Category Archives: Musicals and Opera

Aug 03

Because They Can: “The Queen of Versailles”

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The Cast of The Queen of Versailles – Credit Matthew Murphy

Presented by the Emerson Colonial Theatre
Based on The Queen of Versailles documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker Lauren Greenfield
Book by Lindsey Ferrentino
Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Directed by Michael Arden
Choreographed by Lauren Yalango-Grant & Christopher Cree Grant
Music supervision by Mary-Mitchell Campbell
Orchestrations by John Clancy

July 16 – August 25, 2024
Emerson Colonial Theatre
106 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — The audience was packed into the Emerson Colonial Theatre on Thursday night to see Kristin Chenoweth and F Murray Abraham in Ferrentino and Schwartz’s The Queen of Versailles musical. The musical officially opened on August 1 after much ado: Mayor Michelle Wu proclaimed July 24 as Kristin Chenoweth Day for Chenoweth’s “contributions to the betterment of the City of Boston.” It was also Chenoweth’s birthday. Happy belated birthday, Kristin Chenoweth!

FYI the links that should allow audience members to order drinks and food delivered to your seat don’t work. (We tried multiple QR codes in our row and the row in front of us). Despite the page on the website. Despite the foyer monitors’ messaging. You will have to choose either the bathroom line (wash your damn hands) or the concessions line. 20 minutes is not long enough to do both when the show is sold out. 

Audience members and some enterprising theatre staff were dressed in their finest pink and gold pieces. Attendee fashion ranged from blazers with designer sneakers to ballgowns. Satin tops to flowy dresses. All sorts braved the bawls-hot weather to flaunt their finest ‘fits. Thankfully, the Emerson Colonial had the AC cranked to accommodate the heat and the bold statements. 

Pink and gold are the signature colors of Jackie Seigel, proto-influencer and billionairess famous for the Lauren Greenfield 2012 documentary The Queen of Versailles and 2022 reality TV show Queen of Versailles Reigns Again. The musical is named after the 2012 documentary and tells the rags-to-riches-down-to-rags-back-to-riches stories (and villain origins) of Jackie and her husband David Seigel, the Timeshare King of Westgate Resorts.  Continue reading →

Jun 23

Partying On with “Once Upon a Carnival” 

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Presented by Moonbox Productions
Part of the 2024, third annual Boston New Works Festival
Directed by Regine Vitale
Written by Angele Maraj and Brianna Pierre
Music Directed by Harrison Acosta

June 22 – June 23, 2024
The Boston Center For The Arts
The Plaza Theatre
527 Tremont Street
Boston, MA
Moonbox Productions on Facebook
Once Upon a Carnival on Instagram

Review by Gillian Daniels

Note: The reviewer is acquainted with one of the writers.

BOSTON, Mass. – Last year’s reading for the first half of Once Upon a Carnival was electric. In it, we watch New York teenager Bhavan (Marshall Romano) travel with his impulsive mother, Radhika (Shubhra Prakash), to Trinidad. With Bhavan, we learn the delights and perils of his new home and, once he meets fellow teenager Jada (Ekaterina Hicks-Magaña) and the eccentric Tantie (Nina Giselle, who approaches the part with charm and humor), they explore the magic of the island. The story’s initial joy and effervescence is largely untouched. It’s a bad sign, however, that the workshop I attended had more polish than the full production.  Continue reading →

Jun 14

Something Elegant and Threatening: “Gatsby: An American Myth”

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Presented by American Repertory Theater
Based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett
Lyrics by Florence Welch
Book by Martyna Majok
Music Directed by Wiley DeWeese
Choreographed by Sonya Tayeh
Directed by Rachel Chavkin
Dramaturgy by Nissy Aya
Fight and Intimacy Direction by Rocío Mendez

July 23 – August 3, 2024
Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

This production contains depictions of suicide, violence, loud noises, gunshot sounds, bright and flashing lights, fog, and haze. Recommended for ninth grade and up.

Critique by Kitty Drexel

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Chavkin, Majok, and Welch’s Gatsby: An American Myth uplifts the plight of America’s laboring proletariat in ways F Scott Fitzgerald could never, would never imagine. It is a work of striking work of intersectional feminism that denudes the superficial morality of ultra-privileged one-percenters. It is sexy; it is rock n roll hot Jazz; it is a cautionary tale about the depravity of feral capitalism wrapped with a white bow.  

F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was first published in 1926. This critique discusses important plot points of the ART’s musical inspired by the novel. Anyone wishing to avoid spoilers is 98 years too late. 

