Author Archives: Kitty Drexel

Jul 02

What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting: “Mox Nox” & “GUTS”

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Moonbox Productions’ Boston New Works Festival (BNWF)
Presented by Moonbox Productions
June 26 – 29, 2025
Multiple Spaces at the Boston Center for the Arts.
539 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116 

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Last week, Moonbox Productions produced its Boston New Works Festival with seven original plays and musicals at the Boston Center of the Arts in the South End. It was the final weekend of Pride, the Supreme Court issued its final opinions before its summer recess*, the Bezos’ married in Venice, baseballers baseballed, and The Theater Offensive hosted another festival across the river in Cambridge. With the various and sundry events occurring across our city and the nation, I hope everyone attended events that brought them joy and a modicum of peace. 

This year’s BNWF featured fully realized productions and semi-staged readings from local playwrights, crew and actors. I attended two productions: Mox Nox by Patrick Gabridge and Guts by Rachel Greene. These are two vastly different plays in subject and creative temperament. Mox Nox is a finished work (if such things exist). Guts remains a play in progress. Both show Boston audiences what is possible and point to our collective future as a community.   Continue reading →

Jun 19

Travesty to Atonement and Back Again in 13 Lessons: “Our Class”

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The Cast of “Our Class.” Photo by Pavel Antonov.

Presented by Arlekin Players Theatre
By Tadeusz Słobodzianek 
Adapted by Norman Allen
Directed by Igor Golyak
Scenic & Prop Design by Jan Pappelbaum
Costume Design by Sasha Ageeva
Lighting Design by Jeff Adelberg
Sound Design by Ben Williams
Music composed by Anna Drubich
Projection Design by Eric Dunlap & Igor Golyak with Andreea Mincic
Chalk Drawings Design by Andreea Mincic
Choreography by Or Schraiber
Dramaturgy by Dr. Rachel Merrill Moss
Stage violence and intimacy choreography by Leana Gardella (2024 New York production)
Featuring: Gigi Watson, Gene Ravvin, Kirill Rubtsov, Deborah Martin, Jeremy Beazlie, Zach Fike Hodges, Chulpan Khamatova, Richard Topol, Ilia Volok, Ryan Czerwonko

June 18 – June 22, 2025
Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116

Duration: 2 hours 50 minutes with one intermission

Suitable for ages 16+

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Our Class is about the slow radicalization of Polish catholics against their Jewish friends and neighbors in the years before and during the Holocaust (1918-2021). It is violent, angry, and expertly crafted by the Arlekin Players. While the historical events depicted and themes explored look similar to ongoing news events, Our Class is about the 1940s Russian occupation of Poland and not current international crises: the christian nationalization of the United States and retreat from its status as a world superpower, Russia’s war on Ukraine, or even Israel’s bombing of Iran. Performances at the Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion run through June 22.  

Off of 2024’s award-winning production of The Dybbuk, Arlekin presents another triumph in Our Class. This production worked out its technical and stagecraft kinks in New York during its run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, because, from its horizontal staging to its multidisciplinary incorporation of projection and live-camera video, it is spotless. Its Boston run brings new cast members and new opportunities for accolades.  Continue reading →

Jun 16

The Best Summer of Your Life: The Nova Show presents “Camp Camp”o

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The Nova Show poster

Presented by Nova Comedy Collective
Hosted by David Thomas
Directed by Michael Trainor
Video by Ryan Dalley
Creator and showrunner: Kayleigh Kane
Featuring: Gwen Coburn, Colleen Donahue, Nick Perron, Kristina Feliciano, John Serpico, Erin Lee, Anthony Zonfrelli, Sumeet Sarin, Hannah Breen, Kylie Rolincik. 
Guest performers: drag performer Stabitha Christie, rapping comedy duo Magically Delicious, and standup comedian Will Smalley.
Chill tunes provided by D.J. TJ Reynolds and Todd Brunel on the saxophone

June 14, 2025
The Rockwell
Davis Square
255 Elm Street
Somerville, MA 02144

Online Playbill 
Eventbrite Page

Critique by Kitty Drexel

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — June 14 was a busy day. “No Kings” protesters gathered peacefully in downtown Boston while the Pride for the People parade marched from Copley Square to the Common. For some, it was a long day of fighting fascist tyranny while celebrating another year of queer survival. After a rainy Saturday of marching, dancing and rebelling, an evening of libations and laughter watching Nova Comedy Collective’s “Camp Camp” in the warm belly of The Rockwell’s black box theater hit the spot.   

