An Exuberant, Optimistic “Once on This Island” at Speakeasy

March 15, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Peli Naomi Woods, Kenny Lee (both center), and the cast of SpeakEasy Stage’s **Once on This Island** (2022). Photos by Nile Scott Studios

by Michele Markarian

“Once On This Island”. Book and Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Music by Stephen Flaherty. Directed by Pascale Forestal. Presented by Speakeasy Stage, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA through April 16.

Once on This Island” isn’t exactly a light show. Class barriers, racial prejudice, and unrequited love are three of its main themes. Throw in the capriciousness of the gods, whose conflicting forces can’t always be controlled, and you can be sure that tragedy will counter good fortune. But what follows the rollicking first number, “We Dance”, is an hour and a half of engaging storytelling and musical entertainment.

Lyric Stage’s Superb ‘The Book of Will’ Takes Us Back to the Time of the Bard

March 8, 2022March 8, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

*Cast of ‘The Book of Will’ at Lyric Stage*

“The Book of Will.” Written by Lauren Gunderson. Directed by Courtney O’Connor. Scenic Design by Janie E. Howland; Costume Design by Elisabetta Polito; Lighting Design by Christopher Brushberg; Sound Design by Elizabeth Cahill. Produced by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 140 Clarendon St., Boston through March 27.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Ever wonder about the immediate aftermath of Shakespeare’s death, how his plays were preserved in an era when plays were not considered to be important works of literature, plots were largely constructed by the actors and written out in a ‘fair copy’ for their records by the company scribes, and new plays were churned out at an incredibly fast rate to provide the companies with enough material to keep performing new shows all the time?

Well, wonder no more.

GBSC’s ‘Incident’ Is a Pleasant Trip Down Memory Lane

March 6, 2022March 9, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of ‘Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help’ at Greater Boston Stage

“Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.” Written by Katie Forgette. Directed by Weylin Symes. Set Design by Shelley Barish; Lighting Design by Chris Fournier; Costume Design by Deirdre Gerrard; Sound Design by Dewey Dellay. Produced by Greater Boston Stage Company, 395 Main St, Stoneham, MA through March 20.

By Shelley A. Sackett

‘Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help’ will strike a particular chord among those of us whose wallets now hold Medicare and AARP cards. Written by Seattle-based playwright, Katie Forgette, it is a loving trip down her personal memory lane. She was raised Catholic and attended parochial school for 12 years. Her father was a hard working cab driver; her mother had many jobs, in addition to birthing ten children and caring for her own disabled mother. The family wasn’t poor, but only because her parents sacrificed personal goals and worked as hard as they could to be financially comfortable.

A.R.T.s ‘Ocean Filibuster’ Drowns in Good Intentions

March 4, 2022March 6, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Photos by Maggie HallJennifer Kidwell in A.R.T.s ‘Ocean Filibuster’. Photos by Maggie Hall

by Mike Hoban

Created by PearlDamour; Text by Lisa D’Amour; Music by Sxip Shirey; Directed by Katie Pearl; Scenic Design by Jian Jung; Music Direction by Sxip Shirey; Costume Design by Olivera Gajic; Lighting Design by Thomas Dunn; Sound Design by Germán Martínez; Projection Design by Tal Yarden. Presented by the American Repertory Theater and commissioned and developed through a collaboration with the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Through March 13 at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St. Cambridge, with a digital version available to stream March 9 – 27

Climate change is clearly the greatest threat to the continued existence of the planet as we know it – potentially impending nuclear war with Russia notwithstanding – but as we saw at the latest United Nations climate change summit in Glasgow this past fall, the folks in charge don’t seem all that willing to do anything about it. Despite the grandstanding from heads of state to phase-out coal power and subsidies for fossil fuels, nothing was codified, so it looks like we’ll just burn for another decade or two, until the megastorms and rising seas finally do us in.

MRT’s ‘Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End’ a Delightful Breath of Fresh Air

March 3, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Karen MacDonald as Erma Bombeck in MRT’s ‘Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End’

“Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End.” Written by Allison Engel and Margaret Engel. Directed by Terry Berliner; Scenic Design by Daniel Zimmerman; Costume Design by Teresa Snider; Lighting Design by Joel Shier; Sound Design by Scott Stauffer; Original Music Composed by Brett Marcias. Produced by Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 50 East Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA through March 13.

by Shelley A. Sackett

Karen MacDonald is nothing short of spectacular in the one-woman show, ‘Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End,’ now playing at Merrimack Repertory Theatre through March 13. For 80 intermission-less minutes, she doesn’t just play Erma Bombeck; she IS Erma Bombeck, from her impeccable timing to the subtlest gesture and most delicate modulation. Don’t let this one slip away without seeing it. It is a balm of enormous power during these dark tundra days.

