“Kim’s Convenience” Overflows with Drama and Love

November 14, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

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

by Michele Markarian

“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.

In The Huntington’s ‘The Triumph of Love,’ All’s Fair in the War Between Reason and Romance

March 26, 2025March 26, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Marianna Bassham, Nael Nacer in Huntington’s ‘The Triumph of Love’. Photos by Liza Voll

‘The Triumph of Love.’ Written by Pierre Carlet de Marivaux. Adapted by Stephen Wadsworth. Directed by Loretta Greco. Scenic and Costume Design by Junghyun Georgia Lee. Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design by Tom Watson. Lighting Design by Christopher Akerlind. Composer and Sound Design by Fan Zhang. Presented by The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston through April 6, 2025.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Pierre Carlet de Marivaux’s “The Triumph of Love,” which premiered in 1732 and is at The Huntington through April 6, is like a trifle dessert, with light spongey layers of raucously funny deceptions, disguises and mistaken identities soaked in a sherry-spiked pastoral period set design. Instead of the traditional alternating tiers of sweet jams and custard, however, Marivaux has substituted a bitter concoction of calculated cruelty and manipulation. The end result is a sugar-coated confection that leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth.

Swinging Between Thinking and Feeling in Huntington’s ‘Triumph of Love’

March 16, 2025March 16, 2025 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Vincent Randazzo, Avanthika Srinivasan in Huntington’s ‘The Triumph of Love’. Photos by Liza Voll

The Huntington Theatre presents ‘The Triumph of Love. Written by Pierre de Marivaux. Adapted by Stephen Wadsworth. Directed by Loretta Greco. Scenic and Costume Design by Junghyun Georgia Lee. Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design by Tom Watson. Lighting Design by Christopher Akerlind. Composer and Sound Design by Fan Zhang. At The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston through April 6, 2025.

By Linda Chin

Much like its 2016 production of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, based on post-impressionist painter George Seurat’s ‘La Grande Jatte’ (1884), the action in playwright Pierre de Marivaux’s 1732 stylized French comedy The Triumph of Love takes place in a natural setting – and gives a nod to another French artist. In bringing Triumph to life, director (and artistic director) Loretta Greco, scenic and costume designer Junghyun Georgia Lee, and lighting designer Christopher Akerlind have created a visual feast that draws inspiration from Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s renowned ‘The Swing’ (1767), transforming the Huntington stage into “the gardens of Hermocrate’s country retreat,” replete with vines of ivy climbing the walls, lemon trees, rhododendrons, roses in bloom, and a luminous backdrop of a kaleidoscopic, cloud-swept sky. Completing the landscape, a stone bench with some ornamentation and a simple swing made of wood and ropes.