National Tour of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” Lands in Worcester

March 5, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

*Ryan Umbarila, Cody Garcia in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” at Hanover Theatre*

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The magical musical that is Hanover Theatre’s current National Tour of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” brings us into the world of Willy Wonka, the world famous candy creator. Dahl wrote over 30 books throughout his career. This version is based on the author’s 1964 classic book and uses some of the Academy Award nominated songs from the 1971 movie version “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley as well as fresh new songs from Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman who also wrote “Hairspray, the Musical.” Hidden in Willy Wonka chocolate bars are five golden tickets which will allow five children into his factory. Charlie Bucket and four others are the winners of these tickets, granting them access into this marvelous and mysterious factory. The five of them begin a mesmerizing journey through Wonka’s world of pure imagination where each of these children learn life lessons as well as having tantalizing treats and seeing incredible inventions along the way. The children have to learn to follow Wonka’s rules or face the consequences. The moral of the story in all these incarnations is telling the truth and being a nice person does always pay off. Though audiences might think this is a show just for children, it is one for the child in all of us (at any age) who yearn for the days of nice people and truth tellers to return to the forefront once again. This high energy musical is beautifully directed by Matt Lens, and excellently musically directed by Kelly Thomas, with an 8 piece orchestra and some incredible and breathtaking choreography by Alison Solomon, who mold their 28 multitalented cast members into these iconic roles. Their marvelous insight into this show wins all of them a prolonged standing ovation.

Nina Simone Journeys from Artist to Activist in MRT’s ‘Four Women’

March 5, 2020March 5, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

*Cast of MRT’s* *Nina Simone: Four Women*

By Mike Hoban

‘Nina Simone: Four Women’ – Written by Christina Ham. Directed by Kenneth L. Roberson; Christopher Rhoton, Scenic Designer; Michael Alan Stein, Costume Designer; Lee Fiskness, Lighting Designer; Lighting Designer Merrimack Repertory Theatre at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre through March 8

If you’re anticipating a fawning musical love letter to jazz great and civil rights activist Nina Simone from MRT’s entertaining Nina Simone: Four Women, prepare to be surprised. Christina Ham’s 2016 play-with-music is no feel-good biopic of the “High Priestess of Soul”. Instead, Ham takes the gloves off, depicting Simone as narcissistic and as classist as any old-money white guy before she undergoes a spiritual transformation late in the play. Part fictionalized history lesson and part jukebox musical, Four Women showcases some of Simone’s most popular works (as well as some solid originals), but also highlights the struggles and widely varying experiences of three African-American women that she encounters following a brutal murder that rocked the country.

“The Children” a Stunning Look at What We leave Behind

March 4, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

(Tyrees Allen, Paula Plum, and Karen MacDonald in Speakeasy Stage’s ‘The Children’ – Photos by Maggie Hall Photography)

By Michele Markarian

“The Children”. By Lucy Kirkwood. Directed by Bryn Boice. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 537 Tremont Street, Boston through March 28.

“We heard you died,” says Hazel (Paula Plum) to her visitor, Rose (Karen MacDonald), ostensibly an old friend and colleague who has dropped unexpectedly by the temporary housing that Hazel shares with her husband, Robin (Tyrees Allen). It has been thirty-eight years since they’d last seen her on their small British island, and Hazel’s welcome seems less than congenial (she has also, by accident, given Rose a bloody nose). Turns out that the women have shared more than just their former workplace, a nuclear power plant. A tsunami has rendered an accident at the plant, and the residents around it are instructed to live outside of a contaminated exclusion zone. Hazel and Robin have had to abandon their farm and their cattle, much to Hazel’s devastation. Rose, who never married and has lived in America, is seemingly less tethered. Hazel is circumspect about their old friend’s visit with good, intuitive reason – Rose has come back with a request with far-reaching responsibilities and consequences.

