Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 →

Apr 10

Make It Personal, Tell the Truth: “Burn This”

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Photo by Tim Gurczak.

Presented by Hub Theatre Company of Boston 
By Lanford Wilson
Directed by Daniel Bourque
Intimacy direction by Lauren Cook
Fight choreography by Matt Dray

Saturday, April 6 -Sunday, April 21, 2024
Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 

All performances are Pay-What-You-Can

Two hours with one intermission

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON, Mass. — Hub Theatre Company of Boston’s production of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This runs at the BCA through April 21. Get your tickets to support local fringe theatre HERE. 

Anna (Kiki Samko), an impotent choreographer and retired dancer, is grappling with the artistic and personal void left by the untimely death of her roommate and creative partner Robbie. Her best friend and housemate Larry (Steve Auger) acts as nurse, bodyguard, and gatekeeper. Anna’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Burton (Tim Hoover) wants to be her everything. Anna won’t decide what she wants to be or who she wants to do. 

Enter Pale (Victor L Shopov), Robbie’s incendiary older brother. She lights a flame in her heart, under her feet, and in her pants. With Robbie gone, Anna will either discover a new muse or burn the apartment down trying.  Continue reading →

Mar 29

May We All Find Our People: “Driving in Circles”

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Jordan Palmer (left), Jay Eddy (center), Zach Fontanez (right); Photo by Scornavacca Photography.

Presented by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
Written, composed, and performed by Jay Eddy
Directed by Sam Plattus
Featuring the talents of Zach Fontanez and Jordan Palmer

March 21 – April 6, 2024
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
949 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

Digital Playbill

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Content Transparency: This performance explores healing after trauma and contains themes of sexual violence, childhood sexual abuse, suicide, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Production features live electronic music (earplugs are available). For further details on topics mentioned, click here.

BOSTON, Mass. — Driving in Circles is a “solo-ish” musical with a killer backup band (Zach Fontanez and Jordan Palmer). Jill (Jay Eddy) is a young person bearing the psychological burden of shameful secrets. We watch Jill grow up into a whip-smart young adult with an agile, curious mind and severe mental health problems. We watch Jill navigate high school, college, and adulthood without executive functioning skills to an electro-rock beat.  Continue reading →

Mar 06

This One’s For the Deadites: “Evil Dead: The Musical (HD Version)”

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Presented by Roshi Entertainment
Permission by Renaissance Pictures, Ltd. and Studio Canal Image, S.A.
License provided by Music Theatre International
Book and lyrics by George Reinblatt
Additional lyrics by Christopher Bond
Music by Frank Cipolla, Christopher Bond, Melissa Morris & George Reinblatt
Additional Music by: Rob Daleman
https://evildeadthemusical.com/ 

JAN 25 – FEB 25, 2024
Boston Conservatory for the Arts
539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA

Review by Gillian Daniels

BOSTON, Mass – Evil Dead: The Musical synthesizes three cult films into a bloody mess. That mess is made literal through the liberal use of Kool Aid, splattered in the faces, clothes, and plastic ponchos of a deadite (ie, Evil Dead fan) audience as happily animated as the zombie antagonists. This show is exactly what it says on the tin and it leans into its campy, sticky silliness with the enthusiasm of a swimmer executing a cannonball in a public swimming pool. Continue reading →

Nov 30

Jingles in Her All the Way: “The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show”

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Press photo by Jiji Lee.

Produced by BenDeLaCreme Presents
Co-created and co-written by BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon
Directed by BenDeLaCreme
Performed by BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon
Featuring: Mr. Babygirl, Ruby Mimosa, Scott Spraags, Jim Kent, Chloe Albin, Jace Gonzalez, and Gus Lanza as Hunky the Elf
TOUR DATES

November 28, 2023 @ 8PM
Boch Center
Wang Theatre
270 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116

Review by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Thanksgiving has passed. The Black Friday sales are over. Unread Giving Tuesday emails have been ceremoniously deleted. So you know what that means… Deck your halls and gird your loins, folx, it’s time for the first seasonal siege of the War on Christmas! 

Just kidding. Mostly.  

The 2023 December holidays are near and that means preparation for Hannukah, Advent, Yule, Christmas, the new moon, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s. While other theatre companies are rehearsing their annual A Christmas Carol for the family set, BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon are cinching their girdles for this year’s edition of The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show for queer adults (NETG recommended 17+) and their allies. Continue reading →

Nov 11

“La Cenerentola” Sparkles

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Presented by Boston Lyric Opera
Music by Gioachino Rossini
Libretto by Jacopo Ferretti
Conducted by David Angus 
Stage Directed by Dawn M. Simmons
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
November 8-12, 2023 
Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre 
219 Tremont Street 
Boston, MA 02116

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Critique by Gillian Daniels

Boston, MASS. – A downtrodden heroine, Angelina (Cecelia Hall), gets revenge on her family by marrying for love and living well. La Cenerentola is a Cinderella adaptation that sparkles with humor and Giaochino Rossini’s energetic score. It’s fun, it’s satisfying, and this Boston production does credit to the fairy tale for the benefit of local audiences. Continue reading →

Nov 03

If We Were Inferior, They Wouldn’t Need Racist Laws to Hold Us Back: “Phillis in Boston” at the Old South Meeting House

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Presented by Revolutionary Spaces
Written by Ade Solanke 
Directed by Regge Life
Featuring: Bobby Cius, Adreyanua Jean-Louis, Priscilla Manning, Joshua Olumide, Serenity S’rae 

November 3 – December 3, 2023
Old South Meeting House
310 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02108

Critique by Kitty Drexel

“On Being Brought from Africa to America”
By Phillis Wheatley 
“’Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their colour is a diabolic die.”
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.”

