T: An MBTA Musical Starts 6/8/12 at Club Oberon in Cambridge, MA.
photo credit: Elizabeth Woodward (from last year's production.)
Interview by Becca Kidwell
They’re ba-ack…Alice, John, and Michelle return to thwart the troublesome MBTA. On June 8th, T: An MBTA Musical, the surprising smash hit of last summer, makes stops at Club Oberon. Where do ideas for musicals come from? Melissa Carubia, the show’s composer, takes us on the underground journey.
Nikkole Salter and McCaleb Burnett in Kirsten Greenidge’s THE LUCK OF THE IRISH. March 30 – April 29, 2012 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. huntingtontheatre.org. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.
The Luck of the Irish by Kirsten Greenidge, Huntington Theatre Company, Boston Center for the Arts Virginia Wimberly Theatre, 3/30/12-5/6/12, http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/2011-2012/The-Luck-of-the-Irish/.
Reviewed by Gillian Daniels
(Boston, MA) When the upwardly mobile Lucy and Rex Taylor (Nikkole Salter and Victor Williams, respectively) are unable to buy a house in Boston because they’re black, they turn to Patty Ann and Joe Donovan (Marianna Bassham and McCaleb Burnett) to buy one for them during the 1950’s. The complex relationship this creates between them bleeds over into the early 2000’s when the Harrisons’ grandchildren discover the elderly Donovans want the house back. The drama that results is tight and enjoyable. Continue reading
Steve Kidd, Will McGarrahan, Victor L. Shopov, & Shelley Bolman in The Temperamentals. Photo by Mark S. Howard
The Tempermentals by Jon Marans, Lyric Stage Company, 3/30/12-4/28/12, https://lyricstage.com/
main_stage/the_temperamentals/.
Reviewed by Craig Idlebrook
The oppressed can’t name their condition without fear of reprisal. They can’t gather together. They can’t escape their condition in the traditional refuges of family, community, friendship and sex. Imagine trying to create change swimming against such a tide. Continue reading
Phil Tayler as Floyd Collins, photo by Sharman Altshuler
Floyd Collins, Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettal, Book and Additional Lyrics by Tina Landau, Moonbox Productions, Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre, 4/5/12-4/15/12, http://www.moonboxproductions.org/.
Reviewed by Craig Idlebrook
(Boston, MA) There are many ways to be trapped. For some thrill-seekers, the risk of death and the short life it might bring is a better alternative than dying incrementally in quiet desperation. Continue reading
On Ego by Mick Gordon (playwright) and Paul Broks (neuroscientist), Science Fiction Theatre Company, Factory Theatre, 3/30/12-4/15/12, http://www.sciencefictiontheatrecompany.com/.
Reviewed by Becca Kidwell
(Boston, MA) Quantum Leap and Star Trek have enticed us with the possibility of travelling through time and space through a transporter of some sort. When I used to work an hour and a half away from my home, I longed for a teleportation device that would transport me home in the blink of an eye.
But while the fiction is intriguing, the science leaves a lot of mystery and questions before we take that leap. Continue reading
Danni, Mom, and Gabrielle at the mall — with Jo d'Angelo and Jenny Reagan., photo credit: Boston Actors' Theatre
Expecting by Noah Tobin, Boston Actors’ Theatre, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 3/30/12-4/7/12, http://www.bostonactorstheater.com/.
Reviewed by Kate Lonberg-Lew
(Boston, MA) Have you ever found your cell phone lying on the back seat after ripping open the box of the replacement? Or perhaps you found your watch at the bottom of the hamper after strapping on your new Swatch? Somehow, we always manage to find what we’re looking for the moment we stop looking for it. This is what Expecting, currently at the Boston Actors Theater, is all about and the experience is wonderfully complex. Continue reading
Photo Credit: d.a. Hill
TOMÁŠ KUBÍNEK: CERTIFIED LUNATIC & MASTER OF THE IMPOSSIBLE, ArtsEmerson, Paramount Theatre, 3/29/12-4/1/12, http://alturl.com/255s3.
Reviewed by Craig Idlebrook
(Boston, MA) Funny is a funny thing. You can be mean and be funny. You can shock and be funny. You can do knock-knock jokes and be funny, at least to a five-year old. Or you can just be super-talented, a bit caustic and kind of weird and be funny. Tomáš Kubínek has chosen the last option to deliver a memorable and nicely brief one-man show for ArtsEmerson at the Paramount Theatre. Continue reading
Yvette Freeman and Corey Allen in August Wilson’s MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM. March 9 – April 8, 2012 at the BU Theatre. huntingtontheatre.org. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson, Huntington Theatre Company, 3/9/12-4/8/12, http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/production.aspx?id=10262&src=t.
Reviewed by Becca Kidwell
(Boston, MA) Music breathes and pulses as each note is played. The blues provide a voice for the inexpressible feelings of the human experience. The blues celebrate the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of life in its entirety; it is neither surprising that the blues came out of the African American spiritual tradition, nor that soul, r&b, and hip-hop were derived from the blues and at the core of the best is the heart and soul of the artist. What happens when that soul is taken away? Can the heart survive?
This question permeates the existence of each of the characters in August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Continue reading
James and the Giant Peach, based on the book by Roald Dahl, Boston Children’s Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre, 3/17/12-3/25/12, http://bostonchildrenstheatre.org/season/jamesandthegiantpeach/.
Reviewed by John Herring
(Boston, MA) James and the Giant Peach follows a young orphan boy and the charming crew of insects he befriends on an entertaining and hilarious trans-Atlantic journey aboard a gigantic piece of fruit.” If you have read the story, or have been read the story, you know and probably love it already. If not, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING?! And you also will love the story in full live presentation. Continue reading
Daniel J. Raps, Erin Rae Zalaski, Jesse Wood, and Christina Malanga in Beyond the light — at Calderwood Pavilion; photo credit Heart and Dagger Productions
Abigail Matzeder, Michael Underhill, and Terrence Patrick Haddad in CRAVE — at Calderwood Pavilion, Photo Credit: Heart and Dagger Productions
Crave by Sarah Kane and Beyond the Light by Joey C. Pelletier, Heart & Dagger Productions, Boston Center for the Arts Rehearsal Hall A, 3/9/12-3/17/12, http://www.heartanddagger.org/.Partial nudity and mature themes
Reviewed by Becca Kidwell
(Boston, MA) Many have tried to dramatize depression to mixed results. The problem tends to be that depression by it’s very nature is a passive thing-the person doesn’t want to do anything. Heart & Dagger escapes the trap of a dry, clinical look at depression by presenting two one acts that cut to the visceral core of despair and the fight to survive.
