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 →
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 →
Presented by Front Porch Arts Collective
In partnership with Suffolk University
Written by Douglas Lyons
Directed by Lyndsay Allyn Cox
Dramaturgy by Juliette Volpe Fight/intimacy consultations by Ted Hewlett
Dec. 9, 2022 – Jan. 8, 2023 Modern Theater 525 Washington St. Boston, MA 02108
Critique by Kitty Drexel
BOSTON, Mass. — For centuries white people told the lie that the white experience is universal. Theatre is about universal stories, we white people said. If a story is truly universal, it can be played by any cast and be seen by anyone, and the intended message will still resonate.
These days, it’s less about convincing producers that Black people can tell a story; it’s about convincing white people that they’ll appreciate a show created for someone else first, white people last. My fellow white people, if you can love Lizzo, an artist who has said to ETonline she makes music for the Black experience, you can love a play like The Porch’s Chicken & Biscuits.
In St. Luke’s Church in New Haven, CT, sisters Baneatta Mabry (award-winning Boston actor Jacqui Parker) and Beverly Jenkins (Thomika Bridwell) are mourning the death of their father Bernard Jenkins. Reginald Mabry (Robert Cornelius) is leading the service for Bernard while being a supportive husband to Baneatta but the drama is flying too high for Reginald to catch up. Continue reading →
Blanca Isabella, Hampton Richards; Photo by Stratton McCrady.
Presented by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and the Boston University New Play Initiative Written by Elise Wien Directed by Enzo Gonzales Cultural consultant: Ciera-Sadé Wade
Intimacy coaching by Jess Scout Malone
Featuring: Hampton Richards, Blanca Isabella, Diego Cintròn, Dom Carter
Content Advisory: This play contains mentions of suicide and depictions of self-harm.
Review by Kitty Drexel
BOSTON, Mass — OTP is the acronym for One True Pairing, which identifies a person’s favorite fictional romantic relationship. In Wien’s OTP, now closed, best friends Michelle (Hampton Richards) and Ceci (Blanca Isabella) are co-writing a submission to Madame Tussaud’s “Melt Your Heart Out” fanfiction contest.
Their fanfic features a teenage President Barack Obama (Diego Cintròn doing good accent work). Obama is the leader of the free world during the day and immortal stealer of hearts by night. Suspend your disbelief. OTP is worth it.
All is well until their lives outside the fanfiction writing intrude on their work: Michelle is running for JSA President! Ceci is writing solo fanfic! Both girls learn that there is more to friendship than convenience and (relation)shipping the same world leader. Dom Carter stars as an uncannily familiar politician with amnesia whom Ceci must rescue from mutant foxes in apocalyptic Illinois. Continue reading →
Presented by The National Center of Afro-American Artists https://blacknativity.org/
Executive Producer and Director: Voncille Ross
Choreographer: George Howard
Ballet Mistress: Desiree Springer
Choral Director, Children of Black Persuasion: Marilyn Andry
Choral Director, Voices of Black Persuasion: Milton L. Wright
Stage Manager: Brion-Michael Rock
Board of Directors – Margaret Burnham and Vivian Johnson, Co-Chairpersons, Kafi Meadows, Frances Bernat, Denzil D. McKenzie, Melissa Nobles, Amy Olatunji, Honorable Milton L. Wright
December 2 – 18, 2022, weekends, with matinees at 3:30 pm and evening shows at 8 pm
Robert J. Orchard Stage
Paramount Center
559 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111
Review by Craig Idlebrook
BOSTON, Mass — There are competing ideas in the narrative of the traditional Christian nativity story – that the son of God is born and that a young woman who is temporarily homeless gives birth to a child in a barn and the child is loved. One of the most profound aspects of Black Nativity, a long-running production of Langston Hughes’ holiday show, is that it deftly gives equal weight to both.
The poet Hughes, who wrote the book and utilized traditional Christmas carols for this musical, first staged Black Nativity off-Broadway in 1961. Less than a decade later, in 1969, the play was first performed in Boston. The Boston production has become a beloved, if sometimes overlooked, holiday tradition here for more than a half century, and taking part in the cast has become an intergenerational endeavor for some Black families in the area. Continue reading →
Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company
Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott
Book by Allan Knee
Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein
Music by Jason Howland
Directed & Choreographed by Ilyse Robbins
Music Direction by Matthew Stern
Stoneham, Mass — As producers mine history for intellectual property that can be spun into gold, especially those that are in the public domain, they can sometimes lose sight of what makes a classic a classic.
Unfortunately, this was the case with Little Women: The Broadway Musical. In the original story, Luisa May Alcott created a world full of wonderfully full, relatable characters. She allowed her characters to speak for themselves and trusted her readers to hear the message. I only wish the Greater Boston Stage Company’s production of this play had the space to do the same. Continue reading →
Presented by Lyric Stage Company of Boston
By Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields
Directed by Fred Sullivan, Jr.
