Maureen Keiller, Kelby T. Akin, Dan Garcia, Gabrielle McCauley, Remo Airaldi, Pamela Lambert and Sarah Sinclair in “The Game’s Afoot” at Lyric Stage Photo: Mark S, Howard
‘The Game’s Afoot: Holmes for the Holidays’ by Ken Ludwig. Fred Sullivan Jr., Director. Janie E. Howland, Scenic Designer. John Malinowski, Lighting Designer. Chelsea Kerl, Costume Designer. Andrew Duncan Will, Sound Designer. Jennifer Butler, Props Artisan. At Lyric Stage, Clarendon Street, Boston through December 17.
by Linda Chin
Lyric Stage’s long-term Producing Artistic Director, the larger-than-life Spiro Veloudos – now a giant in the sky – knew his audiences well, especially the subscribers who filled the matinees. He invited them to his Clarendon Street “castle” to see a play or musical, have a good time, and to come back again.
Cast of “Assassins” at Lyric Stage Company. Photos by Mark S. Howard
‘Assassins’ – Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman. Courtney O’Connor (Director). Dan Rodriguez (Music Director). Ilyse Robbins (Select Choreography). Baron E. Pugh (Scenic and Lighting Design). Rachel Paula-Shufelt (Costume Design). Alex Berg (Sound Design). At Lyric Stage, Clarendon Street, Boston, through October 15, 2023.
by Linda Chin
Like the late composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, Lyric Stage has not shied away from exploring challenging themes or dark material. But opening a theatre season in the angry aftermath of a post-Trump America with one of Sondheim’s less familiar works – about violent attacks on U.S. presidents, no less – is a risky proposition. Assassins takes us into the minds of nine men and women who gained notoriety through our nation’s history because they killed (or failed to, but gave it a good shot) former Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, Roosevelt, McKinley, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Kennedy). Not exactly uplifting fare, but in the capable hands of director Courtney O’Connor, music director/conductor Dan Rodriguez and his four-piece orchestra, and 15 outstanding actors, audiences can expect a thoroughly engrossing and entertaining theater experience.
Jared Troilo, Kirsten Salpini in “Fascinating Rhythm”
By Michele Markarian
“Fascinating Rhythm” – Created by and Starring Kirsten Salpini and Jared Troilo. Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston through July 16.
“Fascinating Rhythm,” created and performed by Kirsten Salpini and Jared Troilo, is a lively and entertaining tribute to the music of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, with the intimacy and warmth of a house party to which you’ve been specially invited. The two talented performers periodically don costumes (Gershwin and Bernstein, who else?), play piano, and sing their way – with inspired pockets of audience participation – through a well-rounded catalog of works by both composers.
Katherine Callaway, Karen MacDonald, and Lisa Tucker in ‘Rooted’ at the Lyric
Written by Deborah Zoe Laufer. Directed by Courtney O’Connor. Scenic Design by Janie E. Howland, Costume Design by Chelsea Kerl, Lighting Design by Karen Perlow, Original Music and Sound Co-Design by Dewey Dellay, and Sound Co-Design by Andrew Duncan Will. Properties by Lauren Corcuera.
by Linda Chin
In crafting Rooted, the story of two small-town, medium-aged women with big dreams, playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer returned to her childhood roots in the Catskills for inspiration. Besides Hazel (Karen MacDonald), an energetic, fast-talking waitress and primary caregiver of her younger sister, Emery (Lisa Tucker), who has a physical disability and uses a walker, the fictional town of Millerville’s inhabitants include Stuart, Giancarlo, and dozens of other potted plants who live with the people-phobic, biophilic Emery in a tree house – named Mabel – that she hasn’t emerged from in over a decade. There are also lots of animals – birds in the sky above, cows in the pasture below. From the safety of the tree house, Emery does plant research and broadcasts her results via YouTube, and is satisfied with having no direct human contact – just peace, calm, and quiet. In contrast, Hazel is dissatisfied and bored with small-town life, and though she loves her sister deeply, she desperately wants to escape.
Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Glenn Slater. Book by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner. Additional material by Douglas Carter Beane. Direction by Leigh Barrett. Music direction by David F. Coleman. Choreography by Dan Sullivan. Scenic Design by Jenna McFarland Lord. Lighting Design by Christopher Brusberg. Costume Design by Kelly Baker. Sound Design by Alex Berg. Presented by Lyric Stage Company of Boston, through May 14
by Linda Chin
With composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Little Shop of Horrors) behind this musical, I was surprised to leave the Lyric without a song stuck in my head. Have faith, however – with its star – (and sequined) studded cast divinely directed by Leigh Barrett, spirited choreography by Dan Sullivan, and a funk-R&B-gospel-disco score soulfully conducted by David F. Coleman, Sister Act lives up to its billing as a “feel good” musical comedy. Regardless of what church you belong to, after seeing this show “you will go out in joy (Isiah 55:12).”
