Dec 03

It’s a Weirdly Wonderful Life with ImprovBoston’s “Merry Christmas, Mister Lampost!”

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Image Credit: ImprovBoston

presented by ImprovBoston

ImprovBoston
40 Prospect St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
December, Fridays at 10pm
ImprovBoston Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge) Criticized as saccharine on its initial release, It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) is probably one of the most watched Christmas movies of the era. In it, Jimmy Stuart stars as George Bailey, an unlucky small town businessman who gains a new lease on life when his guardian angel shows him how awfully the world would get on without him. Continue reading →

Nov 29

Tender to the Touch:”Burning Up the Dictionary”

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Photo credit: Vagabond Theatre Group; Meyer and Hoover are about to suck face. Awesome.

presented by Vagabond Theatre Group
written by Meron Langsner
directed by James Peter Sotis
incidental music by Santiago Cardenas

November 28 – December 1, 2012
Rehearsal Hall A
Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts

Vagabond Theatre Group Facebook Page

(Boston) George (Tim Hoover) and Suzie-Fay (Cassandra Meyer) are best buds attempting to reconcile their friendship after ending their intense love affair. To say that “it’s complicated” would be putting it mildly. In this 2 act play by Meron Langsner, George and Suzie navigate their break-up and learn that sometimes love isn’t enough. Continue reading →

Nov 27

Charm and Spirit: “Sunset Blvd”

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Photo credit: Pentucket Players, Inc

presented by Pentucket Players, Inc.
Sunset Boulevard

Book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Based on the 1950 film of the same title
Movie directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, produced and co-written by Charles Brackett

Rogers Center for the Arts
Merrimack College
North Andover, MA
Review is based on the performance of Nov. 24 at 8pm.
Performances ran Nov. 16 – 24, 2012
Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(North Andover) Sunset Boulevard is based on the classic 1950 American noir film directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett. It is named after the boulevard that runs through Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. William Holden played unlucky screenwriter Joe Gillis. Screen legend Gloria Swanson starred as the silent film star Norma Desmond. She ensnares Gillis with the luxury and excess only oodles of money can buy. What starts as an opportunity to reclaim their successes ends in tragedy for both. Continue reading →

Nov 20

“Betrayal”: Soured Love Affair in Reverse

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Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson

by Harold Pinter
Directed by Maria Aitken

presented by Huntington Theatre Company Website
Huntington Theatre Company Facebook Page
Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Nov 14 – Dec. 9, 2012

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston)With a plot that flows backward, a story about a long-ended affair becomes the story of how two people fell in love. Each layer of their relationship is stripped away, taking a couple who don’t seem to fit together in the least in 1977, chilly Emma (Gretchen Egolf) and the befuddled Jerry (Alan Cox), and re-framing them to reveal who they really are and what they used to be.
Continue reading →

Nov 18

Breaching the Dark: “The Man in The Couch”

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Photograph by Becca A. Lewis

Writer and director Alison Meirowitz/McCarthy
Now running, Nov. 2-18 Thurs-Sat 8pm, Sun 3pm
Review by Kitty Drexel
(Boston) The Man in the Couchis a hard candy nugget of science fiction and horror. On the surface it is smooth and hard and the characters’ inner depths continue to be the same. It isn’t sweet but it can offer some satisfaction. Our main characters are the rock and hard place that they have to breach in order to regain relative sanity/peace. It is reminiscent of The Twilight Zoneepisode “Nothing in the Dark” about an old woman shut away in an apartment to avoid meeting “Mr. Death” (the swoon-inducing Robert Redford). Continue reading →
Nov 17

Dance, The Way Ninjas Intended: “The Radio Show”

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Photo credits: Steven Schreiber and Renee Rosensteel.

 

WORLD MUSIC/CRASHarts PRESENTS THE BOSTON DEBUT OF
Kyle Abraham / Abraham.in.Motion
Performing the Boston premiere of The Radio Show
Friday, November 16, 7:30 pm | Saturday, November 17, 8pm
The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston
100 Northern Ave
Boston, MA 02210
Abraham.in.Motion Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston) Kyle Abraham and his troupe move like dancing ninjas. We are very lucky that they aren’t because everyone knows that if you can see the (dancing) ninja, you are already dead.

