Tag Archives: MA

Oct 15

The Artist is Human: BARITONES UNBOUND

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Photo Credit: ArtsEmerson Facebook Page

Baritones UnBound: Celebrating the UnCommon Voice of the Common Man
ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage
Conceived by Marc Kudisch
Created by MarcKudisch with Merwin Foard, Jeff Mattsey and Timothy Splain
Performed by Marc Kudisch, Jeff Mattsey, Ben Davis, accompanied by Timothy Splain on piano
Music Direction by Timothy Splain
Directed by David Dower
Production Design by Alexander V. Nichols

Oct. 8 – 20, 2013
Review is based on the Oct. 12 performance
Paramount Center Mainstage
559 Washington St. in Boston’s Theatre District
ArtsEmerson on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston) I’m not going to go on about how famous the three baritones in Baritones Unbound are. I’m not going to compare this production to The Three Tenors. These baritones and those tenors have different interests. This production isn’t just about the glorious voices of Marc Kudisch, Jeff Mattsey and Ben Davis (and they do sound seraphic). It is a living history of the baritone in popular music as they worked and performed through the ages. It’s also a boys night at the Paramount Center (complete with Act 2 “man cave”). Continue reading →

Oct 14

Bad Behavior Porn: GOD OF CARNAGE

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Photo by Meghan Moore

Photo by Meghan Moore

Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre
By Yasmina Reza
Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Kyle Fabel

September 19th – Oct. 13, 2013
The Nancy L. Donahue Theatre
Lowell, MA
MRT on Facebook

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Lowell) We are usually mired in the mundane of everyday, and we can’t see movement in our own internal characters. That’s why we tend to want some movement in the characters we see on stage. In a good play, a protagonist cannot be the same in the end as she was in the beginning; she must at least gain some scars from experience. The rare exception is a script that goes for the meditative study of a character, as if peeling back layers of a soul like an onion. To pull this off, the author must have deep sympathy for both the character and the human condition, and it’s a narrower road to tread. Continue reading →

Oct 09

Rhythm of Rajasthan: Heat and Liquid

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Photo: Safat Ali, Studio 2000, Jodhpur

Presented by World Music/CRASHArts

Friday, October 4th, 7:30pm
Johnny D’s
Davis Square
Somerville, MA
Johnny D’s Uptown on Facebook
World Music/CRASHarts on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Somerville) The very American Johnny D’s Uptown can feel like an unlikely venue for World Music/CRASHArts.  Taking the stage in turbans and garb from Northern India, Rhythm of Rajasthan prepares to play.  The people at the bar look on with surprise.  The patron next to me expresses hesitance, saying that he only came here this evening to catch the ball game on TV. Continue reading →

Oct 08

Better Blurred Lines: “La Cage Aux Folles”

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Photo©Paul Lyden, Charles Shaughnessy (Georges) and Johnathan Hammond (Albin)

Presented by North Shore Music Theatre
Based on the play by Jean Poiret
Directed by Charles Repole
Choreography by Michael Lichtefeld
Book by Harvey Fierstein
Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman

September 4th – October 6, 2013
Beverly, MA
North Shore music Theatre on Facebook

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Beverly) Somewhere in the middle of the fantastic North Shore Production of La Cage Aux Folles, I had an “aha” moment about the concept of drag.  As a child, I had never understood why some male transvestite performers seemed to equate dressing like a woman to dressing like Dolly Parton in her heyday.  It was a mystery I didn’t realize I hadn’t solved until I was watching this thoughtful, nuanced and hysterical play come to life.  For some, going drag isn’t about replicating the other gender; instead, it’s about upending fixed norms on what it means to be a man or a woman.  (File under “Duh.”) Continue reading →

Oct 07

The Darkness Hides Gothic Metaphor: Angela Carter’s HAIRY TALES

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Photo credit: Roger Metcalf; Amy Meyer and Poornima Kirby as The Countess. The Countess is beside herself. See what I did there? No? Fine.

Presented by Imaginary Beasts
Angela Carter’s Hairy Tales: “Vampirella: Lady of the House of Love”, “The Company of Wolves”
Directed by Matthew Woods
Music composition & sound by Sam Beebe
Choreography by Kiki Samko

October 4 – 26, 2013
Thursdays at 7:30 pm (Vampirella & The Company of Wolves)
Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 pm (Vampirella & The Company of Wolves)
Saturdays & Sundays at 4:00 pm (Puss in Boots)
Plaza Black Box Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA
Imaginary Beasts on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

***Be aware that this is NOT a children’s show. Unless you enjoy subjecting your dear ones to brief nudity, incest, cannibalism, necrophilia and heaps of innuendo. You sick bastards.***

(Boston) Some of the reviews for Hairy Tales lead with how author Angela Carter isn’t popular in the US. Not entirely true. She’s famous in the UK, yes, but she’s also famous here. She’s famous among people who enjoy magical realism (and modern fairytales) and can’t abide trashy alternatives. Carter’s not as famous as Jane Austen or the Brontës but famous enough that her books are still published in the US. They can be found at your local library or on Amazon. They are delicious. Read them.