Continue reading →

Apr 30

Nothing Feeds A Hunger Like A Thirst: “A Strange Loop”

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Kai Clifton (center) and the company. Maggie Hall Photography.

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Co and The Front Porch Arts Collective
Book, Music and Lyrics by Michael R. Jackson
Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent 
Music direction by David Freeman Coleman
Choreography by Taavon Gamble
Intimacy Direction by Greg Geffard
Dramaturgy by Elijah Albert-Stein

April 26, 2024 – May 25, 2024
The Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
Boston, MA

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON, Mass. — SpeakEasy Stage Company and The Front Porch Arts Collective’s A Strange Loop at the BCA is fucking amazing and you should see it now. It is a voluptuous Möbius strip tease perpetually feeding excellence into itself from the smallest prop by Emme Shaw to the Lil Nas X’s Montero-like intimacy direction by Greg Geffard up to the highest heights of Kai Clifton’s fluid vocal ornamentation. Get your tickets.  Continue reading →

Apr 13

Take A Friendly Plunge: “The Drowsy Chaperone”

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Production photo. Photo by Mark. S. Howard.

Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston
Music & Lyrics by Lisa Lambert & Greg Morrison
Book by Bob Martin & Don McKellar
Directed and choreographed by Larry Sousa
Music direction by Matthew Stern

April 5 – May 12, 2024
Lyric Stage Boston
140 Clarendon St, Boston, MA 02116

One hour and forty-five minutes with no intermission

Content advisory: Comedic sexuality and alcohol use.

Review by Sean French-Byrne

BOSTON, Mass. – Metanarrative is the word of the day in The Lyric Stage Company of Boston’s The Drowsy Chaperone. Opening in darkness and lingering in that moment of tension, as the voice of the Man in the Chair rises out of the darkness and muses about theater, from beginning to end The Drowsy Chaperone presents a sardonic yet compassionate love letter to the way that theater touches our lives. 

Buoyed from beginning to end by the charismatic performance of Paul Melendy as the Man in the Chair, this production evokes the experience of being taken by the hand and shown the pieces of a play that shine. It is imbued by that friend’s (occasionally morbid) fascination. Continue reading →

Feb 13

Love Against All Odds: “Mr. Popper’s Penguins”

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“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” cast: (l-r) Russell Garrett, Lisa Kate Joyce, Michael Jennings Mahoney, Kristian Espiritu, Yasmeen Duncan, and Todd McNeel. Photo by Jake Belcher.

Presented by Wheelock Family Theatre
Book by Robert Kauzlaric
Music and Lyrics by George Howe
Based on the novel by Richard and Florence Atwater
Direction and Choreography by Ilyse Robbins
Music Direction by Dan Rodriguez
Scenic Design by Janie E. Howland
Costume Design by Bethany Mullins
Puppet Design by Alex Vernon
Featuring: Yasmeen Duncan, Kristian Espiritu, Russell Garrett, Lisa Kate Joyce, Michael Jennings Mahoney, Todd McNeel

February 10 – March 3, 2024
Wheelock at Boston University
180 Riverway
Boston, MA 02215

Run Time: 70 minutes with no intermission

Recommended for ages 3+

Review by Maegan Bergeron-Clearwood

BOSTON, Mass. — After a long afternoon at work and a particularly sluggish MBTA ride, I was in a grim mood when I finally walked into the Wheelock Family Theatre last night – but my spirits were almost instantaneously lifted at the sight of Captain Cook (the first of many heartwarming creations by puppeteer Alex Vernon), a full-sized penguin puppet, complete with waddling feet, flapping wings, and expressive, blinking eyes. Continue reading →

Dec 15

A Delight: “Real Women Have Curves: The Musical”

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The company in the A.R.T. world premiere of Real Women Have Curves: The Musical. Credit: Nile Hawver/Maggie Hall.

Presented by American Repertory Theater
Music & Lyrics by Joy Huerta & Benjamin Velez
Book by Lisa Loomer
Additional Material by Nell Benjamin
Based on the Play by Josefina López
And HBO’s Real Women Have Curves, Screenplay by Josefina López & George LaVoo
Music Supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo
Directed & Choreographed by Sergio Trujillo
Dialect Coaching by Elisa Gonzales
Intimacy Coordination by Lauren Kiele DeLeon
Dramaturgy by Brisa Areli Muñoz

Dec. 6, 2023 – Jan. 21, 2024
Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 

The online Playbill

ART’s content warning from its website: “This production stages and discusses xenophobic commentary, racism, sexual themes, and body shaming and contains haze and fog. Recommended for sixth grade and up.”

