Theater Mirror Interviews Seth Rudetsky

October 8, 2018October 8, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

by Susan Daniels

“Broadway @ the Huntington” series – Performance by Chita Rivera and hosted by Seth Rudetsky. Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston, October 13, at 5 and 8 p.m. Produced by Mark Cortale Productions.

By all accounts, you can call him Mr. Broadway. A multi-hyphenate, who always enjoys what he does, Seth Rudetsky will be spinning his magic in “Broadway @ the Huntington,” when he acts as host and music director for the ten-time Tony nominee and three time Tony Award-winning actress, singer, dancer Chita Rivera, who will perform hits from her vast musical theater repertoire Saturday, at the Calderwood Pavilion, in two shows, at 5 and 8 p.m.

“ASSASSINS” MMAS, (Mansfield, MA)

October 1, 2018December 27, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The second show of MMAS’s season is “Assassins” by Stephen Sondheim which won five Tony Awards in 2004 including Best Revival. “Assassins” lays bare the lives of the nine individuals who assassinated or attempted to assassinate the President of the United States in an historical “revuiscal” that explores the dark side of the American experience while using the premise of a murderous carnival game. From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, Sondheim and John Weidman bend the rules of time and space, taking us on a nightmarish roller coaster ride in which assassins and would be assassins from different time periods meet, interact and in an intense final scene inspire each other to a harrowing act on their way to the American Dream. The score contains pastiches of American music through the ages from folk to rock to 1970’s soft rock. Director Adam Joy assembles 24 talented cast members to fill these roles while musical director Eli Bigelow taught them this intricate score and Adam who is also the choreographer, supplies them with inventive dance moves, winning them a thunderous standing ovation at the close of this thought provoking musical.

SYLVIA (Newport Playhouse)

October 1, 2018October 18, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Newport Playhouse’s current show is “Sylvia” by A.R. Gurney. It is the male viewpoint of a man’s midlife crisis. Gurney uses a female dog as the metaphor for the other woman in this man’s life. The love and affection of this female dog helps the man escape from his nagging, jealous wife. The talking dog helps the man cope with his problems and eventually brings the couple together by the end of the show. Add three other characters to the mix and you have the ingredients for Mr. Gurney’s solution on marital problems. Michael Johnson directs the show with a deft hand, blending the comedy and the pathos together to create a show that the audience can savor and enjoy.

Read more “SYLVIA (Newport Playhouse)”

NSMT’s JEKYLL & HYDE a Musical Masterpiece

September 28, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Bill Hanney’s North Shore Music Theatre’s latest show is the blockbuster musical “Jekyll and Hyde which is adapted from the 1886 novella “The Strange Case of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson. The original stage conception was by Steve Cuden and Frank Wildhorn with music by Wildhorn and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. The musical ran on Broadway for 1,543 performances from April 28, 1997 to January 7, 2001. It tells the story of Dr. Henry Jekyll, a brilliant young doctor who is distraught over his father’s mental illness. He tries to find a cure by using himself as a test subject but the experiment backfires and gives life to his evil alter ego, Edward Hyde, a vile murderer who brings a killing spree to the city of London in the late nineteenth century. This epic musical’s not done very often but NSMT brings the original star of the musical Robert Cuccioli in to direct this phenomenal production with a multitalented 22 member cast. This production also boosts expert musical direction by Milton Granger and stunning, energetic choreography by Kelli Barclay to induce the 1500 seat theatre to erupt into a spontaneous standing ovation at the curtain call. Their combined expertise makes “Jekyll and Hyde” the must see musical of this autumn season.

LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS (ARCTIC PLAYHOUSE)

September 22, 2018December 27, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Reviewed By Sue Nedar

For the uninitiated, “Red Hot” is a Neil Simon comedy, written with all the comedic potential we’ve come to expect from Neil Simon. Here’s the thing though; in this script, much of the comedy is subtle. It’s there… but it requires a sharp director and good comedic actors to make it obvious. Thankfully, Tony Annicone is a sharp director, and the Arctic cast are good comedic actors.

A.R.T.’s ‘Borrowed Cash’ – ‘Spinal Tap’ Meets ‘Austin City Limits’

September 17, 2018December 27, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

Borrowed Cash: Busted! The Reunion Tour – Written and Performed by Daniel Jenkins and Melissa van der Schyff. Featuring the songs of Randy Newman and Lucinda Williams. Directed by Gina Rattan. Presented by A.R.T. Breakout Series at Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Cambridge through September 23.