A Magical Theatrical Experience with Arlekin’s ‘The Fisherman and the Fish’

March 3, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

*‘The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish’* – *Presented by Arlekin Players Theatre*

By Julie-Anne Whitney

‘The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish’ – Written by Alexander Pushkin; Directed by Evgeny Ibragimov; Set, Costume, and Puppet Design by Ksenya Litvak; Masks designed by Katya Popova; Original Music by Nikolay Yakimov; Lighting Design by Stephen Petrilli; Stage managed by Inessa Ostrova. Presented by Arlekin Players Theatre in Needham, MA through April 12, 2020.

Please note: this is a non-verbal 60-minute performance suitable for ages 4 and up.

The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish is a fable published in 1833 by acclaimed Russian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer, Aleksandr Pushkin. The story has been translated into several languages and adapted into many other art forms (paintings, poems, short stories, ballets, songs, animated films, and plays), perhaps most famously by the Brothers Grimm in their German fairy tale version, The Fisherman and His Wife (1905).

Apollinaire Theatre Company’s ‘Hir’ Throws It All Out There

March 3, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of Apollinaire Theatre Company’s ‘Hir’

Review by James Wilkinson

Hir – Written by Taylor Mac. Directed by Brooks Reeves. Scenic and Properties Design: Ilona Overweg & Kevin McGrath. Costume Design: Elizabeth Rocha. Lighting & Sound Design: Christopher Bocchiaro & Robin Donovan Bocchiaro. Produced by Apollinaire Theater Company at Chelsea Theater Works, February 14-March 8, 2020.

Apollinaire Theatre Company’s production of Taylor Mac’s Hir is a disorienting piece of work, (I think this is mostly by design, so stick with me). From the moment the stage lights come up, the world feels off kilter and I think that the audience can smell it. It pushes them onto unsteady ground. When we go to a narrative drama, we’re often looking at how and why characters change over a period of time. With Hir, the change has already happened, leaving the rest of us to get up to speed with them. It’s as though we’ve caught these characters with their hands already half-way into the cookie jar and as they proceed to empty it out in front of us they keep assuring us, “don’t worry about it…this is fine…just don’t worry about it.” Is it though? I guess that’s up to us.

Lyric’s ‘The Treasurer’ a Layered Family Dramedy

February 25, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

(Cheryl McMahon and Ken Cheeseman in Lyric Stage’s “The Treasurer”. Photo Credit: Mark S. Howard)

By Michele Markarian

‘The Treasurer’ – Written by Max Posner. Directed by Rebecca Bradshaw. Scenic Design by Kristin Loeffler; Costume Design by Chelsea Kerl; Lighting Design by Chris Hudacs; Sound Design by Elizabeth Cahill. Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston through March 22.

At some point in life, whether you want to or not, you may find yourself in the unenviable position of having to care for an aging parent. I say unenviable because not everyone’s parent ages poorly; my parents’ parents, for example, died with their boots on in their nineties. Even as the poorly aging parent becomes financially helpless and less mentally with it, they often don’t wish to relinquish control or their former lifestyle. Such is the case with Ida Armstrong (Cheryl McMahon) in Max Posner’s complicated family dramedy, The Treasurer.

Huntington Brings Second City’s Hilarious ‘She the People’ to BCA

February 21, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

‘She the People’ – Written by Carisa Barreca, Alex Bellisle, Marla Caceres, Katie Caussin, Carly Heffernan, Maria Randazzo, Rashawn Nadine Scott, Tien Tran, Kimberly Michelle Vaughn, and Lauren Walker. Resident Director/Choreographer; Carisa Barreca, Original Director/Head Writer; Carley Hefferman, Music by Mary Mahoney; Music Director & Sound Design; Jacob Shuda. Presented by Huntington Theatre Company, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston through March 8

by Leslie Rosenberg

In the immortal words of Cyndi Lauper, “Girls just want to have fun.” And that’s precisely what the touring company of the Second City delivers with their production, She the People: Girlfriends’ Guide to Sisters Doing It for Themselves, now playing at the BCA through March 8^th. It’s a show I found alternately overwhelming, hysterical, infuriating, and at times, just plain silly. Warnings are given, realities are faced – but the lessons are made easier through the imaginative comedy, song and dance.

