A.R.T.’s ‘We Live in Cairo’ Gives the Children of the Revolution a Voice

May 29, 2019May 29, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

(Cast of A.R.T.’s ‘We Live in Cairo’ – Photos: Evgenia Eliseeva)

by Mike Hoban

‘We Live in Cairo’ – Book, Music, and Lyrics by Daniel & Patrick Lazour. Directed by Taibi Magar. Choreography by Samar Haddad King; Music Direction by Madeline Smith. Presented by American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge, through June 16.

The American Repertory Theater’s engaging production of We Live in Cairo, a musical retelling of the Arab Spring protests that led to the end of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year reign, is further proof that convention-defying musicals can be lot more satisfying than some of the formulaic pablum being offered up on Broadway stages in recent years. This latest work continues a run of adventurous original musicals by the A.R.T., and follows up last year’s edgy jukebox musical Jagged Little Pill and the magnificent 2018-2019 season opener The Black Clown with an unconventional piece from newcomers Daniel & Patrick Lazour, a pair of twenty-somethings from Boylston, MA. And while Cairo lacks the blockbuster score (by Alanis Morrissette) of Jagged or the sheer artistry of Black Clown, it’s an ambitious and creative first effort.

FUN HOME at The Wilbury Theatre Group

May 28, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The Wilbury Theatre Group closes out their season with the Tony Award winning musical, “Fun Home” which opened off Broadway in 2013. This musical is based on the book by Alison Bechdel about her discovering her own sexuality. All these years she’s been wondering if her coming out caused her father’s death or was it his own demons that did it? The book was adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori. The current day Alison at 43 takes a look back at her life at three different stages: when she was nine and at 18 as a freshman at Oberlin College. It shows how her relationship with her father changed her as a person in many varied ways. The catalyst for her to examine her life and piece together her memories of the past in the family-owned funeral home was the death of her father and her finding out that he was gay. Director Josh Short helps his talented cast to mine the layers of this well written dramatic script that resonates with the audiences own and varied relationships with their own parents. His brilliant dissecting of each character shows in each and everyone’s performance. The musical direction of Tom Chace is right on the money with upbeat numbers to brighten the somber events as well as poignant and touching ballads that wrench your heart out. He and his eight piece orchestra are excellent with all the various numbers in the show. Choreographer Ali Kenner Brodsky also lightens the mood with terrific dance steps in “Come to the Fun Home” with the children and in “Raincoat of Love” with the whole cast trying to present an ideal family setting a la the Partridge Family. Their combined expertise is rewarded with a spontaneous standing ovation amid tears from the crowd, making this into a must see musical of this spring season.

Trinity Rep’s Gritty ‘Marisol’ a Cautionary Tale

May 22, 2019December 27, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

(Octavia Chavez-Richmond, Mia Ellis in Trinity Rep’s ‘Marisol’)

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Marisol – Written by Jose Rivera; Director Brian Mertes; Ashley Frith; Composer/Musical Director; Kei Soares Cobb, Composer; Orlando Pabotoy, Choreographer; Eugene Lee, Set Design; Cait O’Connor, Costume Design; Cha See, Lighting Design. Presented by Trinity Repertory Company at 201 Washington St, Providence, RI through June 16

Welcome to a very bleak and grim future in New York where things start going out of control and madness seems to have taken the reins. This is the gist of Marisol by Jose Rivera. It examines human relationships set in the chaos of a major upheaval, and is the closing play of Trinity Repertory Company’s 55th season. It centers on Marisol, a copy editor who becomes involved with the disintegration of New York City as it is being turned into a wasteland. It opens with the cast members singing “My Country Tis of Thee.” The show also takes a look at theology, paranoia, fear and sex as well as showing the dissolution of contemporary society and the battle of good versus evil. It shows how wayward angels try to take over society after they feel that God can no longer do so. They want to encourage people sometimes forcibly to help them achieve their goals. Will the angels convince the humans to help them achieve hope for the future or is everything just doom and gloom?

