Short Take: Alex Edelman’s Poignant Laugh Riot ‘Just for Us’ is for Everyone

April 14, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

‘Just for Us’ – Written and performed by Alex Edelman. Directed by Adam Brace. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. Through April 23

by Mike Hoban

You would think that a man with the name ‘Alex Edelman’ would be the least likely candidate to attend a meeting of White nationalists, even less so if you knew his full name was David Yosef Shimon ben Elazar Reuven Alex Halevi Edelman – of the Brookline Edelmans. But for the comedian bearing that name, that real-life meeting with the 21st-century version of Klan-lite is the centerpiece of his riotous one-person show ‘Just for Us.’ The solo show, his third, has been running in NYC, Washington DC, and London since December of 2021 and is now receiving its two-week hometown run before it hits Broadway in June.

GAMM Theatre’s ‘THE CHILDREN’

April 12, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

by Tony Annicone

GAMM Theatre’s closing show of their season is “The Children” by Lucy Kirkwood. It’s a thought-provoking play that is 90 minutes long with no intermission and takes place in a remote English cottage by the sea. This is where retired scientists Robin and Hazel are determined to grow old together while the world around them crumbles. The couple tries to live normally after a disaster at the local power station where they used to work. It has devastated the area, and the threat of radiation pollution hangs over their heads. Robin and Hazel try to continue their daily routines of practicing yoga, tending to their cows, and rationing their electricity. However, their tranquil world is rattled by the arrival of their friend and former colleague, Rose. After working in America for 38 years, she shows up with a life-altering request that reveals uncovered secrets. The three of them were instrumental in constructing the power plant so close to populated areas many years ago and must face the consequences of their actions. Inspired by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear explosion, these include being concerned about future generations.

Short Take: Nuns Just Want to Have Fun in Lyric’s ‘Sister Act’

April 12, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Glenn Slater. Book by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner. Additional material by Douglas Carter Beane. Direction by Leigh Barrett. Music direction by David F. Coleman. Choreography by Dan Sullivan. Scenic Design by Jenna McFarland Lord. Lighting Design by Christopher Brusberg. Costume Design by Kelly Baker. Sound Design by Alex Berg. Presented by Lyric Stage Company of Boston, through May 14

by Linda Chin

With composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Little Shop of Horrors) behind this musical, I was surprised to leave the Lyric without a song stuck in my head. Have faith, however – with its star – (and sequined) studded cast divinely directed by Leigh Barrett, spirited choreography by Dan Sullivan, and a funk-R&B-gospel-disco score soulfully conducted by David F. Coleman, Sister Act lives up to its billing as a “feel good” musical comedy. Regardless of what church you belong to, after seeing this show “you will go out in joy (Isiah 55:12).”

Short Take: An Absorbing and Inspiring ‘Middleton Heights’

April 10, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of Middleton Heights at the Umbrella Arts Center. Photos: Gillian Mariner Gordon

Written by Hortense Gerardo. Produced by Brian Boruta. Directed by Michelle Aguillon. Scenic Design by Al Forgione. Lighting and Projection Design by SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobal. Costume Design by Maureen Festa. Sound Design by James Cannon. Presented by Umbrella Stage Company, Concord, MA, through April 23^rd.

by Linda Chin

Named after a fictitious suburb of Cleveland where a dual-doctor couple from Manila has been recruited to work as medical residents, Middleton Heights is a new play that ambitiously spans five decades and three generations of an Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) family’s immigrant experience. Infused with Tagalog and Ilocano words and references and filled with vivid vignettes that are culturally specific and universally relatable, the script is informed by Hortense Gerardo’s twin professional vantage points as an anthropologist and playwright. And though Gerardo contends that this is not an autobiographical play, it does reflect her own lived experience – including being the daughter of two physicians, growing up in a Cleveland suburb, and having roots in the Philippines.

Speakeasy’s ‘Wild Goose Dreams’ an Online Odyssey of Longing and Loneliness

April 3, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ciaran D’Hondt, Fady Demian, Elaine Hom, Ryan Mardesich, Amanda Centeno, and
John D. Haggerty in Speakeasy’s ‘Wild Goose Dreams’. Photos by Nile Scott Studios

‘Wild Goose Dreams’ – Written by Hansol Jung. Directed by Seonjae Kim; Scenic Design by Crystal Tiala; Costume Design by Machel Ross; Lighting Design by Kathleen Zhou; Sound Design by George Cooke. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage at The Calderwood Pavillion, Boston through April 8.

By Sophie Kim

Speakeasy Stage’s production of “Wild Goose Dreams,” a play written by Hansol Jung and directed by Seonjae Kim, is a fast-paced, unpredictable, and deliciously fantastical exploration of what it’s like to live your life online, the difficulty of being vulnerable, and the internet as a double-edged sword of loneliness and connection.

