It’s a Topsy-Turvy Planet in The Huntington’s ‘We Had A World’

February 23, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Amy Resnick, Will Conard in Huntington’s ‘We Had A World’. Photos by Annielly Camargo

‘We Had A World’ — Written by Joshua Harmon. Directed by Keira Fromm. Scenic Design by Courtney O’Neill; Costume Design by Izumi Inaba; Lighting Design by Tyler Micoleau; Sound Design and Original Music by Melanie Chen Cole, Presented by The Huntington at Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St., Boston through March 15.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Joshua Harmon covers a lot of ground in the arresting We Had A World. On its surface, the 100-minute one-act play is a deeply personal disinterment and examination of the complicated dyad relationships among his grandmother (Nana/Renee), his mother (Ellen), and Josh, Harmon’s autobiographical self. Equal parts loving requiem and vicious vendetta, the playwright fleshes out these complicated characters, channeling the emotional messiness and magnificence of a family where acrimony, blame, selfishness, and self-destruction share the stage with humor, love, gratitude, generosity, self-sacrifice and honesty. Spanning 1988-2018, the story is told in a nonlinear fashion, a patchwork quilt of episodes where each square is one person’s version of the same event. As the colors and patterns shift, so do our impressions of the three characters.

The Huntington’s Superb Musical ‘Fun Home’ Plumbs Memories and Memoirs

December 5, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Caleb Levin, Odin Vega, Lyla Randall in ‘Fun Home’ at the Huntington. Photos by Marc J Franklin

‘Fun Home’ — Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book and Lyrics by Lisa Kron. Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. Directed by Logan Ellis. At the Huntington Theatre, Huntington Ave., Boston through Dec. 14.

By Shelley A. Sackett

In less capable hands, the multiple Tony Award-winning Fun Home, at the Huntington through Dec. 14, could have been a disaster. Adapted from Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel memoir, the storyline follows a family’s journey through sexual orientation, gender roles, suicide, emotional abuse, grief, loss, and lesbian Bechdel’s complicated relationship with her tightly closeted father. To boot, the title refers to the family funeral parlor, where her father worked and she and her siblings played.

Doesn’t sound like the raw material for one of the year’s outstanding Boston area productions? Think again.

“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.

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.

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.

Huntington’s ‘Sardines’ A Work of Amazing Grace

October 14, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Chris Grace in ‘Sardines’ at The Huntington. Photos by Eric Michaud

‘Sardines (a comedy about death)’. Written and performed by Chris Grace. Directed by Eric Michaud. Kevin Becerra, Associate Director of Artistic Programming and Activation. Kendyl Trott, Production Coordinator. At The Maso Studio at The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston, through November 16.

By Linda Chin

At The Huntington Theatre, attendees of Sardines (a comedy about death) will be treated to sixty minutes of the sweet sounds of Amazing Grace. Not the comforting hymn that’s popular at funerals, but the words and voice of playwright-actor Chris Grace (NBC-TV’s Superstore) in a solo stage show about family, grief, and loss that he’s written and performs.

Kilian Melloy Talks with Chris Grace About His Upcoming Solo Show, “Sardines” at the Huntington

September 26, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

You might know comedian Chris Grace from his role on Superstore or his appearances on Broad City, Pen15, and other TV shows. But beyond the screen, he’s a busy standup comedian with such a packed itinerary that, he tells Theater Mirror, he hasn’t been home since July… and he won’t be back until just before Thanksgiving.

One of Grace’s most recent stops was the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where he created new material nonstop — a show every day, he says, for each day he was there. Now he’s getting ready to come to Boston, bringing his solo show Sardines (a comedy about death) to the Huntington Theatre for a six-week run, Sept. 30 – Nov. 16. (Find out more at https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/whats-on/sardines/ .)

‘My First Ex-Husband’ Spotlights Joy Behar And Divorce’s Light and Dark Sides

September 16, 2025September 16, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

THE VIEW – The View’s Season 28 Co-host photo shoot – Joy Behar. “The View” airs Monday-Friday, 11am-12noon, ET on ABC. (ABC/JEFF LIPSKY) JOY BEHAR

‘My First Ex-Husband’ — Play by Joyce Behar. Directed by Randal Myler. Presented by The Huntington Selects. Produced by Caiola Productions and Cyrena Esposito. At The Huntington Calderwood, 537 Tremont St., Boston, through September 28.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Joy Behar is familiar to fans of television’s ABC daytime talk show, “The View,” as the co-host with the comedic, acerbic wit. She won an Emmy Award in 2009 and is also known as a sharp-tongued, incisive stand-up comic.

With My First Ex-Husband, her fourth play that ran successfully off-Broadway and is now in production at The Huntington Calderwood through September 28, she will be known to Boston audiences as a playwright as well.

A Sumptuous “Light in the Piazza” Shines Over a Dim Plot

May 18, 2025May 18, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

The cast of *The Light in the Piazza* at The Huntington Theatre. Photos by Julieta Cervantes

“The Light in the Piazza”. Book by Craig Lucas. Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel. Based on the Novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Directed by Loretta Greco. Presented by The Huntington, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, through June 15.

by Michele Markarian

“I think it is my favorite place on earth,” declares Margaret Johnson (Emily Skinner), gazing around a piazza in Florence with her daughter, Clara (Sarah-Anne Martinez). Margaret and Clara are in Florence so that Margaret can show Clara the highlights of her honeymoon, many years ago, that she took with Clara’s father, Roy Johnson (Rob Richardson). I assumed Roy was dead, but no, he is at home, cocktail in hand, taking care of business to afford the girls their trip. It is here in the piazza that Clara meets Fabrizio (Joshua Grosso), who is immediately, hopelessly stricken with love. Margaret does not approve, for two reasons – one, a childhood accident with a horse has left Clara with the mental capacity of a twelve-year-old, and two, she enjoys the dependency that Clara has on her. Fabrizio persists, and Margaret and Clara meet his formidable yet welcoming family – his father, Signor Naccarelli (William Michals), mom Signora Naccarelli (Rebecca Pitcher), brother Giuseppe (Alexander Ross) and Giuseppe’s wife, Franca (Rebekah Rae Robles). Fabrizio proposes marriage, Clara accepts, and Margaret escapes with her to Rome in the night. Will love win out?

In Huntington’s “Don’t Eat the Mangos,” a Matriarchy is Reclaimed When Dark Family Secrets are Revealed

April 8, 2025April 10, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Evelyn Howe, Jessica Pimentel, Yesenia Iglesias in The Huntington’s *Don’t Eat the Mangos*
Photos by Marc J. Franklin

‘Don’t Eat the Mangos.’ Written by Ricardo Pérez González. Directed by David Mendizábal. Scenic Design by Tanya Orellana; Costume Design by Zoë Sundra; Lighting Design by Cha See; Sound Design by Jake Rodriguez; Original Music by Jake Rodriguez with Alexandra Buschman-Román and Jason Stamberger. Produced by The Huntington Theatre Company, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston, through April 27.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Don’t Eat the Mangos, Ricardo Pérez González’s one-act play, has a lot going for it. Set in 2019 in El Comandante, a neighborhood outside San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tanya Orellana’s bright island set plunks the audience smack into a festive, colorful vibe where curtains are doors and a commanding mango tree dominates the yard. We immediately meet three sisters, as different in personality as in looks, yet clearly cut from the same mold.