Author Archives: craigidlebrook

Dec 17

A Mishmashed Culture Clash: CHING-LISH

Posted on by
Photos by Nerys Powell

Photos by Nerys Powell

by David Henry Hwang
directed by Larry Coen
Lyric Stage Company
140 Clarendon St
Boston, MA
November 30th – December 23rd, 2012
Lyric Stage Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Boston) There is something that can be excruciatingly transcendent about trying to communicate in a foreign language.  For one thing, you must forgo words like “excruciatingly” and “transcendent” for utilitarian expressions and gesticulations to get the job done.  You must expose yourself to ridicule and connect in a raw and childlike way in the hope that others will understand you.  If you stick with the process, it’s easy to believe your artifice is stripped away in the process to reveal the real you. Continue reading →

Nov 04

Technicolor Gangsters: GUYS AND DOLLS

Posted on by

Photo by Paul Lyden

presented by North Shore Music Theatre

Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows
Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser
Based on “The Idyll of Sarah Brown” and characters by Damon Runyon
Directed by Mark Martino
Choreographed by Michael Lichtefeld

Presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International www.mtishows.com

North Shore Music Theatre
Beverly, Ma
October 30th – November 11th, 2012

North Shore Music Theatre Facebook Page
October 30th – November 11th, 2012

(Beverly) It’s easy to know from the opening sequence whether a production of the musical Guys and Dolls is going to hit on all cylinders or fall flat. The intro and music is supposed to paint a picture of the vibrant and surprisingly ordered chaos of New York City in the roaring 20’s, or at least the New York City that ferments in the imagination of the show’s authors, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It’s a metropolis awash with crime, as an apple is filched from a vendor and a pocket gets picked within the first two minutes of stage time, but it’s genial and high-energy crime, so much so that even cops simply shake their heads at the crooks’ peccadillos. Continue reading →

Nov 03

Trapped by the Words: THE CHOSEN

Posted on by

Photo by Timothy Dunn

Adapted by Aaron Posner & Chaim Potok
Directed by Daniel Gidron

presented by The Lyric Stage Company
140 Clarendon Street
Boston, MA
October 19th – November 17th, 2012

Lyric Stage Company Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Boston) Adapting a novel to the stage can be a wrenching exercise. Pages upon pages of description, of scene, of setting, of theme must be boiled down to dialogue and action that can stand alone. By all accounts, Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen is considered a richly-layered and well-written story about the tension between Jewish communities, as told through the friendship of two young men who find themselves caught between the secular and religious communities at the dawn of Zionism. Unfortunately, he and co-writer Aaron Posner fail to adapt the novel to a script form, leaving in a narrator who breaks up the scenes and explains away the heartfelt tension between the characters, leaving us with a broken dialogue that tells an incomplete tale about the weight one must bear when one is called to carry the load of doing good. Continue reading →

Oct 29

Entertaining and Well-Done Whining: UNCLE VANYA

Posted on by

Photo credit: Apollinaire Theatre Company

by Anton Chekhov
directed by Daniella Fauteux Jacques
presented by Apollinaire Theatre Company

Chelsea Theatre Works
189 Winnisimmet Street
Chelsea, MA
October 10th – November 4th
Apollinaire Theatre Company Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Chelsea) I believe I once read that the sitcom Seinfeld didn’t last more than a season in Russia. Now I know why. Russia already had its Seinfeld; his name was Anton Chekhov, who writes brilliantly about all light and no heat. If you would like to chuckle and grimace about the painful foibles and imagined slights of the human condition, then you should catch the Apollinaire Theatre Company’s imaginative and spirited production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. But be warned, their lives might look painfully similar to your most dysfunctional family Thanksgivings. Continue reading →

Oct 26

More than a Handful of Clever: A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE

Posted on by

Photo credit: Theatre on Fire

by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Darren Evans

presented by Theatre on Fire
Charlestown Working Theater
Charlestown, MA
October 12 – October 27th, 2012
Theatre on Fire Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Charlestown) Successful comedy and drama scripts employ a slightly sadistic withhold-and-give strategy with audiences. Comedy or tension must be built and dissipated and built again. There must be some normalcy to lead us on to the surprise. Think of the easygoing date that occurs before the heroin overdose in the movie Pulp Fiction. Two couples are out on a date making small talk. We know it will end up weird because the movie already has been very weird, but the date is downright boring, and the usually witty dialogue is purposely pedestrian. The payoff comes just a few minutes later with a group of strangers trying to decide what to do with a mob boss’s wife as she is overdosing. Continue reading →

Oct 22

Drop Dead Funny: EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL

Posted on by

Photo credit: Josh Nunes/ www.natlightphotography.com; the cast, feeling groovy.