Vampires and werewolves are scalding hot right now. There are more spinoff’s, movies and TV programmes than there are heaving bosoms to enjoy them. Supernatural creatures are often* metaphors for sexual desire and fulfillment. Female sexual objectification sells and, when paired with the supernatural, its related media will be inhaled by the angsty. Thus, we have a dearth of offerings to present to the generations that haven’t read Dracula but have read the famous Mormon fanfic. In the case of  “The Company of Wolves” (TCOW) and “Vampirella,” objectification gets a rest and liberation takes the stage. There is still enough angst to go around.   Continue reading →

Oct 02

Unfriendly Fire Consumes: “Burning”

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Photograph credit: Boston Playwrights’ Theatre

Presented by Boston Paywrights’ Theatre
Written by Ginger Lazarus
Directed by Steven Bogarty

September 27-October 20
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
Boston, MA
BPT on Facebook

Special events for the current run at BPT:  Free screenings of the 2012 documentary The Invisible War on October 3 at 7:30 pm and 6 at 4:30pm.  IMPACT Boston will sponsor a panel including members of the military on October 13th after the 2pm performance.

Review by Noelani Kamelamela

(Boston) Boston Playwright’s Theatre brings local playwright Ginger Lazarus’ novel and moving treatment of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac to the stage to serve many noble purposes.  Originally conceived as a queering of the classic, over three years of research went into a play based around a lesbian serving in the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell era.  Eventually, reprehensible behavior in the military surrounding sexual assault came to be a large feature as well.* Continue reading →

Oct 02

Rhythm of Rajastan Promo

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Promo by Gillian Daniels

On Friday, October 4th, 7:30pm at Johnny D’s, Rhythm of Rajastan will be performing as part of WORLD MUSIC/CRASHarts.

The Indian band is unusual, deriving its music from two separate cultures in the North Indian Thar Desert, the Langas and the Manganiar.  Both approach their music with different styles. The Langas are more dependent on melody and their voices, using the sindhi sarangi (lute) and algoza (double flute) instead of percussion due to Sufi influence. “Langa” means “song giver.” The Mangiar, meanwhile, are dependent on the frantic, deep rhythm of the dholak (the double headed barrel drum) and the bowed kamayacha.
These two musical dialects have been combined by folklorist Nitin Nath Harsh.  The band was formed in North India and have played throughout North America, including the Chicago World Festival and the 5th Annual New York Gypsy Festival. They have also performed in Shanghai, Beijing, and Jordan.
A dancer will be present at their performance Friday.
World Music, a non-profit organization that attempts to showcase world culture for the benefit of New England, launched CRASHarts in 2001. They present upwards of 70 concerts a year in an attempt to educate and bring diversity to performances in the Boston area.

Oct 01

Advances in Tech Nostalgia: “How May I Connect You?”

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Courtesy of Paul Cantillon, LIDEC Photo

Presented by Project:Project
How May I Connect You? (Or, Scenes in the Key of D:\)
Scenes written by Lynn Wilcott, Jeffrey Mosser, Max Mondi, Vicki Schairer, Alli Engelsma-Mosser, Tom Blanford, Louise Hamill, Gillian Mackay-Smith, Claire Suni, Sophia Shrand
Directed by Jeffrey Mosser and Vicki Schairer
Music composed by Thomas Blandford
Choreography by Alli Engelsma-Mosser
Ensemble: Sheldon Brown, Mikey DiLoreto, Louise Hamill, Gillian Mackay-Smith, Anita Shriver, Adam Thenhaus, Zach Winston, Lynn Wilcott

Sept. 26 – Sept. 29, 2013
Carol G. Deane Hall
Calderwood Pavilion
BCA
Boston, MA 02116
Project: Project on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel
Review is based on the Sept. 28, 2pm performance.

(Boston) Louis C.K. recently went on record saying that he thinks children shouldn’t have cell phones. (Some “news sources” went on record saying Louis C.K. hates cell phones. This is not true. If one watches the clip, this is obvious.) Children need to experience the horrors and joys of life as they occur. Experiencing this allows children to (hopefully) grow into reasonable, seasoned adults capable of handling the emotions of others and themselves. Perpetually having their eyes on a screen or ear up to a receiver will not. Yet, electronics also have their obvious rewards. The laugh-riot that was/is How May I Connect You? (Or, Scenes in the Key of D:\) examined both sides of the tech coin. Continue reading →

Sep 30

Sinners, Saints, and Boston Roots in “Goodly Creatures”

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Photo by Alex Aroyan; Smack talk shall not be tolerated.

Presented by Hub Theatre Company of Boston
By William Gibson
Directed by John Geoffrion

September 20 through October 6, 2013
First Church Boston
66 Marlborough St
Boston, MA 02116
Hub Theatre Co on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston) Boston embraces the fact it has a long history, at least longer than most of the US.  It celebrates the pieces that are unique to Massachusetts’s development as a colony, the Revolutionary War, and the soldiers who die for a common cause.  Historical figure Anne Hutchinson has a memorial to her name in Quincy, Massachusetts, but what she symbolizes and what led to her place in history is difficult to build a fitting monument to. Continue reading →

Sep 25

Lyndon B. Johnson Goes “All the Way”

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Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva

Presented by A.R.T.
By Robert Schenkkan
Directed by Bill Rauch

September 13, 2013 – October 12, 2013
Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
A.R.T. on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge) Too often, biographies of American presidents are stories wrought with blind patriotism.  Director Bill Rauch, however, has not shaped a play about patriotism but politics. Politics and morality may occupy the same place once in a while, but in Robert Schenkkan’s complex and vividly realized All the Way, ambition dilutes ideals quickly. Continue reading →