The Underlings Close Strong with a Crackling ‘Tour’

May 8, 2018May 12, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Review by James Wilkinson

The Tour – Written by Alice Abracen. Directed by Lelaina Vogel. Scenic Design: Duncan Kennedy. Lighting Design: Kat Zhou. Fight Choreography: Matt Dray. Costume Design: Evelyn Quinn. Sound Design: Brittany Lawrence. Dialect Coaching: Daniel Thomas Blackwell. The Tour is presented by The Underlings’ Theatre Co. at Chelsea Theater Works May 4-12, 2018

The conventional wisdom that good things come in small packages was created for situations like this. The Underlings’ Theatre Co.’s production of Alice Abracen’s The Tour clocks in at a brief seventy minute run time, but it manages to pack a hell of a punch. The show closes out the young theater company’s first season and to my mind is the strongest of the three shows that they’ve offered. There’s an admirable sense of ambition to the work as it tries (and I think mostly succeeds) to speak to the present political moment in the world. That it manages to makes its points without grandstanding or lecturing the audience is nothing short of incredible (I cannot count the number of other plays that fall victim to that particular trap). Instead it presents its audience members with a beautiful little knot of problem for them to figure out for themselves after they’ve left the theater.

Merrimack Rep Brings a Literal Supermom to Life

May 3, 2018May 3, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Review by James Wilkinson

The Villains’ Supper Club – Written by Lila Rose Kaplan. Directed by Sean Daniels. Scenic Design: Apollo Mark Weaver. Costume Design: Arthur Oliver. Lighting Design: Brian J. Lilienthal. Sound Design: David Remedios. Projection Design: Elizabeth Dombek. Illustrator: Chad Cunningham. Fight Director: Angie Jepson. Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 50 East Merrimack Street, Lowell through Mat 20^th

The fact that Merrimack Repertory Theatre’s production of Lila Rose Kaplan’s The Villains’ Supper Club is opening on the same weekend Avengers: Infinity War is being released is either a wonderful bit of serendipity or a brilliant marketing ploy. Either way, it’s a win for us. I have to confess that superhero stories are not exactly my forte. I think I’ve seen about three of the movies in the Marvel cinematic universe and I’ve leafed through only maybe a handful of comic books in my life. So when I went to this production, I went without any real attachment to the genre. I can therefore report back that if you can’t quite keep who Doctor Strange and Iron Man are straight in your head, you shouldn’t let that deter you from seeing this fiercely intelligent production. Playwright Kaplan and director Sean Daniels have concocted a wonderfully fun evening of theater that also manages to inject some topical issues on representation and motherhood into the proceedings.

Boston Children’s Theatre’s “1984” Captures Current Zeitgeist (Quick Take)

April 26, 2018April 29, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

1984 – Written by George Orwell; Adapted for the stage by Robert Owens, Wilton E. Hall Jr., and William A. Miles; Directed by Burgess Clark; Boston Children’s Theatre’s New England Theatreworks’ production of 1984 runs through April 29 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center of the Arts, 527 Tremont St, Boston through April 29.

As anyone who saw Boston Children’s Theatre’s powerful production of The Diary of Anne Frank (I did) or last year’s controversial production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (I did not), knows that BCT ain’t just for kids. So it should come as little surprise that the company is taking on this challenging work, given its relevance to what is going on politically in our own country and around the globe. Nearly 70 years after the book’s publication, 1984 still paints a chilling portrait of what may come to be, and director Burgess Clark and his young cast do a credible job of creating that sense of impending doom that re-emerges with each fresh news cycle.

Hub Theatre Searches for Meaning Out West

April 18, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Review by James Wilkinson

True West is presented by Hub Theatre Company. Written by Sam Shepard. Directed by Daniel Bourque. Set Design by Ben Lieberson. Lighting Design by Chris Bocchiaro. Costume Design by Nancy Ishihara. Sound Design by Jay Mobley. Props Design by Cesara Walters and Valerie Tracy. Fight Director: Samantha Richert. Presented by Hub Theatre Company at First Church in Boston, April 13-28, 2018.

I’m gonna miss Sam Shepard like hell. I never met the man, but I’ve been reading and rereading his plays since discovering them in college. Before his death in 2017 he had written over fifty plays in a career that spans just as many years. In that time he managed to leave his own distinct mark on American theater, providing a theatrical vision inspired by the myths of the American west. In much of his best work he examines and deconstructs what should be comforting and stable environments to expose an undercurrent of violence waiting to explode. And he does this while also occasionally taking the time to be howlingly funny. To the best of my recollection, it’s been a while since Boston theater has seen a production of a Shepard play, (I offer my profound apologies if there’s a production that I have overlooked/forgotten). Thankfully, Hub Theatre Company has taken up the cause with their fantastic new production of Shepard’s True West, now playing at First Church in Boston. For Shepard fans, the production is a gift. For those unfamiliar with his work, now’s the time to get on board.

