Trinity Rep’s ‘A Christmas Carol’: Nothing New, But Always Heartwarming

November 17, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Felese Kparyea as Martha, Jeff Church as Bob Cratchit, Salvador Rivera Scotti as Tiny Tim, Stephen Thorne as Ebenezer Scrooge, and Henry Nwaru as Nephew Fred in Trinity Rep’s “A Christmas Carol,” Photos by Mark Turek

‘A Christmas Carol’ – Written by Charles Dickens; Adapted by Adrian Hall with additional adaptations by Richard Jenkins; Co-directed by Sharon and Richard Jenkins. Featuring Nate Dendy, Stephen Thorne, Jeff Church, Kayla Dumont, Evie Dumont, Taavon Gamble, Gillian Williams, Allison Russo. Original Music by Richard Cumming; Music Direction by James Wood; Stage Manager Anais Bustos; Sound Designer Peter Sasha Hurowitz; Lighting Design by Brian Lilienthal; Costume Design by Toni Spadafora-Sadler. Presented by Trinity Repertory Theatre, Providence, RI, running November 12 through December 31.

By CJ Williams

Trinity Repertory’s A Christmas Carol has a 49-year tradition, but add that to the publication date of Dickens’ original story, and that’s 182 years. That’s all to say that there’s a good reason audiences return to this narrative of miser-redeemed year after year. A Christmas Carol may remind us year after year not to succumb to that sneaking hardness of heart we’re vulnerable to. But it’s also just rollicking good fun to watch an old grumpy geezer get pulled out of bed and thrust into a ghost-haunted pantomime of his past.

“Kim’s Convenience” Overflows with Drama and Love

November 14, 2025December 29, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ryan Jinn, Esther Chung, Ins Choi, Kelly Seo, and Brandon McKnight in *Kim’s Convenience*
at the Huntington Theatre

“Kim’s Convenience”, by Ins Choi. Directed by Weyni Mengesha. Adam Blanshay Productions presents the Soulpepper Theatre Company production in association with American Conservatory Theater, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through November 30^th.

by Michele Markarian

“Is it over?” asked my friend, a huge admirer of the “Kim’s Convenience” television series (which, admittedly, I’ve never seen, but judging from the crowd at the Huntington Theater, the series has a lot of enthusiastic fans). Indeed, the ending of the play, which ties up a lot of the show’s loose ends, feels abrupt and, to a large extent, unearned. The talented cast, however, makes “Kim’s Convenience” a sweet and enjoyable theatrical experience despite the compressed plot points.

Arlekin’s “The Dybbuk” Possesses Hearts and Minds

November 13, 2025November 26, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

‘The Dybbuk’ – Based on the play by S. Ansky. Written by Roy Chen. Additional Material by Joachim Neugroschel. Adapted by Igor Golyak and Dr. Rachel Marrill Moss. Directed and Scenic Design by Igor Golyak. Stage Management from Madison Perez. Lighting Design by Jeff Adlberg. Costume and Prop Design by Sasha Ageeva. Composition and Sound Design by Fedor Zhuravlev. Arlekin’s ‘The Dybbuk’ runs from October 30th – September 16th at The Vilna Shul.

By Charlotte Snow

What are we willing to risk for love? Perhaps it’s a job, a home, a previous relationship, or a lifestyle. Or, for the most ardent of lovers, perhaps we’re more than willing to risk our lives? In Arlekin’s The Dybbuk, a love story that spans the realm of the living and the dead, it uplifts and challenges the notion of ‘til death do us part.’

Arlekin, based in the suburbs of Needham, is a theatre company founded by immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who are driven to create and reimagine Russian theatre, with performances presented in English, Russian, or a combination of both. This production of ‘The Dybbuk’ is a remounting of the 2024 production, which garnered a pair of Elliot Norton awards. 

CST’s ‘Summer, 1976’: A Thoughtful Retrospective On a Friendship Found and Lost

November 9, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Laura Latreille, Lee Mikeska Gardner in CST’s ‘Summer, 1976′. Photos by Nile Scott Studios

‘Summer, 1976’ − Written by David Auburn; Directed by Paula Plum; Assistant directed by Ulrika Brand; Scenic Design by Kristin Leoffler; Lighting Design by Deb Sullivan; Costume Design by Sydney Hovasse; Prop Design by Lauren Corcuera; Sound Design by Aubrey Dube; Projection Design by Justin LaHue; Stage Managed by Charles Waite Clay. Presented by Central Square Theater (CST) at 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA, through November 30, 2025.

Julie-Anne Whitney

We’ve all had friendships that have petered out, some naturally and others painfully. Most of us have had moments of looking back, of longing for what was, of mourning what might have been.

In David Auburn’s Summer, 1976, two women, Diana (Lee Mikeska Gardner) and Alice (Laura Latreille), narrate their own – and each other’s – stories in a thoughtful retrospective about an unlikely friendship that fades over time. Auburn’s memory play traverses nearly 30 years of the women’s lives, from their time in Columbus when they were “forced” into friendship through their young daughters, to an unexpected meeting in Manhattan 27 years later. The play follows Diana and Alice as they recall the challenges, surprises, gifts, and pains of a friendship they both needed but failed to maintain.

