Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company
Music Director and Composer Steve Bass
Director and Choreographer Ilyse Robbins
Featuring Sara Coombs as Odette/Odile and Andy McLeavy as Florenz Siegfried
Stoneham, MA — Swan Lake in Blue: A Jazz Ballet is a retelling of the classic ballet Swan Lake with heavy jazz influences. It is set in the 1940s, and takes place in an audition space and night club. Continue reading →
Presented by ArtsEmerson Direction and Choreography by Raphaëlle Boitel Artistic Collaboration, Set and Light Design by Tristan Baudoin Original Soundtrack and Sound Design by Arthur Bison Costumes by Lilou Hérin Rigging, Machinery and Set Design by Nicolas Lourdelle
(Boston, MA) When Angels Fall melds dance, aerial circus, slapstick humor, cinematic visual arts and more to weave a fantastical tale of fallen angels (or humans) trying to make sense of their harsh dystopian landscape and their places within (or without) it. As a synthesis of disparate disciplines, director and choreographer Raphaëlle Boitel has crafted a truly original new performance art, and this is a major artistic accomplishment in and of itself.
Luminarium Dance Company’s HIVELAND. Photo: Short photo co.
Presented by Luminarium Dance Company Choreography by Merli V. Guerra and Kimberleigh A. Holman Performed by the dancers Jess Chang, Devon Colton, Melenie Diarbekirian, Amy Mastrangelo, Katie McGrail, Alison McHorney, and Jennifer Roberts
(Cambridge, MA)This dance was called Hiveland. It was a performance about the social psychology of approach and discovery, and it featured a group of dancers who shared a hive mind. All of the dancers constantly managed their group conduct, condoning or condemning each other, and it’s interesting how the Directors used an experimental dance to explore societal values of conformity.Continue reading →
Presented by Cirque du Soleil Written by Julie Hamelin Finzi and Daniele Finzi Pasca Directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca Acrobatic performance designed by Philippe Aubertin Composed and music directed by Simon Carpentier Acrobatic choreography by Edesia moreno Barata, Debra Brown, Sylvia Gertrúdix González
June 27 – August 12, 2018 Suffolk Downs 525 William F McClellan Hwy Boston, MA 02128 Parking available for $20.00 CdS on Facebook
Review by Kitty Drexel
(Boston, MA) Cirque du Soleil’s scheduling of its Luzia American tour is so poorly-timed that it’s nearly offensive. The producers couldn’t have known, could they? On the one hand, there’s the appreciation of Mexico’s song, dance, and natural resources. On the other, there’s the fact that ICE is indefinitely detaining immigrants as well as asylum seekers near the Mexican border. It’s deporting LEGAL residents across the US. It had been separating families because it could. “But why does light entertainment have to be dragged through politics? It’s just a show!” Because the political is personal, my friends. There are immigrants living in Boston who are at risk of deportation as I type. We, as artists and audience members, can’t forget the fascist actions of the the President because it’s convenient. We must be better.Continue reading →
Wahle as Zach with Ensemble. Photo by Herb Philpott.
Presented by Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston Conceived and Originally Directed and Choreographed by Michael Bennett Book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics by Edward Kleban
Originally Co-Choreographed by Bob Avian
Direction; Recreation of the Original Choreography by Leslie Woodies
Music direction by Dan Rodriguez
Assistant Director/Assistant Choreographer – Lauren Gemelli
(Waltham, Massachusetts)I had never seen A Chorus Line so, for readers who are unfamiliar with this 1975 Broadway musical about life in show biz, please let me provide a brief summary. On a bare stage, a group of dancers bring their headshots and personal histories to an audition where they share their birth names, stage names, birthdays, and ages, as well as their most formative life experiences. There was a tough boy from the Bronx, another guy from a big Italian family, a saucy woman who flirted with the director, and fifteen more performers – all with large and extremely memorable personalities.Continue reading →
(Downtown Boston, MA) The show began with a narrator sonorously incanting: “It’s dark. You hear a voice. That voice will count to three, and at three you will be asleep. One. Two. Three.”Continue reading →
Presented by Step Afrika!
Produced by ArtsEmerson Choreographed by Jakari Sherman, Jackie Semela, Paul Woodruff
Percussionists: Artis Olds, Jakari Sherman, Andrew Vinson
“One of the most important functions of jazz has been to encourage a hope for freedom, for people living in situations of intolerance or struggle.” –Herbie Hancock, jazz pianist and bandleader
(Boston, Massachusetts) I could feel the crackling energy of the show, even before it started. I could anticipate that it’d be a layered and textured theatrical experience that engaged the audience, even before dancers and musicians arrived on stage. I am a person who is always listening to music. Likewise, I’m a patron who yearns for a show’s soundtrack to play both before and after the performance, as well as during its intermission. The recording of African drum music, peppered with the rattling of gourds and the rhythmic clapping of hands, was vitalizing and encouraged a social atmosphere before the show began. Most patrons were out of seats, strolling around, greeting each other, standing in small circles having spirited conversations, smiling while sipping drinks; it was the pre-party I always wished for.Continue reading →
(Boston, MA) In the face of the neon polish standard that is Cirque de Soleil in the Canadian acrobat scene, Machine de Cirque’s simplicity is real, grim, and refreshing. Here, the stage is covered in junk—bicycles, drums, stripped down scaffolding, juggling pins. The performers who encounter each item play and experiment, piecing the fragments into an act. It’s stunning. Perhaps a bit dark, too, as a viewer is left to wonder where, exactly, these performers are. Are these homeless young men in a junk yard? Or has the apocalypse come and gone, and they’re left with nothing but pieces in the dust of the cataclysm? Continue reading →
(Boston, MA) I’ve noticed a really exciting trend in Circus arts lately. The Circus, in many ways, is going through a pivotal transitional period: as animal acts continue to dwindle in reaction to the many valid concerns about humane animal treatment, circus performers are finding more and more creative ways to showcase not just the feats of inhuman strength, flexibility, and dexterity that we’re used to seeing, but also the humanity of the performers themselves. Story telling is becoming more and more central to the outstanding circuses touring the world and I couldn’t be more excited to have a front row seat to the incredible fruits of this transition. Continue reading →
Presented by Cirque du Soleil
Written and directed by Michel Laprise
Director of creation – Chantal Tremblay
Compositions and music direction by Raphaël Beau
Compositions and arrangements by Guy Dubuc and Marc Lessard
Acrobatic choreography by Andrea Ziegler, Rob Bollinger, Yaman Okur, Ben Potvin, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Susan Gaudreau, Germain Guillemot, Boris Verkhovsky, Danny Zen
May 26th (premier) – July 10th, 2016 Suffolk Downs
525 McClellan Highway
East Boston, MA 02128 Kurious on Facebook
Review by Gillian Daniels
(Suffolk Downs, Boston, MA) Kurios, unlike the other two Cirque du Soleil shows I’ve reviewed for The New England Theatre Geek, is tied to a world of technology and innovation. In 2012, Totem offered meditations on natural history, complete with frogs. Amaluna came to Boston in 2014 and involved a shipwreck on an island wild with magic, a loose adaptation of The Tempest. Kurios, though, is centered on 19th century trains, gramophones, laboratories, and aerial machines. Continue reading →
