Tag Archives: 2023

Nov 28

Hope Comes Floating on a Lemon Leaf: “The Band’s Visit”

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Cast of The Band’s Visit; Photo by T Charles Erickson. Skyline by Aja M Jackson.

Co-presented by The Huntington & SpeakEasy Stage Company
Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek
Book by Itamar Moses
Based on the screenplay by Eran Kolirin
Directed by Paul Daigneault
Choreography by Daniel Pelzig
Music Direction by José Delgado
Dramaturgy by Vahdat Yeganeh
Intimacy consultation by Kayleigh Kane

November 15 – December 17, 2023
The Huntington Theatre
264 Huntington Ave 
Boston, MA 02115

Review by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON, Mass. — The Band’s Visit is an adaptation of a 2007 movie of the same name by Eran Kolirin. The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra travels from Egypt to Israel to celebrate the opening of a cultural center. They arrive in a small town in the Negev Desert to find they are in the wrong place, there are no more buses, and no hotels.  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 30

Frights for Our Times: “Cirque of the Dead”

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Presented by Boston Circus Guild
Directed by Eileen Little
Creative Production and Costume Design by Ellen Waylonis
Script by Tim Ellis
Stage management by Zahra Garrett and Micaela Slotin
Lighting design by Brittany Trymbulak
Featuring Alex Jackson, Alex Oliva, Caroline Wright, Ellen Waylonis, Judith Ngari, Morgan Oldham, Rachel Barringer, Roger May, Tim Ellis

October 27 – October 31
Arts at the Armory
191 Highland Ave
Somerville MA, 02143

Review by Maegon Bergeron-Clearwood

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — There’s something about this show, I thought to myself, partway through the first act of Cirque of the Dead, that feels distinctly millennial. It wasn’t just the jokes about podcasting and politics – beneath every clever quip and gravity-defying flip, there was a vague existential dread lingering beneath the surface.

Sure enough, the true villain of Boston Circus Guild’s Halloween saga is not a demon that needs to be ritualistically trapped inside the vessel of a Barbie doll, but instead the crushing feeling of powerlessness that defines being a young-ish adult in 2023. And our greatest strength in this time of despair, it turns out, is teamwork (and, of course, Taylor Swift). Continue reading →

Oct 30

We Had A Girl (And a Whole Gothic Genre) Before You

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Annie Barbour as Weenie; photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company
Written by Trevor Schmidt
Directed by Weylin Symes
Production Stage Management by E.D. Fitzgerald
Scene Design by Katy Monthei
Starring Annie Barbour

OCT 20 – NOV 5, 2023
395 Main Street
​Stoneham, MA 02180
Facebook

Critique by Gillian Daniels

STONEHAM, Mass. – We Had A Girl Before You takes all the ingredients of Gothic literature, mashes them into a paste, and uses the resulting substance as mortar to lay the bricks of a whole new rambling, haunted house. That rambling house is brought to life wonderfully by Production Stage Manager E.D. Fitzgerald and Scenic Designer Kathy Monthei. The manor evoked here becomes increasingly eerie through the talents of Sound Designer David Remedios. All the elements paired with the story culminate in a symphony of dread and, as a Gothic fan, I adored it.

Edwina “Weenie” Trout (Annie Barbour) is a spinster who’s just acquired a new job at an isolated manor. Barbour’s talent carries the show, but how could it not? She’s the only actress on stage. This can be hard to remember as she seamlessly embodies the other characters our heroine encounters, from a saucy barmaid to her rich, mysterious employer. The latter’s introduction is where the story really begins to build a sense of dread. Her new master, emotionally distant and alluring, gives us a Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre on steroids. Of course, Weenie is scared and enamored of him. 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 →

Oct 03

The Grim, Hilarious Carnival of “Assassins”

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John Hinkley (Jacob Thomas Less), Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (Lisa Kate Joyce), Leon Czolgosz (Daniel Forest Sullivan), The Proprietor (Jackson Jirard), Sara Jane Moore (Shonna Cirone), and Samuel Byck (Phil Tayler) (Photo by Mark S. Howard)

Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Directed by Courtney O’Connor
Music Directed by Dan Rodriguez
Based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr.

