Reviewed by Tony Annicone
The current show at Ivoryton Playhouse is “Biloxi Blues” by Neil Simon. This show is the second play in the three play cycle of the Eugene Morris Jerome plays. The Broadway show opened on March 28, 1985, closed on June 28, 1986, ran for 524 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Play.
Studio Theatre Company’s current offering is “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown,” running this weekend; Friday through Sunday at Saint Anne’s Frat, Guild Street, Fall River.
Based on the well-loved Charles M. Schultz comic strip, “Peanuts,” You’re A Good Man brings to life all your favorite comic strip characters – in full, living color. With a cast consisting of, Roger Machado-Fournier playing the title role – Charlie Brown, Erin Cote as Lucy Van Pelt, Nishan Lawton as Linus Van Pelt, Stefani Lawton as Sally Brown, Stefanie Bonalewicz-Lafontaine as Snoopy, Joe Nelson as Schroeder, and with a surprise cameo, the adorable Connor Lafontaine appearing as Woodstock.
Read more “YOU’RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN (JANICE MACDONALD’S STUDIO THEATRE COMPANY- Fall River)”
Reviewed by Tony Annicone
The opening show of the Newport Playhouse and recently renovated cabaret restaurant’s 35th season is the 2013 heartwarming comedy “Exit Laughing” by Paul Elliott. It is a sassy ode to female friendships. When the biggest highlight of your life is your weekly bridge game with the “girls,” what do you do when one of your foursome unexpectedly and inconveniently passes away? If you are Connie, Leona and Millie, best friends for 30 years, you do the most daring thing you’ve ever done. You “borrow” the ashes from the funeral home for one last card game, and the wildest, most exciting night of your lives. Bring on a police raid, a cheeky male stripper and soon the ladies get a whole new look at the fun you can have by truly living. Director Richard Johnson has a keen eye for comic situations and brings out the best in his five performers. Set designer Tonya Killavey creates a gorgeous two story house setting that is so realistic that you feel as if you could move right into it. Stage manager Olivia Sahlin keeps the cast on their toes and keeps things moving smoothly all night long.
By Michele Markarian
Altar Boyz – Music and Lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker. Book by Kevin Del Aguila. Co-Directed by Tyler Rosati and Ceit Zweil, with Music Direction by Matthew Stern. Presented by Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main Street, Stoneham, through April 9.
The first image one gets of the Altar Boyz is five hooded figures in long white robes, silver crosses on their backs, entering the stage to ominous sounding music from the four-piece band behind them. It’s a Spinal Tap moment, and one that made me laugh out loud. For the next eighty minutes, if I wasn’t laughing, I was smiling. A lot. This is one super fun show with a tight and talented cast.
By Michele Markarian
‘Golda’s Balcony’ – Written by William Gibson. Directed by Judy Braha. Presented by the New Repertory Theatre, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown through April 16.
Golda Meir was a fascinating character – passionate, driven, with a sense of personal destiny that was tied in to the “paradise” that she believed to be the State of Israel. Her early childhood was spent in Kiev, where she remembered her father boarding the door with wooden planks to keep out the pogroms. The family emigrated to Milwaukee, where the young Golda heard Ben Gurion speak, which marked the beginning of her life as a warrior and champion for the burgeoning State of Israel.
Reviewed by Tony Annicone
Renaissance Theatre Company Inc, the producing entity for the Granite Theatre’s opening show of their 18th season is an intense and gripping “Dial M For Murder” by Frederick Knott. Originally written for the stage, this gripping, edge of your seat drama was later made famous by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, who turned it into a cinematic masterpiece. The plot revolves around former tennis player Tony Wendice, who married his wife, Margot, for her money and now plans to murder her for the same reason. He arranges the perfect murder. He blackmails a scoundrel he used to know, into killing her for a fee and arranges the perfect alibi for himself. Unfortunately the murderer gets murdered and the victim survives. But this doesn’t stop the husband who sees his hireling’s death as an opportunity to have his wife convicted for the murder of the man who tried to murder her. With a killer dead and a victim in jail, will the police inspector discover the truth? Will the husband be found out? This murder thriller will keep you spellbound with suspense. Director Brian Olsen casts this psychological thriller excellently, keeping the audience enthralled all night long.
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by Mike Hoban
Mrs. Packard – Written by Emily Mann; Directed by Emily Ranii; Scenic Design by Jon Savage; Lighting Design by Ed Intemann; Costume Design by Chelsea Kerl; Sound Design by Don Tindall. Presented by Bridge Repertory Theatre in a co-production with Playhouse Creatures Theatre Co. of NYC at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., Cambridge through April 9
When I was a boy in middle school, I was a huge fan of the B horror films that ran on Saturday afternoon showcases like Creature Double Feature. There weren’t many classics in the “Dracula” or “Frankenstein” vein, but there was plenty of silly dreck like “Attack of the Giant Leeches” and “The Thing That Wouldn’t Die” that were more laughable than frightening. But there was one film that truly did horrify me, and that was “Bedlam”, a low rent Boris Karloff vehicle that told the story of a woman wrongly committed to an insane asylum in Victorian England known as Bedlam – which was depicted as a Hollywood backlot version of Hell on Earth. What made it so terrifying was that while there no traditional movie monsters, Bedlam was a real place, and the monsters were the evil men running the asylum.
by Mike Hoban
‘Topdog/Underdog’ – Written by Suzan-Lori Parks; Directed by Billy Porter; Scenic and Costume Design by Clint Ramos; Lighting Design by Driscoll Otto; Sound Design by Leon Rothenberg. Presented by The Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston through April 9.
In “Topdog/Underdog” the Pulitzer Prize-winning tragicomic drama now being staged by the Huntington Theatre, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks gives us a front row seat into the lives of two damaged brothers alternately chasing/escaping a warped version of the American dream – one that is exclusively reserved for those on the lower rungs of society’s ladder. The vehicle for that dream happens to be “Three-card Monte”, a sucker’s game played by street hustlers in large American cities, but the allure of the fast-money-for-little-work scheme could be applied to any number of similar cons (drug-dealing, prostitution) embraced by those growing up in economically-distressed urban environments. And while the play focuses solely on the interplay between the troubled pair in this intense two-hander, the parents who abandoned them, as well as the love interest of one of the men, loom as large players in this raw and explosive work.
Read more “Huntington’s Dark Comedy “Topdog/Underdog” Examines Life as Rigged Game”
Reviewed by Tony Annicone
The current show at Ocean State Theatre Company is one of the outstanding dramas of our time “Inherit the Wind” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. While this Tony Award winning play debuted in 1955, its story is as relevant today as it was then. It is a fictionalized account based on the Scopes monkey trial of 1925, when a Tennessee teacher was arraigned for reading passages from “On the Origins of Species” to his pupils. The teacher, Bertram Cates is a callow Darwinian. The real battle in this show is between the two counsels.
By Michele Markarian
‘Grand Concourse’ – Written by Heidi Schrek. Directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary. Presented by Speakeasy Stage Company at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through April 1.
For starters, I haven’t been this engaged with a play since seeing a production of Annie Baker’s “The Flick” at Playwrights Horizons in 2013. Speakeasy hits all the right notes with “Grand Concourse”, from Bridget Kathleen O’Leary’s flawless direction to Jenna McFarland’s Lord’s super realistic set to the excellent cast of four. Judging from the audience, who never once displayed any signs of restlessness, we were all engrossed in the small drama that was unfolding.
