Category Archives: Musicals and Opera

Mar 27

Chaos & Dark Secrets in “The Addams Family musical”

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Big League Productions, Inc. production presented at The Boch Centre Wang Theatre
Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice
Music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Directed and choreographed by Antoinette Dipietropolo
Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown

U.S. Tour Website

March 21 – 23, 2025
Boch Centre Wang Theatre
270 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116

2 hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission
Virtual Playbill

Review by Helen Ganley

BOSTON — Dr. Frankenstein huddles in his laboratory, taking pieces of a life once passed and intricately stitching them together. He huddles in the dark, throws the switch, and braces for the spark, birthing a new life out of what once passed. Some audiences might see a banner for The Addams Family and think it’s a musical adaption of the 2022 miniseries Wednesday. However, the creature Dr. Frankenstein is adapting isn’t from 2022 at all, but rather the iconic 1964 TV show that predated it. The Boch Center Wang Theatre’s national tour production of The Addams Family breathes life into the familiar classic with entrancing sets, a lively undead ensemble, and catchy songs you just can’t help but snap your fingers to. Continue reading →

Mar 13

The National Tour of “Parade” at the Emerson Colonial Theatre

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Max Chernin and the company in the National Tour of PARADE, photo by Joan Marcus.

The New York City Center production presented at the Emerson Colonial Theatre 
Book by Alfred Uhry
Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Co-conceived by Harold Prince
Directed by Michael Arden
Choreography by Lauren Yalango-Grant & Christopher Cree Grant
Music direction by Charlie Alterman
U.S. Tour Website

March 11 – 23, 2025
Emerson Colonial Theatre
106 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116

2 hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission

Review by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Uhry and Brown’s Parade is at the Emerson Colonial Theatre through March 23. This heartbreaking musical about Christian nationalist antisemitism and its consequences on decent, law-abiding folk has become a musical theatre classic for the ages. It features strong choreography by Lauren Yalango-Grant & Christopher Cree Grant, decisive music direction by Charlie Alterman, and direction by Michael Arden. Continue reading →

Mar 03

Convention is a Trap: “A Man of No Importance”

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Eddie Shields (center) and the company of “A Man of No Importance.” Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage
Book by Terrance McNally 
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Based on the film “A Man of No Importance”
Directed by Paul Daigneault
Music directed by Paul S Katz
Choreographed by Ilyse Robbins

Feb. 21 – March 22, 2025
Stanford Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116

Content warning: Themes of homophobia and some strong language. Recommended for Ages 12+.

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Ahrens, Flaherty, and McNally’s A Man of No Importance is based on the film (1994, directed by Suri Krishnamma. Starring Albert Finney.) of the same name which is a play on words based on the Oscar Wilde comedy A Woman of No Importance. Both tackle social status, ethics, and to a lesser degree, gender roles. The musical, like the play, features a central character holding a deep, dark secret that sparks community shame when it is exposed. Fortunately, both the musical and the play have happy endings.

A Man of No Importance opens with lines from Oscar Wilde’s “The Harlot’s House.” The reader, Alfie Byrne (Eddie Shields), is an unmarried bus conductor who loves theatre and poetry on his bus in 1960s Dublin. While dodging his boss Carson (Joe LaRocca), Alfie tells his bus riders this year he will direct the St. Imelda Players community theatre production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé. It’s a biblical story about St. John the Baptist, Alfie tells them. He conveniently leaves out the salacious parts because, he says, art can’t be salacious.  Continue reading →

Feb 23

Serenading Aliens and Lukewarm Coffee as the World Ends: “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals”

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Photo from https://www.facebook.com/yorickensemble

Presented by Yorick Ensemble 
Music and lyrics by Jeff Blim 
Book by Matt & Nick Lang
Directed by Kari Boutcher
Music direction by Elias Condakes 
Choreographer & Violence/Intimacy Director: Sydney T. Grant

February 13–22
Boston Center For the Arts
Boston, MA

Review by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — It’s been a weird month of politics muddling the waking life of everyday citizens. Yesterday was a weird day of weird happenings which continued with a weird mishap at the Boston Center for the Arts. My ticket confirmation email for Thursday’s performance told me Yorick Ensemble’s The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals performance started at 7:30 PM that night. My ticket from the box office said this, too, so I thought I had an extra 40 minutes at 6:53 PM yesterday to mosey over to the theatre. But, the BCA website said The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals started at 7 PM. Not knowing which source to trust, I moseyed faster to Tremont St. Scooting through the BCA’s front doors, I overheard a young man on a headset describe us entering and holding for the house. Was I late? It sounded like I was. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only confused attendee; several others entered the Plaza Theatre after me. The show eventually started around 7:15 PM without a clear answer.  Continue reading →

Feb 20

Wham! Comic mischief in “Flora & Ulysses”

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Photo courtesy of Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by Wheelock Family Theatre
Adapted for the stage by John Glore
Based on the book by Kate DiCamillo
Directed by Joshua Rashon Streeter
Composed and Sound Designed by Mackenzie Adamick
Puppet Design by Amanda Gibson
Projection Design by Justin Lahue
Props Design by Saskia Martinez
Scenic Design by Danielle Delafuente
Costume Design by Nia Safarr Banks
Lighting Design by Lawrence A. Ware

Online playbill

February 15 – March 9, 2025
Wheelock Family Theatre
Boston University; Fenway Campus
200 The Riverway
Boston,  MA 02215

Critique by Helen Ganley

BOSTON — Common media often asserts that heroes come in all shapes and sizes, citing a range that stretches from DC’s Doll Man (thirteen inches tall, with an attitude) to Marvel’s Stature (fifty feet and fighting with the Young Avengers). But does this spectrum include a flying, super-strong, philosophy-spouting squirrel? Wheelock Family Theatre’s Flora & Ulysses expands the superhero multiverse beyond traditional humanity, following the story of a comic-obsessed 10-year-old girl and her unlikely superhero protégé as they navigate the trials of suburbia. Continue reading →

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 →