Book and Lyrics by George Reinblatt
Music by Frank Cipolla, Christopher Bond, Melissa Morris, George Reinblatt
Music Supervision by Frank Cipolla
Additional Lyrics by Christopher Bond Additional Music by Rob Daleman

Director – Corey Jackson
Music Director – Mario Cruz
Choreographer – Nicole Spirito

presented by Arts After Hours
LynnArts
25 Exchange Street
Lynn, MA
October 18th – October 28th, 2012

Arts After Hours Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Lynn) You know you’re in for something different with the Art After Hours production of Evil Dead: the Musical when you are given the option of sitting in the splatter zone with a poncho. The Sound of Music, this ain’t, but if you’re in the mood for a well- timed comedy that is side-splitting in more ways than one, this weird and bloody romp is for you. Continue reading →

Oct 21

An Incomplete Sentence: RACE

Posted on by

Photo Credit: New Repertory Theatre; the cast

by David Mamet
Directed by Robert Walsh

presented by the New Repertory Theatre
Arsenal Center for the Arts
Watertown, MA
October 14th – November 4th, 2012

New Rep Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Watertown) It’s become trickier to discuss racism in the post-2008 election era than it was before. We have elected a black president, many hope to say, and that is enough.

Leave it to troublemaking playwright David Mamet to clear his throat amid the quiet in 2009 with his biting and succinct dramatic comedy, Race, now being performed by the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown. His play refuses to rest on recent racial gains, instead showing the trouble beneath the surface, the kind
that otherwise is obscured unless a police officer arrests a Harvard professor or a neighborhood watchman shoots an unarmed teen. Mamet’s script sparks necessary dialogue about an uncomfortable subject, but the flawed storyline of the play, combined with uneven execution by New Rep’s cast, misses the opportunity to create deeper understanding of inherent social inequality. Continue reading →

Oct 16

Unending Nostalgia: REMEMBERING THE 40’s

Posted on by

Photo credit: Reagle Music Theatre

presented by Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston
Robinson Theatre
617 Lexington Street
Waltham, MA 02452
October 13th – October 14th
Reagle Music Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Waltham) Try as we might, we are losing our connection to the World War II generation. As our veterans of the war and the home front blink out, so goes the tangible feel of an era when much of a country was united for one cause. In anticipation of this angst, we see the children of WWII veterans attempting to interpret that experience through movies and literature (i.e. Saving Private Ryan), but it is rare to get a fresh glimpse of how that generation might view itself. Continue reading →

Oct 15

Eat Your Heart Out: THE REVENANTS

Posted on by

Photo credit: Karen Ladany; Audrey Lynn Sylvia as Karen and William Schuller as Joe

presented by Happy Medium Theatre Company
@The Factory Theatre
Boston, MA
October 12th – 20th, 2012

Happy Medium Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Boston) The premise of the zombie apocalypse seems well-suited for allegory. George Romero, the genre’s cinematic Godfather, has used the reanimated to explore every theme from racial tension to internet addiction. Meanwhile, the AMC television series the Walking Dead has found success by throwing a band of survivors together and having them struggle over what separates humans from the masses
of undead. In a way, zombies have become the ultimate MacGuffin, a plot device that stirs our heroes to action and soul-searching. Continue reading →

Oct 09

Sass, Refined: “9 TO 5”

Posted on by

Photo by Paul Lyden, The lovely ladies of “9 to 5”

Music and lyrics by Dolly Parton
Book by Patricia Resnick
Directored/Choreographed by Richard Stafford
Musical Directored by Mark Hartman

North Shore Music Theatre
62 Dunham Road
Beverly, MA 01915
September 25 – October 7th
North Shore Music Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Beverly) It seems like a dicey proposition: take a 1979 comedy that has long since been forgotten and make it into a 21st century musical. (I don’t see anyone else lining up to do a musical of other comedies that I watched over and over again on HBO as a child, like Mr. Mom or Police Academy. If you’re a producer, call me.) Yet 9 to 5 has Dolly Parton’s mark all over it, from the opening monologue to the final musical note, and Dolly has a way of turning the ridiculous into credible fun. This endeavor of hers is more Dollyworld than Rhinestone. Continue reading →