Apr 08

Serviceable Revolution: LES MISERABLES

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One Day More The Company of the New 25th Anniversary Production of Les Misérables; photo credit: http://www.lesmis.com/us/sights-and-sounds/photos/

The Company of the New 25th Anniversary Production of Les Misérables; photo credit: http://www.lesmis.com/us/sights-and-sounds/photos/

Based on the novel by Victor Hugo
Book/Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Author/Dramatist: Alain Boublil
Directed by James Powell/Laurence Connor

Cameron Mackintosh Productions
The Hanover Theatre
Worcester, MA
April 2nd – 7th, 2013
Hanover Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Worcester) You’re probably sick of hearing about Les Miserables, and how Russell Crowe can’t sing and how Anne Hathaway can’t pick out her dress.  I know I am, and I didn’t really like the musical that much in the first place.  “Ornate” might be a generous way to describe how this play’s music reaches my ears; “overdone” might be more accurate.  But if you can strip away the hype, it’s possible to see a really good storyline that materializes from this spectacle.  After all, that Victor Hugo guy may have been no Stephen Sondheim, but he was no slouch.  Penned a few novels, something about a hunchback.  I hear he sold a few copies. Continue reading →

Apr 08

Sing Along with the Common People: BOUNCERS

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Cantab Lounge, Club Bohemia
Cambridge, MA
April 5th – April 27th, 2013
Stickball Productions Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Cambridge) At times, beautiful, sassy and hypnotic, at times purposely pointless, crass and heartbreaking, the play Bouncers hits all the right notes to catch the highs and lows of a night of clubbing.  If you were an anthropologist and wanted to study the alcohol-fueled mating rituals of  the young, you wouldn’t find a more accurate snapshot than these 1.5 hours of traffic playing at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. Continue reading →

Apr 08

Timeless Greed is Coming to MRT with Glengarry Glen Ross

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Glengarry
presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre
MRT Facebook Page

Directed by Charles Towers
Listing by Craig Idlebrook

Greed may not be good, as fictional stockbroker Gordon Gekko once famously espoused, but it never goes out of style.

In the 1987 film Wall Street, Gekko’s ode to greed was devastating to hear for Americans who had just suffered through insider trading and junk bond scandals.  The late eighties also produced Glengarry Glen Ross, a razor-sharp play by David Mamet which examines greed on the micro-level, as bottom-feeding real estate agents in Buffalo lie, cheat and steal to sell tracts of land in Florida.  While focusing on everyday financial crimes, Mamet creates an allegory for Wall Street greed that resonated with Main Street theatergoers in the late eighties. Continue reading →

Apr 08

Complicit Satire: LUTHER

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Photo care of Apollinaire Theatre Co Facebook Page

 

Presented by The Apollinaire Theatre Company
by Ethan Lipton
directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques

Chelsea Theatre Works
Chelsea, MA
April 5th – May 4th, 2013
Performances will be followed by a Reception with the actors in the Gallery.
The Apollinaire Theatre Co Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Chelsea) Is it possible that we have slept through two of the longest wars in U.S. history?  Not only that, but we slept through those wars because we stayed up too late watching the Jersey Shore.  The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were fought by professional soldiers far away, their impact reduced to a stream of debate on the nightly news.  Now, as the wars wind down, a generation of damaged soldiers walks among us, haunted by what they have experienced on the battlefield.  We lionize these warriors, but many of us don’t know what to do with them.  Many soldiers likewise are unable to reintegrate into society, and feel like aliens in their homeland. Continue reading →

Apr 02

Properly and Honestly: MASTER CLASS

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Amelia Broome as Maria Callas; Photo: Rob Lorino

Presented by New Repertory Theatre

A play with music by Terrence McNally
Directed by Antonio Ocampo-Guzman

Charles Mosesian Theater
Watertown, MA 02472
March 31 – April 21, 2013
New Rep Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Watertown) Amelia Broome doesn’t use a Greek accent in her portrayal as international treasure and opera superstar, Maria Callas. The audience doesn’t have the luxury of knowing why Broome chose not to use an accent. Broome’s performance is effective without one so the reasons don’t matter.

