Umbrella Arts’ ‘Spitfire Grill’ a Small Gem with a Big Heart

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

Shonna McEachern, Liza Giangrande, and Kerry A. Dowling in Arts Umbrella’s ‘Spitfire Grill’
Photos by Jim Sabitus

The Spitfire Grill – Written by Fred Alley and James Valcq; Music by James Valcq; Lyrics by Fred Alley; Director and Choreographer Ilyse Robbins; Music Director Jack Cline; Lighting Design by Karen Perlow; Sound Design by Alex Berg; Scenic Design by Janie E. Howland; Costume Design by Kelly Baker.Presented by The Umbrella Stage Company at 40 Stow St., Concord, through May 18.

By Mike Hoban

If you’ve been disappointed by the artistic emptiness of the string of popular movies that Broadway has turned into mediocre shows in recent years (A Christmas Story, Mean Girls, etc.), the Umbrella Stage Company and director Ilyse Robbins are offering up a charming exception to the genre with the quietly beautiful The Spitfire Grill. Based on the 1996 movie starring Ellen Burstyn, this touching musical has what its glitzier counterparts lack – a genuine heart. Spitfire Grill asks the musical question, “If a wound goes real deep, (will) the healing of it hurt almost as bad as what caused it?” The production answers the query with a blend of thoughtfully crafted folk and Americana tunes, performed brilliantly by an outstanding cast of Boston musical theater stalwarts and relative newcomers.

Umbrella Stage’s ‘The Full Monty’ Delivers the Full Package

May 1, 2024May 1, 2024 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of the Umbrella Stage Company’s ‘The Full Monty’ Photo Credits: Jim Sabitus

The Umbrella Stage Company presents THE FULL MONTY. Book by Terrence McNally. Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek. Leigh Barrett, Director. Luke Molloy, Music Director. Najee Brown, Choreographer. Jenna McFarland Lord, Scenic Designer. PJ Strachman, Lighting Designer. Rebecca Glick, Costume Designer. James Cannon, Sound Designer. Gabrielle Hatcher, Properties & Set Dressing. Kat Shanahan, Assistant Director/Wig Designer. At The Umbrella Center for the Arts, Concord, through May 19, 2024.

By Linda Chin

Five pre–pandemic years ago, The Umbrella Stage Company opened its first season in a new state–of–the–art facility – and as Greater Boston’s newest professional theater – with the uplifting classic musical 42^nd Street, featuring iconic songs like “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” and iconic actors like Aimee Doherty (as starlet Dorothy Brock) making their Umbrella debuts. Fast forward to the Company’s 2023–24 season closer, The Full Monty, a musical set in a Buffalo that’s not a desirable honeymoon destination but instead is economically depressed. Best buds Jerry Lukowski (Michael Levesque) and Dave Bukatinsky (Tim Lawton) are unemployed steelworkers who are desperate to pay their mortgages, provide for their families, and regain their pride. To do so, they decide to form a troupe of six male strippers called “Hot Metal.” The Full Monty puts several of Boston’s favorite actors in the spotlight, including Doherty (donning her dancing shoes as Vicki Nichols), Will McGarrahan (as her husband turned hot rod Harold Nichols), and Shonna McEachern (as Joanie Lish). Rounding out the sextet of strippers are John Breen (Malcolm), Joshua Wolf Coleman (Horse), and Jacob Thomas Less (Ethan). Coleman, Lawton, Less, McGarrahan, and McEachern are making their debuts at Umbrella, as is Norton & IRNE award–winning theater artist Leigh Barrett, who directs.

A Playfully Potent “White Rabbit Red Rabbit” at Umbrella Stage

October 15, 2023October 15, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

“White Rabbit Red Rabbit”. By Nassim Soleimanpour. Presented by The Umbrella Stage Company, 40 Stow Street, Concord, through November 11.

