Mar 04

World Music/CRASHarts Presents: LO’JO at Johnny D’s, March 15, 7:00 pm

LO’JO presented by World Music/ CRASHarts
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Saturday, March 15, 7:00 pm
17 Holland St. Somerville, 02144
General Admission. 21+ with valid ID. Seating is limited and guaranteed with a dinner reservation $25.00
World Music/CRASHarts on Facebook
Lo’Jo on Facebook

Founded in Angers, France by singer-keyboardist Denis Péan and violinist and kora player Richard Bourreau, Lo’Jo’s musical adventurism is the stuff of legend. The globe-trotting French daredevils have traveled the world for 30 years, playing in remote outposts, soaking up sounds, and founding the annual Festival in the Desert in northern Mali with Tuareg rockers Tinariwen. The six-member band plays funky, dubbed-up chansons laced with a bewildering variety of jazz, pop, reggae, circus, cabaret, klezmer, Roma, West African, and Maghrebian traditions. Péan’s rough-edged Tom Waits–like voice contrasts beautifully with those of sisters Yamina and Nadia Nid el Mourid for a sound that’s totally unclassifiable but utterly enthralling.

Boston Debut

Mar 03

Character-Building: EQUALLY DIVIDED

Photo by Meghan Moore. Pictured: Jill Tanner, Felicity La Fortune, Will Lyman and Anthony Newfield.

Photo by Meghan Moore. Pictured: Jill Tanner, Felicity La Fortune, Will Lyman and Anthony Newfield.

Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre
by Ronald Harwood
Directed by Charles Towers

February 13th – March 9th, 2014
Lowell, MA
MRT on Facebook

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Lowell) Professional baseball player Ichiro Suzuki once got into hot water for saying that when his team is losing year after year he focuses instead on playing for his own individual accomplishments.  To some, it showed selfishness, but to me it showed professionalism. Continue reading

Feb 24

Voluptuous Bluesy, Folksy Glam Rock: Asaf Avidan

Presented by World Music/CRASHarts
A concert by Asaf Avidan

Attended performance was on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014
Somerville Theatre
Davis Square
Somerville, MA
World Music/ CRASHarts on Facebook
Asaf Avidan on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Somerville) Asaf Avidan is compared to Janis Joplin and Billie Holiday. The timbre of his voice has similarities to that of the Joplin rasp and the warmth of Holiday, Avidan’s voice is vulnerable and striking in a way uniquely his own. Joplin and Holiday were distant from their audiences whereas it appeared that Avidan sang as if he wished to become one with us through his music. Continue reading

Feb 07

Admiral Kittypants Presents: PENDING

Admiral Kittypants Presents:

Pending:
The production will run for two performances on May 30 & 31, 2014 at Responsible Grace Church in Davis Square. Auditions will be in March. A modest stipend is available. Persons filling these positions will be expected to aid in basic marketing, and PR development.

For more information, interested parties should email Kitty Drexel at blognetheatregeek@gmail.com with the position in the subject line. Please include resume and description of intent in the email.

Website: https://www.netheatregeek.com/admiral-kittypants-full-frontal-artistry/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdmiralKittypantsFFA

Mascot, Admiral Dudley T. Kittypants

Mascot, Admiral Dudley T. Kittypants

 

Jan 16

Performing Fusion Theatre presents the Somerville Theatre Festival

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Performing Fusion Theatre presents the Somerville Theatre Festival, an exciting weekend of short plays, music, food and drink.

Please join us at The Somerville Center for Arts at the Armory on January 24th and 25th, 2014. Show starts at 7:15pm and will showcase the same plays both nights.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Cash and credit bar for food/drink.
Free parking is available behind the Armory or in their overflow lot (allow a little extra time!). The Armory is just a 15 minute walk from the Davis T (Redline) and is accessible by several bus lines.

Buy tickets here:
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/somerville-theatre-festival-tickets-8575865645

The plays include:

  • Angled Light, by Andrea Fleck Clardy
  • Take Out The Trash, by Con Chapman
  • Drinks, Dinner, and DNA and Press Pray, by Seth Freeman
  • Caliban’s, by Raymond Salcedo
  • The Space Behind Her Heart, by Steven Simoncic
  • It Doesn’t and The Philosophy of Dog, by George Smart
  • After Death and Another Day in Paradise, by Joe Starzyk

The festival takes place at The Center for Arts at the Armory. You can learn more and get tickets at the festival’s eventbrite page.

Mission

Performing Fusion Theatre’s mission is to promote multiculturalism by producing work that showcases multicultural talent, provides a space for shared culture through the integration of other art forms, and unifies members of the greater Boston community by exposing them to a creative atmosphere which idealizes cultural pluralism and equality. A crucial element to the realization of Performing Fusion’s mission is to encourage intercultural dialogue between all members of the community, while actively giving a voice to our underrepresented members, including women and people of color, and those of the LGBT, disabled, foreign born, and/or otherwise politically alienated identities. Performing Fusion will stage transformative theatre that fosters intercultural value, acceptance and openness to understanding our differences. Our theatre will encourage work which may embody history, but speaks to issues currently affecting the intercultural community.

Jan 07

Regarding the Best of the Biz We Call Show in 2013

Dearest Readers,

In the new year, after reflecting on what has been good and what has been bad in 2013, I can honestly say, that the best theatre I’ve seen all year was the show I saw at that one venue, playing on a day that ends in “Y,” in the city of Blerg.

People should get out and see theatre. All theatre. Because it’s usually good to someone. You won’t know until you attend. The only opinion that should truly matter to you is your own*.

With Love,
The Queen Geek

P.S. While you’re at it, go ahead and make some too.

*Except for this blog. My Geeks are awesome.

