Kilian Melloy Talks with David Payne About His Upcoming Solo Show, “Churchill” at the BCA

September 24, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

David Payne as “Churchill, coming to the BCA October 7-12

David Payne’s acting career began almost as a lark. An audition for a small part in a play led to his being cast in a much more major role. Later on, he wrote a play of his own — a solo show about the life of C.S. Lewis, the famously faithful author of the “Narnia” fantasy books. The success of that show almost sounds like a fantasy in itself: Payne has made a career of portraying Lewis for two decades.

But he also plays another significant historical figure: Namely, Winston Churchill, the stout, determined, and yet also flawed statesman who saw the danger presented by Adolf Hitler when other British politicians were apt to gloss over the dangers that Nazi Germany presented. He had a long military history, which included serving during the Boer War. He achieved fame as a war correspondent and author and received the Nobel Prize for his writings in 1953.

Kilian Melloy Interviews Livy Scanlon, director of ‘Doubt’ at Hanover Theatre/THT Rep

September 22, 2025October 4, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Livy Scanlon, artistic director of The Hanover Theatre Repertory (THT Rep)

More than two decades ago, the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic church exploded into headlines by way of articles published by The Boston Globe. The allegations were beyond shocking, with people coming forward to share stories of abuse at the hands of priests their families had seen as the virtual personification of God. As more details came to light and more people came forward with their stories, a horrifying pattern emerged of a church hierarchy that simply shuffled alleged abusers from one parish to another — a practice guaranteed to put more young people in harm’s way.

Theater Mirror’s Kilian Melloy Interviews Lyric Stage’s Courtney O’Connor, Director of ‘Our Town’

September 17, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Lyric Stage’s Producing Artistic Director, Courtney O’Connor

By Kilian Melloy

The good people of Grover’s Corner seem like American archetypes. They’re our neighbors, our local merchants and civil servants, our family members; they are us. Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play Our Town celebrates small-town America even as it mythologizes an ideal of family and community. Set in the early years of the 20^th Century — the play begins in 1901 — it’s a story not just of a town, or a nation, but of most comprehensive of universalities: Human life itself. Over the course of three acts, the people of Grover’s Corner grow up, grow older, and face life transitions: Maturity, marriage, parenthood, and, eventually, the end of life.

Theater Mirror’s Mike Hoban interviews Pulitzer Prize Finalist, “Kristina Wong, Food Bank Influencer”

September 15, 2025September 15, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Kristina Wong in ‘Kristina Wong, #FoodBankInfluencer’ at ArtsEmerson

ArtsEmerson will bring Kristina Wong, #FoodBankInfluencer, to the Emerson Paramount Center from September 19–21, 2025. Written and performed by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kristina Wong and directed by Jessica Hanna, this “uproarious and heartfelt solo karaoke musical” promises to celebrate America’s emergency food system with “biting wit and unstoppable charm”. Theater Mirror’s Mike Hoban had a chance to speak with her last week, before the launch of the tour.

Theater Mirror: You describe this piece as being about “falling in love with the emergency food system” and that it follows the same trajectory as a musical love story. Can you explain?

Theater Mirror’s Kilian Melloy Talks with New Speakeasy Artistic Director Dawn Simmons on Her New Role and “Primary Trust”

September 4, 2025September 4, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Dawn Simmons (R) directs Arthur Gomez and David Castillo in “Primary Trust”

By Killian Melloy

“But that’s another story.”

It’s a line of dialogue Kenneth, the main character and narrator of “Primary Trust,” uses often. Kenneth has been through a lot, and he touches on painful memories only glancingly, leaving it to the audience to try to imagine what he’s not saying. One of only a few Black people in the mostly white town of Cranberry, New York, Kenneth has endured the occasional brush with racism; he’s also someone who grew up in an orphanage. We can’t tell what’s going on in his mind, except for the inferences he makes, the way he sometimes has to put himself on hold and count in order to stay grounded, and what he reveals through his fourth wall-breaking asides and his conversations with his best friend, Bert, and Corrina, a waitress with whom he starts to become friendly.

