Tag Archives: 2013

May 21

“Pirates of Penzance” Pillages Hearts

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Emily Casey, Sean Pfautsch, Matt Kahler, Ryan Bourque, Dana Omar. Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva

presented by American Repertory Theater
produced by The Hypocrites
by Gilbert & Sullivan
adapted by Sean Graney, Kevin O’Donnell
directed by Sean Graney

Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
The Hypocrites’ Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge) The Hypocrites’ production of Pirates of Penzance is an absolute confection.  Adapting the beloved Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to a quirkier, more contemporary stage, Sean Graney and Kevin O’Donnell infuse the original libretto and its score with banjos, bathing suits, beach balls, and a warmth that charms but never cloys.  It’s energetic and just plain fun.

Premiering in New York in 1879, the original show has a long history of making audiences titter at lyrics like, “I am the very model of a modern major general.”  The comic opera lampoons Victorian concepts of honor, piracy, politeness, the literary inconveniences of being a foundling, and, most importantly, duty. Continue reading →

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May 20

How May I Connect You?

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Since their debut with What Are You Doing Here? Project:Project has been asking questions. What is our relationship to technology? How do we use it? Why do we cling to things that are obsolete? How May I Connect You (Or, Scenes in the Key of D:\) takes our play making to another level.

HMICY? explores our current hyper-connectivity, as well as how our relationships and communication styes have changed over the past years due to technology. We’ve been interviewing people from ages 17-70, and HMICY? is a direct result with songs, dances, and stories devised directly from those inspirational conversations.

Your contribution will fund the following components of our show:
1) Space Rental at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts (because it’s the most conducive space to the story we’re telling).

2) Provide Stipends for our design team (because paying people for their work is the right thing to do).

Your contribution ensures that we can tell this story in the best possible way with the best possible people. Doing what’s right is important to us, and we hope you feel the same way.

Leading up to our performance in September we’re continuing to create an ensemble based, collaborative piece of theatre that will evolve until opening night.

MISSION STATEMENT
Project: Project is a troupe producing ensemble-created, original stories that combine scripted material with improvisation. Preferring creating to interpreting, we explore and experiment with form, storytelling, and the role of the audience.

CORE MEMBERS:
Louise Hamill
Harry McEnerny
Max Mondi
Jeffrey Mosser
Vicki Schairer
Sophia Shrand

If you can’t give at this point, we hope you’ll join us in spreading the word.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ProjectProjectBoston
Twitter: @PP_Boston

We can’t thank you enough!

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May 14

“Mad Men” Set to Song and Dance: ON THE TOWN

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Photo by Mark S. Howard

Presented by Lyric Stage Company of Boston

Book and lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Based on an idea by Jerome Robbins
Directed by Spiro Veloudos
Music direction by Jonathan Goldberg
(kick-ass) Choreography & musical staging by Ilyse Robbins

May 10 – June 8, 2013
The Lyric Stage
Boston, MA
Lyric Stage Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston) On the Town is a sweet little musical about what happens when three horny US Navy men seeking adventure visit NYC for 24 hours. As the plot thickens, they meet their equally horny female counterparts, do some healthy snogging, see some sights and return to duty. It’s mostly romantic. The  Lyric Stage delicately wraps these adult themes in saccharine sweet nostalgia, excellent choreography and Bernstein’s music. Although this could be for mature audiences only, it is presented as tasteful family-friendly material. Continue reading →

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May 13

Normal Adolescent Madness: PUNK ROCK

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Photo by Jeff Adelberg

Presented by Zeitgeist Stage Company
by Simon Stephens
Directed by David J. Miller

At Plaza Black Box
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA
May 3rd – May 25th, 2013
Zeitgeist Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

There is nowhere for the audience to escape from the horrors of adolescence in Zeitgeist Stage Company’s production of Punk Rock, playing at the Black Box Theatre.  We can only recognize our own cruelties, failures and flailings as a group of high schoolers try to make some sense of their universe.  This kind of play would drive me to drink if it weren’t drawn so brightly and crisply, thanks to a fearless cast which doesn’t shy away from the awkward intimacy. Continue reading →

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May 12

We’re All Seagulls Here: THE NINA VARIATIONS

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We're all seagulls here. All the best people are.

We’re all seagulls here. All the best people are. Photo courtesy of Brown Bos Theatre Project Facebook Page.

Presented by Brown Box Theatre Project
by Stephen Dietz
Directed by Kyler Taustin

Davis Square Theatre
Somerville, MA
May 9-12 & 16-19, 2013

Ocean City Center for the Arts
502 94th St
Ocean City, MD
Maryland: June 8-11
Brown Box Theatre Project Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

The Nina Variations is a strange little nugget of show presented for the approval of Anton Chekhov devotees. The plot re-imagines the last scene of The Seagull 42 different ways. It manifests on stage all possible and impossible permutations of the final scene. Three different actresses playing Nina and one actor as Boris Trigorin examine all aspects of the couple’s “love story” (Is this how people in love treat each other? Really? Ok, fine.). The result is a live fanfiction demonstration wrapped in a buttery layer of honed acting technique. Continue reading →