The Rockwell has become home to members of the local improv, comedy and standup community after Improv Boston, a People’s Republic of Camberville favorite for comedic relief, ceased its operations in 2023. The Nova Comedy Collective is one of the resident organizations that rose from Improv Boston’s ashes. NCC is here to deliver comedy in its many forms to weekend matinees, early evening and late night crowds (schedule pending) over a cold adult beverage while farting into a folding chair of suspicious stability. Continue reading →

Jun 11

Nothing we can do, A total eclipse of the sun*: “Little Shop of Horrors”

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Photo by Nile Scott Studios

Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company
Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman
Music by Alan Menken
Directed by Ilana Ransom Toeplitz
Music Directed by Bethany Aiken
Choreographed by Chris Shin
Stage Managed by Shauwna Dias Grillo

June 6 – 29, 2025
GBSC
395 Main Street
Stoneham, MA 02180

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Run Time: Little Shop of Horrors runs approximately 2 hours including the intermission.

STONEHAM, Mass. — My apologies to the cast, crew and staff of Greater Boston Stage Company’s Little Shop of Horrors for the delay in getting this critique out. I’ve been selfishly disturbed by the chaos ripping through Los Angeles manufactured by the Fascists-in-Chief to distract us from the beastly, bulbous tax and spending legislation sitting in the U.S. Senate. Actual, factual L.A. takes precedence over fantastical L.A. no matter how awesome your show is.

GBSC’s Little Shop of Horrors has commonality with Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show. It has pervy aliens, stiff romantic tension, a soupçon of domestic violence, and solid bangers to get your booty in motion. The biggest difference between the two shows remains costuming: Little Shop’s cast wears its weather- and situation-appropriate clothing by Chelsea Kerl (who could easily have costumed both shows from the same closet) for the duration of the production. While Audrey II starts and stays naked, her tandem actors keep their trousers on. So, negligee notwithstanding, if you like one show, you’ll like the other.  Continue reading →

Jun 02

With A Side of Cheese: “Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)”

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Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts in Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).
Photo: Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall

Presented by American Repertory Theater
A Kiln Theatre Production
By Jim Barne and Kit Buchan
Directed and Choreographed by Tim Jackson
Music Direction by Jeffrey Campos
Featuring: Christiani Pitts, Sam Tutty 

May 20 – July 13, 2025
Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Digital playbill 

This production contains haze, fog, and flashing lights. Recommended for ages 12+.
Run Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes, including one intermission

Critique by Kitty Drexel

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) hit Harvard Square just before Harvard’s various commencement ceremonies. It’s a politically charged time when Harvard has spent months fighting for its freedoms as an educational organization (among which, its freedom to receive federal funding as a contractor with the federal government). The Square is flooded with awed tourists collecting memories and memorabilia as their family members graduate from Harvard’s hallowed halls. Meanwhile, pissed off locals navigate around slow-paced bodies as we rush about our work-a-day lives. Coincidentally, it’s a dichotomy captured in Two Strangers. 

As in the musical playing at the Loeb Drama Center, the U.S. has a different reputation at home than it does outside of our country: The U.S. (and by extension Harvard University), depending on who you ask, is an untamed land of permissible behavior and flashy but great industrial innovations. The international community loves us or hates us depending on their income level and political leanings. Many of our citizens feel the same. 

So, it comes to no great surprise that main character Dougal (Sam Tutty) expects New York to resemble the city he’s seen in the movies: action adventures, “I’m walkin’ here,” tourist traps, and musical montages. Robin (Christiani Pitts) quickly corrects Dougal’s expectations. New York tourism is for people with money, she says. They are broke. It turns out, they are also broken on the inside. Oh hey – just like our transportation, judicial and political systems (etc.)! Welcome, new friend. Continue reading →

May 30

Progression and Congestion: “Stories”

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Pretty poster art by Leon Friedman

Presented by Cunning Folk Theatre
Based on a short story by Y.L. Peretz
Adapted and directed by Catherine Alam-Nist
Translated by Giovanna Truong and Ruthie Davis
Guitarist: Gabe Nixon

May 28 – 29, 2025
BCA Plaza Black Box
539 Tremont St.
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

75+ minutes with one intermission

BOSTON — Cunning Folk Theatre has shown significant growth from 2023’s Selkie Play at the Somerville Armory to this week’s Stories playing at the Boston Center of the Arts’ Plaza Black Box theater. Stories is an ambitious project with moments of delightful artistic freedom, and its writing is overwhelmed with too many layers of meaning. The creative team should be proud of their progress, and also aware of how much farther they’ve yet to go.  Continue reading →

May 18

Fame Puts You There Where Things Are Hollow: “As Bees in Honey Drown”

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The cast: photo by Gary Ng. Spot on costumes by Anna Silva. 

Presented by Theater UnCorked
By Douglas Carter Beane
Directed by David Miller
Fight Choreography & Intimacy Direction by Allison Olivia Choat

May 15 – May 18, 2025
BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre
539 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” – Attributed to Andy Warhol. (The Smithsonian Magazine contests this attribution.)

