At Merrimack Repertory Theatre, A Stirring ‘What You Are Now’ Resonates Deeply

May 8, 2025May 8, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Sonnie Brown, Pisay Pao in MRT’s ‘What You Are Now’

‘What You Are Now’ by Sam Chanse. Directed by Steve Cosson. Scenic Design by Neil Patel. Costume Design by Yao Chen. Lighting Design by Brian J. Lilienthal. Sound Design by David Remedios. Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 50 E. Merrimack St., Lowell, MA, through May 11, 2025.

By Linda Chin

With a stirring production of What You Are Now closing a stellar seven-show season, Merrimack Repertory Theatre demonstrates its commitment to cultivating new works and community. Sam Chanse’s powerful play had its world premiere in NYC three years ago, but its current run (and New England premiere) at MRT carries special significance: this story about a young neuroscientist whose interest in traumatic memories stemming from her family’s history is actually set in Lowell, Massachusetts, and is bound to resonate deeply with diverse audiences.

History Unveils Itself in “Founding F%!#ers”

May 7, 2025May 7, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of “Founding F%!#ers” at Greater Boston Stage

“Founding F%!#ers” by Conor Casey. Directed by Weylin Symes. Presented by Greater Boston Stage Co., 395 Main Street, Stoneham, through May 18.

by Michele Markarian

According to Napoleon, “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” But who decides what makes history? While history agrees that Ethan Allen was a hero and Benedict Arnold a traitor, Conor Casey’s play paints a comic version of the character of each man and the contentious rivalry that they had with one another during a tumultuous time in America’s history.

Moonbox’s ‘Crowns’ Raises the Roof

April 30, 2025April 30, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of Moonbox Productions’ “Crowns” at Arrow Street Arts. Photos: Chelcy Garrett

Moonbox Productions presents ‘Crowns’ by Regina Taylor, adapted from the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Mayberry. Regine Vital, Director. David Coleman, Musical Director. Davron Monroe, Associate Director. Kurt Douglas, Choreographer. Isaak Olson, Lighting Designer. Baron E. Pugh, Scenic Designer. James Cannon, Sound Designer. Danielle Ibrahim, Props Designer. E Rosser, Costume Designer. Schanaya Barrows, Wig Designer. At Arrow Street Arts, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge, through May 4, 2025.

By Shelley A. Sackett

In Crowns, playwright Regina Taylor’s paean to the Black women who held their families, churches and communities together, gospel music, fanciful hats and swanky dresses take center stage. For 90 intermission-less minutes, this jukebox musical rocks the intimate Arrow St. Arts with two dozen songs and a narrative that traces the history of Blacks in America, from slavery to the Jim Crow south to the Civil Rights movement to present-day Black-on-Black violence in Brooklyn’s tougher neighborhoods.

In Sullivan Rep’s ‘Company’ “What Do You Get?”

April 30, 2025April 30, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of Sullivan Rep’s ‘Company’ (Dan Sullivan center, Meghan Rose, Kevin Hanley, foreground)

Sullivan Rep presents ‘Company’ – Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by George Furth. Direction & Choreography by Dan Sullivan. Musical Direction by Andrew Wray. Hair & Makeup Design by Bridget Sullivan. Costume Design by Dan Sullivan. Lighting Design by Erik Fox. Properties Design by Rick Grenier. Sound Design by Andrew Mulholland. At the American Legion Nonantum Post 440, Newton. Run has ended.

By Linda Chin

Once again, Sullivan Rep has shown that they are the little company that could — do justice to the work of late, great musical theater giant Stephen Sondheim, that is. Last year’s production of A Little Night Music garnered Norton nominations for Outstanding Musical (in good company with established giants ART, SpeakEasy, Central Square & Front Porch) and Outstanding Musical Direction (Jenny Tsai). Sullivan Rep’s limited engagement (four-show run) of Company on Easter/Passover holiday weekend has ended – but could easily have been enjoyed by another hundred people – or two, three, or four hundred more – if an extension, or expanded audience capacity, had been possible.

Alvin Ailey‘s Legacy Uplifts and Transforms — As Always

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at Boch Center Wang Theatre. Photos by Paul Kolnik

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston. At Boch Center Wang Theatre. Run has ended.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Like daylight savings time, red-winged blackbirds and early flowering trees, Celebrity Series of Boston’s presentation of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is an annual harbinger of spring. Its arrival is cause for celebration for the reliably breathtaking performances that await and as a sign that, at last, the long, dark, COLD winter months are behind us.