Seacoast Rep’s The Music Man is Terrific With a Capital T

February 26, 2022March 20, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Direction by Ben Hart & Brandon James. Music Direction by J. Kathleen Castellanos. Choreography by Alyssa Dumas and Jason Faria. Lighting Design by Kelly Gibson. Sound Design by Andrew Cameron. Costume and Set Design by Ben Hart & Brandon James. Properties Design by Elise Marshall. Scenic Artist Kate Dugas. Presented by Seacoast Rep (Closed February 26).

by Linda Chin

While hightailing it up I-95N to Portsmouth, NH last weekend, I got a text from a friend that excitedly read: I’m seeing MM on Broadway in 10 minutes!!! – to which I rather flatly replied “Say hi to Hugh for me. And Sutton.” We, too, were headed to see The Music Man, the six-time Tony Award-winning musical by Meredith Wilson at Seacoast Rep. And although I adore Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster and admit to having a twinge of envy, my two theatre dates and I knew that with the Seacoast Theatre’s track record with musicals, we would have an entertaining evening.

ArtsEmerson Brings a Sensational “Dreaming Zenzile” to Boston

February 25, 2022February 25, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of ‘Dreaming Zenzile’ (Somi Kakoma in foreground)

by Michele Markarian

“Dreaming Zenzile” Devised by Somi Kakoma. Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. Produced by Arts Emerson, in partnership with Octopus Theatricals, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, New York Theatre Workshop, National Black Theatre, and McCarter Theatre Center, Emerson Paramount Theatre, 555 Washington Street, Boston through February 27.

“Zenzile – you have done it to yourself”. This is the name singer Miriam Makeba was given at birth, based on her mother’s difficult labor and recovery; the Xhosa word for a woman whose life moved forward on the wings of saying “yes” could not be more fitting. Based on the life of Zenzile Miriam Makeba, “Dreaming Zenzile” is a narrative concert that tells the incredible story of Miriam Makeba’s musical journey from South Africa to worldwide stage, both as musician and activist.

The Huntington’s Terrific ‘What The Constitution Means to Me’ Is A Timely Romp Through Murky Waters

February 24, 2022March 9, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cassie Beck in the Huntington’s ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’ at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. Photos: Joan Marcus

by Shelley A. Sackett

‘What the Constitution Means To Me’ — Written by Heidi Schreck. Directed by Oliver Butler; Scenic Design by Rachel Hauck; Costume Design by Michael Krass; Lighting Design by Jen Schriever; Sound Design by Sinan Refik Zafar. Presented by Huntington Theater Company at Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre through March 20.

What The Constitution Means to Me asks us to think about and get personal with the US Constitution, and that request couldn’t come at a more timely moment. It seems that hallowed document is front and center in our daily lives, whether we invite it or not. We read the news and, while we were aware Trump was shredding the Constitution with the hope it could never be pieced back together again, we now have to wonder — did he also flush it down the toilet?

FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS

February 18, 2022March 18, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS (10 March to 3 April)

Burbage Theatre Company, Wendy Overly Studio Theatre, 59 Blackstone Avenue, Pawtucket, RI

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

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Burbage Theatre Company’s opening live show of 2022 is the Rhode Island premiere of “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” written by Alan Ball in 1993. Ball as a screenwriter wrote American Beauty, True Blood and Six Feet Under. In this hilarious comedy, the audience finds five very different bridesmaids trapped together in a room, all trying to avoid joining in the wedding reception because the only thing they have in common, is not wanting to be there at all. Each one of the women has a special relationship with the bride, Tracy. The show is set in Knoxville, TN at a wealthy family’s home. It has a lot of humorous lines and situations but also has heart with a serious part of the second act that hits home for the audience. Director Allison Crews casts these six roles splendidly, making each of her actresses into five unique and well-defined characters. Her expert direction wins the whole cast a standing ovation at the close of the show.

SpeakEasy’s ‘People. Places & Things’ Takes Us Into the Belly of Addiction

February 17, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Marianna Bassham and the cast of *People, Places & Things.* Photos by Nile Scott Studios.

‘People, Places & Things’ — Written by Duncan Macmillan. Directed by David R. Gammon;, Scenic Design by Jeffrey Peterson; Costume Design by Gail Astrid Buckley; Lighting Design by Jeff Adelberg; Sound Design by David Wilson, Video Design by Adam Stone. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company at Boston Center for the Arts through March 5.

by Shelley A. Sackett

Like Jonah’s whale, addiction can swallow us whole. Unlike Jonah, however, who was freed after a mere three days of praying and repenting, those stuck in the belly of the addiction beast have a much tougher, longer and shakier road to hoe.

Some are up to the challenge and some crumble under the beast’s daunting weight. Some make it and some fake it. Some don’t know the difference and some could care less. And some will circle their self-destructive drain as long as they can, all the while ferociously denying they’re about to drown.