Morgan Maslow on ‘Vietgone,’ “You Don’t Have to go Crazy”

May 19, 2019May 19, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Morgan Maslow discusses “Vietgone” in this video review.

On Instagram @theatermirror YouTube: Theater Mirror

Full review embedded in the YouTube link below.

“Vietgone” – Written by Qui Nguyen. Michelle Aguillon, Director. Presented by Company One at the BCA Plaza Theatre, 539 Tremont St., Boston through May 25.

Audience member, Morgan Maslow discusses “Vietgone” in this video review, stating that the actors and producers are “trying really hard to make it good” and “it’s hard to put yourself out there.”

While recognizing that this romantic comedy about two people who meet in a refugee camp is “a very personal story,” Maslow feels that the rap songs don’t “give you too much insight into what the characters are feeling.”

“There’s not a plethora of Asian stories,” Maslow elucidates. “You don’t have to go crazy. You don’t have to put rap in it. You don’t have to have this narrative device where it goes back and forth through time. You can tell a simple story. And because it’s personal and it’s unique, it’s going to stand out and it’s going to be important.”

“Deep Themes;” Asha-Le Davis on ‘School Girls’

May 19, 2019May 19, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Asha-Le Davis on “School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play”

On Instagram @theatermirror YouTube: Theater Mirror

“School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play” – Written by Jocelyn Bioh. Summer L. Williams, Director. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company at the BCA Roberts Studio Theater, 539 Tremont St., Boston through May 25.

In this video review, Asha-Le Davis assesses “School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play” as “extremely well put together” and full of “important” and “deep themes.”

“It touches on thing I know that I have dealt with,” says Davis, “even here in America.” She goes on to say, “To bring that to the stage is very bold and very needed.” In her opinion, the play addresses “what is a huge problem in our society, while also adding really awesome comedic elements throughout to keep it light and keep you interested.”

ArtsEmerson’s ‘See You Yesterday’ Examines Cambodian Genocide Through Circus Arts, Movement

May 18, 2019May 18, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

‘See You Yesterday’ – Presented by ArtsEmerson and the Global Arts Corps, at the Emerson Paramount Center Robert J. Orchard Stage through Sunday May 19

ArtsEmerson closes out its 2018/2019 season with a 65-minute circus arts/theatrical piece that uses the horrors of the Khmer Rouge genocide as a basis for its narrative, as told by second generation survivors. And while the results are a bit uneven (this is the U.S. premiere), the young artists deliver a vibrant and sometimes chilling performance, telling their story through movement, dance and of course, circus arts. While much of the piece features the prodigious acrobatic talents of the 19-person troupe, it is the episodes from the Cambodian Killing Fields – which claimed the lives of more than a million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime (although death totals for the four-year reign of Pol Pot were double that) – that give this production its real emotional weight.

SpeakEasy’s ‘School Girls’ Throw Shade

May 17, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

(Ireon Roach, Crystin Gilmore Veronica Byrd in School Girls; Or the African Mean Girls Play – Photos by Maggie Hall Photography)

by Linda Chin

‘School Girls; Or the African Mean Girls Play’ – Written by Jocelyn Bioh. Directed by Summer L. Williams. Scene design by Baron E. Pugh. Costume Design by Miranda Kau Giurleo. Lighting Design by Devorah Kengmana. Sound Design by Allyssa Jones. Presented by Speakeasy Stage Company at 527 Tremont St. Boston through May 26

With the Kavanaugh hearings and Operation Varsity Blues offering a steady stream of live theatrics about people’s willingness to steal, blackmail, and cover up the truth to get themselves (or their children) ahead, a play about bad behavior at a boarding school might be dismissed as same old, same old. Set in the Aburi girls school in Ghana in 1986, SpeakEasy Stage’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh offers New England theatergoers a much needed respite, a refreshingly original take on the lengths that teens (and the adults they grow up to become) are willing to go in their desperateness to win, or to just fit in.