Theater Mirror’s Kilian Melloy Talks with Joy Behar about Her New Play, “My First Ex-Husband”

September 1, 2025September 1, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Joy Behar in “My First Ex-Husband” at The Huntington. Photo: Joan Marcus

By Kilian Melloy

An arranged marriage in an Orthodox Jewish community. A husband whose love of dressing in his woman’s clothing isn’t a dealbreaker — until he starts using her makeup, too. Men with wandering eyes and, err, vital organs. A husband of half a century who is still as randy as ever… to his wife’s despair. These are just a few of the hilarious real-life marriages described in the round-robin collection of monologues titled My First Ex-Husband by standup comedian, talk show host, author, and playwright Joy Behar. The play is coming to The Huntington Calderwood at the Boston Center for the Arts for a run from Sept. 12 – 28.

Theater Mirror’s Mike Hoban Interviews Melissa Rivers on Her New Play About Her Iconic Mom, ‘Joan’

August 29, 2025August 29, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Beginning on September 3^rd, The Cape Playhouse will present JOAN, a new play about the life and career of legendary comedian Joan Rivers. The play premiered last fall at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, CA, and was most recently produced by the Barrington Stage Company in the Berkshires. The play also focuses on River’s relationship with her daughter, Melissa, who, along with her longtime writing partner Larry Amoros, worked with playwright Danny Goldstein on the script and executive-produced the show. The production will run through September 20^th at The Cape Playhouse.

by Mike Hoban

Theater Mirror: So many of the theatrical biographies that we’re seeing on stage now are centered around the careers of musicians like Carole King (Beautiful), Tina Turner (Tina), and Neil Diamond (A Beautiful Noise). How do you create a play that showcases the subject’s artistic genius when Joan’s career and persona were built around comedy performances and television appearances?

Theater Mirror’s Kilian Melloy Interviews ‘Entourage’s Jeremy Piven – Coming Soon to the Wilbur Theater

August 23, 2025August 23, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

“Is this for print?” Jeremy Piven asks as the Zoom call commences. He’s up early for a day of interviews. Assured that the interview will be published as text, not a video, he takes off his cap momentarily, revealing a glimpse at a crown of cowlicks. “Okay, so the visuals don’t matter on this at all,” he says. No, and if they did, I would be in far worse shape than he is.

“I haven’t had my coffee,” Piven goes on to say, “and forgive me: I’m a slow starter, and I’m not good in the morning. I’m not interesting, and I’m grumpy, so I’m just having a moment where, in about four seconds, I am going to have some incredible personality.” True to his word, mere moments later, he blossoms into a bon vivant, his enthusiasm driving the conversation well past our allotted time.

Theater Mirror Talks with Academy Award Winner Ernest Thompson (‘On Golden Pond’) as his Upcoming One-Person Play, ‘Archie Parish’s Parting Words’ Opens

August 1, 2025August 2, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ernest Thompson was only 28 when he wrote the play he’s perhaps best known for: On Golden Pond, the story of a retired university professor named Norman Thayer who is slowly succumbing to dementia but who agrees, together with his wife, to watch after his young grandson for a summer. Initially wary, the two end up becoming friends as well as family thanks to shared fishing adventures (and misadventures). Despite Norman’s failing health — he suffers a cardiac incident in the course of the play, as well as suffering a slow mental decline — the play ends on a note of hope and grace.

Thompson adapted his play for a movie that’s still renowned today for its casting of Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn. That film won Thompson the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as garnering dual wins for Best Actor and Best Actress for Ford and Hepburn.

Theater Mirror’s Kilian Melloy Interviews Playwright Crystal Skillman as ‘Open’ Opens

July 28, 2025August 1, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

“I’m running between Tech and a few things, so I just want to make sure a little crazy right now,” playwright Crystal Skillman tells Theater Mirror. “But hey, I love crazy.”

That comes through in Skillman’s powerful, moving play “Open,” a solo show that ran Off-Broadway July 12-27 at WP Theater in New York City.

The play is intended to be produced with no set, no props… nothing, in fact, but some evocative lighting, some precise sound effects work, and a performer that can live up the sleights-of-hand that Skillman has invested in her script about a magician and the story she tells: A story of love, tragedy, and transformation.