Presented by Moonbox Productions
Music and Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa
Book by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe
Based on the poem by Joseph Moncure March
Directed and choreographed by Rachel Bertone
Music direction by Dan Rodriguez
Orchestration by Bruce Coughlin
(Boston, MA) Moonbox Production’s The Wild Party is a tight, gin-moist package of cruelty, casual racism and light kink. It’s a domestic violence fairy tale of grotesque proportions, and sexy as fuck. Everyone over the age of 18 should see it. The subject might be naughty but its methods are mesmerizing.Continue reading →
April 15-30, 2016
Plaza Theatre
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston Public Works on Facebook
Review by Travis Manni
Trigger warning: sound sequences referencing the 9/11 attacks.
(Boston, MA) You ever have one of those moments when you spontaneously start crying and you’re not entirely sure why or where it came from? That’s how I felt after watching Unsafe, a self-proclaimed psychological thriller by playwright Jim Dalgish. Continue reading →
Queen Tytania (Maya Kherani) and Bottom (Joseph Hubbard), Photo provided by BU School of Music
Presented Boston University College of Fine Arts
Benjamin Britten, composer & Peter Pears, librettist
Based on the play by William Shakespeare
William Lumpkin, conductor
Tara Faircloth, stage director
(Boston, MA) I enjoy myself most with adaptations of Shakespeare’s comedies when their sense of fun and lightness remain intact. The direction in Boston University Theatre’s production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream didn’t fail me. This vision is every bit the dream of the title. Fairies wear blue wigs and polka dot suits, columns of giant, white flowers are moved across the stage, Puck (Elizabeth Valenti) brings Queen Tytania (Maya Kherani) her morning tea, and King Oberon (Wee-Kiat Chia) smugly points out his wife slept with an enchanted donkey-man (Joseph Hubbard) the night before. One scene flows into the next elegantly. For the most part, it’s a perfectly realized vision. Continue reading →
From the World Music/CRASH arts press release:
(Boston, MA) Portuguese vocalist Ana Moura possesses a sound unlike any other in fado. Her voice trolls freely though the Portuguese tradition, flirting elegantly with pop and broadening the soul-baring genre with stunning results.
…Fado (literally, “fate”) is a type of Portuguese singing, traditionally associated with pubs and cafés, and is renowned for its expressive and profoundly melancholic character. Although the origins are difficult to trace, today fado is regarded by many as simply a form of song which can be about anything but must follow a certain structure. The music is usually linked to the Portuguese word saudade which symbolizes the feeling of loss (a permanent, irreparable loss and its consequent lifelong damage). The singer of fado speaks to the often harsh realities of everyday life, sometimes with a sense of resignation, sometimes with the hope of resolution.
…Ana Moura’s newest studio album, Moura, was released in November 2015 in Portugal and immediately received gold status. Soon to be released in the rest of the world, the album was produced by Larry Klein, who has produced worked for legends like Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell. Just like Desfado, the album features a number of major guests, including Carlos Tê, Sara Tavares, and Edu Mundo, among others.
About World Music/CRASHarts
World Music/CRASHarts is a nonprofit organization that presents an eclectic mix of global, folk, jazz, and indie music along with contemporary and world dance in a series of concerts, events, and educational programs in greater Boston. It strives to offer audiences an opportunity to share in many different artistic performances and seeks to foster an atmosphere of cultural discovery. For 25 years, World Music/CRASHarts has answered a need for cultural programming in greater Boston that reflects today’s global community. For tickets and more information, call 617-876-4275 or visitwww.WorldMusic.org
Presented by the Suffolk University Theatre Department
Book, Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Directed by Paul Melone
Musical Direction by Scott Nicholas
(Boston, MA) So here we are again. Same play, another day, and another production. This time, the cherished show made its way to the Suffolk University Theatre Department. Continue reading →
(Boston, MA) It is no small challenge to take on a piece with so much cultural baggage as Alice in Wonderland. Audiences have seen, heard, and read this story over and over again from our childhoods unto the present day. Alice is everywhere in so many forms that adding something new to the tale is a Herculean task. Unfortunately, I don’t think that artistic director Matthew Woods quite had a handle on it. Continue reading →
March 12-April 9, 2016
Stanford Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
Speak Easy on Facebook
Review by Travis Manni
(Boston, MA) Growing up gay and black is a very specific experience, and not one with which I will ever be able to identify. But Robert O’Hara’s hilarious and honest show gives the closest to an authentic experience anybody could possibly get. Continue reading →
(Boston, MA) It is Independence Day 1984. The ladies of a small town in Vermont have won a place in the annual cakewalk competition and are patiently awaiting the critique of guest judge, Julia Child. First prize is a glamorous trip for two to Paris, France. Among the other prizes are a lifetime supply of flour and accolades from the citizenship for an entire year. Most of the gang looks forward to the friendly competition. Ruby Abel (Kelley Estes) is out for blood. Ready to slow down her paranoid manipulations are fellow contestants Martha (Aina Adler), Augusta (Maureen Adduci) and Leigh (Victoria George). Taylor (Matt Fagerberg) just wants to find the registration room. Each has their own secrets to keep and insecurities to air. A seemingly safe summer fair turns into a conundrum of colliding small town politics. Continue reading →
ASP Richard II (l to r) Northumberland (Marya Lowry), King Richard II (Doug Lockwood), Bishop of Carlisle (Malcolm Ingram), Bolingbroke (Michael Forden Walker), and Henry Percy (Lewis D. Wheeler). Photo by Stratton McCrady
(Cambridge, MA) Richard II is not about a Danish prince languishing over a ghost’s warnings or an elderly king like Lear, mad with grief due to age and family strife. No, this is a story about the abuses of power and a complex man who both understands why he must give up his throne but is honest enough to admit to himself that he just really, really doesn’t want to. Continue reading →
Boxershorts, A Cycle of Short Plays: “From Water to Dust” (Del Agua al Polvo)
Presented by Brown Box Theatre Project and Icaro Compania Teatral
Directed by Talia Curtin and Kyler Taustin
Plays by Jose Rivera, Nilo Cruz, Maria Irene Fornes, Caridad Svich
Brown Box on Facebook
BOSTON
Atlantic Wharf
290 Congress St
Feb 26-28 & Mar 4-6, 2016
SALISBURY
Headquarters Live
115 S Division St
March 10, 2016
OCEAN CITY
Center for the Arts
502 94th Street
March 11-14, 2016
Review by Kitty Drexel
(Boston, MA) Brown Box Theatre presents Boxer Shorts: From Water to Dust (Del gua al polvo) in collaboration with Icaro Compania Teatral. It’s a short evening, say 50 minutes to an hour, of work from playwrights we don’t see a lot of in Boston: Jose Rivera, Nilo Cruz, Maria Irene Fornes, and Caridad Svich. From science fiction to abstract drama, It’s a nice change of pace. While not 100% reflective of the work by these playwrights, it’s an introduction to their work. It’s enough to give the audience motive to seek out more.Continue reading →