The Radio Show is a celebration of music and its effects on personal history and cultural identity. The pieces included in this production are inspired by the closing of a Pittsburgh radio station that Abraham listened to growing up. The pre-show includes Duwop radio hits and Abraham himself chatting up the audience. “AM 860” and “106.7 FM” are two dance overtures that explore range of motion while delving deep into the cultural impacts of hip hop, R&B, rap and pop music. Continue reading →

Nov 16

Music to Rock a Revolution: “Rock ‘n’ Roll”

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Photo credit: The Longwood Players; the cast does not headbang in this production.

 

Presented by The Longwood Players
By Tom Stoppard
Directed by Kaitlyn Chantry

Cambridge YMCA Theater
820 Mass. Ave.
Central Square, Cambridge MA
November 9 – 17
Longwood Players Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Cambridge) If you enjoy rock legends such as The Doors, The Velvet Underground, or Pink Floyd (Sid Barrett) with a dollop of political science philosophy, Rock ‘n’ Roll is for you. If not, I suggest skipping this heady production by The Longwood Players. There is a lot to value here but the cerebral participation necessary to enjoy Tom Stoppard’s work may overwhelm the audience goer expecting a lighter devotional to Rock. Continue reading →

Nov 13

indiegogo Campaign: “From Denmark With Love”

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Vaquero Playground: Fun, Cheap, Dirty Plays made just for Boston.
FROM DENMARK WITH LOVE,
May 10 – June 1, 2013
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre

Vaquero Playground Facebook Page

WHO WE ARE and WHAT We’re Doing:
In Spring of 2013 Vaquero Playground will be bringing it’s biggest production yet: FROM DENMARK WITH LOVE, a mash-up parody of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the one and only Bond, James Bond.
Written by John J King, the play stars Boston rising legend Daniel Berger-Jones and is directed by Barlow Adamson.

What We Need
Funds raised for the project will go primarily to the hard-working cast, crew, and creative team.  But just as importantly, the monies will go towards making sure the show is as BIG, bold, and exciting as it’s sources demand.
$3000 will go towards stipends for artists.
$3000 will go towards set, costumes, props, and necessary rehearsal space.

THREE WAYS TO HELP!
1. Toss us some Cash!
2. Spread the word!  Post the video on Facebook and Twitter; email friends; help us tell the world what we’re doing!
3. LIKE us on Facebook – best way to keep tabs on the show and everything from Vaquero Playground!

Nov 12

Book Review: “Undesirable Elements: Real People, Real Lives, Real Theater”

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“Undesirable Elements: Real People, Real Lives, Real Theater” by Ping Chong

by Ping Chong
Theatre Communications Group: New York, 2012
$17.95

Review by Kitty Drexel

A compilation of four selected scripts in the Undesirable Elements series by writer, director and producer Ping Chong as well as collaborator interviews and methodology. These poly-language scripts demonstrate the potential to combine the arts of storytelling, theater and poetry into a community building/affirming production. These performances are capable of reaching out to a broader theater audience (an audience perhaps jaded by conventional theater) to experience dramatic communication in ways that some artists only dream of. It is art that uses personal experience to reveal truths of the larger world community rather than using art to glorify aspects of “Other” within a community. Undesirable Elements offers a shocking exploration of the lives of social outsiders and presents them as whole, human people sometimes contrary to the perception of much of society. These works refreshingly present the players’ perspective without unintended bias. Because bias exists whether it is intended or not. Continue reading →

Nov 12

Aerial Stunts and Re-Kindling Mythic Passion: Ted Hughes’ Tales from Ovid

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With Jennifer OConnor, Aimee Rose Ranger and Danny Bryck at Paramount Center.

based on Tales from Ovid, by Ted Hughes published by Faber & Faber, Ltd.
Composer: David McMullin
Composer/Musician/Ensemble: Shaw Pong Liu

presented by Whistler in the Dark Theatre
directed by Meg Taintor
in association with ArtsEmerson: The World Onstage

November 8-18th
Jackie Liebergott Black Box at the Paramount Center
559 Washington Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02111
Whistler in the Dark Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

Ancient Greek myths, when adapted to the stage, need not be built-up to be timely. The dissonance between myth and the modern era can be distracting in contemporary adaptations. If anything, here, the stories chosen from Ovid’s Metamorphoses are stripped down. The production has few props and no costumes, giving the ensemble room to breathe. Whistler in the Dark is the perfect sort of theater to spur to life the passions beneath the age-old Greek myths, which will surely please both casual and Classicist audiences. Continue reading →