A Winning and Entertaining Beauty and the Beast at Wheelock

February 13, 2018February 13, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Music by Alan Mencken, Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, Book by Linda Woolverton. Directed by Jane Staab. Choreography by Laurel Conrad;
Musical Direction by Steven Bergman. Presented by Wheelock Family Theatre, 200 The Riverway, Boston, MA, through March 4.

Belle (the appealing Justine “Icy” Moral) is the daughter of an eccentric inventor, Maurice (Robert Saoud). Both father and daughter are considered weird in their provincial town, he for his odd creations and she for her love of books. The one thing Belle gets kudos for is her great beauty, so much so that the handsomest man in town, Gaston (Mark Linehan) is hell-bent on marrying her (Gaston is so handsome that I considered pulling Belle aside and saying, “Look, kid, you can always get divorced”). Belle, a deep girl, recognizes that although Gaston is gorgeous, he is not a nice man underneath, and refuses his proposal.

Commonwealth Shakespeare’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ a Taut Psychological Thriller

February 8, 2018February 19, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

Written by Ariel Dorfman, Directed by Steven Maler; Clint Ramos, Scenic and Costume Designer; Jeff Adelberg, Lighting Designer; Arshan Gailus, Sound Designer. Presented by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in residence at Babson College, Sorenson Center for the Arts, 231 Forest Street, Wellesley, MA through February 11

It may be early in the theater season, but it’s unlikely that you’re going to see anything this year that will match the sheer intensity of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s outstanding production of Death and the Maiden. Director Steven Maler has assembled a top-notch creative team for this political and psychological thriller, which has an all-too-short run (concluding this weekend) at the Sorenson Center Black Box on the Babson campus, the (relatively) new home of CSC.

Fresh Ink Theatre Invites You to Meet the Echo Family

February 7, 2018February 7, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Review by James Wilkinson

Nomad Americana – Written by Kira Rockwell. Director: Damon Krometis. Assistant Director: Sloth Levine. Dramaturg: Sara Brookner. Scenic Design: Baron E. Pugh. Lighting Design: Jess Krometis. Costume Design: Chelsea Kerl. Prop Design: Elizabeth Cahill. Dialect Consultant: Elizabeth Milanovich. Fight Choreographer: Margaret Clark; Special Education Consultant: Erin Ronder Neves. Presented by Fresh Ink Theatre at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre 949 Commonwealth Ave, Boston through February 18, 2018.

All hail the family unit, that rich treasure box of theatrical possibilities playwrights have been mining material from since the days of Medea and Oedipus Rex. We’re a few thousand years removed from those theatrical mainstays, but playwrights up through Eugene O’Neil, Sam Shepard and Paula Vogel have continually found new ways to break apart and examine familial bonds and their effects. To what extent are we our parents? How do we become our own individuals without shattering our ties to our family? Is that even possible? These are some of the questions playwright Kira Rockwell is contending with in her new play Nomad Americana, now being presented by Fresh Ink Theatre at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. The play is a loving look at a family as one woman begins to wonder what’s next for her.

Huntington’s BAD DATES Delivers Laughs…And More

February 5, 2018February 12, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Bad Dates – Written by Theresa Rebeck; Directed by Jessica Stone; Scenic Design by Alexander Dodge; Costume Design by Sarah Laux; Lighting Design by David J. Weiner; Sound Design by Drew Levy. Presented by the Huntington Theatre Company, Huntington Avenue Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston through March 3rd.

Bad Dates, Theresa Rebeck’s one-woman play now making its return to the Huntington after a smash run in 2004, is billed as a comedy, but it’s actuality it’s much more than that. At the outset it appears to be just another amusing discourse on dating – which is always a rich vein to mine for laughs – but as the plot unfolds it becomes sneakily poignant. And in the hands of the gifted comic actress Haneefah Wood and director Jessica Stone, the piece is transformed into a masterful piece of storytelling.

A CHORUS LINE – Stadium Theatre (Woonsocket, RI)

February 3, 2018March 3, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

A CHORUS LINE

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The current show at the Stadium Theatre is “A Chorus Line”, the 1976 winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Book and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It is a musical based on the lives and experiences of Broadway dancers. Original director/choreographer Michael Bennett wanted to do a show with the spotlight on the class of performers known as the gypsies. The action takes place on a bare stage, where the casting for a new musical is almost complete. For 17 dancers, it is a chance of a lifetime. It is the one opportunity to do what they always dreamed of, not only to be a star, but a chance to get a job and have the chance to dance. Through a series of interviews from funny to heartbreaking, it ushers the audience into the lives of these dancers until the final eight are chosen. The original Broadway show opened on April 15, 1975 and ran 6,137 performances, closing on April 28, 1990. Director William Deschenes, musical director Alex Tirrell and choreographer Jennifer Webb create a stunning, high energy and fabulous version of this musical at the historic Stadium Theatre.

