BOOK-SIGNINGS AND POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS TO OCCUR AT SELECT PERFORMANCES OF JACK KEROUAC’S ‘BEAT GENERATION‘ Continue reading
Oct
01
Tag Archives: October
Sep
26
“Immaterial Girl” as an Old-Fashioned Haunted House (Episode 1 of Blood Rose Rising)
Photo Credit: Honest Ghost Productions LLC
Episode 1 of Blood Rose Rising
presented by Honest Ghost Productions
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, starting September 14 – November 18
NAGA Nightclub, Central Square
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Blood Rose Rising Facebook Page
Review by Gillian Daniels
(Cambridge) A real gothic story isn’t about tragic romance, torture, or death, but houses. Houses with long histories and dark secrets. In the contemporary setting of Cambridge, Immaterial Girl offers the beginning to an old-fashioned gothic serial centered on the haunted Blackwood Manor. Continue reading
Sep
20
Improv Boston Presents: GOREFEST X: 28 Days Latte
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GoreFest X: 28 Days Latte — ImprovBoston’s 10th Annual Halloween Horrorshow — is a brand new musical comedy from writer/lyricist Don Schuerman and composer Steve Gilbane. The Zombie Apocalypse is upon us, and a bunch of hipsters and two senior citizens are trapped inside a coffee place as they fight back the rampaging hordes. The show is dripping with tasteless dialog, juvenile humor, memorable music. Like every GoreFest, this year’s show features copious amounts of fake blood, gore and other bodily fluids, not all of which ends up on the actors. Continue reading
Sep
18
Project: Project’s WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?
This is our FIRST fundraiser for our FIRST production. A $500 pittance to assist with space rental and miscellaneous props that can’t be found in our closets.
Our current show, What are You Doing Here?, has been in the works since we first came together in November 2011. After one year of devising, improvising, writing and rewriting it is coming to fruition. Now we need your help to see it through! It’s part improvised, part scripted, and all site-specific at the Democracy Center in Cambridge, MA. Continue reading
Sep
13
Election-Year Escapism: THE MIKADO
Erica Spyres (Yum-Yum) and cast of The Mikado at The Lyric Stage. Photo by Mark S. Howard
The Mikado, music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W.S. Gilbert
Directed by Spiro Veloudos
Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA
September 9 – October 13
Reviewed by Craig Idlebrook
It is rare to see good actors overacting, over-annunciating and mugging the audience to ring out every laugh. It is even rarer to enjoy every minute of it. In the Lyric Stage Company’s staging of Gilbert and Sullivan’s the Mikado, you get the delicious treat of both.
If you have never seen a Gilbert and Sullivan play, then now’s the time to get initiated with this production. Continue reading
Nov
11
The River Was Whiskey: Tension for the Senses
Joe Lily, Nettie and Arlo (Alex Pollock, Sarah Newhouse and Kendra Jackson)
The River Was Whiskey by Will Fancher, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 10/27/11-11/20/11, http://www.bu.edu/bpt/. Contains mature themes, mature language, and violent images.
Reviewed by Anthony Geehan
(Boston, MA) There has been an ongoing moral debate since man was first able to form laws on what the fate of the guilty should be. One school of thought is that redemption is available through either the forgiveness of a higher power or acts of contrition. Then there are those who believe that there must be a punishment for every crime and that an eye for an eye is the only way to balance the damage done. There is possibly no greater example of this dichotomy of thought than Old and New Testaments of The Bible. While the New Testament speaks of forgiveness for all sins through the following of Jesus, The Old Testament is filled with the wicked being punished by a vengeful spirit for their transgressions. This backdrop of faith and fear is the foundation of the Will Fancher play The River Was Whiskey. Continue reading
Nov
02
The Divine Sister: Holy Moly!
A postulant (Sasha Castroverde, left) is serenaded by her Mother Superior (Jeffery Roberson aka Varla Jean Merman, right) in a scene from the SpeakEasy Stage Company production of The Divine Sister, running now thru Nov. 19. Photo: Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo.
The Divine Sister by Charles Busch, Speakeasy Stage Company, Nancy and Edward Roberts Studio Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, 10/21/11-11/19/11, http://www.speakeasystage.com/doc.php?section=showpage&page=divine. Contains adult language and content.
Reviewed by Becca Kidwell
(Boston, MA) “The hills are alive–with the sounds of…” *gag* (Hold on. Sometimes when I get emotional I tend to gag. Well, not really, but a nun or two in this play do and it becomes a running gag). Charles Busch and Speakeasy Stage Company bring singing, biking, and wrestling nuns to the stage. With cheek and pluck, Speakeasy Stage furnishes a delightful trip to the world of nun movies, tv shows, and musicals.
Oct
30
This Verse Business: The Road Less Traveled Of Frost’s Poetry
Gordon Clapp as Robert Frost. Photo by Meghan Moore.
This Verse Business by A.M. Dolan, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 10/20/11-11/13/11, http://www.merrimackrep.org/season/show.aspx?sid=101.
Reviewed by Anthony Geehan
(Lowell, MA) There is an inherent problem in the study of classic poetry. Most of what is deemed worthwhile to scholars are works that tend to be genre defying and broke the conventions of the times they were written in. However, when a poet’s collection becomes so widely revered, scholars tend to set them as the new template for the system that the writer had originally broken through. This leads to the poems losing much of their edge and therefore becoming mundane to modern audiences. There is possibly no bigger victim of this “catch-22” than west coast born, New England based poet Robert Frost, and there is possibly no better cure for this academic sickness than a play like This Verse Business. Continue reading
Oct
24
Phantom Tollbooth: Topsy-Turvy Family Entertainment
The Phantom Tollbooth, based on the book by Norman Juster, book by Norman Juster and Sheldon Harnick, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, music by Arnold Black, Wheelock Family Theatre, 10/21/11-11/20/11, http://www.wheelockfamilytheatre.org/feature-performance.aspx.
Reviewed by Gillian Daniels
(Boston, MA) A musical adaptation of Norton Juster’s 1961 children’s book of the same name is currently being performed at the Wheelock Family Theater. With an inventive, bright cast and set, the play is sure to fascinate younger viewers. Continue reading
Oct
20
‘Or,’ Women Will Have The Last Laugh
Aphra (Stacy Fischer) catches William (Ro'ee Levi) and Nell (Hannah Husband). Photo by Mark S. Howard.
Or, by Liz Duffy Adams, Lyric Stage Company, 10/14/11-11/6/11, https://lyricstage.com/now_playing/or/ Contains mature themes.
Reviewed by Becca Kidwell
(Boston, MA) A new age is dawning in the 1660’s. Women are allowed to act. Strict Puritan regulations have been lifted. What’s a girl to do? Aphra Behn, one of the first professional playwrights that was female, has some answers with the help of modern day playwright Liz Duffy Adams. Lyric Stage brings a delightful evening of ‘girl power’ to the stage in this play of Restoration, modern, and post-modern ideals. Continue reading