By Michele Markarian

Born at the tail end of 1981 in the Islamic Republic of Iran, playwright Nassim Soleimanpour refused to participate in mandatory military service that, upon completion, would allow him to travel outside of Iran. In his isolation, he wrote “White Rabbit Red Rabbit,” a play that has been translated into more than thirty languages and performed all over the world. Part theater, part thought experiment (think Schrodinger’s cat), “White Rabbit Red Rabbit” is a lighthearted but pointed entry into a country the playwright cannot leave.

True Crime Meets Rock n’ Roll in Umbrella’s ‘Lizzie’

October 4, 2023October 5, 2023 Theater Mirror1 Comment

Cast of ‘*Lizzie: The Musical’* at the Umbrella Stage Company. Photos by Jim Sabitus

‘Lizzie: The Musical’ – Music by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt; Lyrics by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer and Tim Maner; Book by Tim Maner; Additional Music by Tim Maner; Additional Lyrics by Alan Stevens Hewitt; Based on an original concept by Alan Stevens Hewitt; Orchestrations by Alan Stevens Hewitt. Produced by Brian Boruta; Directed and Choreographed by Ilyse Robbins; Music Director Lianne Bunting; Lighting Designer SeifAllah Salotto Cristobal; Sound Designer James Cannon; Scenic Designer Erik D. Diaz; Costume Designer Bethany Mullins. Presented by The Umbrella Stage Company at 40 Stow St., Concord, MA, through November 5^th.

by Mike Hoban

“Lizzie Borden took an axe,

And gave her mother forty whacks,

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one.”

That gruesome child’s rhyme from the late 19^th century is both the inspiration and the opening lines from Lizzie: The Musical, Umbrella Stage Company’s early Halloween present to rock musical fans. This punk rock-flavored headbanger of a show shakes up the genre much the way the 1973 musical stage production of The Rocky Horror Show did 50 years earlier. Only instead of being fueled by dark humor and (then) norm-pushing sexcapades, it’s a far more serious feminist revenge story – and just as entertaining.

A Life-Affirming Production Of ‘The Color Purple’ at Umbrella Stage

May 30, 2023May 31, 2023 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of ‘The Color Purple’ at Umbrella Stage

Book by Marsha Norman. Music and Lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray. Produced by Brian Boruta. Directed by BW Gonzalez. Music Direction by Nathanael Wilkerson. Choreographed by Najee A. Brown. Scenic Design by Janie E. Howland. Lighting Design by SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobal; Sound Design by James Cannon. Costume Designer: Danielle Domingue SumiHair, Hair & Makeup Design by Schanaya Barrows. Through June 4 at Umbrella Stage, 40 Stow St., Concord, MA.

by Linda Chin

Umbrella Stage’s production of The Color Purple, a musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is – in a word – epic.

Designers Janie E. Howland, Danielle Domingue Sumi, and SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobal have created a world that is simultaneously unassuming and powerful: an unpainted, multi-level structure constructed of rough-hewn beams and natural wood deck boards, unadorned, well-worn period costumes in earthy tones, and soft, dusky lighting punctuated with jewel tones (including the titular color) transport us to rural Georgia in 1909-1949.

“Head Over Heels” at the Umbrella a Wild and Wacky Good Time

April 27, 2022April 27, 2022 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of ‘Head Over Heels’ at the The Umbrella Stage in Concord

by Michele Markarian

“Head Over Heels: The Musical” – Based on “The Arcadia” by Sir Philip Sidney. Conceived and Original Book by James Whitty. Adapted by James Magruder. Produced and directed by Brian Boruta. Music Direction by David Wright. Choreographed by Lara Finn Banister. Presented by The Umbrella Stage Company, 40 Stow Street, Concord, through May 8.