Sept 15 – Oct 15, 2023
140 Clarendon Street
2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02116
Lyric Stage Company on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

BOSTON, Mass. – Of the Sondheim shows I’ve seen, this is the most, well, Sondheim. Assassins is wonderfully bleak and hilarious. 

Lyric Stage explores the legacies of the lonely, disenfranchised, entitled, and deranged individuals who tried to share their personal darkness with the rest of the world by trying (and sometimes succeeding) in killing American presidents. Audiences looking for a conventional theater experience will likely be disappointed. There’s no singular, central protagonist here. But why should there be in a show that joyfully hopscotches between eras?  Continue reading →

Oct 03

Lyric Stage Company Shares Death of Spiro Veloudos, Producing Artistic Director Emeritus

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Spiro Veloudos. (Courtesy Lyric Stage Company)

BOSTON, Mass. — The Boston theatre community mourns today. 

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston announced the death of Spiro Veloudos, the long-time producing artistic director of Lyric Stage Company of Boston and avid supporter of small and mid-sized theatres, on October 3, 2023. He was 71. 

His death was confirmed on Monday night, October 2, by his sister, Shelia Demetriadis of Richmond, VA.

An accessible-to-all, loving Boston Globe announcement and obituary by Don Aucoin for Spiro Veloudos is available on the Lyric Stage website. 

The Lyric Stage Company sent a note of remembrance, penned by current Producing Artistic Director Courtney O’Connor to its email list at 10:50 AM today. It links to the Aucoin article. 

Spiro Veloudos was the producing director at Lyric Stage Company through 2019. He directed more than 65 productions at the Lyric: Nicholas Nickleby, Avenue Q, Assassins, Souvenir, Death of A Salesman, Noises Off, Superior Donuts, and Into the Woods. He directed ten Sondheim shows over twenty seasons through his Sondheim initiative. 

Veloudos earned the Best Director IRNE and Elliot Norton Awards multiple times. He received the 2006 Elliott Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from Salem State College, and the StageSource Theatre Hero Award (2003). He was named Best Artistic Director by Boston Magazine in 1999.

A more personal obituary for Veloudos is on Honoring Memory. 

Mr. Veloudos, you were a force of good in Boston. You are missed. 

May Mr. Veloudos’ legacy be a blessing to our theatre community.

Boston, MA – 02/23/17 – Spiro Veloudos on the Lyric Stage (Lane Turner/Globe Staff) Reporter: (Don Aucoin) 

Sep 29

Big Guts, Good Choices: The Huntington and The Porch present “Fat Ham”

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Presented by The Huntington in association with Alliance Theatre and Front Porch Arts Collective
Written by James Ijames
Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb
Choreography by PJ Johnnie Jr.
Fight Direction and Intimacy Coaching by Jesse Hinson
Dialect Coaching by Adi Cabral
Voice Lessons by David Freeman Coleman

September 22 – October 29, 2023
Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA 
527 Tremont St
Boston, MA 

Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission

Review by Kitty Drexel

“Haam”
Slang: Hard as a motherfucker. One can go haam for anything: Sports, homework, smoking, sex, drinking, driving, etc. From UrbanDictionary.com

Or, 

“HAM”
Slang: A Ham is a burger with no bread. A loser, a peasant, a bum with no motion and no desire or solution to make some money. Whatever you do stay away from Hams they are contagious and NEED a vaccine. From UrbanDictionary.com

BOSTON, Mass. — 2023 Pulitzer-prize winning play Fat Ham is at the BCA’s Calderwood Pavilion now thru October 29. Stevie Walker-Webb brings James Ijames’ hilarious opus to Boston thanks to the collaboration of Front Porch Arts Collective, the Huntington, and Alliance Theatre. 

Many modern Shakespeare productions claim to be for a new audience. Some of these productions are merely Shakespeare set in an urban environment or slightly updated to correct historical sexism, racism, or homophobia. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining this tradition.

Fewer Shakespeare productions are truly for a modern audience: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) summarizes the Bard’s works; Shit-Faced Shakespeare performs for improv-loving, alcohol-fueled audiences of frat-bros and frat-bro allies. Fat Ham truly goes where no modern production has gone before.  