Jan 07

As in Life, “Working” is a Mixed Bag

Photo by Mark S. Howard for Lyric Stage Co of Boston; The Cast.

Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston
Based on the book, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, by Studs Terkel.
Adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso.
Additional contributions by Gordon Greenberg. Songs by Craig Carnella, Micki Grant, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mary Rodgers and Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz, James Taylor.
Directed & Choreographed by Ilyse Robbins
Music Direction by Jonathan Goldberg

January 3 to February 1, 2014
140 Clarendon St.
Boston, MA
The Lyric on Facebook

Running time: Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes with no intermission.

Review by Kitty Drexel

Boston) Studs Terkel’s book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do is a collection of essays/interviews with Americans in the workforce. It spans a variety of jobs and careers while exploring the motivations behind the work the subjects do. The employed and unemployed look for recognition, justification and greater purpose looking for recognition in the work that we do. The musical, Working adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso, uses samples from Terkel’s book to bring the dialogue to the stage. Continue reading

Jan 02

Admiral Kittypants Announces 2014 Dates

Mascot, Admiral Dudley T. Kittypants

Updated – January 2, 2014
New England Theatre Geek presents Admiral Kittypants: A Creative Coterie
For more information, please contact: Kitty Drexel, Queen Geek at blognetheatregeek@gmail.com

Admiral Kittypants seeks performers for its 2014 events

Event dates:
January 19th, 1pm – 3pm
February 23rd, 11am – 1pm
March 23rd, 12pm – 2pm
April 20th, 3pm – 5pm
May 18th, 3pm- 5pm
June 22nd, 3pm-5pm
July 20th, 11am-1pm
August 24th, 2pm – 4pm
Democracy Center, Cambridge, MA
Suggested $5 donation to benefit The Democracy Center

Cambridge, MA – New England Theatre Geek announces the next events for Admiral Kittypants: A Creative Coterie. Performers are encouraged to submit their monologues, sets, songs, solo, performance piece, etc. to blognetheatregeek@gmail.com for consideration. Kittypants is a creative community experiment that promises performers of all stripes and polka dots the opportunity to play with their art in a relaxed, safe space before performing it on the stage.

Those interested in presenting are encouraged to contact New England Theatre Geek for more information. Dramaturges, Directors, Music Directors, Composers, Choreographers, Stage Managers and the ilk interested in more information or in hosting an event should do the same.

Kittypants events will be held monthly and announced on www.newenglandtheatregeek.com and on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/AdmiralKittypantsFFA

Admiral Kittypants: A Creative Coterie is a creative community experiment that gives performers the opportunity to play with their art in a safe space before performing it on the stage. If it’s in moderate taste* and you want feedback, we can provide a constructive audience.

New England Theatre Geek is a pro-theatre, intellectually-bent theatre blog that features reviews and articles to excite and educate theatre audiences. We respect theatre professionals and amateurs and review with the intent of getting people interested in going to the theatre. We do write objectively and point out large flaws in productions for the benefit of the audience and the theatres. In this economy, audience members are looking for quality and value, and we want them to feel comfortable with expensive ticket purchases. In addition, we do not want one production to prevent a theatre from developing repeat business.

*Moderate Taste: Some, but not full, nudity; light cursing; stage combat and references to violence are acceptable; sexism, racism, and other -isms without warrant are strongly discouraged.

keep-calm-and-admiral-your-kittypants-75

 

Dec 19

Sex, Lies & Antlers: “The Eight: Reindeer Monologues”

Presented by Happy Medium Theatre Company
By Jeff Goode
Directed by Mikey DiLoreto and Lizette M. Morris

December 17-22, 2013
­­­
The Factory Theatre
791 Tremont St. Boston, MA
Happy Medium Theatre on Facebook

Review by Danielle Rosvally

(Boston) Difficult issues are difficult to tackle. It seems simplistic to put things this way, but of the theatre I’ve seen which attempts to handle “BIG PROBLEMS”, the vast majority is markedly ineffective.

This comes from a variety of factors: it’s easy to devolve into bad writing habits when you’ve got a hot-button issue on your hands. I wish I could tell you how many times I’ve been bludgeoned with the two-by-four of justice or honestly by a well-meaning playwright who was simply trying to engage with society’s greater schema. Unfortunately, those instances have been so traumatic that I’ve managed to wipe most of them from my memory and replaced them with visions of dancing sugarplums. Continue reading

Dec 02

Charm Conquers All: CAMELOT

Photo credit: Andrew Brilliant/Brilliant Pictures

Photo credit: Andrew Brilliant/Brilliant Pictures

Presented by New Repertory Theatre
Books and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Lowe
Original production directed and staged by Moss Heart
Based on “The Once and Future King” by TH White
Directed and choreographed by Russell Garrett
Musical direction by David McGrory
Dance Captain – Maurice Emmanuel Parent
Fight Captain – Michael J Borges

Nov. 23 – Dec. 22, 2013
Charles Mosesian Theater
Arsenal Center for the Arts
Watertown, MA
New Rep on Facebook

(Watertown) The Director’s Notes by Russell Garrett are excellent. An audience member desiring nostalgic information correlating Camelot to the anniversary of JFK’s assassination will be well pleased. For this purpose, I will not dwell on the JFK’s Camelot as Mr. Garrett has already done an excellent job of doing so in the programme. If you’d like to know more, see the show.

Considering the weight that the Kennedy Family carries in the US, one might expect Camelot to be a more serious show. Lerner and Lowe’s fluffy hit does examine some heavy issues but the majority of the script and lyrics are intended to entertain rather than educate. The sugary sweet production by New Rep does not fail in its mission to cheer Baby Boomers and to indoctrinate younger generations in classic musical theatre. Continue reading