THIS IS OUR YOUTH, Burbage Theatre Company

February 3, 2018February 3, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Tony Annicone

Burbage Theatre Company’s alternating winter show is “This is Our Youth”, by Kenneth Lonergan who also wrote the Academy Award winning “Manchester by the Sea” in 2016. It was his first play written in 1996 and is about two disillusioned 1980’s upper West Side kids. Their parents went from have nothing liberals to financial have-it-alls with troubled family relationships and examines the lives of three post adolescents. It’s about two days in 1982, two years after Reagan became president. It is a play about relationships, the battles of youth and contains three characters with the focus on 21 year old Dennis and 19 year old Warren. Both are college drop outs and troubled sons whose fathers are financially successful but aren’t successful in their marriages. Dennis is a small time drug dealer and very manipulative while Warren is more sympathetic after being thrown out of his house by his abusive father. It hasn’t been a home for Warren since a tragedy nine years ago and he brings toys of the past with him in his suitcase as a reminder of happier times. The third cast member, Jessica remains in college and has some of the funniest lines in the play as she brings Warren out of his sexual draught he’s had for a long time. Allison Crews mines the layers of this show adeptly presenting a beautiful balance between comedy and the hidden pathos lurking underneath the pot smoking adolescents of the past.

She casts the three roles splendidly and obtains the best from each of them. Leading the cast as the seedy, volatile and aggressive Dennis is James Lucey who runs roughshod over his friend. His smart aleck character is excellently played especially impressive is James’ meltdown in the second act with the death of Stewie, the belittling behavior of his mother towards his father and his own aggressive behavior towards Warren and his girlfriend. Warren is excellently played by Brooks Shatraw whose character is very comic and awkward in Act 1 but however in Act 2, captures the inner pathos that captures the hearts of the audience at his tragic revelation from his past. Brooks delivers a terrific debut performance with Burbage, remaining onstage almost the entire show. Jessica is well played by Cassidy McCartan who has the best one liners in the show. She has some dramatic moments in Act 2 where she regrets her intimacy with Warren. So for a look at how adolescents grew out of bad habits of the past and hopefully into more productive lives in the long run by learning from their past mistakes, be sure to catch “This Is Our Youth” at Burbage Theatre Company to witness fine honed performances that can be savored all night long.

THIS IS OUR YOUTH (26 January to 24 February)

Burbage Theatre Company, 249 Roosevelt Avenue, Pawtucket, RI

1(401)484-0355 or www.burbagetheatre.org

ART’s “Hear Word!” Triumphant and Powerful

February 2, 2018February 2, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

Hear Word! Naija Woman Talk True –Written by Ifeoma Fafunwa, Tunde Aladese, Mojisola Abijola, Wole Oguntokun, Princess Olufemi-Kayode, Ijeoma Ogwuegbu. Directed by Ifeoma Fufunwa. Presented by American Repertory Theater, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge through February 11.

After seeing “Hear Word”, I spent the day texting friends, urging them to get tickets to this powerful, life-affirming show. Here’s my text to you –

“Hear Word” is a collection of vignettes written from interviews with Nigerian women and performed by a talented cast of ten women. Grounded in truth and accompanied by three talented drummers (Blessing Idireri, a.k.a. Kacomari, Emeka Anokwuru a.k.a. Make Beat, and Ebisidor Asiyai) the stories are funny and tragic, sometimes both at the same time. Living in a society where men hold all the cards, the women have to constantly fight to protect their bodies, their dignity and their right to be who they are. If that weren’t enough, relationships with their own sex, including mothers and mothers-in-laws, tend to be judgmental and without compassion. Which is why the piece is so powerful – it is compassionate, and compassion, when in short supply, doesn’t come easy.

The Show Must Go On in Trinity Rep’s Hilarious ‘INTO THE BREECHES’

February 2, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The latest show at Trinity Repertory Theatre is “Into the Breeches” by George Brant. This show is set in Providence in 1942 and there is a problem at the Oberon Play House. The director and the leading men are all off to war. Determined to press on, the director’s wife sets out to produce an all female version of Shakespeare’s “Henry V”, assembling an increasingly unexpected team united in desire, if not in actual theatre experience. Together they deliver a delightful celebration of collaboration and persistence when the show must go on. It takes a delightful look at women’s experiences during World War II.