BLO’s ‘Bluebeard’s Castle/Four Songs’ Is A Knockout!

March 23, 2023March 24, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ryan McKinny, Naomi Louisa O’Connell in BLOs *‘Bluebeard’s Castle/Four Songs’*

‘Bluebeard’s Castle/Four Songs’ – Music by Béla Bartók, Libretto by Béla Balázs, Arranged by Eberhard Kloke/Music by Alma Mahler, Arranged by Julian Reynolds. Music Director – David Angus, Stage Director – Anne Bogart; Set Designer – Sara Brown; Costume Designer – Trevor Bowen; Lighting Designer – Brian H. Scott. Presented by Boston Lyric Opera at The Terminal @ Flynn Cruiseport, 1 Black Falcon Ave., Boston through March 26.

By Shelley A. Sackett

There needs to be a new term coined for BLO’s current production (and all too brief run) of ‘Bluebeard’s Castle/Four Songs.’ “Opera” just doesn’t begin to describe the multi-sensorial experience provided by this inventive, exciting and unique installation event.

For starters, the venue itself is a star. Through sheer brilliance, the Flynn Cruiseport terminal is transformed into pre-show performance spaces that reflect stage and set designers Anne Bogart and Sara Brown’s desire to explore “how spaces can be gendered.” In the “feminine salon,” costumed and bejewel-masked actresses mingle with early arrivals while Yukiko Oba plays an elegant Liberace-worthy piano. In the “masculine” VIP lounge, VIPs enjoy their cocktails in a traditional gentleman’s club.

Speakeasy’s ‘Wild Goose Dreams’ Is A Surreal Romp Between Two Realities

March 22, 2023March 22, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ciaran D’Hondt, Fady Demian, Elaine Hom, Ryan Mardesich, Amanda Centeno, and
John D. Haggerty in Speakeasy’s ‘Wild Goose Dreams’ Photos by Nile Scott Studios

‘Wild Goose Dreams’ – Written by Hansol Jung. Directed by Seonjae Kim; Scenic Design by Crystal Tiala; Costume Design by Machel Ross; Lighting Design by Kathleen Zhou; Sound Design by George Cooke. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage at The Calderwood Pavillion, Boston through April 8.

By Shelley Sackett

On its surface, ‘Wild Goose Dreams,’ lays out parallel tales of migration, sacrifice, and dreams. To fully appreciate Hansol Jung’s brilliant script and Seonjae Kim’s spot-on direction, a little background is helpful. Geese migrate with the seasons, traveling great distances and enduring physical hardships to secure food and shelter for their families. Their survival hinges on uprooting themselves and flying to an unknown place that they hope will provide what they need.

A Tree Grows in Boston and Bears Fruit: K-I-S-S-I-N-G at the Huntington

March 19, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ivan Cecil Walks, Sharmarke Yusuf, and Regan Sims in The Huntington’s production
of K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Photos by T Charles Erickson

‘K-I-S-S-I-N-G’ – Written by Lenelle Moïse. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Scenic Design by Jason Ardizzone-West. Costume Design by Dominique Fawn Hill. Lighting Design by Jorge Arroyo. Sound Design by Anna Drummond. Projections Design by Yee Eun Nam and Hannah Tran. Co-produced by the Front Porch Arts Collective and the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, Boston through April 2, 2023.

by Linda Chin

The coming-of-age play now making its world premiere at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion did not come into being from a hurried hook-up, nor inexperienced young people sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. A decade in the making, Lenelle Moïse wrote early drafts during her 2012-2014 Huntington Playwrighting Fellowship, and its development history went something like the titular schoolyard rhyme: First came love – in the form of a commission by Clark University, staged readings at the New Rep and Huntington in 2015 and 2016, and an educational production at Ithaca College (2018). Then came ‘marriage’ – a three-year strategic partnership between Front Porch Arts Collective and the Huntington that started in the fall of 2021, connected Moïse and Porch’s Co-Producing Artistic Directors Maurice Emmanuel Parent and Dawn M. Simmons and catalyzed the companies’ first co-production. A tree growing in Boston has blossomed and borne the loveliest, sweetest fruit. Welcome to the world, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

