Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical Lands in Boston on Friday

November 19, 2023December 26, 2023 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Cast of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical at the Boch Centre Shubert Nov. 24-26

On Black Friday, the touring company of the iconic Christmas TV classic Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer will land at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre for a seven-show weekend run. The musical faithfully adapts the holiday classic and runs from November 24^th until November 26. Theater Mirror caught up with Talia Gloster, the performer who plays Rudolph, during rehearsals for the show before the tour.

TM: How have rehearsals been so far?

Talia: It’s been an incredibly smooth process. We have a bunch of performers who have done the tour in the past and are returning this year, and the new people are picking things up so quickly, which means we’re going to have a lot of time to fine-tune things and make sure everything is as sharp as it can be before we head out on the road.

Sassy, Somber and Sensual — Paul Taylor Dance Company Covers All the Bases

April 15, 2023April 16, 2023 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Full cast of Paul Taylor Dance Company at Boch Center — Shubert Theatre. Photos by Ron Thiele

Paul Taylor Dance Company – Artistic Director Michael Novak; Founding Artistic Director – Paul Taylor; Resident Choreography – Lauren Lovette; Lighting Designer – Jennifer Tipton; Costume Design – Donald Martiny; Costume Design – Mark Eric and Santo Loquasto. Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston at Boch Center — Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St., Boston, through April 16.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Paul Taylor, whose imagination, emotional breadth and sheer physical ability helped shape and define the purely American art form known as modern dance, never fails to amaze and enchant. The thunderous opening night applause from the standing audience shows that, if anything, the company has only increased its seductive power over its Boston fans.

Q & A with Benjamin Knapton of ‘Sacre’, ‘The Rite of Spring’ Performance Re-Imagined as Circus

February 5, 2023February 5, 2023 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Cast of “Sacre”, being presented by Celebrity Series of Boston February 9-111

Next weekend (February 9-11) the Celebrity Series of Boston will present “Sacre”, a re-imagining of “The Rite of Spring” by Australian contemporary circus company Circa, at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre. Theater Mirror had an opportunity to speak with acting artistic director Benjamin Knapton, who directed “Sacre”, last week.

TM: Tell us about Circa and how they differ from other circus arts troupes?

BK: In the early 2000s, Yaron Lifschitz (artistic director and CEO of Circa) took over a troupe called Rock n Roll Circus, and that company was doing some real different circus in Brisbane, Australia at the time. Yaron has a theater background, and when he started working with the (troupe) he essentially stripped it back, taking away the fancy costumes and lighting and set design, and really started to focus on the acrobatic body and what it could do, as well as the personalities and the emotional capacity of the performance. Since then, we’ve brought back sets and lighting and we do children’s shows (“Wolfgang’s Magical Musical Circus”), but the heart of that intent is still focused on the acrobatics, the acrobatic body and who the are performers are as people. With ‘Sacre’ for instance, there’s nothing on stage, it’s an empty black space lit by this one light. And it really focuses in on these extraordinary 10 acrobats who are in the show.

‘Rent’ Still Sparkles at Boch Center

October 31, 2019October 31, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Robert Israel

Rent, 20^th Anniversary Tour – Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson. Directed by Evan Ensign. At the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St., Boston, through November 10, 2019.

Twenty years ago I attended the musical Rent at the Shubert in Boston, the very same theater where it is being performed anew. I have some vivid memories of the show back then that were rekindled when I attended this current, electrifying touring version. Today’s version has more pizazz, more spunk, and it sparkles, as if the cast has each imbibed a hefty swig of Kool-Aid doused with adrenalin. The production is spirited and is well worth attending.

Two Decades Later, ‘Rent” Is Still Going Strong

October 31, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Shelley A. Sackett

‘Rent’ – Book, Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson; Directed by Evan Ensign; Music Supervision and Additional Arrangements by Tim Weil; Choreography by Marlies Yearby; Scenic Design by Paul Clay; Costume Design by Angela Wendt; Lighting Design by Jonathan Spencer; Sound Design by Keith Caggiano. Produced by Work Light Productions at the Shubert Theatre – Boch Center through November 10, 2019.

Rent, the quintessential rock musical loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Boheme,” is celebrating its 20^th anniversary with a full-throated revival at the Shubert Theatre – Boch Center. One of the longest-running shows on Broadway (it ran for 12 years), Rent garnered a shelf full of awards in 1996, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, three Tony Awards and four Drama Desk Awards.

‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ at the Boch Center

December 5, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

A Charlie Brown Christmas recalls the nostalgic half-hour Christmas special, an annual tradition as familiar as sitting on Santa’s lap for generations of children raised on television. It also recalls many kids’ first experiences with the theatre, as its predecessor, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, was one of the most frequently produced musicals on the school and community stage.

