the audiences’ heads from behind, a familiar diatribe about ego and earthly trivialities. The American Legion hall is dark, a lectern ironically unoccupied as the disembodied sermon goes on and on and on. But Church ends in light, sound, frenetic movement – a smorgasbord for the senses, worlds apart from the solemnity of its beginning. Continue reading →

Apr 22

Influence is No Government: “What the Constitution Means to Me”

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Compilation by Maggie Hall Photography

Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company
By Heidi Schreck
Directed by A. Nora Long
Cast on April 19, 2026 featured: Janis Hudson, Joseph Marrella, and Ayannah Joseph as the teen debater

April 10-26, 2026
GBSC Main Stage
395 Main Street
Stoneham, MA 02180

Digital playbill

Critique by Kitty Drexel

STONEHAM, Mass. — One of my favorite movie quotes is from 1994’s semi-feminist western Bad Girls. It stars Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, and Drew Barrymore as four former sex workers on the run after escaping prison. Masteron’s character Anita Crown inherited a land claim in Oregon when he died. She attempts to validate the claim with a male lawyer. He tells her that only her (dead) husband can claim the land. The law doesn’t acknowledge a woman’s inheritance. 

Famously, Anita replies, “If your laws don’t include me, well then, they just don’t apply to me either.” It’s a quote I wish more women would incorporate into their lives. For the majority of Western and world history, legal documents have excluded women. Embracing intersectional feminism means embracing women’s rights… And wrongs.  Continue reading →

Apr 21

Woman on the edge of a tragedy: “Dido of Idaho”

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Inside you, these two wolves fight for dominance. Ashley Lyon as Crystal and Parker Jennings as Nora. Photo by Apollinaire Theatre Co.

Presented by Apollinaire Theatre Company
By Abby Rosebrock
Directed by Brooks Reeves and Danielle Fauteux Jacques
Scenic and sound design by Joseph Lark-Riley
Featuring: Parker Jennings, Mauro Canepa, Mariela Lopez-Ponce, Paola Ferrer, Ashly Lyon

April 17 – May 10
Chelsea Theatre Works
189 Winnisimmet Street
Chelsea, MA 02150

Review by Maegan Clearwood

Content advisory: this play discusses and depicts many sensitive topics. To avoid spoilers, I am linking the production information page here, where prospective audience members can find more information.

CHELSEA – Abby Rosebrock’s play Dido of Idaho fits seamlessly into one of my favorite, hyper-specific storytelling subgenres: the redemptive, darkly hilarious portrayal of a mentally unwell heterosexual woman hitting ultimate rock bottom. Think Fleabag, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Bridesmaids – comedies that don’t shy away from the muck, despair, violence, sexual depravity, and absurdism that 21st century womanhood frequently encompasses.

Dido of Idaho, now playing at Apollinaire Theatre Company, has this messiness in spades: bodily fluids, profanity, internalized misogyny, and cat fights galore. It’s a series of tonal ricochets, swinging from disgust to hope to grief and back again in a matter of seconds. It’s relentlessly honest, laughing in the face of feminine acceptability, daring the audience to look away. Continue reading →