Tag Archives: MA

Jun 10

Wistful, Warm and Inconclusive: SELECTED SHORTS ON TOUR: SPRINGTIME, SEX & BASEBALL

Posted on by

A National Public Radio Production
Hosted by the Huntington Theatre Company

Avenue of the Arts
BU Theatre
June 8th, 2013
Huntington Theatre Co Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

Short review: It was great.  You missed it.  Support your public radio.

(Boston) Kidding, kidding, but really what else is there to say?  Take four well-crafted short stories of love, baseball and awkwardness, mix in three superb actors and stir.  Watching the touring production of Selected Shorts is a powerful reminder that we are creatures of narrative.  Whole societies are shaped by storytelling, be it a creation myth or an endearing belief of what a well-regulated militia looks like.  People die for stories, people become president by telling stories.  Without stories we might as well climb back up into the trees (unless you believe in the Christian creation story….see?). Continue reading →

May 29

WORLD MUSIC/CRASHarts and Crossroads Presents PRESENT: COEUR DE PIRATE with Kandle

Posted on by

Coeur de pirate || Golden Baby [vidéoclip officiel] from Dare To Care Records on Vimeo.

WORLD MUSIC/CRASHarts and Crossroads Presents PRESENT
COEUR DE PIRATE
with Kandle
Thursday, June 6, 8pm, Paradise Rock Club, 18+

Coeur de Pirate (French for pirate heart) is the stage name for award-winning French-Canadian singer Béatrice Martin. Her whimsical, magical pop songs blend cabaret music, French lyrics and playful indie sensibilities. In November 2011,Coeur de Pirate released her highly anticipated second recording, Blonde, coproduced by Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, The Dears) and Béatrice Martin herself. Kandle will open.

Béatrice Martin has been playing piano and keyboards since she was only three years old. After a brief stint as keyboardist with the now defunct December Strikes First, Martin briefly joined the Montreal-based indie-pop band Bonjour Brumaire as a vocalist and pianist but left in 2008 to record her self-titled debut album. Coeur de Pirate was issued in September 2008 to immediate national and international acclaim. It was propelled by massive popularity via her MySpace page and an unexpected gift courtesy of famed Québécois photographer Francis Vachon who used the song “Ensemble” as the soundtrack to a time-lapse video of his 9-month old son that went viral on YouTube. This immensely popular clip showcased Martin’s music to millions of new fans, earning her praise from Good Morning America, The Globe and Mailand Perez Hilton, among many others. Stories ran in popular fashion magazines (Elle, Chatelaine) and on TV, and radio quickly followed, leading to a record deal in France. Coeur de Pirate has since gone platinum in Canada and Belgium, triple platinum in France and gold in Switzerland. The album has gone on to sell over 600,000 copies worldwide.

May 21

Troubled Flight for “Icarus”

Posted on by

With Austin Auh and Corianna Moffatt. Photo courtesy of Liars & Believers Facebook Page.

Presented by Liars & Believers
Directed by Faye Dupras

May 17 & 18, 2013 (Grab tickets while you can!)
Cambridge YMCA Theater in Central Square
Cambridge, MA
Liars & Believers Facebook Group

Gillian Daniels

Liars and Believers’ Icarus is a wobbly production, a Depression Era circus fable that limps when it pushes hard to soar.  Like a small bird, the show is both endearing but weak.  Its flourishes are strong: puppets, bluegrass, and robots.  The result gives the audience a series of intriguing set pieces but nothing that really coalesces into a grand story.

Jason Slavick packs a lot into the show, the separate parts fluid and vibrant.  The lead-up to the play itself includes burlesque and music, giving the centerpiece, Minnie Minoseczeck’s Menagerie of Marvels, a vaudevillean glamour.  The trimmings for the circus are convincing, complete with posters promising a minotaur and a flying woman, Penny (Corianna Moffatt). Continue reading →

May 16

Liars & Believers to Put on “Icarus”

Posted on by

Presented by Liars & Believers
Directed by Faye Dupras

May 17 & 18, 2013 (Grab tickets while you can!)
Cambridge YMCA Theater in Central Square
Cambridge, MA
Liars & Believers Facebook Group

by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge) This weekend, local Boston-area theater group Liars & Believers will be putting on its new show, Icarus.  It will be at the Cambridge YMCA Theater in Central Square this weekend only on May 17th and 18th.

Described as a show about poverty and transcendence, this American-bred tale uses the Great Depression as a backdrop as we follow Minnie Minoseczeck’s Menagerie of Marvels.  The play is written and directed by Jason Slavick with original music and lyrics by Nathan Leigh. Included in the production is puppetry, designed and directed by Faye Dupras.

The myth of Icarus is well known in the Western literary canon, a fable to illustrate the crippling nature of success.  A boy, given wings made from feathers and wax, is given the ability to fly.  Once airborne, Icarus flies so close to the sun, the wax that holds his wings together melts.  He plummets into the sea, a metaphor for the deadly foolishness of egotism and youth.

Liars & Believers is a mainly experimental troupe, one that prides itself on integrating different artistic pursuits into unique, chimera-like productions.  Their shows often include dance, song, aerial gymnastics, spoken text, and numerous interdisciplinary forms. Previous efforts this year include Lunar Labyrinth, a show loosely based on a short story by Neil Gaiman. Lunar Labyrinth combined and rejoiced in different storytelling methods, knotting its plot and themes into dreamy contortions.  Icarus promises to be a show in a similar mold.