This professionally produced yet still strikingly simple “Live on Stage” adaptation still thrills young audiences. A musical play, it follows the TV special almost to the letter, adding a sing-along at the end featuring an array of traditional Christmas carols and one Hanukkah tune.

When Charles M. Schulz adapted his legendary comic strip into an animated special. He wanted to focus on “what Christmas is all about,” essentially a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of all time and raised Lutheran, Schulz often reflected religious themes in his work. This comes out completely undisguised in the play’s climax; here Linus van Pelt (Kevin Dort) quotes the King James Version of the Bible (slightly amended here for updated political correctness).

A good deal of the carols sung at the end of this play are religious as well, but the main point of this story is to criticize the commercialization of the holidays, always an ironic effort with hugely successful commercial characters, like the Peanuts.

What this play offers that the TV special doesn’t is a live experience with lively dancing and an acrobatic actor playing Snoopy (Yochai Greenfeld) the dog (this guy really steals the show) and a vigorous, talented cast filling in the other roles.

There’s not a lot of diversity in the casting; the one black character in the Peanuts gang, Franklin, doesn’t have a role here. (The brownest member of the cast is Nico DiPrimio, the “Male Swing” and his energy, dancing and physical abilities are on par with Greenfeld’s.)

The one original song added to the show about a Christmas tree is nothing to write home about, but the production, directed by Jim Milan and featuring Jack Flatley, Brianna Barnes, and Ari Raskin, is solid, and it’s as good as any version of this show you’re going to see.

(The show has concluded its run)

‘Rock of Ages’ Lets the Music Do the Talking

October 27, 2018October 28, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Rock of Ages – Featuring a book by Chris D’Arienzo and arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp, the tenth anniversary tour is being directed by Martha Banta and choreographed by Janet Rothermel. At the Boch Center Wang Theatre, Boston through 10/28

You don’t have to have been a child of MTV to enjoy Rock of Ages, the jukebox musical now rocking the Boch Center Wang Theatre – but it certainly helps. Featuring songs by bands that helped launch the channel back in its early days – Twisted Sister, Quarterflash, REO Speedwagon, Whitesnake, Foreigner, Journey and Pat Benatar – the show is a essentially comic sendup of every dumb rock and roll movie ever made from Beach Blanket Bingo to Rock n Roll High School, and it’s a blast.

Summer Fun with “Dirty Dancing”

June 15, 2018June 18, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

Dirty Dancing by Eleanor Bergstein. Directed by Sarna Lapine. Presented by Amber Jacobsen, Networks Presentations LLC, Col Joye in Association with Lionsgate and Magic Hour Productions at the Boch Shubert Theatre Stage, 265 Tremont St, Boston, MA through June 17.

It would be hard to find anyone who hasn’t seen the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing”, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, about a college-bound teenager who falls in love with a dance instructor at a family camp in the Catskills. The stage show is pretty faithful to the film, which gave all of us in attendance at the premiere of “Dirty Dancing” at the Boch Shubert Theatre Stage a healthy dose of familiar fun.

Boch Center’s Sound of Music Charms Audiences – While Providing a Cautionary Tale

May 7, 2018May 12, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

The Sound of Music – Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; Book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse; Suggested by “The Trapp Family Singers” by Maria Augusta Trapp. Staged by Networks Presentations at the Boch Center, Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St., Boston, MA, through May 13.

One of the most beloved movie musicals is making its return to the stage at the Boch Center, with a marvelous production that warms the heart while chilling the bone. The Sound of Music, best known for its litany of iconic songs – “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “Edelweiss” and the title song – is a masterclass in songwriting for the theater by the team of Rodgers & Hammerstein. But it is the dark undercurrent of the rise of the Nazis that lifts this classic from inspiring love story into something much weightier, and it is particularly resonant given the current political climate.

‘The Humans’ Examines Complex Family Dynamics at the Boch Center

March 17, 2018March 17, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Michael Cox

The Humans – Written by Stephen Karam. Directed by Joe Mantello. Presented by the Boch Center. At Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St., Boston, through March 25.

Boston audiences have the fortunate opportunity to see the 2016 Tony Award-Winning play The Humans, written by Stephen Karam and directed by Joe Mantello at the Shubert Theatre through March 25.

Brigid Blake and her boyfriend Richard are proud of their new duplex apartment, the lack of sunlight, the irrational layout, the noisy upstairs neighbor, the street-level view of an alleyway covered in cigarette butts, and the convenient location in Lower Manhattan—Chinatown actually. And it’s always fun to have a basement apartment in a flood zone.