Tag Archives: New York City

Oct 26

The Opposite of Hell Freezing Over: “When January Feels Like Summer”

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Photo courtesy of CST Facebook page.

Photo courtesy of CST Facebook page.

Presented by Underground Railway Theater
Written by Cori Thomas
Directed by Benny Sato Ambush

Oct. 20 – Nov. 13, 2016
Central Square Theater
Cambridge, MA
CST on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Cambridge, MA) Spoiler alert: No one dies in When January Feels Like Summer. No one even gets beaten up. In fact, everyone gets a happy ending. Thomas’ play is extraordinary because sweet but nosy Indira gets to be happy. Thomas’ POC characters get to live their lives without some white person causing unnecessary trouble. It shouldn’t be unusual that a play about POCs or a trans woman isn’t about the violence inflected on them, but it is. It shouldn’t be revolutionary for a person to go about their business. Yet, here we are.       Continue reading →

Jul 30

Geeks Read Books: “Sotto Voce” by Nilo Cruz

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Cover design by Lisa Govan.

Cover design by Lisa Govan.

 

 

 

“If the sea were to shout,
we would all be deaf.”
– Carlos Fuentes, “Destiny and Desire”

 

 

 

 

 

“Sotto Voce: A Play”
Nilo Cruz
TCG Books
Theatre Communications Group, New York, 2016
$14.95
Available: http://www.tcg.org/; https://www.amazon.com/; and other purveyors of fine dramatic literature.

Review by Kitty Drexel

(New York, NY) Sotto Voce is a three person (two women, one man) play about the ways we harness our fears to confront the past and understand our consequential future. Playwright Cruz’s prose lilts off the tongue like a lover’s kiss. His character interactions sweep the stage of the imagination like poetry: gentle, unrushed but intense. Yet, his script is not without its thematic and dynamic problems. With the exception of two German characters revealed in flashback, these individuals manipulate each other with little compassion. Continue reading →

Apr 12

Another Day, Another Review of “Rent”

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Photo credit: Stratton McCrady

Photo credit: Stratton McCrady

Presented by the Suffolk University Theatre Department
Book, Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Directed by Paul Melone
Musical Direction by Scott Nicholas

April 7-10, 2016
C. Walsh Theatre
55 Temple Street, Boston, MA
C. Walsh Theater on Facebook

Review by Travis Manni

(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 →

Oct 08

Goddess Dumps “Kansas City Choir Boy”: A Love Story

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Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva

Photo: Evgenia Eliseev

 

Presented by A.R.T.
Music and Lyrics by Todd Almond
Directed by Kevin Newbury
Choreography by Sam Pinkleton
Musical Direction by David Bloom

October 1 – 10, 2015
Club Oberon
Cambridge, MA
ART on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge, MA) Courtney Love stars as Athena, the idealized, former girlfriend of the titular Kansas City Choir Boy (Todd Almond). The show begins when he sees a news story on TV that she’s been found dead in a New York City park.This touches off either a series of memories or a fantasy in which the two spend the show singing love songs to each other. Continue reading →

Aug 19

Desperate Jiving: SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

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Sam Wolf as Tony Manero in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER The Musical playing at North Shore Music Theatre August 11 - 23, 2015. Photo © Paul Lyden

Sam Wolf as Tony Manero in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER The Musical playing at North Shore Music Theatre August 11 – 23, 2015. Photo © Paul Lyden

Presented by North Shore Music Theatre
Original Stage Adaptation by Robert Stigwood & Bill Oakes
North American Adaptation by Sean Cercone & David Abbinanti
Directed by Richard Stafford
Choreographed by Nick Kenkel
Music direction by Milton Granger
Assistant music direction by Joseph Mohan

August 11th – 23rd, 2015
62 Dunham Road
Beverly, MA 01915
NSMT on Facebook

Review by Craig Idlebrook

An old Rolling Stone profile of the Bee Gees, the band behind the music for Saturday Night Fever, included a heartbreaking moment – the band was on top of the world at the time, but one of the Gibb brothers spent the entire interview nervously scrolling the radio dial to hear if any station was playing his music. Continue reading →

Aug 11

“Eyes Shut. Door Open”: Exploring the Artist’s Tormented Psyche

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Photo credit: Wax Wings Productions (we'll happily updated the credit if given the name of the photographer)

Photo credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

Presented by Wax Wings Productions
Written by Cassie M. Seinuk
Directed by Christopher Randolph

