The Woolly, Wacky World of “Shipwrecked!”

December 3, 2018December 3, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

Shipwrecked! An Entertainment – Written by Donald Marguiles. Directed by Allison Olivia Choat. Presented by Moonbox Productions, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA through December 29.

“Welcome to this temple of imagination…” begins Mssr. Louis de Rougemont (Kevin Cirone), as he prepares to tell us his life story. A sickly child, Louis is kept in bed 24/7 by his doting, scone-baking mother (Charlotte Kinder), who reads books of adventure to her son every day. He sneaks outdoors at the age of sixteen, and upon feeling the sun on his face for the first time, decides to have some adventures of his own by running off to London. His reluctant mother gives him her life’s savings, which is stolen his first night in the city. By chance, Louis meets Captain Jensen (Arthur Gomez) who, as captain of the aptly named Wonder World, takes him on as crew for a pearl-seeking expedition. Louis befriends a dog, Bruno (Sarah Gazdowicz), is marooned on a seemingly deserted island, meets three displaced natives, marries one of them, Yamba (Luz Lopez) and has two daughters before returning home to England via Australia. Despite not having seen her son for thirty years, Louis’s mother recognizes him, and encourages him to tell his tale to the world, which he does.

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.

Laughter Abounds in Moonbox Productions’ “The 39 Steps”

November 28, 2017November 28, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

(Cirone, Zahnzinger, Mussett and Gazdowicz in Moonbox Productions’ “The 39 Steps”)

by Michele Markarian

“The 39 Steps”. Written by Evan George Patrick Barlow. Directed by Allison Olivia Choat. Presented by Moonbox Productions, the Plaza Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston through December 9.

“I was bored – no, more than bored, tired,” begins the play’s hapless, world weary protagonist, Richard Hannay (Kevin Cirrone), from a rented flat in London. He decides to go to the theater, where he meets a mysterious woman (Sarah Gazdowicz, playing one of three roles) who, after shooting off a gun in the theater, asks if she can spend the night. When his guest is mysteriously murdered, Hannay is the suspect-at-large and goes on the run, but not before the dying woman gives him the address of a professor in Scotland with the cryptic phrase, “the 39 steps.” It is here that Hannay’s boredom ends and his adventure begins, as he journeys to Scotland. Along the way, he meets another young woman as well as a multitude of characters, some benign, some nefarious, many inept, and all played by Man 1 (Bob Mussett) and Man 2 (Matthew Zahnzinger).