Tag Archives: boston center for the arts

Nov 11

A Family Affair: KIM’S CONVENIENCE

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Ins Choi and Esther Chung in “Kim’s Convenience” (2025). Photo by Dahlia Katz

Adam Blanshay Productions presents the Soulpepper Theatre Company production in association with American Conservatory Theater
Presented by The Huntington
Written by Ins Choi
Director –  Weyni Mengesha
Cast –  Ins Choi, Kelly Seo, Esther Chung, Ryan Jinn, and Brandon McKnight
Set Design –  Joanna Yu
Costume Design – Ming Wong
Lighting Design –  Wen-Ling Liao
Video and Production Design – Nicole Eun-Ju Bell
Sound Design –  Fan Zhang

November 6–30, 2025
The Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Craig Idlebrook

BOSTON — Some performers become known for and steeped in the same work for years. For a few unfortunate souls, often those only known for one thing, the work becomes a prison as well as a meal ticket, and you watch them grimly go through the motions of performance. For others, the work becomes like a family member the artist can nurture and watch grow; the work may cause them heartache at times, but they still can cradle it with love and find new wonder in it. I suspect playwright and actor Ins Choi’s feelings toward Kim’s Convenience, a play about an imperfect Korean-Canadian family, fall in the latter category, and that may be what makes his return to the stage in the play so poignant to watch.   Continue reading →

Nov 10

Oh, to be young, green, and safe to live from my truth: “Lizard Boy: A New Musical”

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From left: Chelsie Nectow, Keiji Ishiguri, Peter DiMaggio; photo courtesy of Benjamin Rose Photography.

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company
Written and Composed by Justin Huertas
Directed by Lyndsay Allyn Cox
Music Direction by Violet Wang

October 25-November 23, 2025
Stanford Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116

Run-time: 1 hour 30 minutes, no intermission

Critique by Diana Lu

BOSTON — It’s been ten years since Lizard Boy: A New Indie-Rock Musical premiered in Seattle, and SpeakEasy Stage Company has proven its Lizard BOY is a capable and self-assured MAN-phibian. Under the direction of Lyndsay Allyn Cox and the musical direction of Violet Wang, SpeakEasy’s invigorating revival allows the many strengths of the show’s impressive score and cast to shine, while also exposing its narrative limits.

Lizard Boy finds Trevor, a gay, green-skinned twenty-something, on the first anniversary of a painful breakup. While looking for love, he reveals this is the only night of the year he leaves the house—and the anniversary of the childhood dragon attack that turned his skin green. As the evening unfolds, he finds companionship, an archnemesis, a superpower, his soul truth, and maybe… the end of the world!  Continue reading →

Oct 19

As Mysterious As the Dark Side of the Moon: “The Ballad of Little Jo” 

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Presented by The Treehouse Collective
Music by Mike Reid
Lyrics by Sarah Schlesinger
Book by Sarah Schlesinger, Mike Reid, and John Dias
Directed by Katie Swimm
Music Directed by Jeff Kimball

Digital Playbill 

October 24 – November 2, 2025
The Plaza Theatre
The Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes with one intermission

BOSTON — The curious story of cattle ranching and mining pioneer Little Joe Monahan was brought to light when the trailblazer passed away in 1904. Monahan had lived and died as a successful male business owner in Idaho, Oregon, and northern New York. After his death, an unprofessional undertaker preparing Monahan for burial leaked to the Buffalo, NY, press that Monahan was born AFAB. His legacy reminds us that trans people have always existed despite some cis folks’ intentions to erase them.   

There is a lot we don’t know about Little Joe Monahan. Much has been lost to time or otherwise sensationalized by early journalists. Monahan was first memorialized in the 1981 play Little Joe Monaghan by Barbara Lebow. A 1993 movie of the same name starring Heather Graham, Sir Ian McKellen, and Rene Auberjonois further romanticized Joe’s story (and borrowed heavily from Lebow’s play). The Treehouse Collective presents another romanticized adaptation, The Ballad of Little Jo, through Nov. 2 at the Boston Center for the Arts. Continue reading →

Sep 17

Welcome Friend, You’re Right on Time!: “Primary Trust” 

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From left: Arthur Gomez and David J. Castillo; photo by Benjamin Rose Photography.

