Tag Archives: 2012

May 10

Geeks Nerds and Artists Episode 6: Spiro Veloudos

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photo credit: Lyric Stage of Boston

Episode 6: Geeks, Nerds & Artists Podcast: Spiro Veloudos, Artistic Director of Lyric Stage Company of Boston and director of current production of Avenue Q

http://www.lyricstage.com/

Avenue Q: May 11-June 24, 2012 (it is selling out presently)

Spiro Veloudos is the Producing Artistic Director of The Lyric Stage Company. and has been honored with numerous awards and honors including The Elliot Norton Award and The Independent Reviews of New England (IRNE) Award. He has been personally honored with the 2006 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, Stage Source’s 2002 Theatre Hero Award and was cited as the city’s Best Artistic Director by Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston program in 1999. Continue reading →

May 07

Horrific Comfort Food: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

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l. to r. Bill Mootos, Ceit McCaleb Zweil, Lovely Hoffman, and Jennifer Fogarty in Little Shop of Horrors. Photo by Andrew Brilliant / Brilliant Pictures.

Little Shop of Horrors, book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken, New Repertory Theatre, Charles Mosesian Theater at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 4/29/12-5/27/12, http://www.newrep.org/little_shop.php.

Reviewed by Kate Lonberg-Lew

(Watertown, MA) Sometimes you are having a bad day. Sometimes you are in such a bad mood that escapism is the only way to manage.  It was in such a state that I entered the New Rep’s production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Arsenal Center for the Arts. I tell you this so that you will know exactly how steep a hill the cast had to climb in order for me to emerge smiling; which I did. Continue reading →

May 07

Lunatics Running the Asylum: ASSASSINS

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As the culminating event in the College's year-long examination of the theme of violence, Assassins brims with a particularly urgent energy. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky for Boston University Photography © 2012 Boston University all rights reserved

Assassins, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weidman, Boston University Colllege of Fine Arts School of Theatre, Boston University Theatre, 4/4/12-4/10/12, http://www.bu.edu/cfa/2012/04/20/assassins/.

Reviewed by Craig Idlebrook

(Boston, MA) It’s nice for Stephen Sondheim and his partner John Weidman to clear up a few things for us about theater in their mishmash of a play, Assassins, playing at the Boston University Theatre.

They have proven a fundamental truth: You can populate your play with profoundly interesting characters, give them things to do that impact every theatergoer’s psyche and bestow wonderful music for them to sing as they do it, but if the script doesn’t allow them to interact in a meaningful way, it’s just an exercise in futility.  The playwrights prove this point despite the best efforts of a talented cast, who creates full-fledged and compelling characters. In fact, the cast and stellar set give us such high expectations that it makes the mind want to rebel at this idle script all the more.    Continue reading →

May 01

WIN TICKETS TO T: AN MBTA MUSICAL!

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Performance dates:  June 8, 15, 29 and July 6 at Club Oberon in Cambridge, MA

Part of why T: An MBTA Musical reaches such a wide audience is because anyone who has ridden the T, even once, know the craziness that is the MBTA.

To win tickets to this show (that will sell out again), tell us your strangest, most humorous, or horrific story by filling the comment form below (click on title or “read more” for the full post) by May 8th.  You must enter your full name and a valid email address to win.  Winner will be announced on May 10th. Continue reading →

Apr 29

A Pitch-Perfect Meditation: GHOST-WRITER

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Dan Kremer and Rebecca Harris. Photo by Meghan Moore.

Ghost-Writer by Michael Hollinger, Merrimack Repertory Theatre,    4/19/12-5/13/12, http://www.merrimackrep.org/season/show.aspx?sid=109.

Reviewed by Craig Idlebrook

(Lowell, MA) The author starts with a blank page. It fills with words. From where do the words come? That is the underlying mystery of Merrimack Repertory Theatre’s masterful production of Ghost-Writer. Continue reading →

Apr 28

Melissa Carubia Takes Us For A Ride On The MBTA MUSICAL

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T: An MBTA Musical Starts 6/8/12 at Club Oberon in Cambridge, MA.

photo credit: Elizabeth Woodward (from last year's production.)


www.elizabethwoodwardphoto.com

Interview by Becca Kidwell

(Last year’s review: https://www.netheatregeek.com/2011/07/02/t-an-mbta-musical-charlie-takes-a-wicked-funny-ride/)

They’re ba-ack…Alice, John, and Michelle return to thwart the troublesome MBTA. On June 8th, T: An MBTA Musical, the surprising smash hit of last summer, makes stops at Club Oberon. Where do ideas for musicals come from? Melissa Carubia, the show’s composer, takes us on the underground journey.

Continue reading →

Apr 21

Growing up at the “Bee”

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25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin, Turtle Lane Playhouse, 4/13/12-4/29/12, http://www.turtlelane.org/showdetail.php?show=SpellingBee.

Reviewed by Becca Kidwell

(Auburndale, MA)  Healthy competition is good for children!–Well, that’s what everyone says.  The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee tells a story that soccer and hockey parents have been learning in the past few years:  kids still need to be kids.  It’s hard enough to adjust to the physical, social, emotional changes without being expected to act like an adult.  Continue reading →

Apr 16

Luck of the Irish: Race Warfare in the 20th and 21st Centuries

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Nikkole Salter and McCaleb Burnett in Kirsten Greenidge’s THE LUCK OF THE IRISH. March 30 – April 29, 2012 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. huntingtontheatre.org. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

The Luck of the Irish by Kirsten Greenidge, Huntington Theatre Company, Boston Center for the Arts Virginia Wimberly Theatre, 3/30/12-5/6/12, http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/2011-2012/The-Luck-of-the-Irish/.

Reviewed by Gillian Daniels

(Boston, MA) When the upwardly mobile Lucy and Rex Taylor (Nikkole Salter and Victor Williams, respectively) are unable to buy a house in Boston because they’re black, they turn to Patty Ann and Joe Donovan (Marianna Bassham and McCaleb Burnett) to buy one for them during the 1950’s.  The complex relationship this creates between them bleeds over into the early 2000’s when the Harrisons’ grandchildren discover the elderly Donovans want the house back.  The drama that results is tight and enjoyable. Continue reading →

Apr 08

Community amidst Hostility: THE TEMPERMENTALS

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Steve Kidd, Will McGarrahan, Victor L. Shopov, & Shelley Bolman in The Temperamentals. Photo by Mark S. Howard

The Tempermentals by Jon Marans, Lyric Stage Company, 3/30/12-4/28/12, https://lyricstage.com/

main_stage/the_temperamentals/.

Reviewed by Craig Idlebrook

The oppressed can’t name their condition without fear of reprisal.  They can’t gather together.  They can’t escape their condition in the traditional refuges of family, community, friendship and sex.  Imagine trying to create change swimming against such a tide.  Continue reading →