‘Boulevard of Bold Dreams’ Shines a Light on Hattie McDaniel and Her 1940 Oscar

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Samantha Jane Williams, Michelle Fenelon, and Stewart Evan Smith in *‘Boulevard of Bold Dreams’* at GBSC. Photos by Nile Scott Studios

‘Boulevard of Bold Dreams’ — Written by LaDarrion Williams; Directed by Taavon Gamble; Scenic Design by Rachel Rose Burke; Lighting Design by Corey Whittemore; Costume Design by Klara Escalera; Sound Design by James Cannon; Property Design by Emily Allinson. Presented by the Greater Boston Stage Company at 395 Main St., Stoneham, MA through March 19.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Playwright LaDarrion Williams has cherry-picked a dramatic moment in history to explore in his well-crafted ‘Boulevard of Bold Dreams.’ The date is February 29, 1940, the night of the Academy Awards. The setting is Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel bar, outside the grand ballroom where the awards will be presented.

Before the ceremony even starts, this year’s Oscars have made history. Hattie McDaniel is the first Black actor to be nominated for an award. She is up for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as Scarlett O’Hara’s ‘mammy’ in the Civil War era blockbuster, “Gone With the Wind.”

Don’t Let the Play’s Title Keep You From Seeing Gamm’s Compelling ‘Bad Jews’

March 8, 2023March 9, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

The cast of ‘Bad Jews’ now playing at the Gamm Theatre. Photos by Cat Laine

‘Bad Jews’ – Written by Josh Harmon; Directed by Tony Estrella; Set Design by Patrick Lynch; Costume Design by Jessie Darrell Jarbadan; Lighting Design byDavid Roy; Sound Design by Peter Sasha Hurowitz, Presented by The Gamm Theatre at 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, RI through March 26.

by Mike Hoban

At a time when anti-Semitism and violence against Jews are disturbingly on the rise, attending a play with the name Bad Jews may not seem like such a great way to spend an evening. A dozen or so protesters connected with the RI Coalition for Israel thought so, picketing the show outside the theater on the day of the press performance – not based on the content of the play (which one imagines they have not seen), but the title. Once inside, Gamm artistic director Tony Estrella assured the audience that the company respects the right to free speech, “both on the sidewalk and in the theater.” Having seen the play, let me assure you that the title is in no way a condemnation of the Jewish religion or culture. Instead, it’s a self-reference by one of the play’s Jewish characters on how poorly he practices his faith, much like Catholics who only show up for church on Christmas and Easter would describe themselves as a “bad Catholics.”

A.R.T’s ‘Wife of Willesden’ is a Pleasure with a Capital P

March 7, 2023March 7, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Clare Perkins in ‘*The Wife of Willesden’* at the A.R.T. Photo Credits: Marc Brenner

‘The Wife of Willesden’ – Adapted by Zadie Smith from Chaucer’s ‘The Wife of Bath’ from The Canterbury Tales; Directed by Kiln Theatre Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham; Design by Robert Jones, Lighting Design by Guy Hoare; Composition and Sound Design by Drama Desk Ben and Max Ringham. The Wife of Willesden is a Kiln Theatre Production and is presented in association with BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA through March 17

by Shelley A. Sackett

Whether by design or chance, the slightly tardy start to “The Wife of Willesden” gifted the audience with a few bonus minutes to soak in the vibe of Robert Jones’s magnificent set while seat dancing to disco party tunes. The stage, meant to represent a pub in Willesden (a multi-racial part of North London’s Brent) feels more like a holy shrine to drink and camaraderie. Six triple-case bays are filled floor to ceiling with glimmering bottles. A disco ball sparkles from above. A barmaid cuts fruit while local revelers mill about. Members of the audience sit at small tables on the stage, further breaking down the fourth wall. The effect is, well, intoxicating.

And then boom! The play starts.

