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.

ANYTHING GOES (Stadium Theatre, Woonsocket, RI)

June 15, 2018July 15, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The Stadium Theatre’s first musical of their summer season is “Anything Goes” by Cole Porter. Originally written in 1934 for Ethel Merman where it ran for 420 performances, the show’s book was revised in 1962 and then again in 1987. Director Brian Lopes takes this 1934 version of the script and infuses his talented cast with high energy to pull off these roles. The show takes place in the 1930’s aboard the luxury liner S.S. American sailing from New York to London with a group of unusual passengers. The story of boy, Bill Crocker who loves girl, Hope Harcourt who is engaged to wealthy British suitor, Lord Evelyn, who is pursued by singing and dancing evangelist, Reno Sweeney is the basic storyline of this show. Throw in boy’s heavy drinking boss, girl’s overbearing mother, public enemy # 13, his sexy gun moll, Reno’s four fallen Angels, the captain, the purser, the sailors and the passengers plus fantastic music direction by Brittany Dyer and fabulous choreography by Julia Nelson and you have a sure fire crowd pleasing musical entertainment which wins a standing ovation at the end of the night.

Gloucester Stage’s ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ Finds Ray of Light in the Darkness

June 13, 2018June 18, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

Dancing at Lughnasa; Written by Brian Friel; Directed by Benny Sato Ambush; Scenic Design, Janie Howland; Sound Design, Arshan Gailus; Lighting Design, Karen Perlow; Costume Design, Miranda Giurleo. Presented by Gloucester Stage at 267 E. Main St., Gloucester through July 8.

Is it possible to leave a theater with a smile on your face knowing that two of the play’s endearingly forlorn characters will die lonely deaths and that their siblings will live out the remainder their lives devoid of any real fulfillment? If you’ve just seen the Gloucester Stage production of Brian Friel’s classic work, Dancing at Lughnasa, then the answer is a resounding yes. Superbly acted by an exceptional ensemble and brilliantly directed by Benny Sato Ambush, the play explores the bleak but hopeful existence of the five Mundy sisters in the tiny village of Ballybeg in County Donegal during the Celtic harvest festival of the play’s title. Narrated in flashback from the point of view of Michael (Ed Hoopman), the now grown up son of the youngest sister, unwed mother Christina, the play details the summer of his seventh year, when forces from within and without conspired to push the heretofore resilient family to its breaking point.

Greater Boston Stage Celebrates Late Stages of Beauty with ‘Calendar Girls’

June 12, 2018June 19, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Calendar Girls – Based on the Miramax Motion Picture by Juliette Towhidi and Tim Firth; Directed by Nancy E. Carroll; Scenic Design, Jenna McFarland Lord; Costume Design, Gail Astrid Buckley; Lighting Design, Karen Perlow; Sound Design, Dewey Dellay;Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company, 395 Main Street Stoneham, MA through May June 17

By Alicia Googins

The women of “Calendar Girls” show enormous courage under fire. Fire, that is, of the camera snapping shots of them in the buff for an annual calendar. Based on the true story of the English Ladies Club members who bared it all in the name of love and scientific research, the play follows six women as they wade into the unknown waters of artistic nudity. To be fair (a phrase used often by the most modest and endearing of the lot, Ruth (Sarah DeLima), the photos are tasteful, and the women insist on referring to their state of undress as “nude,” not naked. But there’s plenty of room for scandal nonetheless.

Reagle’s A CHORUS LINE is a Singular Sensation

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018 michaelhoban1 Comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston’s first musical of their historic 50th season is “A Chorus Line”, the 1976 winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Book and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It is a musical based on the lives and experiences of Broadway dancers. Original director/choreographer Michael Bennett wanted to do a show with the spotlight on the class of performers known as gypsies. The action takes place in an empty theatre, on a bare stage, where the casting for a new Broadway musical is almost complete.

Love is a Battlefield in Les Liaisons Dangereuses

June 8, 2018June 8, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, written by Christopher Hampton, from the novel by Pierre Choderins de Laclos. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Presented by The Nora Theatre Company, Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge through July 1.

Lee Mikeska Gardner’s opening staging of Les Liaisons Dangereuses is intriguing. Ten men, similarly dressed in white blouses and dark pants – with variations on the neckline of the blouse – choose a trinket, one by one, with a gesture or expression that tells the audience something about the character they’ll be playing.

North Shore Music Theatre Delivers a Rousing, Touching ‘Mame’

June 7, 2018June 7, 2018 michaelhoban1 Comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The opening musical of North Shore Music Theatre’s 63rd season is “Mame”, originally titled “My Best Girl”, it is based on the 1955 fictional novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and a 1956 play starring Rosalind Russell. The musical version by Jerry Herman opened on Broadway on May 24, 1966, ran for 1,508 performances and starred Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur who both won Tony Awards for their roles as Mame and Vera.

Wellesley Repertory Theater Offers up A ‘Piece of My Heart’

June 7, 2018June 7, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Review by James Wilkinson

A Piece of My Heart – Written by Shirley Lauro. Directed by Nora Hussey. Set Design by Janie Howland. Costume Design by Chelsea Kurl. Lighting Design by Matt Whiton. Projection Design by Johnathan Carr. Sound Design by George Cooke. Dramaturgy by Laura Zawarski. Presented by Wellesley Repertory Theatre, at Wellesley College 106 Central Street, Wellesley through June 24.

There’s been a long overdue push in recent years, for the inclusion of a wider range of voices and experiences in mainstream culture. I found myself thinking about this while I was watching Wellesley Repertory Theatre’s production of Shirley Lauro’s A Piece of My Heart – precisely because the production is a prime example of what can happen when you let the perspectives of underrepresented groups into the room. Suddenly we’re able to come at institutions, narratives and historical events from new angles. The Vietnam War looms large for artists of a certain generation and can seem like a “been there/done that” topic. Artistic mediums have been dissecting both the war itself and the circumstances surrounding it since before it was even over. But as I was watching Wellesley Rep’s show, I realized that while I could easily name a number of cultural artistic touchstones that told the story of the men in that war, (Born on the Fourth of July, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter, the works of Tim O’Brien, etc.), there weren’t any stories that immediately came to mind that focused on the women who acted beside those men. That’s where Lauro’s play and Wellesley Rep’s production comes in. In addition to being a finely crafted evening of theater, A Piece of My Heart provides a necessary history lesson on a traditionally underserved group, female Vietnam Vets.

The Joint is Jumping with Theatre by the Sea’s AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’

June 2, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The first musical of Theatre by the Sea’s historic 85th season is Fats Waller’s musical revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s and 1930’s comes to life onstage as a tribute to the black musicians of that era. It was an era of growing creativity, cultural awareness and ethnic pride. This musical revue first opened in the Manhattan Theatre on February 8, 1978 and ran for 1,604 performances, winning three Tony Awards including the Best Musical. Five performers present an evening of rowdy, raunchy and humorous songs that encapsulate the various moods of that time period.