All-Asian Cast Conquers Sondheim’s Ambitious All-American Musical ‘Pacific Overtures’ at Lyric Stage

May 17, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

(Cast of ‘Pacific Overtures’ at Lyric Stage)

by Linda Chin

‘Pacific Overtures’ – Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; Book by John Weidman; Directed by Spiro Veloudos; Music Direction by Jonathan Goldberg; Scenic Design by Janie E. Howland; Costume Design by Gail Astrid Buckley; Sound Design by Andrew Duncan Will; Lighting Design by Karen Perlow; Choreography by Micheline Wu. Presented by Lyric Stage at 140 Clarendon St., Boston through June 16

Boston’s Lyric Stage caps its 10-production-in-20-seasons journey through the Stephen Sondheim songbook with Pacific Overtures, the story of the westernization of Japan – starting with Commodore Matthew Perry’s arrival at the port of Uraga in 1853. Arguably the most sophisticated of the composer’s scores, bold in its portrayal of American intrusion from the perspective of the Japanese, and a challenge to cast, Pacific Overtures is also the least performed. The 1976 Broadway production involved a large cast of Asian actors (mostly male), elaborate staging, choreography, sets and costumes, and incurred a large financial loss when it closed after 6 months. Other Greater Boston companies (North Shore Music Theatre, 2003; BU’s School of Theatre, 2012) have staged revivals with mixed reviews and audience reception, including some criticisms about casting non-Asian actors to portray Asians and other instances of stereotyping and cultural insensitivity. Pacific Overtures is not everyone’s cup of chrysanthemum tea.

THE CURIOUS SAVAGE – Renaissance City Theatre Inc.

May 16, 2019June 3, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Renaissance City Theatre Inc., the producing entity of Granite Theatre’s third show of their 19th season is “The Curious Savage” by John Patrick. We are transported back in time to 1950 where evil stepchildren send their philanthropic stepmother into a sanitarium because she wants to give their father’s 10 million dollars to charitable endeavors. It sounds more like something that would happen in our turbulent society of today. Ethel Savage is a kindly woman meets nicer people here than in her own family. The inmates (as they are called) include Hannibal, who believes he’s an accomplished violinist; Jeffrey, who was an airplane pilot in World War II and thinks his face is scarred; Florence, who carries a doll with her because of a tragic incident in her past; the plain-Jane, Fairy May who thinks she’s a beauty queen; and Mrs. Paddy who was told to shut up and never utters a word except to complain about things she hates. We observe how Ethel tries to outwit her greedy stepchildren, how she deals with her new roommates and how a doctor and nurse might be her salvation. The audience roots for Ethel to succeed in her quest because of all the negativity of the current times. We definitely need more positive and heartwarming stories like this in our lives these days. Director Jude Pescatello casts this heartwarming comedy splendidly and the audience enjoys and savors every moment of it. He mixes the comic and dramatic moments together perfectly, eliciting tears from the audience at the well written ending. I have many fond memories of this show as it was my first straight show in community theatre for Warwick Players back in 1979 when I played Hannibal.

THE BOYS IN THE BAND (MMAS Black Box Theater, Mansfield)

May 15, 2019June 9, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

(Back Row l to r) Ricky DeSisto of Holbrook, Bryant Vasquez Jr of Brockton, and Gary J Milnac of Dorchester. (On the couch ) Tylar Jahumpa of Cranson RI, John K McElroy II of Harrisville RI, Greg Smith of Brighton, and Christopher Crossen-Sills of Brockton. (Front Row) Max M Peters of Branford CT and André Meservey of Carver. Photo credit: Laura Gustafson

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

MMAS’s latest production is “The Boys in the Band” by Mart Crowley. The play revolves around a group of gay men who get together to celebrate their friend Harold’s birthday in an apartment in Greenwich Village in New York City. Written in 1968, the show was groundbreaking in its description and portrayal of gay life. The 50th anniversary of the original show inspired the recent Broadway revival which is up for the Tony Awards in 2019.