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May 07

Bleak Travels Through “Hamlet Asylum”

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Presented by The Calliope Project
Directed by Kellas Cameron

May 3, 4, 10, and 11th at 8PM
Green Street Studios Theatre
185 Green St
Cambridge MA
The Calliope Project Facebook Page

Review by the lovely Gillian Daniels

**EXPLICIT CONTENT INCLUDING RAPE AND VIOLENCE**

Some contemporary productions of Hamlet play with the ambiguity of the Prince of Denmark’s sanity.  Is he seeking justice or satisfying a personal vendetta with the logic of a “ghost” to back him up, “mad north-north-west” or just vengeful?  In Hamlet Asylum, this ambiguity is dismissed.  Most of the play clearly takes place in the head of Bryan Bernfield’s Hamlet.  A masked Greek chorus (Meghan Kelly, Amiel Bowers, and Samuel Guerin) speak in the voice of his father, his confidant Horatio, the gravediggers, and others, all in the guise of Hamlet’s repressed desires.   It’s a clever idea.  The result, though,
is a production both rich with symbols and dark with melodrama. Continue reading →

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May 06

Struggling with Genius: AMADEUS

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Photo: Andrew Brilliant / Brilliant Pictures

Presented by New Repertory Theatre
A play with music by Peter Shaffer
Directed by Jim Petosa

Arsenal Center for the Arts
Watertown, MA
April 28th – May 19th, 2013
New Rep Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Watertown) The story goes that an earnest young monk once asked a Zen master to describe the immaculate nature of the Buddha.  The Zen Master, most likely with an insufferable grin on his face, pointed to a pile of dung.

This sums up the life of Antonio Salieri (Benjamin Evett) in the spirited production of Amadeus being staged at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.  Salieri, an accomplished composer who writes operas for Hapsburg monarchs, dedicates his life to capture the music of God.  Instead, he discovers his own private dung heap in the form of a foul-mouthed former child prodigy named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tim Spears).  Salieri is crushed to learn that Mozart, a drunk, womanizing jerk, has a much clearer channel to God’s radio station and can compose the most beautiful music the world has ever known, even while playing billiards.  It drives the devout Italian composer to lose both his faith and his scruples. Continue reading →

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May 06

Dancing with Sergent Garcia and the Devil

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Presented by World Music/CRASHarts

Thursday, May 2, 7:30 PM
Johnny D’s
17 Holland St Davis Square
Somerville, 02144
World Music/CRASHarts Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Somerville) “Let’s dance the dance of the Devil! One step forward and two step backward!” said Bruno “Sergent” Garcia through his thick French accent. It was right in middle of his performance at Johnny D’s this past Thursday and the audience, including the couples who had gotten up to dance, responded with a cheer. Then the Sergent and the Cumbiamuffin All Stars launched into their next, Caribbean, Afro-Columbian tinged
song. Continue reading →

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Apr 29

Spunk without Charm: PIPPI LONGSTOCKING

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Photo by Gary Ng. Sirena Abalian as Pippi Longstocking.

Presented by Wheelock Family Theatre
Story by Astrid Lindgren
Adapted for the stage by Thomas W. Olson
Music by Roberta Carlson
Directed by Wendy Lement

Boston, Massachusetts
April 12th – May 12th, 2013
Autism Friendly Modified Performance: Saturday April 27 at 10:00am
ASL/AD: Friday May 10 at 7:30 & Sunday May 12 at 3:00
All performances offer Open Captioning
Wheelock Family Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Boston) Why is everyone in such a hurry to update our iconic and innocent redheads?  A cover for a new edition of Anne of Green Gables ditches her red hair and makes her uncomfortably shapely.  The pigtailed girl in the Wendy’s logo seems to have grown up and has nothing more to do than disparage other peoples’ lunches.  And now we have Pippi Longstocking to add to the list. Continue reading →

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Apr 29

Sergent Garcia with the Cumbiamuffin All Stars at Johnny D’s

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Presented by World Music/CRASHarts

http://www.sergentgarcia.com/en/

Thursday, May 2, 7:30 PM
Johnny D’s
17 Holland St Davis Square
Somerville, 02144
World Music/CRASHarts Facebook Page

Post by Gillian Daniels

On Thursday, Davis Square’s very own Johnny D’s will be hosting the Paris-based style-fusion artist, Sergent Garcia.

Bruno Garcia, originally a renowned, apparently hyperactive DJ, fuses the music gleaned from a European, punk upbringing in France with a passion for Latin and Caribbean rhythms. He combines jazz, reggae, hip-hop, and salsa for an energetic genre he has affectionately dubbed, “salsamuffin.”  The “muffin” of “salsamuffin,” apparently, is a reference to “ragamuffin” or “dancehall,” a kind of reggae.

Garcia, himself, is named in homage to the sidekick of the fictional Zorro, Sgt. Demetrio Lopez Garcia.  The musician is part of an effort by World Music/CRASHarts to bring diverse, one-of-a-kind voices and
acts to New England.

This will be Sergent Garcia’s Boston debut.  He will be performing with the Cumbiamuffin All Stars at 7:30pm on May 2nd.

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