“Arcadian culture has flourished with its adherence to tradition,” boasts King Basilius (Damon Singletary), who runs a tight, patriarchal ship that includes his wife, the Queen Gynecia (Katie Pickett) and two daughters, Philiclea (Temma Beaudreau) and Pamela (Bri Ryder). Pamela is already proving to be a problem, as none of the suitors her parents present to her year after year are to her taste. Younger sister Philiclea is also a problem, having fallen in love with a man beneath her station, a shepherd named Musidorus (John Breen). At the end of his patience, Basilius goes to visit the oracle Pythio (the magnificent Kai Clifton), who gives him four prophesies. Basilius, liking none of them, decides to hide the truth from his wife and daughters, much to the dismay of his manservant Dametas (Robert Saoud). What follows is two hours of light-hearted, gender-bending frivolity as the kingdom’s inhabitants vacate for Bohemia’s gates. With seventeen songs by the Go-Gos, this is an impossible show not to like.

Umbrella Stage Asks “What If?” with ‘The Last Wide Open’

September 27, 2021 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Rebecca Shor and Ethan Butler in ‘The Last Wide Open’ at Umbrella Stage

‘The Last Wide Open’ – By Audrey Cefaly; Music by Matthew M. Nielson; Directed by Nancy Curran Willis; Scenic Design by Jerry Wedge; Costume Design by Brian Simons; Sound Design by James Cannon; Lighting Design by SeifAllah Sallotto-Cristobal; Presented by The Umbrella Stage Company, 40 Stow St, Concord, MA through October 10th.

by Tom Boudrot

Audrey Cefaly’s The Last Wide Open takes a multi-faceted look at personal decision-making in the moment, and how each choice may affect the rest of our lives in important ways. It’s a tale that tells us to be brave in our decision making, but beware, as we never can know the future – and that’s probably a good thing.

Tuck Everlasting – Family Entertainment for the Holidays

December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

By Tom Boudrot

‘Tuck Everlasting’– Book by Claudia Shear and Tim Federle. Music by Chris Miller; Lyrics by Nathan Tysen; Based on the novel by Natalie Babbitt, Nancy Curran Willis, Director; Matthew Stern, Music Director; Lara Finn Banister, Choreography; Janie Howland, Scenic Designer; Brian Simons, Costume Designer; SeifAllah Sallotto-Cristobal, Lighting Designer; Elizabeth Havenor, Sound Designer. Presented by The Umbrella Stage Company, 40 Stow Street, Concord through

December 22

The 1975 classic children’s story, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt is the story of Winnie Foster and her search for adventure in Tree Gap, New Hampshire in the year 1893. It has won the hearts of many a child as well as literary awards that include the Janusz Korczak Medal and the Christopher Award as best book for young people. The book has twice been adapted to film, and as a Broadway musical. The second film, by Disney (2002) is the best-known adaptation, featuring ‘Gilmore Girls’ star Alexis Bledel as Winnie.

21 Pairs of Dancing Feet Dazzle in Umbrella Stage Company’s 42nd Street

October 4, 2019October 4, 2019 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

(Gillian Mariner Gordon and cast of 42nd Street – Photos by-Kai-Chao)

by Linda Chin

42nd Street – Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Al Dubin; Book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble; Directed by Brian Boruta; Music Direction by James Murphy; Musical Restaging and New Choreography by Lara Finn Banister; Scenic Design by Benjamin D. Rush; Lighting Design by Seifallah Sailotto-Cristobal; Sound Design by Elizabeth Havenor; Costume Design by Brian Simons, Properties Design by Sarajane Morse Mullins; Stage Managed by Michael Lacey. Presented by Umbrella Stage Company, 40 Stow St, Concord, MA through Oct 20th

With its stereotyped characters, dated dialogue, and thin plot, 42nd Street may not be representative of the bold, daring, innovative programming thatConcord’s Umbrella Stage Company promises to deliver (and has successfully shared with audiences for years). What is definitely daring, though, isproducing artistic director Brian Boruta’s decision to produce a show of this scale and complexity in a new facility that’s still unfamiliar and where the paint is barely dry. Bravo to Boruta (also the show’s director) and company for making this bold move, as the 21-member cast (yup, that’s 42 dancing feet) succeeds in proving that 42nd Street is a fitting opener for the Umbrella Stage Company’s inaugural season.