Runtime: 2 hours and 40 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission

Review by Kitty Drexel

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The New England Theatre Geeks believe that real women identify as women. The discussion about how “woman” is defined has come a long way since 1990. It still has further to go.  #TransWomenAreWomen

Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is playing at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge through January 21. It is based on the 1990 play and 2002 movie of the same name by  Josefina López. 

It is important to note that Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is not about the important discussion surrounding LGBTQIA identity. It is a musical based on a movie based on a play about a young Latina woman from L.A. That’s the story. 

There is other theatre that carefully, strategically, and emphatically discusses this issue from the perspective of intersectional feminists. Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is already doing a lot of heavy lifting. Please do not demand more from it than it plans to give.  Continue reading →

Nov 28

Hope Comes Floating on a Lemon Leaf: “The Band’s Visit”

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Cast of The Band’s Visit; Photo by T Charles Erickson. Skyline by Aja M Jackson.

Co-presented by The Huntington & SpeakEasy Stage Company
Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek
Book by Itamar Moses
Based on the screenplay by Eran Kolirin
Directed by Paul Daigneault
Choreography by Daniel Pelzig
Music Direction by José Delgado
Dramaturgy by Vahdat Yeganeh
Intimacy consultation by Kayleigh Kane

November 15 – December 17, 2023
The Huntington Theatre
264 Huntington Ave 
Boston, MA 02115

Review by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON, Mass. — The Band’s Visit is an adaptation of a 2007 movie of the same name by Eran Kolirin. The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra travels from Egypt to Israel to celebrate the opening of a cultural center. They arrive in a small town in the Negev Desert to find they are in the wrong place, there are no more buses, and no hotels.  Continue reading →

Nov 13

A Fantastical Happening in Manila: “Here Lies Love”

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Presented by the Broadway Theatre
Concept & Lyrics: David Byrne
Music: David Byrne & Fatboy Slim
Directed by Alex Timbers
Music direction by J. Oconer Navarro
Choreography by Annie-B Parson
Fight direction by Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum
Cultural advocacy and facilitation by Sophia Skiles
July 20 – November 26, 2023
Broadway Theatre 
1681 Broadway
Between West 52nd and 53rd Streets
New York NY 10019

90 minutes with no intermission.

Review by Kitty Drexel

Post Update, 11/14/23: A previous version of this post misspelled Manila. Grammarly and auto-spellcheck are both jerks.  Our apologies. 

NEW YORK — Here Lies Love is slated to close on November 26. The good news is regional theatres should have access to performance rights soon. The bad news is, if you wanted to see it on Broadway, you have only a few weeks left.  

The Telecharge summary: “From Talking Heads frontman and songwriter of “Burning Down the House,” David Byrne; the beat master of “Praise You,” DJ Fatboy Slim and Tony®-winning director of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Alex Timbers comes Here Lies Love. The Broadway Theatre is transformed into Club Millennium, where a young Imelda Marcos gets catapulted to a life of fame, excess, and intoxicating power after winning the hearts of two political rivals: Marcos and Ninoy Aquino.  Continue reading →

Nov 06

Let the Sun and Light Come Streaming: “The Rocky Horror Show”

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The Rocky Horror Show at CST! First Rehearsal! from Central Square Theater on Vimeo.

Presented by Central Square Theater 
Book, Music, & Lyrics by Richard O’Brien
Directed by Jo Michael Rezes & Lee Mikeska Gardner
Music Direction by Jack Cline
Choreography by Ilyse Robbins
Gender Consulting and Intimacy Direction by Shira Helena Gitlin
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Consulting by Kira Troilo

October 26 – November 26, 2023
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue 
Cambridge, MA

Critique by Kitty Drexel

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — I have a lot of personal feelings about The Rocky Horror Show. It is my favorite, and I had to shake off my preconceived notions of what a production should be to give a fair critique. 

Preferences aside, a critic asks and answers two questions when critiquing: What did the artist attempt to do? Did they do it? The rest of the article is opinionated fluff and dramaturgy. 

  1. What did Central Square Theater attempt? The company produced Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show for CST’s beloved audience of MIT nerds and nerd allies. 
  2. Did CST do it? Yes. 

A potential third question is “Did they do it well?” This question is subjective. Multiple perspectives can be true at the same time.  Continue reading →