Making America German Again – Moonbox “Cabaret” Will Take Your Breath Away

April 18, 2018April 18, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Beverly Creasey

You can’t experience Moonbox’s stunning version of Kander & Ebb’s CABARET (@ BCA through April 29th) without thinking of the Neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville. The current president and his nationalist (that’s nazionalist auf Deutsch) followers are fanning the flames of white supremacy with every other tweet. CABARET was shocking in 1966 for its dark eroticism but director/choreographer Rachel Bertone creates a chilling resonance in the Moonbox production which is “take-your-breath-away” devastating.

THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (Norton Singers)

April 4, 2018June 4, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Tony Annicone

Norton Singer’s latest musical production is “The Scarlet Pimpernel” based on the novel by Baroness Emma Orczy written in 1905. The novel was a romance-adventure novel. Both the novel and musical is about the double life of an English nobleman. Percy pretends to be a foppish wastrel while he and his band of other English noblemen sail over to France to rescue victims of the Reign of Terror from the guillotine following the French Revolution.

Humor and Pathos Abound in “Little Orphan Danny”

April 3, 2018April 4, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

Little Orphan Danny. Books, music and lyrics by Dan Finnerty. Additional music by Dan Lipton. Created by Dan Finnerty and Sean Daniels. Directed by Sean Daniels. Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 132 Warren Street, Lowell through April 15.

Last year I saw a one-man autobiographical show in London, written and performed by David Baddiel, called “My Family, Not the Sitcom”, about his mother’s affair with the publisher of a golf magazine. I laughed until I cried. So it was with great enthusiasm that I got my ticket to “Little Orphan Danny”, the one-man show created and performed by Dan Finnerty, which has the added bonus of being a musical! The material, which covers 90-minutes without an intermission, is very funny, but also, in moments, extremely moving.

BLO Stages a Broadly Comic ‘Threepenny Opera’

March 27, 2018March 27, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Mike Hoban

Music by Kurt Weill; Libretto by Bertolt Brecht; English translation by Michael Feingold; Original German text based on Elisabeth Hauptmann’s German translation of John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera”. Directed by James Darrah; Music Direction by David Angus; Set Design by Julia Noulin-Mérat; Lighting Design by Pablo Santiago; and Costumes by Charles Neumann. Presented by the Boston Lyric Opera at the Huntington Avenue Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston through March 25

Let me begin by saying that the sum total of my experience with opera is pretty much confined to multiple viewings of the Warner Bros. classic cartoon, What’s Opera Doc. But as a friend and colleague informed me when I told him at intermission that I had never seen an opera until now, he jokingly replied, “Well, you still haven’t.”

Flat Earth Theatre Looks to the Classics to Explain the Present

March 27, 2018March 27, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by James Wilkinson

‘Antigone’ – Written by Jean Anouilh, and adapted by Lewis Galantiere. Presented by Flat Earth Theatre. Directed by Lindsay Eagle. Set Design: Darren Cornell. Assistant Set Design: Marina Sartori and Emily Penta. Costume Design: E. Rosser. Props Design: Emily Penta. Lighting Design: PJ Strachman. Sound Design: Chris Larson. Graphic Designer: Jake Scaltreto. Violence Designer: Matt Arnold. Dramaturg: Betsy S. Goldman. Artistic Sign Language Consultant: Kristin Johnson. Presented by Flat Earth Theatre at The Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St. through March 31

You don’t need to wait for the Greek chorus to tell you that things will not be turning out okay. A palpable aura of dread surrounds Flat Earth Theatre’s production of Antigone from the moment you enter the space. The audience takes their seats by passing through the a wreckage of a recent war, stared down by a trio of imposing soldiers, guided through the shadows by a dim set of industrial lights. A droning sound off in the distance envelops the space, keeping you from truly relaxing into your seat. It’s a wonderfully intoxicating environment to be stepping into. Most people tend to associate classical works with dusty libraries and dry academia. It’s nice to be reminded that in the right directorial hands, there’s a vital, thrilling world to be conjured with those texts.

A Tense, Engaging “The Bakelite Masterpiece”

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Laura Latreille (left) and Benjamin Evett (right). Photo by Andrew Brilliant/Brilliant Pictures.

By Michele Markarian

The Bakelite Masterpiece – Written by Kate Cayley. Directed by Jim Petosa. Scenic Design by Cristina Todesco; Lighting Design by Scott Pinckney; Sound Design by Dewey Dellay; Costume Design by Molly Trainer. Presented by New Repertory Theatre, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown through April 8.

If Cristina Todesco’s starkly beautiful set, with its three-sided tower of artwork surrounding a plain wooden desk and two overturned chairs doesn’t immediately draw you into The Bakelite Masterpeice, then the opening line, “Consider Lucifer”, certainly will. Set in 1945 post-war Amsterdam, The Bakelite Masterpiece is based on the true story of art forger Han van Meergeren (Benjamin Evett).