Thursday 8/13 @ 7:30pm, Friday 8/14 & Saturday 8/15 @ 7:30pm, 10pm
The Inner Sanctum Gallery, Roxbury
Wax Wings Productions on Facebook

Review by Travis Manni

(Roxbury, MA) They say you should never judge a book by its cover, and I’m ashamed to admit I judged a play by its title. But it’s hard when the name is Eyes Shut. Door Open, which has a seemingly pretentious period in the middle, but no ending punctuation—an English major’s worst nightmare. But I had to let go of this trivialness to be swept up in playwright Cassie M. Seinuk’s world, which had its own set of nightmares prepared for me. Continue reading →

Jul 21

“Laughing Wild” Sure to Make You LOL

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Photo credit: Hub Theatre Company of Boston

Photo credit: Hub Theatre Company of Boston

Presented by Hub Theatre Company of Boston
Written by Christopher Durang
Directed by Margaret Ann Brady

Friday, July 17 – Saturday, August 1, 2015
Club Cafe
Boston, MA
Hub Theatre Company on Facebook

Review by Travis Manni

(Boston, MA) So you know when you’re in the tuna fish aisle at the grocery store and you end up punching somebody in the head and yelling at a baby to stop crying? Me neither. But this isolated event keeps the plot of Laughing Wild moving forward with enough humor that you start to think it’s actually quite relatable. Continue reading →

Jun 23

“Dying City” Brought to Life in Small Space

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Photo credit: Josephine Anes

Photo credit: Josephine Anes

Presented by Happy Medium Theatre Company
Part of the Home Grown Theater Project
Written by Christopher Shinn
Directed by Cameron Cronin

June 25 – July 11, 2015
Dates and seats are limited due to the nature of the production. More information can be found here.
Boston, MA
Happy Medium on Facebook

Review by Travis Manni

(Boston, MA) If less does is fact mean more, the Happy Medium Theatre’s production of Dying City has a lot of potential to surprise audiences.

Performed in the literal living room of actors Kiki Samko and Michael Underhill, a married couple, Dying City opens on Kelly, a widow in her late twenties living in New York City. As she packs up some of her belongings, her estranged brother-in-law, Peter, who also happens to be her deceased husband’s identical twin, arrives without warning, much to Kelly’s discomfort. Continue reading →

Sep 23

Announcing Don’t Speak Cabaret Benefit for Reproductive Rights

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Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, New York, NY, 10010
Tickets:  $25 – $115 at http://metropolitanroom.com/event.cfm?id=164797&cart or by calling 212-206-0440.

NEW YORK, NY – Broadway, Off-Broadway, and up-and-coming NY talent raise their voices for reproductive rights at the Don’t Speak Cabaret Benefit at the Metropolitan Room on Sunday, October 26 at 9:30pm.

Jessica Phillips (Leap of Faith, Law & Order, SVU), Sarah Drake (New England premieres Next to Normal and Carrie), Sean Harkness (Windham Hill Records [Sony/RCA/BMG]) , Samantha Owen (Forbidden Broadway), Erick Pinnick (A Christmas Carol, The Tin Pan Alley Rag), T. Oliver Reid (After Midnight, Mary Poppins) donate their talent and time to raise awareness and celebrate women’s strength and freedom. Rebecca Elliott, Morgan Frazer, Becca Kidwell, Anna Kirkland, Molly Maynard, Clare Mione, and Parker Scott also lend their voices for the cause.

All proceeds from the event go to The Center for Reproductive Rights. Continue reading →

Apr 28

Idina At the Crossroads: “If/Then”

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The New England Theatre Geek occasionally reviews theatre outside of our typical jurisdiction. Reviewer Kate Idlebrook attended If/Then while on vacation in The Big City.

Photo by Joan Marcus

Photo by Joan Marcus

Presented by The Richard Rodgers Theatre
Music by Tom Kitt
Book and Lyrics by Brian Yorkey

Richard Rogers Theatre
New York City, New York
If/Then on Facebook

Review by Kate Idlebrook

(NYC) If you have been in the vicinity of a kid under the age of 12 in the past six months, you probably know Idina Menzel, or at least her voice. She’s the star behind the Disney phenomenon Frozen. But if you’re a Broadway aficionado, you already knew her name and have been following her since she came on the scene as Rent’s Maureen Johnson in 1995. Or, perhaps you remember her best as Wicked’s original Elphaba. Continue reading →