Fat Ham transcends a retelling of Hamlet. It doesn’t merely transpose the story of a young man bent on parricide/patricide because the ghost of his father visits him after his uncle marries his mother. It goes harder.  Continue reading →

Sep 25

Too Much of a Good Thing: “MONKEY, A Kung Fu Puppet Parable”

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Presented by White Snake Projects
Based on Journey to the West
Libretto by Cerise Lim Jacobs
Composed by Jorge Sosa
Stage direction by Roxanna Myhrum
Music direction by Tianhui Ng
Puppet design by Tom Lee and Chicago Puppet Studio

Featuring Chuanyuan Liu, Dylan Morrongiello, Carami Hilaire, Cristina Maria Catro, John Paul Huckle, Maria Dominique, Lopez, Carlos Jose Torres Lopez, Nathaniel Justiniano, Angelo Guo, Eliott Purcell, Lawrence Chan, Amanda Gibson, VOICES Boston

September 23 – 24, 2023
Emerson’s Paramount Center Theater
559 Washington St
Boston, MA

Review by Maegon Bergeron-Clearwood

BOSTON, Mass. — MONKEY, A Kung Fu Puppet Parable ticks three of my personal favorite boxes. it features puppets and opera, two traditions that are rife with simple but powerful techniques for bringing fantastical stories to life. It also features martial arts, a personal passion of mine that I rarely see experimented with onstage. It’s a tantalizing combination of performance elements, and I could not have been more excited to discover how White Snake Projects would weave them together. Continue reading →

Sep 21

You Can Lie Down or Get Up and Play: An Interview with Taylor Mac on judy’s “24-Decade History of Popular Music: Film Screening & Discussion with Taylor Mac” event at Boston’s 2023 Raising Voices Festival

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Taylor Mac (Photo courtesy HBO Max)

Event: 24-Decade History of Popular Music: Film Screening & Discussion with Taylor Mac
Presented as part of the Raising Voices Festival: A Celebration of Music, Art, and the Power of Protest
Saturday, September 23, 2023 @ 7:30pm EDT
Old South Meeting House
Boston, MA

More about the Raising Voices Festival 
Presented by Revolutionary Spaces
September 23 & 24, 2023
Downtown Boston: Various Locations
Performance Schedule & Map 
Admission is free. 
Registration is highly encouraged.

About the documentary film Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music
Filmed on Saturday, October 8th, 2016 
@ St. Ann’s Warehouse
Brooklyn, NY 11202
Written and created by Taylor Mac 
Music direction by Matt Ray
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman 
Costume designs by Machine Dazzle 
Makeup artistry by Anastasia Durasova
Produced by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, Joel Stillerman, Linda Brumbach, Alisa Regas, Taylor Mac, and Mari Rivera
HBO Documentary Films in association with Content Superba, a Telling Pictures and Pomegranate Arts Production in association with Fifth Season and Nature’s Darlings
Streamed on HBO Max

Interview by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON, Mass. — Taylor Mac graciously met the New England Theatre Geek’s Queen Kitty for an interview on Wednesday afternoon to discuss judy’s HBO documentary Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music and the Raising Voices event 24-Decade History of Popular Music: Documentary & Discussion with Taylor Mac on Saturday, Sep 23, 2023, 7:30pm EDT. 

Mac regularly contributes to the Boston theatre-ecology. Mac’s stage play, Joy and Pandemic played at the Huntington in April of this year.  Mac’s 2012 essay “A Culture of Trust” was published in the 2022 publication of HowlRound Anthology: Essays and Conversations from the First Ten Years. Judy’s Hir was produced by Apollinaire Theatre in February 2020. (One of the last, lucky productions before the lockdown). And, of course, The Lily’s Revenge at Club Oberon (RIP) in 2012.

We thank Taylor Mac for their time and judy’s team for setting up the interview.

Mac was full of laughter. It was truly a pleasure to meet with judy. 

(The below interview is edited for grammar and clarity.)

//

Queen Kitty: Your Decade History of Popular Music History, you’ve described it as a radical fairy realness ritual.

Taylor Mac: Yes.

QK: It spans 24 decades with a 24-piece orchestra for 24 hours, singing 246 songs. What was your dramaturgical research process like? It’s just so much. It must have been so intense for you.

TM: It was a constant reminder that I’m not a historian. I’m not trying to be a historian, and I don’t want to be a historian. Part of the dramaturgy was to make sure that was clear to the audience. In all of the stage shows, in one form or another, that this was expressed to the audience. Continue reading →