Tag Archives: MA

Nov 19

No Ghosts Need Apply: “A Sherlock Carol”

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The cast; Photo by Nile Hawer.

Presented by the Lyric Stage Boston
By Mark Shanahan
Directed by Ilyse Robbins

Nov. 14 – Dec. 21, 2025
140 Clarendon St
2nd floor
Boston, MA 02116
Online Playbill

Running Time: Two hours plus one 15-minute intermission.

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — A Sherlock Carol at Lyric Stage Boston is a Doyle and Dickens delight that mashes the beloved characters from both Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series in one gleeful package. This mashup is a needed departure from an overdone but beloved holiday tradition that will amuse Dickens fans, please Doyle fans, and introduce the children of both to classic literature in a new format. It runs through Dec. 21. Continue reading →

Nov 18

Tickets, Please: “the beautiful land i seek (la linda tierra que busco yo)”

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Photo scavenged from online.

Presented by Teatro Chelsea
by Matthew Barbot
Directed by Armando Rivera
Associate Director – Luz Lopez
Fight direction – Naomi Kim

October 31- November 22, 2025
Chelsea Theatre Works Blackbox
181 Winnisimmet Street
Chelsea, MA

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Estimated Runtime: 95min w/ no intermission

“Cuando a sus playas llegó Colón;
Exclamó lleno de admiración;
‘Oh!, oh!, oh!, esta es la linda
tierra que busco yo.’”
“When at her beaches Columbus arrived,
he exclaimed full of admiration:
‘Oh! Oh! Oh!
This is the beautiful land, that I seek.’”

– Taken from “La Borinqueña.” Lyrics by Manuel Fernández Juncos (1846-1928). Translation by Samuel Quiros. 

CHELSEA, Mass. —  The title of Matthew Barbot’s play, the beautiful land i seek (la linda tierra que busco yo), is derived from the lyrics of Puerto Rico’s national anthem, “La Borinqueña.” Parts Waiting for Godot and Snowpiercer (2013), the production asks what failed Puerto Rican nationalist assassins Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola would think of the United States’ appropriation of Puerto Rican culture through the decades. Was their sacrifice worth it? Who has taken up the mantle of independence since the event of their activism? Teatro Chelsea’s production is now running at Chelsea Theatre Works through November 22.

It’s 1950. Members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Oscar Collazo (Carlos Zalduondo) and Griselio Torresola (Nathaniel Justiniano), travel by train from New York to Washington, D.C. Their mission: to assassinate President Harry S. Truman (Alexander Crespo Rosaro II) in the name of Puerto Rican independence. They have two pistols and a conspiratorial Can-Do attitude. They intend to use their train trip to solidify their plans, but their fellow travelers (Ashley L. Aldarondo) keep interrupting Oscar and Griselio’s trip. Teatro Chelsea’s website says this play is “Loosely based on historical events and definitely based on recent ones, the beautiful land i seek (la linda tierra que busco yo) is a funny, gripping rollercoaster ride through Puerto Rico’s relationship to the United States.” Director Rivera plays a poet with one foot in the future and the other in the present.  Continue reading →

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 29

Straddle the Line in Discord and Rhyme: “The Wolves”

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The Wolves cast; photo via Facebook.

Presented by Hive Theatre Company
By Sarah DeLappe
Directed by Margaret McFadden

Oct. 17 – 19, 2025
BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes with ONE intermission

Content Warning: The Wolves contains strong language, discussions of sexual content, and references to mental health struggles, eating disorders, and mentions of death and grief.

BOSTON — If William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies were adapted for a modern teenage girls’ soccer team, it would be The Wolves. In Golding’s novel, prepubescent boys are stranded on an island without adults. Unmitigated chaos ensues. In The Wolves, an indoor girls’ soccer team, also with negligible adult oversight, adapts much better to their ogled but unsupervised soccer practices. Earlier this month, we saw the Hive Theatre Company’s Wolves ensemble stretch, bully their peers, and embrace their challenges for the newest generation of theatre makers. 

The Wolves is a microcosm of the teenage girl’s experience navigating life’s big and small questions. Playwright Sarah DeLappe captures the demands of modern living in her script; her characters tackle topics like the historical evils of the Khmer Rouge amidst conversations about kissable boys. They stretch their lithe bodies before a home game while discussing the teen version of “having it all.” Through the lens of the pregame routine, DeLappe looks under the superficial facade of the cutesy teen stereotype to show us their personhood.  Continue reading →

Oct 16

Ale, and well met: “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-sided Tavern”

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Presented by Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-sided Tavern
Digital Playbill

October 3 – October 5, 2025
The Boch Center Shubert Theatre
265 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116

Runtime: 2 hours 30 minutes with a 15-minute intermission

Review by Helen Ganley

BOSTON — In 1974, a global phenomenon began.

Well, that’s not exactly true. In 1974, Original Dungeons & Dragons was released as a small box set containing three playable classes, four races, and only a handful of monsters. It even assumed you owned two other, unrelated games in order to play it. With just a thousand copies printed, it was far from the cultural movement it would one day become.

For decades, D&D was synonymous with the epitome of nerdom. But with the rise of streamers, the accessibility of the fifth (and most recent) edition, and online play across countless platforms, Dungeons & Dragons has transformed into a genuine cultural phenomenon. Continue reading →

Oct 14

To Laugh Without the Heavy Phantom of Despair: “Mother Mary”

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Forseth and Alvarez; Photo by Benjamin Rose Photography.

