Tag Archives: Chicago

Feb 26

PROMO: Lucky Plush Productions’ “The Better Half”: March 8th and 9th

Posted on by
C/O Lucky Plush Productions Facebook Page

C/O Lucky Plush Productions Facebook Page

PROMO: Lucky Plush Productions’ The Better Half: March 8th and 9th

Gillian Daniels

Since 1999, the Chicago-based dance ensemble theater company, Lucky Plush Productions, has sought to marry humor and movement.  The Chicago Tribune has not been shy with its praise, describing the company as “full of amusing, varied and tireless dancing by a troupe of dancers who ably double as comics.”  During the weekend of March 8th, Lucky Plush will bring its combination of wit and whimsy to Boston with The Better Half.

The show is described as an adaptation of the cult-classic noir film, Gaslight (1944).  In the movie, following the murder of her aunt, a woman is manipulated into believing she is mentally unstable.  Most would wring this concept for parody and stop there. The Better Half, however, promises to energetically take this plot and mine it for humor, heart, and surprising turns.  It drives to comment on tension in domestic relationships and the claustrophobia of contemporary living.  The mix sounds promising. Continue reading →

Mar 22

‘Ma Rainey’ Sings the Music of the Soul

Posted on by

Yvette Freeman and Corey Allen in August Wilson’s MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM. March 9 – April 8, 2012 at the BU Theatre. huntingtontheatre.org. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson, Huntington Theatre Company, 3/9/12-4/8/12, http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/production.aspx?id=10262&src=t.

Reviewed by Becca Kidwell

(Boston, MA) Music breathes and pulses as each note is played.  The blues provide a voice for the inexpressible feelings of the human experience.  The blues celebrate the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of life in its entirety; it is neither surprising that the blues came out of the African American spiritual tradition, nor that soul, r&b, and hip-hop were derived from the blues and at the core of the best is the heart and soul of the artist.  What happens when that soul is taken away?  Can the heart survive?

This question permeates the existence of each of the characters in August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.  Continue reading →