Seacoast Rep’s ‘PARADE’ Taps Into the Human Need to Belong

March 30, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Book by Alfred Uhry. Directors Ben Hart and Brandon James. Music Director William Asher. Choreographers Jason Faria and Alyssa Dumas. Lighting Designer Zachary Ahmad-Kahloon. Sound Designer Andrew Cameron. Properties Designers Gretchen Gray and Elise Marshall. Costume Designer DW. Set Designers Ben Hart and Brandon James. Presented by the Seacoast Repertory Theatre, Portsmouth, NH through April 9th.

by Linda Chin

The notorious 1913 case of Leo Frank, a Jewish man from the north framed by anti-Semites in Georgia for the murder of his factory employee 13-year-old Mary Phagan, is chillingly dramatized in the musical Parade. With hate crimes intensifying in the US – and a recently released ADL (Anti-Defamation League) report showing that incidents of antisemitic activity in New England surged to historic levels in 2022 – this story is tragically timely and relevant.

Short Take: ‘Hadestown’ Brings the Heat to Worcester’s Hanover Theatre

March 30, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

‘Hadestown’ – Written by Anaïs Mitchell. Developed by director Rachel Chavkin. Presented by the Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester through April 2.

by Mike Hoban

Worcester – Anyone who’s been to New Orleans in the spring and summer can tell you that it can be brutally hot and sweaty, but who knew that it would be such a great stand-in for Hell? Hadestown, the mythical underworld industrial “community” that serves as the setting and title of the Broadway hit, is unmistakably N’awlins, from Rachel Hauck’s set to the smokin’ hot band playing the blues and gospel-influenced score. The national touring company of Hadestown, winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards (including Best Musical) and the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, came marching into Worcester (through April 2^nd) and it’s every bit as good as advertised.

Comically Charged ‘Into the Woods’ Brings the Magic to Emerson Colonial

March 24, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of ‘Into the Woods’ at Emerson Colonial. PhotoCredits: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Into the Woods – Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; Book by James Lapine; Directed by Lear deBessonet. At Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St. Boston through April 2.

by Mike Hoban

For musical theater fans, there’s nothing quite like seeing the classics, especially when they’re done so wonderfully by an uber-talented cast. That is certainly the case with the national touring production of Into the Woods, now playing at the Emerson Colonial Theatre through April 2nd. Presented as a concert version of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine fan favorite, the audience roared its approval – not just after each completed song, but before the cast had even sung a note. But given the level of joy this production provided to the sold-out opening night crowd, it turned out to be more prescient than fanboy/girl worship.

A Tree Grows in Boston and Bears Fruit: K-I-S-S-I-N-G at the Huntington

March 19, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ivan Cecil Walks, Sharmarke Yusuf, and Regan Sims in The Huntington’s production
of K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Photos by T Charles Erickson

‘K-I-S-S-I-N-G’ – Written by Lenelle Moïse. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Scenic Design by Jason Ardizzone-West. Costume Design by Dominique Fawn Hill. Lighting Design by Jorge Arroyo. Sound Design by Anna Drummond. Projections Design by Yee Eun Nam and Hannah Tran. Co-produced by the Front Porch Arts Collective and the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, Boston through April 2, 2023.

by Linda Chin

The coming-of-age play now making its world premiere at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion did not come into being from a hurried hook-up, nor inexperienced young people sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. A decade in the making, Lenelle Moïse wrote early drafts during her 2012-2014 Huntington Playwrighting Fellowship, and its development history went something like the titular schoolyard rhyme: First came love – in the form of a commission by Clark University, staged readings at the New Rep and Huntington in 2015 and 2016, and an educational production at Ithaca College (2018). Then came ‘marriage’ – a three-year strategic partnership between Front Porch Arts Collective and the Huntington that started in the fall of 2021, connected Moïse and Porch’s Co-Producing Artistic Directors Maurice Emmanuel Parent and Dawn M. Simmons and catalyzed the companies’ first co-production. A tree growing in Boston has blossomed and borne the loveliest, sweetest fruit. Welcome to the world, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

Missed Opportunities Abound in “This God Damn House”

March 18, 2023April 11, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Sachi Parker, Kirk Gostkowski, Gabriel Rysdahl in “This God Damned House” at the Chain Theatre in New York. Photos by David Zayas Jr.

“This God Damned House” by Matthew MacLachlan. Directed by Ella Jane New. Set Design: David Henderson; Lighting Design: Michael Abrams; Sound Design: Greg Russ; Costume Design: Rica de Ocampo Presented by Chain Theatre, 312 W. 36^th Street, 3^rd floor, New York, New York through April 8.

by Nicole Jesson

This God Damn House is a play about missed opportunities. It begins with a successful playwright making an emergency unscheduled return to his family and childhood home in Florida because of a family crisis. His mother, a hoarder, is losing her home within the next 24 hours, and he and his brother need to pack up the mess, both literally and figuratively. Without giving away too much, the characters spend the night missing opportunities to right the wrongs in their relationships. Unfortunately, the production spends 100 minutes missing its own opportunities in this world premiere of Matthew McLachlan’s dramatically tense play.