BOSTON, Mass. — Revolutionary Spaces presents Phillis in Boston by Ade Solanke at the Old South Meeting House in Boston. Directed by Regge Life. Performances run approximately 90 minutes. There is no intermission. 

Phillis in Boston is an historical play about Phillis Wheatley, an African woman born in Gambia, who was kidnapped by slave traders around 1753 and sold into enslavement to the Wheatley family in Boston. Educated to read and write by the Wheatley family, she began to write poetry around the age of 14. Wheatley was admitted to Old South Meeting House’s segregated congregation when she was about 18 years old.  Continue reading →

Oct 16

Mischief and Devil’s Work: “Sweeney Todd” at Arrow Street Arts

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Davron Monroe and Joy Clark. Photo Credit: chelcymariephotography

Presented by Moonbox Productions
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
From an Adaptation by Christopher Bond
Originally Directed on Broadway by Harold Prince
Directed by Ryan Mardesich
Choreography by Joy Clark
Music Directed by Dan Ryan
Fight choreography by Margaret Clark
Dramaturgy by Courtney Elkin Mohler

Oct. 13 – Nov. 5, 2023
Arrow Street Arts
2 Arrow Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Audio Described Performances:
Sunday, October 29 at 3:00 pm &
Saturday, November 4 at 8:00 pm
Post-Show Talkbacks:
Sunday, October 22 with Director Ryan Mardesich and Music Director Dan Ryan

Content Advisory: Murder, Cannibalism, Sexual Assault, Gunshots, Violence.

Critique by Kitty Drexel

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Moonbox Productions welcomes audiences back to 2 Arrow Street with its inaugural production of Sondheim and Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Performances run now through Nov. 5 in Cambridge.

Arrow Street Arts resides in the renovated space of what was once the A.R.T.’s Club Oberon (RIP). Moonbox stripped the location of its dark aesthetic and replaced it with bright, white paint The better to showcase cast information, and Moonbox’s production partner, the New England Innocence Project.  Continue reading →

Sep 30

“We Are the Land” Presented by the Wampanoag Nation with ArtsEmerson

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Presented by ArtsEmerson
Written, created, and performed by members of the Wampanoag Nation 
Featuring: Aiden Andrews, Nelson Andrews Jr., Siobahn Brown, Melvin Coombs, Troy Currence, Hartman Deetz, Jasmine Goodspeed, Audreyana Sterling Harding, Kitty Hendricks, Stephen Hendricks, Vanessa Mendes, Asa Peters, Jim Peters, Paula Peters, Michelle St John, Carol Wynne

Originally produced by the Wampanoag Nation for performance at Theatre Royal Plymouth, UK

September 29 & 30, 2023
Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre
219 Tremont Street Boston
Boston, MA 02116
Running time: 1 hour 15 min approx

Statement by Kitty Drexel
Review by Noelani Kamelamela

BOSTON, Mass. — ArtsEmerson presents We Are the Land. It is an historical account of colonization by the Wampanoag Nation for all audiences on September 29 and 30 at the Emerson Culter Magestic Theatre in Boston. 

It is my great privilege to serve the New England theatre community as a critic. Sometimes, as is the case of We Are the Land, it is my duty to serve as a historian and then step aside to make room for other voices. In a moment, I will cede space to Noelani.  Continue reading →

Sep 19

Why Isn’t She President?: “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive”

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From left: Laura Latreille, Monique Ward Lonergan, Lisa Yuen, Catia, and Crystin Gilmore. Photo by Nile Scott.

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company
By Selina Fillinger
Directed by Paula Plum
Fighting and intimacy choreography by Angie Jepson
Featuring Marianna Bassham, Johanna Carlisle-Zepeda, Catia, Crystin Gilmore, Laura Latreille, Monique Ward Lonergan, Lisa Yuen

Sept. 15 – Oct. 15, 2023
Audio Description: Friday, October 6, 2023 at 8pm; Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 2pm
Open Captioning: Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 8pm; Sunday, October 8, 2023 at 3pm
BCA Roberts Studio Theatre
527 Tremont Street
Boston, MA

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON, Mass. — POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is hardcore intersectional feminism! It is raunchy*, it is absurd, and it is the funniest 110 minutes you’ll spend in the theatre this fall.

Paula Plum directs a cast of brilliant, multi-hyphenate actors in SpeakEasy’s production of POTUS at the Roberts Studio Theatre. Playbill summarizes POTUS thusly: “It’s just another (omg, wtf, LMFAO) day at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. When a White House PR nightmare spins into a legit sh*tshow, seven brilliant and beleaguered women must risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble. POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is a bawdy and irreverent look at sex, politics, and the women in charge of the man in charge of the free world…” Continue reading →