(Boston, MA) The last time Ana Moura was hosted by World Music/CRASH arts in 2014, she brought the house to its feet in a celebration of her latest release at the time Desfado. This show was excellent in a different way. Certainly, her latest album Moura has been touring since last year and those performances were condensed for her concert at the Berklee Performance Center this past Saturday. Featuring a great backing band, Ana Moura dazzled the typically stoic New England audience to the point of stupefication for two hours.Continue reading →
Presented by Moonbox Productions
Music and Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa
Book by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe
Based on the poem by Joseph Moncure March
Directed and choreographed by Rachel Bertone
Music direction by Dan Rodriguez
Orchestration by Bruce Coughlin
(Boston, MA) Moonbox Production’s The Wild Party is a tight, gin-moist package of cruelty, casual racism and light kink. It’s a domestic violence fairy tale of grotesque proportions, and sexy as fuck. Everyone over the age of 18 should see it. The subject might be naughty but its methods are mesmerizing.Continue reading →
Current-May 15, 2016 Central Square Theater
Central Square, Cambridge, MA
Central Square/Nora Theatre on Facebook
Noe and I attended this performance together. We were impacted differently so we both wrote reviews. One follows after the other below. Continue reading →
(Chelsea, MA) Leila (Alison Meirowitz McCarthy) and Rashid (Mauro Canepa) are introduced to the audience in their pajamas as self-styled intellectuals, struggling to be distant from their emotions. They’re Egyptian-Americans who open the play conversing like an editorial on gender politics, feminism, and cultural differences. Then comes in Doug (Geoff Van Wyck), the photographer they have invited into their bedroom for a sexual adventure. He’s blunt, cheerful, and thoroughly naked. He is the chaotic element that opens them up to the insecurities that run deep through their relationship. His attitudes don’t represent some enlightened, Western view as a cure-all to their squeamishness, however. No, Doug has his own insecurities he’s bringing in, too. What begins as an adult comic drama ends as a dark exploration of the political and personal. Continue reading →
Queen Tytania (Maya Kherani) and Bottom (Joseph Hubbard), Photo provided by BU School of Music
Presented Boston University College of Fine Arts
Benjamin Britten, composer & Peter Pears, librettist
Based on the play by William Shakespeare
William Lumpkin, conductor
Tara Faircloth, stage director
(Boston, MA) I enjoy myself most with adaptations of Shakespeare’s comedies when their sense of fun and lightness remain intact. The direction in Boston University Theatre’s production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream didn’t fail me. This vision is every bit the dream of the title. Fairies wear blue wigs and polka dot suits, columns of giant, white flowers are moved across the stage, Puck (Elizabeth Valenti) brings Queen Tytania (Maya Kherani) her morning tea, and King Oberon (Wee-Kiat Chia) smugly points out his wife slept with an enchanted donkey-man (Joseph Hubbard) the night before. One scene flows into the next elegantly. For the most part, it’s a perfectly realized vision. Continue reading →
From the World Music/CRASH arts press release:
(Boston, MA) Portuguese vocalist Ana Moura possesses a sound unlike any other in fado. Her voice trolls freely though the Portuguese tradition, flirting elegantly with pop and broadening the soul-baring genre with stunning results.
…Fado (literally, “fate”) is a type of Portuguese singing, traditionally associated with pubs and cafés, and is renowned for its expressive and profoundly melancholic character. Although the origins are difficult to trace, today fado is regarded by many as simply a form of song which can be about anything but must follow a certain structure. The music is usually linked to the Portuguese word saudade which symbolizes the feeling of loss (a permanent, irreparable loss and its consequent lifelong damage). The singer of fado speaks to the often harsh realities of everyday life, sometimes with a sense of resignation, sometimes with the hope of resolution.
…Ana Moura’s newest studio album, Moura, was released in November 2015 in Portugal and immediately received gold status. Soon to be released in the rest of the world, the album was produced by Larry Klein, who has produced worked for legends like Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell. Just like Desfado, the album features a number of major guests, including Carlos Tê, Sara Tavares, and Edu Mundo, among others.
About World Music/CRASHarts
World Music/CRASHarts is a nonprofit organization that presents an eclectic mix of global, folk, jazz, and indie music along with contemporary and world dance in a series of concerts, events, and educational programs in greater Boston. It strives to offer audiences an opportunity to share in many different artistic performances and seeks to foster an atmosphere of cultural discovery. For 25 years, World Music/CRASHarts has answered a need for cultural programming in greater Boston that reflects today’s global community. For tickets and more information, call 617-876-4275 or visitwww.WorldMusic.org
Presented by the Suffolk University Theatre Department
Book, Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Directed by Paul Melone
Musical Direction by Scott Nicholas
(Boston, MA) So here we are again. Same play, another day, and another production. This time, the cherished show made its way to the Suffolk University Theatre Department. Continue reading →
(Charlestown, MA) Stories about the end of the world are often concerned with the survival of the individual against structures that have filled the void since the fabled downfall of society. This includes reality television death match enthusiasts (Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games), patriarchal cults with private harems (Mad Max: Fury Road), fight dome fans lead by Tina Turner (Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome), and foul-mouthed, fur-wearing, belligerent tribes of wanderers. Dog Act looks not just at the individual, but the survival of art in a new North American wasteland. Continue reading →
(Boston, MA) It is no small challenge to take on a piece with so much cultural baggage as Alice in Wonderland. Audiences have seen, heard, and read this story over and over again from our childhoods unto the present day. Alice is everywhere in so many forms that adding something new to the tale is a Herculean task. Unfortunately, I don’t think that artistic director Matthew Woods quite had a handle on it. Continue reading →
Review of The Book of Grace by Suzan-Lori Parks Published by Theatre Communications Group (TCG) New York, NY $14.95
Review by Kitty Drexel
The Book of Grace is a three-person drama set in rural Texas near the Mexican/American border. Grace is a kind-hearted waitress who stubbornly believes in hope and the human capacity for good. She invites her step-son Buddy home to reunite with his father, Vet. Vet is an honored border security guard obsessed with the wall with abusive tendencies. Buddy is the adult-son, military dropout that Vet abandoned for a new life with Grace. While all three search for common ground, Vet’s unforgivable sins surface to haunt their new lives. The Book of Grace is a companion piece to Parks’ Topdog/Underdog.Continue reading →
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