BOSTON — There are days when life in the theatre feels like the lowest level in a multilevel marketing scheme. Famous artists and producers at the top of the pyramid (on Broadway and the West End) make the most money; their flashy success entices others to buy into the business: drama school, dance, voice, acting classes, accent coaches, pay-to-plays and voice-over camp. Semi-famous, professional artists and administrators who hustle like they’ve been conditioning since the womb make ends meet; they can afford niceties like starting a family without going into serious debt. The rest of us schmucks, to borrow a term from Theater Uncorked’s As Bees in Honey Drown, must work at least one (or three, if you’re a stage manager) side hustle to afford the theatre lifestyle. Continue reading →

May 13

Dark and Violent/Full of Butterflies: “The Head Is Not the Star of the Body”

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The ensemble of “The Head Is Not the Star of the Body;” Photo by Olivia Moon Photography.

Presented by Boston Dancemakers Residency Showcase
Directed and choreographed by Cassie Wang
Movement Collaborators and Past Contributors: Leah Misano, Juliet Paramor
Projection Artist by Genevieve Temple, Cassie Wang
Dramaturgy by Ilya Vidrin
Rehearsal Direction by Dara Nicole Capley
Lighting Design by Andrea Sala
Technical Direction by Anne Dresbach
Music by Big Thief
Performers: Gabriela Amy-Moreno, Hannah Franz, Sasha Peterson, Noli Rosen, Cassie Wang, Maude Warshaw

May 8 – 11, 2025 – in person
May 26–June 30, 2025 – virtual performance 
Boston Center for the Arts
Calderwood Pavilion
Martin Rehearsal Hall
527 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116

Article by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Director and choreographer Cassie Wang’s choreopoem The Head is not the Star of the Body asked her audiences to consider longing in its purist form: raw emotion. Wang asked us, “How does longing reveal identity? How do we sit with someone else’s longing? How do we measure the distance between subjects of longing?” In the playbill’s Note From the Director, Wang leaned into her ask. She told her audience to prioritize feeling over thinking and to savor their responses. It’s a big ask; New England audiences are famously self-controlled.  It’s how we show respect. Continue reading →

May 12

“Spiritual Advisors” at the Boston Fringe Festival

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Presented as part of the Boston Fringe Festival 
Produced by The Asian American Playwright Collective (AAPC)

May 6-11, 2025
The Rockwell 
255 Elm Street
Somerville, MA 02144

Critique by Kitty Drexel

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — The Boston Theatre Festival hosted at Somerville’s Rockwell Theater was not the first fringe festival in Massachusetts. But! It is the only festival currently carrying the fringe moniker. I sincerely hope the producers keep up the momentum for 2026. In these days of fascist, unconstitutional grant dissolution, joyful theatre production is a form of resistance.    Continue reading →

May 02

Wait & Let the Daddies Come to You: “Sugar”

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(from left to right): Tiffany Santiago and Chingwe Padraig Sullivan; Photo credit: Erin Solomon.

Presented by Fresh Ink Theatre
Written by Tara Moses
Directed by Audrey Seraphin
Dramaturgy by Quita Sullivan
Dialect Coaching by Allison Olivia Choat
Intimacy direction by Olivia Dumaine

April 18 – May 3, 2025
Plaza Black Box Theatre
Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116

Content advisories: Sexual Content, Racism, Fatphobia, some hateful language.

2 hours 15 minutes with one intermission

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Sugar is about cis het sex work. So, we’re talking about cis heteros today. Somebody plan them a parade.  

Sugar by Tara Moses is the intersectional feminism leftists want to see in the world. It is about a young, plus-sized woman of color, Brooke (a heroic Tiffany Santiago), who lives the dream by capitalizing on the unpaid labor she once provided for free to her whiny, white, affluent “friends.” Artist and gig-worker Brooke is besties with Holly (Katherine Callaway, with a discomfortingly accurate portrayal), and the two couldn’t be more different. Holly is slim, blonde, and enjoys all the privileges her moneyed Caucasian looks provide her, such as her rich christian fiancé Will (Matthew Feldman-Campbell, as a himbo who only punches down), a job in an arts-related career, and a hefty family allowance that allows her to keep that arts job. 

Whereas, Brooke lives in an apartment from Hell, works multiple jobs that won’t provide healthcare, and is collapsing under student loan and credit card debt. She dates to supplement her meals, not to find love. Without her neighbor and chosen sister Nina (Tanya Avendaño Stockler, a spark of joy and the shimmering energy boost this production’s pacing needed), Brooke would be homeless and starving. A bestie who wants your labor without reciprocating is not your bestie.  Continue reading →