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company
By Eboni Booth 
Directed by Dawn M Simmons

Sep 12 – Oct 11, 2025
Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Neurospicy [adjective | nur-oh-SPYCE-ee]: A playful substitute for ‘neurodiverse’ or ‘neurodivergent.’ Via Merriam-Webster.com 

BOSTON — Currently running at the Boston Center for the Arts, SpeakEasy Stage presents Primary Trust by Eboni Booth. The full script of Primary Trust appeared in the Spring 2024 print issue of American Theatre magazine. The play won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2024. It premiered at Roundabout Theatre Company in Spring 2023 and was produced locally by Barrington Stage in Pittsfield, MA during the company’s 2024/2025 season. Now it’s in Boston, and we’re glad to see it in the hands of the most capable staff, cast and crew of SpeakEasy Stage. 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 →

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 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 →

Mar 27

An Umbrella of Representation: “Queer Voices Festival”

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The Queer Voices Festival
Presented by Boston Theater Company
The Balcony or The Last Night by Pascale Florestal, she/her/hers
Halftime v. Intermission by Michael J. Bobbitt, he/him
Left Overs by Roni Ragone, they/them
Limpia by Leonard P. Madrid, he/him
Oop, Can’t Say That by Tom Zhang, they/them
Seance by Dylan Horowitz, He/Him & She/Her
Zelda by Haz Cady, he/him

March 21 -23, 2025
Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116

2 Hrs 15 Minutes with 1 intermission

Review by Helen Ganley

BOSTON — This past weekend, the Boston Theater Company hosted its 2nd annual Queer Voices Festival at the Boston Center for the Arts. We are caught in an onslaught of voices, opinions, and legislation—the whipping wind of oppression slapping us in the face, the ice of hatred hardening on the sidewalk, daring us to fall. This event gathers a community under the umbrella of representation, shielding them—if only for an hour and a half—from the deluge outside.
Continue reading →

Feb 25

You Are Simply Made Perfect: “The Grove”

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The cast of The Huntington’s production of Mfoniso Udofia’s The Grove, directed by Awoye Timpo; photo by Marc J. Franklin.

Play two of the Ufot Family Cycle
Presented by The Huntington
Written By Mfoniso Udofia
Directed by Awoye Timpo

February 7 – March 9, 2025
The Huntington Calderwood
527 Tremont St. 
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — The Grove is a play about being female, queer, and Black in a world that derides persons who persist in those identities. It follows Adiaha Ufot (Abigail C Onwunali returning in a tour de force performance) as she bargains with herself, her Ancestors, and her family to justify her existence. This is the triumphant second play in the Ufot Family Cycle by Mfoniso Udofia which runs at the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston through March 9. 

If you didn’t see Sojourners, the first play in the Ufot Family Cycle, here is a recap video graciously provided by The Huntington.

Attendees won’t need to have seen Sojourners to enjoy The Grove as The Grove stands on its own dramatic, design, and direction excellence, but knowing about Sojourners will help patrons understand the trajectories of the recurring Nigerian-American characters Abasiama (Patrice Johnson Chevannes who leads with quiet bravery) and Disciple’s (Joshua Olumide as the terrifyingly unhinged patriarch). Both have changed since we last met them: Abasiama has found success in STEM after earning her college degree and born three more children. Disciple is an adjunct professor who now displays obsessive narcissistic personality traits: sleep deprivation, financial abuse, gaslighting. Their home is a veritable warzone for their children Adiaha, Toyoima (Aisha Wura Akorede) and Ekong (Amani Kojo). Continue reading →