Theater Reviews

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Gamm's Festen; plus Whistler's Fen

Last supper
"Denmark's a prison," opined Hamlet some 400 years ago.
By CAROLYN CLAY | February 01, 2012

Ain't Misbehavin' at Lyric Stage

Fats entertainment
If the current campaign against obesity means we have to hate Fats Waller, well, to hell with it.
By CAROLYN CLAY | November 29, 2011

Silver Spoon takes the cake

Worse and worser
Could Silver Spoon, a musical celebration of '60s politics, be the worst piece of theater I've seen?
By ED SIEGEL | May 31, 2011

Speakeasy's The Drowsy Chaperone; Gold Dust Orphans' Peter Pansy

The Drowsy Chaperone is receiving a rousing wake-up call from SpeakEasy Stage Company (at the BCA's Calderwood Pavilion through June 5).
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 23, 2011

Strip Mauled: Rock of Ages doesn't rock
At the start of the hair-metal musical Rock of Ages (at the Colonial Theatre through October 17), narrator Lonny (Patrick Lewallen) promises a night of sexy decadence and general kick-assery.
By BRETT MILANO | October 12, 2010

A star search is reborn

A classic Chorus Line at Theatre by the Sea
A Chorus Line is quite a heartfelt love song to musicals and the hoofers in them.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 09, 2010

Play by play: June 4, 2010

Theater listings, week of June 4, 2010
Theater listings, week of June 4, 2010
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 03, 2010

Reversal of fortunes

Timon of Athens from Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Prelude to a Kiss from the Huntington
Timon of Athens is Shakespeare’s least characteristic tragedy, and the toughest to pull off.
By STEVE VINEBERG | May 25, 2010

Ronnie James Dio (1942 - 2010)

Live free or rock
As he lay in a Texas hospital bed in March, being treated for the disease to which he would eventually succumb, Ronald James Padavona, better known to the world as heavy-metal legend Ronnie James Dio, gave an interview to a local TV station. “Cancer? I’ll kick the hell out of you,” he declared, before throwing the devil horns.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 21, 2010

Play by play: May 14, 2010

Theater listings, May 14, 2010
Boston's weekly theater listings
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 17, 2010

An Irish classic

The strong ensemble of Juno and the Paycock
Matriarch Juno is the only one of the Boyles who brings in any coin: Her husband Jack is a drunken boor who, to avoid working, feigns aches in his legs.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 12, 2010

Organic farce

PSC’s fugue-ish Bach at Leipzig
The Thomaskirche church, in Leipzig, is a hub of musical influence in Germany’s booming Baroque arts scene.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 12, 2010

Old haunts

Blithe Spirit at the Lyric; Hot Mikado at New Rep; August: Osage County at the Colonial
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict that Blithe Spirit , that cocktail shaker full of dry martini and ectoplasmic mayhem, will amuse. Playwright Noël Coward diagnosed his own gift as a talent to do just that.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 11, 2010

Play by play: May 7, 2010

Theater listings, May 7, 2010
Boston's weekly theater listings
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 04, 2010

Face the nation

SpeakEasy’s The Great American Trailer Park Musical; Zeitgeist’s Farragut North
White-trash collection has seldom been as hilarious as it is in The Great American Trailer Park Musical , which makes its Brahmin-area debut courtesy of SpeakEasy Stage Company.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 04, 2010

Learning to live

URI Theatre’s sprawling Unbound
Fanny Kemble is known for being a celebrated British actress in her early 19th-century youth and again toward middle age.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 27, 2010

Twisted sister

Perishable’s knockout Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Wow. An explosive performance could be anticipated, since Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the story of an anguished life transformation.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 21, 2010

Portraits of artists

Opus at New Rep; From Orchids to Octopi at Central Square
Yikes! Is this really what it’s like behind the scenes with, say, the Emerson String Quartet?
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 06, 2010

Taking aim

A play within a play in Stoppard’s Hound
Sometimes even playwrights just wanna have fun.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | March 31, 2010

Endgame

Lady Day at Lyric bar & grill
As Billie Holiday fell apart, so did her fragile if expressive voice.
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 30, 2010

Play by play: March 26, 2010

Theater listings, March 26, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 25, 2010

Moral surgery

Becky Shaw at the Huntington; Entertaining Mr. Sloane at the Publick; Othello at Actors' Shakespeare Project
You know upon meeting Becky Shaw that you're in the presence of a smart, snappy writer. But you picture playwright Gina Gionfriddo as someone more akin to Theresa Rebeck than William Makepeace Thackeray.
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 24, 2010