As is the case every September, there are a multitude of theatrical productions onstage throughout Greater Boston, but you’d be hard pressed to find any that will rival the unadulterated fun of Borrowed Cash: Busted! The Reunion Tour, now in a limited run at the A.R.T.s Oberon stage. Part “re-union” concert, part multi-media show, it combines edgy comedy with a killer score (courtesy of Randy Newman and Lucinda Williams) to tell the story of Borrowed Cash, a fictional country group.

Huntington’s ‘The Niceties’ Educates and Transforms

September 17, 2018September 17, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

by Linda Chin Workman

‘The Niceties’ – Written by Eleanor Burgess; Directed by Kimberly Senior; Scenic Design, Cameron Anderson; Costume Design, Kara Harmon; Lighting Design, D.M. Wood; Original Music & Sound Design, Elisheba Ittoop; Fight Consultant, Angie Jepson. Presented by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston through October 6

Days after seeing The Niceties, the opening production of Huntington Theater’s 2018-19 season, my head is still spinning. Brookline-born playwright Eleanor Burgess has crafted an intense, intellectual tennis match between two brilliant, liberal female scholars – Zoe, a black student (Jordan Boatman) and Janine, a white historian (Lisa Banes) – at an elite college. They meet during office hours to discuss Zoe’s history paper on the role of slavery in the American Revolution. Over the course of two acts and two hours, the pair volley dialogue across the stage at a rapid-fire pace. The niceties they start off with deteriorate into not-very-nice words and pressure tactics. Janine and Zoe initially get entangled in a series of smaller struggles about missing commas and primary sources before engaging the audience in larger questions about who is entitled to write and teach history.

HOW I LEARNED HOW TO DRIVE (Wilbury Theatre Group)

September 13, 2018September 24, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The current show at Wilbury Theatre Group is The Pulitzer Prize winning “How I Learned How to Drive” by Paula Vogel. The story revolves around a teenager’s driving lessons and still delivers an emotional punch this some twenty years later. “How I Learned How to Drive” traverses taboo territory with humor, heart and empathy. They sensitively establish the intense, if unhealthy rapport between a sympathetic pedophile and a niece who learns a lot more than she needs to know from him. This memory play contain the memories of the narrator, L’il Bit a grown woman looking back on her white-trash family and rural upbringing in Maryland in the 1960’s and 70’s.

Beau Jest’s ‘Journey To The Center Of The Stage’ a Loving Tribute to Theater (and Larry)

September 11, 2018September 12, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

(Kathleen Lewis and Robin JaVonne Smith)

by Mike Hoban

LARRY’S PLAY: JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE STAGE – Written by Larry Coen; Directed by Davis Robinson. Presented by Beau Jest Moving Theatre at the Charlestown Working Theater, 442 Bunker Hill St., Charlestown through September 16

If you’re a theater person – and by that I mean an actor, director, designer, stage manager or even a frequent audience member – you really should make every effort to get over to the Charlestown Working Theater to see Larry’s Play: Journey To The Center Of The Stage. And if you’re not, you probably should still go, especially if you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in the theater. But if you were a friend or a fan of the late, great Larry Coen, this is something you absolutely should not miss, as you can almost literally feel his presence in the room in this hilarious and often touching production.

Sleeping Weazel Journeys to Timbuktu, USA

August 29, 2018August 30, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

by James Wilkinson

Timbuktu, USA – Written and Directed by Kenneth Prestininzi. Assistant Director: Teresa Cruz. Scenic Designer: Samantha Butler. Lighting Designer: Aja M. Jackson. Costume Designer: Ashley Elizabeth Meret. Fight Choreographer: Drew Frayre. Presented by Sleeping Weazel at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre August 25-September 2, 2018.

There’s an old theatre lore (and God, do I hope it’s true), that Eugene Ionesco, grandfather of French absurdism, originally wanted his play The Bald Soprano to end with the massacre of the audience by machine gun. I don’t know how seriously he made the suggestion (or for that matter, what he planned to do with all of the corpses), but in a rather perverse sort of way, I understand the logic behind it. You sit in the theatre watching the absurdity before you growing exponentially; by the end all sense of logic is gone, language itself has dissolved, the play’s very structure threatens to implode, and you think to yourself “What next? Where could we possibly go from here?” In the face of true absurdity, death just seems inevitable.