Thorne a Scrooge for the Ages in Trinity Rep’s Classic “A CHRISTMAS CAROL”

November 14, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Trinity Repertory Company ushers the holiday season in with their annual presentation and their 41st production of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens adapted by Adrian Hall and Richard Cumming. Trinity is also celebrating its 55th season. This show’s underlying themes of charity, forbearance and benevolence are universal and are equally relevant to people of all religions and backgrounds especially now after this contentious election and climate of this country. This familiar tale is about the curmudgeonly miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by the ghosts of Marley, Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come who hope to change his destiny and save his soul to ultimately to discover the true meaning of Christmas. Director Mark Valdez creates an excellent telling of this well known Christmas tale while musical director Esther Zabinski, plays a concertina and wrote all the parts for the many songs in the show. Choreographer yon Tande makes the cast shine in the dance numbers. The enthusiastic audience thoroughly enjoyed the show with thunderous applause and standing ovation at curtain call.

Theatre on Fire’ ‘NSFW’ Offers a Picture Worth a Thousand Words

November 11, 2018November 11, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Review by James Wilkinson

‘NSFW’ – Written by Lucy Kirkwood. Directed by Darren Evans. Costume Design: Liz Sheehan. Lighting Design: Emily Bearce. Scenic and Sound Design: Darren Evans. Fight Choreographer: Jess Malone. Presented by Theatre on Fire at the Charlestown Working Theatre through November 17.

The acronym, for those of you who may not know, means ‘Not Safe for Work.’ You’ll find it in email subject lines and online article headlines as a shorthand that the content contains images (usually nudity) you probably don’t want popping up on your work computer where your boss can walk by. It’s meant to spare embarrassment, though it can just as easily act as a beacon for someone on the hunt for salacious material. The acronym also lends itself as the title of British playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s 2012 play, a piece concerned with what happens at the intersection of salacious material and the workplace. It’s an incredibly intelligent and wickedly funny play being given an incredibly intelligent and wickedly funny production by the Charlestown-based company, Theatre on Fire.

‘The Salonnieres’ Smartly Delivers Wit with a Feminist Twist

November 7, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Michele Markarian

The Salonnieres, by Liz Duffy Adams. Directed by Weylin Symes. Produced by the Greater Boston Stage Company, 395 Main Street, Stoneham, through November 11.

As you walk into the theater, the first thing you see is Katheryn Monthei’s whimsically gorgeous set – what appears to be a lovely gilded cage, with period furniture, and a glossy purple cloth partially draped over it. This could be fun, I thought with some relief, a little subdued by the play’s fancy French title. And fun it is, as well as funny. Despite the laughs, the play has a pointed feminist bent that’s not without bite.

Never Grow Up: Hub Theater Presents ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’

November 5, 2018November 12, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Deanna Dement Myers

IRNE award winner and recipient of the 2018 Bob Jolly Award director Sarah Gazdowicz along with music director Bethany Aiken lead a cast of some of the area’s finest actors in ‘Peter and The Starcatcher’ by Rick Elice, music by Wayne Barker; based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Production Team includes Kiki Samko, Movement Coach; Kat Long, Production Manager; Allison Davis, Stage Manager; Lauren Elias, Producer; Cassie Chapados, Set Design; Cesara Walters, Props Design; Chris Bocchiaro, Lighting Design; Erica Desautels, Costume Design. Presented by Hub Theatre Company of Boston, Friday, November 2 through Saturday November 17 at First Church Boston, 66 Marlborough St.

When I was boy, I dreamt I could fly.

There is a sense of wonder upon walking into the cozy theater at the First Church of Boston. With seating arranged three quarters around the stage, the audience gets the sensation of sitting in the eaves of a large attic playroom. Mismatched furniture, layered rugs and the suggestion of a slanted ceiling reinforce that feeling.

Lyric’s ‘The Roommate’ an ‘Odd Couple’ with Bite

November 3, 2018November 7, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

‘The Roommate’ – Written by Jen Silverman, Directed by Spiro Veloudos; Scenic Design, Jenna McFarland Lord; Costume Design, Tobi Rinaldi; Lighting Design, Chris Hudacs; Sound Design & Original Music, Dewey Dellay; Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston through November 18, 2018

If you’re thinking that the plot from The Roommate – two middle-aged people who couldn’t be more different from one another find themselves living together – sounds a little too familiar, forget about it. Other than the basic set-up and delivering a lot of laughs (early on anyway), The Roommate couldn’t be more different from The Odd Couple than say, Felix is from Oscar. And in the case of the Lyric’s twistedly comic production, that’s a good thing.