GBSC Jazzes up Tchaikovsky with Spirited ‘Swan Lake in Blue’

February 21, 2020March 9, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

*Sarah Coombs in* *‘Swan Lake in Blue’* at *Greater Boston Stage Company* – *Maggie Hall Photography*

by Mike Hoban

‘Swan Lake in Blue’ – Created and composed by Steve Bass. Staged and choreographed by Ilyse Robbins. Set Design by Tori Oakes; Lighting Design by Chris Fournier; Costumes by Kevin Hutchins. Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company, 395 Main St, Stoneham through March 1^st.

If you’re looking for a little risk taking in your theatrical experience, suburban Boston is not typically where you’re headed to find it. Many of the venues rely on a steady diet of classic musicals and New York-tested comic and dramatic offerings to appeal to their subscriber base, and with the exception of the seemingly obligatory dose of gender-bending of late, there’s generally not a lot in terms of innovation going on outside of the city. Which is what makes Swan Lake in Blue, an adrenaline rush of a new work receiving its world premiere at the Greater Boston Stage Company, such a thrill.

Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s ‘Deal Me Out’ Plays to Win

February 20, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

*Cast of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s ‘Deal Me Out’. Photo Credit: Stratton McCrady*

Review by James Wilkinson

‘Deal Me Out’ – Written by MJ Halberstadt. Directed by Shana Gozansky. Scenic Design: Jillian Tone. Lighting Design: Qian Chengyuan. Sound Design: David Wilson. Costume Design: Talia Adler. Properties Design: Sally Tomasetti. Produced by and at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Ave., Boston through March 1, 2020.

To understand this review, you have to understand the mentality of a critic. I’ve seen, (and read), a number of spiritual siblings to Deal Me Out, the new play at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Plays that look to directly speak about the moment we’re living in (however you may define ‘the moment’. Pick your poison.). A collection of characters is assembled, meant to stand-in for the surrounding society, and then they have at it. Trapped in the playing space of a stage, the characters bash into each other, releasing the tensions that the playwright tells the audience are all around us, (usually while they wag a finger at us). Grievances are read, vendettas have out and we’re all expected to go home moaning, “Oh, what a world! What a wretched world we live in!” Granted, the description of “two characters walk into a room and have an interaction” applies to pretty much every play, but I think that there’s something particularly insidious when the playwright tries to say us, “this is us, today.” Telling us what’s what without the aid of hindsight and perspective tends to lead to something we slog through rather than are exhilarated by. In pursuit of the present, playwrights oversimplify, they condescend and I end the evening going, “Yeah, I’m not buying this.”

GBSC’s ‘Swan Lake’ a Musical, Dance Extravaganza

February 16, 2020 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Andy McLeavey, Sara Coombs in GSBC’s ‘Swan Lake in Blue’

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Greater Boston Stage Company travels back in time for their latest production, a world premiere of “Swan Lake in Blue.” Swan Lake originally premiered in 1877 and was written by Tchaikovsky. Its incredible choreography, beautiful music and compelling tale brings audiences back to see it year after year. Each production of Swan Lake reinvents itself from the classic take ala the Bolshoi Ballet. However, Greater Boston Stage Company takes us into a new “jazzed up” version with their production of “Swan Lake in Blue: A Jazz Ballet.” The work was created by Steve Bass, a Boston based composer and musician, and choreographed by GBSC’s Associate Artistic Director and multiple IRNE and Elliot Norton Award winner, Ilyse Robbins. The music for the show is all original by Bass. This version is set in 1940’s New York City with the main characters tied up with the mob. Odette is a burlesque dancer who dances nightly at the Swan Club where Broadway Producer Siegfried falls in love with her and tries to help her escape the clutches of Von Rothbart, a corrupt mob boss. Will the lovers escape the evil boss or will their love be unrequited? There is absolutely no dialogue in this show, so the dancing conveys what all the characters are feeling and doing with each other. It is nearly two hours of a 16 piece jazz big band with intricately choreographed tap, jazz and lyrical dancing by a group of 13 dancers that captivate you from start to finish.