Creative, Tragicomic and Complex, Apollinaire’s ‘The Squirrels’ Should Not Be Missed!

April 22, 2025April 22, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of Apollinaire Theater Co.’s ‘The Squirrels’. Photos by Danielle Fauteux Jacques

‘The Squirrels.’ Written by Robert Askins. Directed by Brooks Reeves. Movement Choreography by Audrey Johnson; Fight Choreography by Matt Dray; Scenic and Sound Design by Joseph Lark-Riley; Costume Design by Susan Paino. Presented by Apollinaire Theater Co. at Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea through May 18^th.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Playwright Robert Askins is known for fusing razor-edged socio-political insights and wacky, ingenious extended metaphors. In the irreverent comedy, Hand to God, he uses puppetry, including a possessed Christian ministry puppet, to explore themes of faith, morality, and the ties that bind us. In The Squirrels, he taps the squirrel world as a conceit through which to expose and study our own instinctual compulsion towards tribalism and ultimate self-destruction.

Strong Performances Lift Mystic Evidence Productions’ ‘Skazki: A Spell of Ice and Snow’

April 21, 2025April 21, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

‘Skazki: Spell of Ice and Snow.’ Written by J.X.M. Corriss. Words and Music by Jonathan Blackshire. Musical Direction by Sam McLoughlin. Directed by Sean Robinson. Choreography by Katie Formosi. Costume Design by Kitty Prue. Lighting Design by Nick Tavares. Stage Management by Max Cavanaugh, assisted by Mason West. Presented by Mystic Evidence Productions at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116

By C.J. Williams

“Culture is also a casualty of war.” So what’s culture? And is its loss akin to losing a limb – or a family member?

Skazki: A Spell of Ice and Snow recently wrapped up its run at the Boston Center of the Arts. The brand-new musical, written by a first-time playwright (but veteran poet and novelist, X.M. Corriss), is a whimsical musical with a cold as steel fairy tale edge, and where it may falter in pacing, it more than evens out in its cast and crew’s passionate performances. If culture is indeed a casualty of war, Skazki is perhaps the result of artists who know that all art is a kind of healing.

A.R.T.’s ‘Night Side Songs’ Is Magical, Boundary-Breaking Theater

April 18, 2025April 18, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Jonathan Raviv and Brooke Ishibashi in A.R.T.’s ‘Night Side Songs’. Photo: Nile Scott Studios

‘Night Side Songs.’ Words and Music by the Daniel and Patrick Lazour. Directed by Taibi Magar. Scenic Design by Matt Saunders; Costume Design by Jason A. Goodwin; Lighting Design by Amith Chandrashaker; Sound Design by Justin Stasiw. Music Direction and Piano Arrangements by Alex Bechtel. Presented by American Repertory Theater in association with Philadelphia Theatre Company at Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley St., Boston through April 20.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Night Side Songs, the remarkable production by A.R.T. now at Hibernian Hall, bills itself as “communal music-theater experience performed for—and with—an intimate audience that gives voice to doctors, patients, researchers, and caregivers to celebrate the resilience of the human spirit.” This description barely scratches the surface of the uncharted grounds this play explores, and the transfixing heights it reaches.

ASP’s Rowdy ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Flips the Bard’s Gem on its Breakdancing Head

April 16, 2025April 17, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”Photos: Nile Scott Studios

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent. Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project at Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown through May 4.

By Shelley A. Sackett

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of those plays that is firmly etched in most people’s long-term memory banks, whether as a first introduction to Shakespeare in high school or as one of scores of film and theatrical productions. There are countless riffs on the play, from the sci-fi A Midsummer Night’s Gene to recently produced The Donkey Dream. Even The Beatles got in on the act in their 1964 TV special, “Around the Beatles,” when they played the “Pyramus and Thisbe” section of the play to an audience of hecklers and moonstruck fans, especially appropriate for this comedy play within a play. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvREt_w_KOE )

Everyone Wants Some in ASP’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

April 16, 2025April 17, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, by William Shakespeare. Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent. Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown through May 4.

Cast of Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”Photos: Nile Scott Studios

By Michele Markarian

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind”, insists Helena (Deb Martin), a maid musing on the unreasonable and unpredictable foibles of attraction. The minds in this production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are busy at work, their bodies preening and pursuing the objects of their lusty desires, a kind of Beltane in the middle of summer. This vigorous production is set in a disco, with all the dangers and dreams that go with it.