Perkins is a Dynamo in A.R.T.’s ‘Wife of Willesden’

March 6, 2023March 6, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Marcus Adolphy, Clare Perkins, George Eggay, Andrew Frame, and the company of ***The Wife of Willesden*** at the A.R.T. Photo Credits: Marc Brenner

by Mike Hoban

What do women want?

Clearly, it depends on whom you ask (please shut up, men), but if you ask Alvita, the central character in The Wife of Willesden, the British import production now playing a limited engagement at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, a heaping helping of sex is a good start. As she rhetorically tells her five husbands as she spins her tale, “I demand pleasure. That is your debt to me…You’ll agree to owe me love, and good sex, and that when we marry, your body and soul will be mine as long as we’re a thing. From that time till we’re done, your body is my playground, (and) it’s for me, not for you.”

‘The Inferior Sex’ Sets Record Straight at Trinity Rep

March 1, 2023March 24, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of ‘The Inferior Sex’ at Trinity Rep. Photo by Mark Turek

by Tony Annicone

Trinity Rep’s season continues with the new production of “The Inferior Sex” by Jaqueline E. Lawton. The play takes place back in the summer of 1972 and is centered on congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and her decision to run for president. The Equal Rights Amendment is front and center as the fervor to pass it builds throughout the country. A group of women in midtown who support this amendment have created a magazine for feminists who love fashion. Meanwhile, the war in Vietnam rages on and the scandal of Watergate bursts President Nixon’s ruling of the country without consequences from either side of the aisle. The women involved with this magazine have differing opinions about the social and political dealings of the day, and it challenges their friendships and the very unsure future of their beloved magazine. Lawton creates comic and poignant moments with her brand-new play and makes the audience aware of the struggles to attain Equal Rights in a very real and up-close look at the past. Director Tatyana-Marie Carlo casts some powerful actresses to portray these roles as she brings the audience back to 1972. There’s an amazing set by Sara Brown and authentic and breathtaking 1970’s vintage costumes by Amanda Downing Carney. The costumes worn by the character of Shirley Chisholm were handmade by Amanda after looking at the outfits the real congresswoman wore back then. Tatyana and her talented nine-member cast’s reward is the spontaneous standing ovation they receive at the curtain call.

The Precarious World of “Alma” at Central Square

February 28, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Karina Beleno Carney and Luz Lopez in ‘Alma’ at Central Square Theater

“Alma” – By Benjamin Benne. Directed by Elena Velasco. Presented by Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, through March 26.

by Michele Markarian

It is 2016, and Trump has won the election. Alma (Karina Beleno Carney) is the mother of Angel (Luz Lopez), a teenager preparing for college. Alma is excited; tomorrow is the day that Angel is going to take the SATS and ace them so that she can fulfill their shared dream of Angel going to UC Davis and becoming a veterinarian. Angel, however, has other plans, which Alma sees as a slap in the face for all of the sacrifice and money she’s put into this dream for her daughter.

Liars and Believers Moves the Heart, Challenges the Mind and Feasts the Senses
with ‘A Story Beyond’

February 25, 2023February 25, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of Liars & Believers ‘A Story Beyond’ at The Foundry

‘A Story Beyond’ – Conceived & Directed by Jason Slavick; Music & Lyrics – Nathan Leigh; Puppetry Design & Direction – Faye Dupras; Costume Design – Kendra Bell
Lighting Design – PJ Strachman; Scenic Design & Props Master – Rebecca Lehrhoff; Mask Design – Becca Jewett; Technical Direction & Assistant Scenic Design – Ben Lieberson; Music Director & Lead Vocalist – Jay Mobley. Presented by Liars and Believers Theatre Company at the Foundry, 101 Rogers Street through February 25.

By Jim Phelan

What’s better than a nice cup of hot cider on a cold February day? How about a nice cup of hot cider at The Foundry in Cambridge, served by a costumed cast member of Liars and Believers, as you wait to see their latest performance of A Story Beyond? Part of a week-long family-friendly school vacation week dedicated to the theme of storytelling, A Story Beyond is a crowd-pleasing gem. Music, masks, hand-held puppets, shadow puppetry, lights, and colors abound throughout the story-filled hour-long show.