Jul 29

Kids Cheer, Parents Endure: WIZARD OF OZ

http://www.nsmt.org/images/Press/2013/WizardofOz/production/nsmt-oz-Witch.jpg

Photo Credit: North Shore Music Theatre

Presented by North Shore Music Theatre
Based on the book by Frank L. Baum
Music & Lyrics of the MGM Motion Picture score by: Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg
Background Music by: Herbert Stohart
Book Adaptation from the motion picture screenplay by: John Kane
Directed by Joel Ferrell
Music directed by William Stanley

July 16 – August 4, 2013
62 Dunham Road
Beverly, MA 01915
North Shore Music Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Beverly) Let’s cut to the chase: your kids will love it.  The North Shore Music Theatre’s production of the Wizard of Oz is colorful and brimming with energy and special effects.

But is it any good?  Ah, now there’s the rub.

First, you have to do a gut-check of the source material.  Can you handle a razzle-dazzle, overly-cute 1930’s big-box-office musical onstage?  Frankly, I have always had a hard time with it.  Strip away our strange reverence for this campy tale and it’s just bizarre that this show has such long legs. Continue reading

Dec 12

Of Mice and Men and Misfits

Photo Credit : Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo.

Photo Credit : Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo.

by John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
Directed by Allison Choat

presented by Moonbox Productions
The BCA Plaza Theatre
539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
Dec 7 – 22, 2012
Moonbox Productions Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston) Of Mice and Men is a play about alienation, the ways in which people are isolated from society and why. Clever but mean George (Phil Tayler) and his slow friend, Lennie (Harry McEnerny), go from one ranch to the next in 1930’s California. The pair look for work in order to fund their dream of owning a small farm. Continue reading