Stunt Coordinator/Fight Captain: Michael Liebhauser
Scenic Design by Peter Colao
Run Crew: Hazel Peters, Talene Pogherian
Featuring Kelby T. Akin, Alexa Cadete, Nora Eschenheimer, Dan Garcia,
Mitch Kiliulis, Michael Liebhauser, Marc Alexander Pierre, and Dan Whelton. Understudies: Margaret Clark, Patrick French, and Matt C. Ryan.
November 11 – December 18, 2022
Lyric Stage Co. 140 Clarendon St
Boston, MA 02116
Approximately two hours, including one intermission.
This production uses strobe lighting and fog effects. There is one live simulated gunshot in Act 2.
Review by Kitty Drexel
“Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” — G. K. Chesterton
BOSTON, Mass — Chesterton was a Christian philosopher who argued, with this statement, that most things are done by novices who do those things imperfectly. This Chesterton saying goes along with the Voltaire-attributed aphorism, “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”
Neither Chesterton nor Voltaire was responsible for a cast of accident-prone actors or an elaborate set determined by fate to destroy itself on opening night. Not even Voltaire, the paragon of eighteenth-century French amateur and society theatre, could have imagined The Play That Goes Wrong. Continue reading →
Rehearsal for “The Rise and Fall of Holly Fudge.” Photo by Meghan Moore/Megpix
Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre By Trista Baldwin Directed by Courtney Sale Cast: Kristian Espiritu, Karen MacDonald, Eliza Simpson, Milicent Wright
Age Recommendation: 14 and older. Some adult content/language.
Review by Kitty Drexel
Video-On-Demand — The copious productions of The Christmas Carol that come around every year are for mainstream Christmas celebrators. The Rise and Fall of Holly Fudge is a Christmas production for the rest of us. It’s intersectionality feminist. It passes the Bechdel Test. It’s under two hours, and you can drink rum-nog the entire time from your own home. Cheers!
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house… Carol (New England darling Karen MacDonald) was stirring because her daughter Holly (Kristian Espiritu) was finally coming home to Brockton, Mass.! This year Holly is bringing her special friend Jordan (Eliza Martin Simpson). Worlds, politics, and identities collide when Holly reveals to Carol that Jordan is more than just her Jewish, progressive liberal friend from Portland.
Milicent Wright plays the online Zumba cueing, comestible baking, excellent listener and BFF neighbor Chris. I would take Zumba class with Chris/Millicent any day. She seems fun. Continue reading →
December 21, 2021 to March 19, 2022. December 2021 – March 2022 Open Daily 10 am – 9 pm SoWa Power Station 550 Harrison Ave Boston, MA Info for Boston Attendees
Review by Kitty Drexel
BOSTON — I tried not to have expectations entering Imagine Van Gogh.
Without intending to, I expected Imagine Van Gogh to be like Yayoi Kusama’s “Love Is Calling” which ran at the ICA. Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms is immersive and kaleidoscopic. Imagine Van Gogh is also immersive. Van Gogh’s paintings are magnified and set to the music of classical artists Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Bach, Delibes and Satie. It makes Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings accessible to an audience that can pay the ticket price.Continue reading →
Presented by The Huntington Produced in association with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Pasadena Playhouse Written by Mike Lew Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel
Assistant direction and movement coordination by Ashleigh King Choreography by Jennifer Weber Fight choreography by Robb Hunter
Content warning: Disabled people exist everywhere 24/7. If this play “expands your world,” you should know that’s ableist, and it’s really not about you.
BOSTON — This one time, in the Before Times, I was taking an ashtanga-style yoga class, and a random woman told me I was “inspirational.” I was dripping in sweat after having performed 60-minutes of intermediate poses with only one arm, and a brunette Karen in Athleta and Lululemon compression wear decided it was super important to tell me that I inspired her. She didn’t say what I inspired her to do, just that I was “inspirational.”
I wish I could say that I told the Karing Karen she inspired me to vomit a little in my mouth, but I was too shocked to say much of anything. I picked up my mat, and I skedaddled out of the studio to fume inspirationally in peace.
This horse can’t even do yoga.
I live with brachial plexus palsy, a permanent paralysis of my left arm from my shoulder through my fingers. (Coincidentally, it’s also the sexiest of the palsies.) Sometimes complete strangers find my ability to do completely normal, everyday things Inspirational. Showing up to yoga is difficult for everyone, Karen.
Abled people have a nasty habit of deriving inspiration from the inabilities of disabled people. We aren’t inspirational just because you find relief from not being disabled. Your inability to see us as people with lives is a You problem. As Buck says in Teenage Dick now at The Huntington, “Please don’t involve me.”Continue reading →