‘Being Earnest’: Wilde’s great wit is always in style
STONEHAM – Wit and wisdom travel well, and classic farce has staying power and is virtually ageless. And any show that starts with the wit and wisdom of the great Oscar Wilde is… Continue reading
Author Archive
‘The Niceties’: Should history be written in pencil?
BOSTON – It starts with a comma. A missing comma. But it quickly escalates into something that tears apart a campus. The Huntington Theatre Company production of “The Niceties” at the Calderwood Pavilion… Continue reading
Meaningless meandering slows ‘Straight White Men’
WATERTOWN – The conventional wisdom going in was that playwright Young Jean Lee was about to make a powerful statement about white privilege in her play “Straight White Men,” now being presented at… Continue reading
Unlikely love flowers in stirring ‘Spider Woman’
BOSTON – Yes, love can flower anywhere, even in a hellhole of a Latin American prison. The 1957 Manuel Puig book “The Kiss of the Spider Woman” was made into a 1985 movie… Continue reading
Hughes’ words ring out again in ‘The Black Clown’
CAMBRIDGE — Langston Hughes wrote his poem “The Black Clown” in 1931 but as with many other timeless works, the words sing forever, recalling various aspects of the black experience in this country,… Continue reading
‘Dear Drug Lord’ goes off in too many directions
BOSTON – As one of Boston’s newer fringe theater groups , the Off the Grid Theatre Company is still finding its footing. Its production of “The Weird,” a year ago was a critical… Continue reading
‘The Book of Mormon’: ‘South Park’ to Salt Lake
BOSTON – Broadway trembled when it was revealed that Trey Parker and Matt Stone – the creators of the groundbreaking but controversial “South Park” cartoon series – were planning a Broadway musical. And… Continue reading
NSMT’s ‘Mamma Mia!’: Pure summer fun that works
BEVERLY – Many years ago, just before the first national tour of “Mamma Mia!” hit Boston in August of 2001, a press representative from Broadway in Boston was trying to explain to me… Continue reading
‘Moulin Rouge’: Is it a love story or a music video?
BOSTON – “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” seems to have some great things going for it in its world premiere production at the Emerson Colonial Theatre on the way to Broadway, with a… Continue reading
On the Common, CSC’s deadly game of thrones
BOSTON – It is a deadly Game of Thrones, and on a recent summer’s night it had the same hold on its audience as the hit HBO series. “Richard III,” the Commonwealth Shakespeare… Continue reading