Master Class is a grand opportunity for non-Classical singers (plebes) to experience the horror and joy that is operatic study. It is a (relatively) cheap vocal coaching for its length and history wrapped in a convenient package. The dialogue is only slightly dramatized for the benefit of the audience. The majority of Callas’ lessons and helpful hints are comments that any voice teacher could and would give her student. The majority of these same lessons and hints are conveyed in a similar manner as well. Continue reading →

Apr 02

Beautiful & Grotesque Misrepresentations: BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK

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Photo Credit: Mark S. Howard; Hannah Husband, Kami Rushell Smith, Kelby T. Akin, Gregory Balla

by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Summer L. Williams

The Lyric Stage Company
Boston, MA
March 29, 2013 – April 27, 2013
The Lyric Stage Facebook Page
Running time: Approximately 2 hours & 15 minutes, includes one intermission

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston) The events of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark appear to be comedic. In truth, viewed with the perspective of historical racial prejudice, it is more like a tragedy. Vera Stark is a Black actress living in Los Angeles and nursing a dream of appearing on the big screen as more than an anonymous face in a club scene. She dreams of being a character that isn’t a slave and definitely isn’t a “Mammy” role. Determined to make her mark in Hollywood, Stark rallies her friends and boss Gloria, and manages to slightly alter bureaucratic race relations at the same time. It was one small step for woman and a held breath for the rest of mankind. Continue reading →

Mar 31

Bloody Fences Make Good Neighbors: SOCIAL CREATURES

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PHOTO: MARK TUREK

Presented by Trinity Repertory Company

by Jackie Sibblies Drury
directed by Curt Columbus

Providence, Rhode Island
Trinity Rep Co Facebook Page
March 14 – April 21

Review by Craig Idlebrook

This play contains graphic violence. Running time is 95 minutes with no intermission.

(Providence) It didn’t look like a good setup for good theater. Post-apocalyptic zombie invasions have become all the rage for script-writers, and there have been several new plays in Boston which have attempted to turn flesh-eating marauders into viable drama; few have been successful. The best resembled family dramas with zombies tacked on; the worst became fan fiction.

But Jackie Sibblies Drury’s sharp script for Social Creatures powers the best production of a new play I’ve seen in a long time. This tense and gory tragicomedy, debuting at Trinity Rep, avoids so many pitfalls of both new plays and zombie drama. It creates a credible atmosphere of real danger, both physically and emotionally, and Drury uses the threat to effectively explore what we lose as a society when we lose intimacy. Continue reading →

Mar 29

When X+Y+Z=X+Y+Z-1: PROOF

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Photos by Meghan Moore; Michael Pemberton and Keira Keeley.

Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre

by David Auburn
Directed by Christian Parker

50 East Merrimack Street
Lowell, MA 01852
March 21st – April 14th, 2013
Merrimack Rep Theatre Facebook Page
Estimated run time 2 hours with one 15 minute intermission.

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Lowell) For a play that focuses on mathematics, Proof, playing at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, nails social theory.  In this thoughtful production, we learn that a family is really a group organism that can adapt to having a limb injured or severed, but that organism can never be the same afterwards. Continue reading →

Mar 25

Drama Gives the Power to Civilize Convicts in “Our Country’s Good”

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With Jennifer OConnor, Mac Young and Lynn R Guerra; Photos by Chris McKenzie

Presented by Whistler in the Dark Theatre

by Timberlake Wertenbaker
directed by Meg Taintor

March 15-April 6th
The Charlestown Working Theater
Charlestown, MA 02129
Whistler in the Dark Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Charlestown) Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good is not about the importance of plays but the importance of fiction—dreams, ambitions, and fantasies—to the downtrodden.  The convicts sent to the Australian penal colonies in 1788 have been dehumanized chiefly by circumstance.  The play the officers have the felons put on gives them the dignity they could not find in lives led as thieves and prostitutes in England.  The whole thing is an impressive meditation on how art fiercely alters perspective even if The Charlestown Working Theater’s production suffers peculiar pacing and lingering pauses. Continue reading →

Mar 25

Masterly, Fun Fiddling: NATALIE MACMASTER

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Photo Credit: Care of the Natalie MacMaster Facebook Page

Presented by World Music/Crasharts Festival: Winter/Spring 2013

Sanders Theatre
Cambridge, MA
Saturday March 23, 2013
World Music/CRASHarts Facebook Page
Natalie MacMaster Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idebrook

(Cambridge) When done right, there is something so unpretentiously fun about the Celtic music that comes from the little Nova Scotian island of Cape Breton.  Rooted in Scottish musical traditions and honed in kitchen parties on long winter nights, it is a musical form that is vibrant, heartfelt and accessible.  And few Cape Breton products so embody the spirit of this musical scene better than Natalie MacMaster, a world-class fiddler from world-class fiddling stock.  Continue reading →