I HATE MUSICALS, THE MUSICAL (Ivoryton Playhouse)

September 15, 2017September 30, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Ivoryton Playhouse’s latest musical is the world premiere of “I Hate Musicals.” “I Hate Musicals” features a script by Mike Reiss and new music by Walter Murphy who wrote the classic 1970’s song “A Fifth of Beethoven” which was used in “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack. Mike Reiss, who hails from Bristol, Connecticut and won an Emmy for the Simpsons creates a masterful script that leaves you laughing in the aisles.

“LOST IN YONKERS” (The Arctic Playhouse, West Warwick, RI)

September 14, 2017September 14, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The Arctic Playhouse’s current show is Neil Simon’s 1991 Pulitzer Prize winning play, “Lost in Yonkers.” The show is set in 1942 and it examines the relationships in the emotionally crippled Kurnitz family. The show is a coming of age tale that focuses on brothers, Artie and Jay, left in the care of their Grandmother Kurnitz and Aunt Bella in Yonkers, NY. Their desperate father, Eddie, works as a traveling salesman to pay off debts incurred following the death of his wife. Grandma is a severe, frightfully intimidating immigrant who terrified her children as they were growing up, damaging them in varying degrees. Bella is a sweet but mentally slow and highly excitable woman who longs to marry the usher at a local movie house so she can escape the oppressive household. Bella’s brother, Louie is a small time, tough-talking hoodlum who is on the run, while sister, Gert suffers from a breathing problem whose cause is more psychological than physical. Neil Simon shows why the five adults in this show have become the way they are and how it affects the two teenage boys left in their midst. Directors Christian O’Brien and Eileen Goretaya blend the comic and dramatic moments together splendidly, leaving the audience laughing and crying at all the appropriate moments. With their direction, Christian and Eileen’s cast wins a thunderous standing ovation at the close of the show.

Lyric, Barrett Open Season With Winning “Gypsy”

September 13, 2017September 17, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

‘Gypsy’ – Music by Jules Styne, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Arthur Laurents. Directed and Choreographed by Rachel Bertone; Music Direction by Dan Rodriguez; Scenic Design by Janie E. Howland; Costume Design by Rafael Jaen; Lighting Design by Franklin Meissner, Jr. ; Sound Design by Andrew Duncan Will. Presented by Lyric Stage Company at 140 Clarendon St. through October 8.

The Lyric Stage opens its 2017-2018 season with a bang, tackling the (stage) mother of all musicals, Gypsy – widely regarded as one of musical theater’s greatest works – and delivering one of the year’s best musical productions. Fueled by a powerhouse performance by Boston favorite Leigh Barrett, Gypsy paints the seriocomic portrait of Rose Hovick, the fame-seeking mother of renowned Depression-era exotic dancer Gypsy Rose Lee, who wisecracked (and stripped) her way into the hearts of adoring burlesque house audiences across the nation.

New Rep’s ‘Ideation’ a Win-Win

September 10, 2017September 10, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

‘Ideation’ – Written by Aaron Loeb. Directed by Jim Petosa. Presented by New Repertory Theatre, and Co-produced with Boston Center for American Performance at 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown through September 24.

“Ideation”, the Boston-area premiere of Aaron Loeb’s funny and terrifying play, has at its heartbeat the center of American, indeed, world, personhood – the corporation. An international consulting group has tasked its team of A-list high flyers to come up with a solution for a multi-layered situation that has troubling implications.

“DAMES AT SEA” at Greater Boston Stage

September 9, 2017September 10, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Greater Boston Stage Company, formerly Stoneham Theatre, newest show is “Dames At Sea”, a musical spoof of “42nd Street”, “Anything Goes” and “Singing in the Rain.” It is a musical with books and lyrics by George Haimshon and Robin Miller with music by Jim Wise. It’s a parody of 1930’s Busby Berkeley-style movie musicals in which a chorus girl gets off a bus from Utah to NYC, steps into a role on Broadway and becomes a star.

“A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED” – Renaissance City Theatre Co., Westerly, RI

September 9, 2017September 9, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The Renaissance City Theatre Co., the producing entity of the Granite Theatre’s current show is “A Murder is Announced” by Agatha Christie adapted by Leslie Darbon for the stage. In this show an advertisement appears in the personal column in the local newspaper, announcing a murder will take place at the home of Miss Blacklock’s who is one of Miss Marple’s acquaintances. It turns out to not be a prank, and when two murders take place, Miss Marple and a detective have to work their way through a house full of suspects. Director John Cillino casts these roles beautifully, garnering splendid and well nuanced performances from them. He gives them many comic moments to liven things up as well as cliff hanger music to enhance the melodramatic endings to murderous moments.

Renaissance City Theatre Inc., “Arsenic and Old Lace”

September 9, 2017September 25, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Tony Annicone

The current show at the Renaissance City Theatre Inc., the producing entity at the Granite Theatre is “Arsenic and Old Lace”, a farcical black comedy from yesteryear. Set in the 1940’s, “Arsenic and Old Lace” tells the story of newspaper critic, Mortimer Brewster, who is anxious to marry his fiancee, the girl-next-door and a minister’s daughter, Elaine. But standing between them is the wackiest, weirdest family tree that ever grew.

“SELF HELP”, Newport Playhouse

September 9, 2017September 25, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Review by Tony Annicone

The current show at the Newport Playhouse is “Self Help” by Norm Foster. Hal and Cindy Savage are a couple of second rate performers who long for a first class life. They are weary of scraping out a meager living by plying their trade in second rate theatres. The best thing they have is their love for each other. Cindy has an epiphany involving a pithy self-help book and a bad night at yet another uninspiring dinner theatre in Canada and voila! They reinvent themselves as all knowing gurus of personal and professional development and are a runaway success.

THE CARETAKER (Wilbury Theatre Group, Providence, RI)

September 7, 2017September 19, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The Wilbury Theatre Group’s first show of their new season is “The Caretaker”, a play in three acts by Harold Pinter. When it premiered in 1964, “The Caretaker” changed the face of modern theatre. Into his derelict household shrine Ashton brings Davies, a tramp with pretensions. Even though he may seem to the world to be a pathetic old creature. All that is left of his past now is his existence in Sidcup of some papers, papers that will prove exactly who he is and enable him to start all over again.

Off The Grid Delivers Magic, Politics with Imaginative “The Weird”

September 6, 2017September 6, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

Written by Kirsten Greenidge, Obehi Janice, Lila Rose Kaplan, and John Kuntz. Directed by Steven Bogart. Presented by Off The Grid Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts through September 16

The Off The Grid Theatre Company continues to push the boundaries of conventional theater, following up last year’s brilliant and disturbing ‘Blasted’ with a decidedly tamer but thoroughly engaging original piece, The Weird, co-written by Boston playwrights Kirsten Greenidge, Obehi Janice, Lila Rose Kaplan, and John Kuntz. According to artistic director Alexis Scheer, the play was conceived with the four playwrights holed up in a room with 10 actors, a director (Steven Bogart) and dramaturg for a week in June, and were then given the summer to come up with their roughly 20 minute segments, which were then knit together to produce the play. The segments, which span from the time of the Salem witch trials to more contemporary settings, revolve around the themes of magic, religion, politics, and the empowerment of women.