Presented by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
by KJ Moran Velz
Directed by Elaine Vaan Hogue
Digital Playbill 

October 9-26, 2025
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
949 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
Content transparency: Mother Mary contains scenes of sexual intimacy and references to abortion. For more: https://www.bostonplaywrights.org/ct/mother-mary

This critique contains light spoilers. 

BOSTON — Mary, known then by her Hebrew name Miriam, Mother of Yeshua, was a Jewish woman of color knocked up with a baby she didn’t want and set to marry a man she didn’t know (Biblically or platonically) in the Ancient Middle East. We’re told Yusuf married her anyway. Then they immigrated to Jerusalem, where Miriam delivered her son in a barn surrounded by pooping farm animals. If you replace Jerusalem with Southie and the donkey with a taxi, you get a summary of Mother Mary. Sort of. 

This summary borrows from the play’s summary on the BPT website. Mother Mary is based loosely on the Biblical myth of Mary, Jesus, and Joseph. Taxi driver Jo Cruz (Adriana Alvarez) knows the streets of 1968’s Southie like the back of her hand, but no road map can prepare her for meeting Mary O’Sullivan (Tara Forseth), a Catholic school teacher with a boyfriend and a very strict mother. Despite rising tensions between their Puerto Rican and Irish communities, Jo and Mary find themselves in an unexpectedly close friendship…or is it something more? But their growing connection takes a turn when Mary asks Jo to take her on a risky road trip during a snowstorm from which there’s no going back.  Continue reading →

Oct 13

Between the Diet Coke Button and the Nuclear Codes: ASP’s “Macbeth”

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Omar Robinson (center) with Brian Demar Jones, Dennis Trainor Jr., Claire Mitchell, and Brooke Hardman (2025). Photo by Benjamin Rose Photography.

Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Christopher V. Edwards
Digital Playbill

Oct. 2-26, 2025
The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal Street
Watertown, MA 02472

Content Warning: This production employs the use of water-based haze, stage cigarettes, flashing lights, strobe effects, and gunshots. 

RUN TIME: Approx. two hours and twenty-five minutes, including one intermission.

Warning: This critique includes light production spoilers. 

WATERTOWN, Mass — It’s been a busy quarter season for Macbeth performances: Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s Stage2 student players performed Mackers in May; Cambridge’s Dream Role Players performed it in Longfellow Park last August; Boston Lyric Opera performed it at Emerson Colonial Theatre last weekend. Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production is at the Mosesian Center for the Arts in a vastly nontraditional production through October 26.  

ASP’s Artistic Director Edwards interprets Macbeth as a 1960s psychological and physical nightmare horrorscape in which fascistic tyranny, state-sanctioned drug abuse, bipartisan gaslighting and lies are de facto political tactics. In this version (as in our current White House), the psychological horrors outweigh the physical violence. Set in the U.S. immediately after the Cold War, title character Macbeth (Omar Robinson, unhinged and unbothered), Banquo (Jesse Hinson), Macduff (Brian Demar Jones), Ross (Jennie Israel), Malcolm (Chingwe Padraig Sullivan), Fleance (Vince Nguyen) and King Duncan (Dennis Trainor) are celebrating a battle win despite their personal tragendies. Amidst their revels, three psychological terrorists/witches (Jade Guerra, Amanda Esmie, Claire Mitchell) indoctrinate Lady Macbeth (Brooke Hardman) and Lord Macbeth into regicide through mind control manipulation and hallucinogenic drugs.    Continue reading →

Oct 08

Using His Powers for Good: “300 Paintings”

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Sam Kissajukian in performance of 300 Paintings. Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva

Presented by American Repertory Theater
Written and Performed by Sam Kissajukian
Produced by Sally Horchow and Matt Ross in association with Octopus Theatricals

Now – Oct. 25, 2025
Farkas Hall
12 Holyoke Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission

Critique by Diana Lu

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Watching 300 Paintings feels a bit like being dropped straight into the mind of Sam Kissajukian, mid-manic episode—but with comfy seats, visual aids, and killer comedic timing. For 80 minutes straight, the comedian-turned-painter commands the stage with no script; his first 300 paintings flash on the black screen behind him. The result is a hilarious, high-energy, and surprisingly insightful comedic monologue that explores the fine line between genius and madness, connection and isolation, and what gets assigned as worthy in this late-stage capitalist world of unprecedented wealth disparity—a world obsessed with packaging everything, including ourselves, into “brands,” “content,” “product.” Continue reading →

Oct 01

Magic in every corner: “The Fairy Tailor”

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Sarah Nolan and a friend.

Presented by Puppet Showplace Theatre
Created and performed by Sarah Nolen

Sept. 27 – 28, 2025
Brookline Puppet Showcase
32 Station St.
Brookline, MA 02445

Review by Maegan Bergeron-Clearwood

BROOKLINE, Mass. — The cozy stage at Puppet Showplace Theatre in Brookline is overflowing with trinkets and tools: sewing boxes and pincushions; an ironing board and dress form; satins, sequins, and silks. These every day, seemingly mundane objects are the source of resident artist Sarah Nolen’s magic as she transports us beyond her shop walls and into three fantastical fairy tale worlds.

Nolen plays the titular tailor, who desperately needs the audience’s help as she frantically prepares for a visit from her biggest, scariest customer in The Fairy Tailor. To calm her frayed nerves, she tells stories, each with a quirky, interactive twist (and plenty of puns). Continue reading →