May 14

“Mad Men” Set to Song and Dance: ON THE TOWN

Posted on by

Photo by Mark S. Howard

Presented by Lyric Stage Company of Boston

Book and lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Based on an idea by Jerome Robbins
Directed by Spiro Veloudos
Music direction by Jonathan Goldberg
(kick-ass) Choreography & musical staging by Ilyse Robbins

May 10 – June 8, 2013
The Lyric Stage
Boston, MA
Lyric Stage Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston) On the Town is a sweet little musical about what happens when three horny US Navy men seeking adventure visit NYC for 24 hours. As the plot thickens, they meet their equally horny female counterparts, do some healthy snogging, see some sights and return to duty. It’s mostly romantic. The  Lyric Stage delicately wraps these adult themes in saccharine sweet nostalgia, excellent choreography and Bernstein’s music. Although this could be for mature audiences only, it is presented as tasteful family-friendly material. Continue reading →

May 07

Bleak Travels Through “Hamlet Asylum”

Posted on by

Presented by The Calliope Project

May 3, 4, 10, and 11th at 8PM
Green Street Studios Theatre
185 Green St
Cambridge MA
The Calliope Project Facebook Page

Review by the lovely Gillian Daniels

**EXPLICIT CONTENT INCLUDING RAPE AND VIOLENCE**

Some contemporary productions of Hamlet play with the ambiguity of the Prince of Denmark’s sanity.  Is he seeking justice or satisfying a personal vendetta with the logic of a “ghost” to back him up, “mad north-north-west” or just vengeful?  In Hamlet Asylum, this ambiguity is dismissed.  Most of the play clearly takes place in the head of Bryan Bernfield’s Hamlet.  A masked Greek chorus (Meghan Kelly, Amiel Bowers, and Samuel Guerin) speak in the voice of his father, his confidant Horatio, the gravediggers, and others, all in the guise of Hamlet’s repressed desires.   It’s a clever idea.  The result, though,
is a production both rich with symbols and dark with melodrama. Continue reading →

Apr 29

Spunk without Charm: PIPPI LONGSTOCKING

Posted on by

Photo by Gary Ng. Sirena Abalian as Pippi Longstocking.

Presented by Wheelock Family Theatre
Story by Astrid Lindgren
Adapted for the stage by Thomas W. Olson
Music by Roberta Carlson
Directed by Wendy Lement

Boston, Massachusetts
April 12th – May 12th, 2013
Autism Friendly Modified Performance: Saturday April 27 at 10:00am
ASL/AD: Friday May 10 at 7:30 & Sunday May 12 at 3:00
All performances offer Open Captioning
Wheelock Family Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Boston) Why is everyone in such a hurry to update our iconic and innocent redheads?  A cover for a new edition of Anne of Green Gables ditches her red hair and makes her uncomfortably shapely.  The pigtailed girl in the Wendy’s logo seems to have grown up and has nothing more to do than disparage other peoples’ lunches.  And now we have Pippi Longstocking to add to the list. Continue reading →

Apr 10

Girls’ Sports – She Shoots, She…

Posted on by

778468_orig

GIRLS’ SPORTS

by Emily Kaye Lazzaro
Directed by Jeffrey Mosser

Fresh Ink Theatre
Factory Theatre, Boston, MA
April 5-20, 2013
Fresh Ink Theatre Facebook Page

Reviewed by Becca Kidwell

(Boston) New drama is a tricky game that needs to be practiced over and over again.  Even after all of that practice, the playing field is the only true test of its mettle.  Girls’ Sports has gone to court to test itself and it’s come up short. Continue reading →

Apr 08

Serviceable Revolution: LES MISERABLES

Posted on by
One Day More The Company of the New 25th Anniversary Production of Les Misérables; photo credit: http://www.lesmis.com/us/sights-and-sounds/photos/

The Company of the New 25th Anniversary Production of Les Misérables; photo credit: http://www.lesmis.com/us/sights-and-sounds/photos/

Based on the novel by Victor Hugo
Book/Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Author/Dramatist: Alain Boublil
Directed by James Powell/Laurence Connor

Cameron Mackintosh Productions
The Hanover Theatre
Worcester, MA
April 2nd – 7th, 2013
Hanover Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Worcester) You’re probably sick of hearing about Les Miserables, and how Russell Crowe can’t sing and how Anne Hathaway can’t pick out her dress.  I know I am, and I didn’t really like the musical that much in the first place.  “Ornate” might be a generous way to describe how this play’s music reaches my ears; “overdone” might be more accurate.  But if you can strip away the hype, it’s possible to see a really good storyline that materializes from this spectacle.  After all, that Victor Hugo guy may have been no Stephen Sondheim, but he was no slouch.  Penned a few novels, something about a hunchback.  I hear he sold a few copies. Continue reading →

Mar 29

When X+Y+Z=X+Y+Z-1: PROOF

Posted on by
https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/1/?ui=2&ik=eacf24cc2b&view=att&th=13db5fcef24a3fc7&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=9462bffff6bbf670_0.1&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P-8Q_l0QzPMOYuJpu9b4yGh&sadet=1364566712433&sads=8a7OkyFJrdwvVawQwpsGvn59UMs

Photos by Meghan Moore; Michael Pemberton and Keira Keeley.

Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre

by David Auburn
Directed by Christian Parker

50 East Merrimack Street
Lowell, MA 01852
March 21st – April 14th, 2013
Merrimack Rep Theatre Facebook Page
Estimated run time 2 hours with one 15 minute intermission.

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Lowell) For a play that focuses on mathematics, Proof, playing at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, nails social theory.  In this thoughtful production, we learn that a family is really a group organism that can adapt to having a limb injured or severed, but that organism can never be the same afterwards. Continue reading →