You ‘Can’t Stop the Beat’ with NSMT’s HAIRSPRAY

November 1, 2018November 7, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The Broadway show won 8 Tony Awards and is based on the 1988 John Waters film which starred Divine and Ricki Lake. The show is set in 1962 in Baltimore and is about teenager, Tracy Turnblad, a large girl with big dreams and even bigger hair who has an abundant joie de vivre and rhythm in every inch of her body. She will do whatever it takes to win a spot on the Corny Collins Show, a popular TV dance show, win the heart of Link Larkin, the show’s resident dreamboat and turn the town upside down in her efforts to racially integrate television.

ANNIE (Renaissance City Theatre)

November 1, 2018November 26, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The current show at Renaissance City Theatre the producing entity of Granite Theatre is “Annie”, the 1977 hit musical. Based on Harold Gray’s comic strip “Little Orphan Annie”, it won seven Tony Awards and ran for 2,377 performances. This high energy show is a hit again with this audience. This heart warming musical is the rags-to-riches story of plucky young Annie’s journey from a hard knock orphanage to the luxurious home of billionaire businessman Oliver Warbucks. It has insightful direction by David Jepson, topnotch musical direction by Stephan Decesare and wonderful choreography by Chris Mahn. This show is what is needed in today’s society, a brighter future and the optimism of the title character.

Measure for Measure, a Russian Investigation of Shakespeare’s Problem Play

October 25, 2018November 7, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

*(MEASURE FOR MEASURE by Shakespeare, , Writer – William Shakespeare, Director – Declan Donnellan, Designer – Nick Ormerod, Lighting – Sergei Skornetsky, Paris, 2015, Credit: Johan Persson/)*

By Deanna Dement Myers

ArtsEmerson welcomes Cheek by Jowl (UK) and The Pushkin Theatre Moscow (Russia) with Measure for Measure. This production by the international award-winning Director Declan Donnellan and Designer Nick Ormerod asks vital and unsettling questions about how we are governed and, in the process, unmasks the true nature of authority, love and justice. The creative team includes Assistant Director Kirill Sbitnev, Lighting Designer Sergey Skornetskiy, Composer Pavel Akimkin, and Choreographer Irina Kashuba. The limited run of only six performances takes place October 24 through 28, 2018 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. Tickets may be purchased at www.ArtsEmerson.org.

“The tempter or the tempted, who sins the most?”

Power and purity are explored in this production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Performed entirely in Russian on a stage bare except for four, enormous, red cubes, this modern interpretation has a stark beauty and a fluid physical presentation that transcends the need to understand the language. Government corruption and licentious behavior is easily understood without the overhead captioning. The entire cast is present during most scenes, gliding at times like a school of fish, at another as a phalanx, with characters and set pieces peeling off and rejoining the array as the scene requires. Part dance and part stagehands, the non-speaking cast members offer commentary and witness, much like a Greek chorus.

Much Merriment at Merrimack’s Musical, ‘Murder for Two’

October 22, 2018October 24, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Deanna Dement Myers

Murder for Two – An original musical with book and music by Joe Kinosian and book and lyrics by Kellen Blair. JC Clementz directs. Creative team includes Regina Garcia, Scenic Designer; Misti Bradford, Costumer Designer; Aimee Hanyzewski, Lighting Designer; and David Remedio, Sound Designer. Presented by the Merrimack Repertory Theater at 50 E Merrimack St, Lowell, MA through November 11

“Will someone kill the lights?”

The cozy stage at the Merrimack Repertory Theater is sparsely dressed to look like an old New England family home and is dominated by a red grand piano. It soon becomes clear that the piano is a defacto third actor adding to the two-person cast of the musical murder mystery, Murder for Two, the second show of the MRT’s 40th season.

Sophie Scholl’s Conscionable Choice

October 20, 2018October 22, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Linda Chin

Written by David Meyers, Directed by Jim Petosa; Scenic Designer, Ryan Bates; Costume Designer, Becca Jewett; Lighting Designer, Matthew Rodgers; Sound Designer, Dewey Dellay; Stage Manager, Brian Robillard. CAST (in alphabetical order): Sarah Oakes Muirhead, Conor Proft, Tim Spears. Performances through November 4 at New Repertory Theatre, Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA through November 4

For 90 minutes after the lights went up until the final blackout, the audience at We Will Not Be Silent was mostly silent, captivated by the drama unfolding in an interrogation cell in 1943 Munich. The 21 year-old subject Sophie Scholl’s crime? High treason, from participating with other students (including her older brother Hans) and a professor at the University in the non-violent activist group the White Rose, with punishment by guillotine. Founded on the principles of peaceful protest, the group authored and distributed pamphlets to resist the Nazi regime, speaking out about Hitler’s violent treatment of children and Jews.