Theater Mirror’s Kilian Melloy Interviews “Fun Home” Director Logan Ellis

November 8, 2025November 14, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Logan Ellis. Director of *Fun Home.* Photo by Annabel Clark

Rising theater director Logan Ellis has become a director who bridges worlds — between classical music and theater, between scrappy DIY companies and regional powerhouses, and between personal vulnerability and political urgency. Fresh out of school, he and some friends founded Theatre Battery in Kent, Washington, turning vacant mall storefronts into free community art spaces in one of the state’s most culturally diverse areas. Fifteen years later, Ellis has earned his MFA from Yale School of Drama, become Associate Producer at Skylight Theatre Company in Los Feliz (a neighborhood in Los Angeles), continued as Producing Artistic Director and Co-Founder at Theatre Battery, and pivoted into film.

Manual Cinema Continues to Enchant with ‘The 4th Witch’ at ArtsEmerson

November 3, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Manual Cinema’s ‘The 4th Witch” at ArtsEmerson. Photos: Katie Doyle

The 4^th Witch − Concept and direction by Drew Dir; Devised by Dir, Sarah Forance and Julia Miller; Original score and sound design by Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter; Mask Design by Julia Miller; Lighting Design by David Goodman‑Edberg; Costume / Wig Design by Sully Ratke. Presented by Manual Cinema at the Robert J. Orchard Stage, Emerson Paramount Center, 559 Washington St., Boston, through November 9.

By Mike Hoban

Manual Cinema has once again returned to the ArtsEmerson stages with their unfathomably unique brand of theatrical storytelling with The 4th Witch, a mind-bending work “inspired by” Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Told via shadow puppetry using live actors blended with silhouette cutouts beamed onto a movie screen by overhead projectors, the action is augmented by a haunting score played by a live ensemble with vocals. As the action is being projected onto the screen, the audience can simultaneously watch the actors and technicians dart around the stage to produce the images, while the three-piece ensemble (cello, violin, and keyboards), placed at the front of the stage, plays and sings.

‘Murder for Two’ Is A Goofy, Musical Valentine to Classic Whodunits.

November 1, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Will McGarrahan and Jared Troilo in “Murder for Two” at Greater Boston Stage
Photos: Niles Scott Studios

‘Murder for Two’ — Book and Music by Joe Kinosian. Book and Lyrics by Kellen Blair. Directed by Tyler Rosati. Music Direction by Bethany Aiken; Scenic Design by Katy Monthei; Lighting Design by Matt Cost; Sound Design by Adam Smith. Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company, 395 Main St., Stoneham, MA through Nov. 9.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Murder for Two is a loving parody of classic murder mysteries. A two-person musical, the 100-minute (no intermission) production is more vaudevillian revue than its genre’s prototypes, relying on gimmicks, songs, and quick changes to tell a familiar story in a new way.

Kilian Melloy Interviews Playwright Ins Choi, whose play, ‘Kim’s Convenience,’ opens at The Huntington

October 30, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ins Choi

Playwright Ins Choi was born in South Korea and emigrated to Canada with his family as an infant. Taking to theater at an early age, he participated in his high school’s plays and later graduated from York University with a degree in theater, then worked with Toronto’s fu-GEN, self-described as an “Asian Canadian Theatre Company.” Turning to writing, he authored Kim’s Convenience, a play about a family of Korean immigrants in Toronto headed by a stubborn patriarch, with an understanding mother (Umma) and two adult children — the artistic, still-single Janet, and estranged son Jung — rounding out the family. The play explores a clash of cultural expectations, as Appa — “Dad” or “Daddy” in Korean, the only name he’s given in the play — attempts to assert his authority not only in the store (where he’s quick to discern which customers are likely to shoplift, his profiling inevitably veering into problematic territory) but also in the lives of his offspring. Stubborn, but ultimately loving, Appa is the pillar around which the family centers, despite the estrangement between himself and Jung.

Theater Mirror’s Kilian Melloy Interviews Arlekin Players’ Igor Golyak on Bringing Back ‘The Dybbuk’ for an Encore

October 29, 2025October 29, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Igor Golyak, the leader of Arlekin Players, is set to oversee the return of his adaptation of Roy Chen’s modern version of the classic S. Ansky play The Dybbuk to Boston. The play was a sensation last year, thrilling audiences and earning accolades, including an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production. Now it returns to Beacon Hill’s Vilna Shul, the site of its earlier run — a venue that, Golyak explains in our interview, has significant resonance.

Speakeasy’s ‘Lizard Boy’ Artfully Combines Indie Rock with Comic Book Sensibility

October 29, 2025October 30, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Chelsie Nectow, Keiji Ishiguri, and Peter DiMaggio in ‘Lizard Boy’ at SpeakEasy Stage.
Photos by Benjamin Rose Photography.

‘Lizard Boy’ – Book, music, and lyrics by Justin Huertas. Directed by Lyndsay Allyn Cox; Music Direction by Violet Wang; Scenic Design by Qingan Zhang; Sound Design by Sean Doyle; Costume Design by Zoë Sundra, Lighting Design by Deb Sullivan. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage at the Calderwood Pavilion. Through Nov. 22.

By Mike Hoban

There are any number of musicals that examine the hardships of not fitting in − from the 1960s Rankin-Bass television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Nose Reindeer to Wicked to Bat Boy: The Musical. The challenges of “being different” and the struggle to be accepted can be compelling fodder for any storytelling vehicle, and SpeakEasy’s delightfully silly but poignant Lizard Boy is no exception.