‘Preludes – Music, Lyrics, Book and Orchestrations by David Malloy. Directed by Courtney O’Connor. Music Direction by Dan Rodriguez. Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston through February 5.
Where does creative inspiration come from? The heart? The mind? Are artists the instruments, or merely vessels for what can only be called divine? A blocked Rachmaninoff (the excellent and brooding Dan Prior) is told, “Virtuosity has its moments, but if you want to be truly great, use more…silence.” Silence and its space create room and stillness for ideas to flow through the subconscious. If you’ve ever wondered about the nature of creativity and the role of the artist, this is the play for you.
Kelby T. Atkin, Dan Whelton, Michael Liebhauser, Marc Pierre, Mitch Kiliulis in Lyric’s The Play That Goes Wrong. Photos by Mark S. Howard
The Play That Goes Wrong – Conceived and written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. Directed by Fred Sullivan, Jr.; Scenic Design by Peter Colao; Costume Design by Gail Buckley; Lighting Design by John Malinowski; and Sound Design by Dewey Dellay. Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon St., Boston through December 18.
by Mike Hoban
Fans of farce and physical comedy are in for a treat with The Play That Goes Wrong, now being presented by Lyric Stage. Pratfalls, spit takes, corpses that won’t lie still and even a fart joke are delivered rat-a-tat by a solid cast, and although the genre may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s hard to imagine that there won’t be at least a few belly laughs for even the most discerning playgoers. And for anyone who’s ever been involved in community or fringe theater productions, you can safely revisit your fears of impending doom from the safety of your seat.
Cast of ‘Fabulation’ at the Lyric Stage. Photos by Mark S. Howard
“Fabulation, or, the Re-Education of Undine” – Written by Lynn Nottage. Directed by Dawn M Simmons. Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston through October 9.
by Michele Markarian
There’s nothing yielding or hesitant about the seemingly unstoppable Undine (Lyndsay Allyn Cox), owner of a boutique public relations agency with high-profile clients in New York. She speaks to her assistant Stephie (Brittani Jenese McBride) brusquely, brushes off the warnings of her accountant (Barlow Adamson), and seems unconcerned about the flight of her suave and sexy husband, Herve (Jaime José Hernández). Undine’s self-centeredness gets kicked up a notch when she realizes that Herve has absconded with all of their money and she’s unexpectedly pregnant. With her office, apartment and bank accountant liquidated, Undine has nowhere left to go but home – to the family in Brooklyn that she claimed had died in a fire fourteen years ago. Undine’s real name is Sharona; she chose Undine when she renounced her family, in an admiring nod to the social climbing Undine Sprague in Edith Wharton’s novel Custom of the Country. Unlike Wharton’s ruthless Undine, Nottage’s Undine finally learns gratitude and humility, after an unfortunate series of events brought on by her own ambition.
Yewande OdetoyinboandDominic Carter in ‘The Light’ at Lyric Stage. Photos by Mark S. Howard
by Mike Hoban
‘The Light’ – Written by Loy A. Webb; Directed by Jacqui Parker; Scenic Design by Baron E. Pugh; Sound Design by Owen Meadows; Lighting Design by Elmer Martinez; Costume Design by Jez Insalaco. Presented by the Lyric Stage Company at 140 Clarendon St. Boston through June 26.
The opening scene of The Light, the final offering of the 2021-2022 seasonat Lyric Stage, has the look and feel of a lighthearted rom-com. Rashad, a single dad who works as a fireman, is frantically straightening up the apartment of his girlfriend Genesis, a principal at a Chicago charter school, as he nervously prepares to ask her to marry him. When she arrives, she suspects something is up, but wonders if he has remembered that this is the two-year anniversary of their first date. What sounds like the premise of a thousand sitcoms soon takes a decidedly more serious tone. So instead of a comic romp, we get a highly-charged story loaded with twists and turns that becomes a serious discussion of how men and women – particularly Black women – view the issue of sexual violence against women in the post #MeToo world.
Cast of ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder’ at the Lyric Stage. Photos by Mark S. Howard
by Michael Cox
Times have changed. The theatre, especially, has changed in the past few years. Every theatre company in this city has declared as much.
This musical comedy, the culminating play of Lyric Stage Company’s season, is filled from beginning to end with the most vile and offensive sentiments. Exploitative and entitled characters espouse horrific colonialist ideals – racism, eugenics and open marriages between cousins – while they systematically quell the lower classes, hold back their capacity for progress and curtail their human dignity at every turn. Woke audience members must endure the most appalling rhetoric. The playmakers who have created A Gentleman’s Guide excuse these problematic sentiments by stating that the characters who express these things are murdered in increasingly fiendish ways. And murder can be delightful when it’s the obnoxious, entitled and tone deaf who are murdered.
