Ogunquit Playhouse’s ‘High Society’ is “De-Lovely”

August 6, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Robyn Hurder and Max Clayton in Ogunquit Playhouse’s ‘High Society’. Photos by Nile Scott Studios

Choreography by Jeffry Denman; Music supervision and orchestrations by Greg Jarrett; Music Direction by Nicholas Connors; Scenic Design by Alexander Dodge; Costume Design by Tracy Christensen; Lighting Design by Richard Latta; Sound Design by Haley Parcher; and wig, hair, and makeup design by Roxanne De Luna.

By Mike Hoban

The Ogunquit Playhouse once again makes a sparkling case for being New England’s premier summer theater with a bubbly, champagne-fueled re-imagining of the 1956 film, High Society. Powered by a Cole Porter score, Broadway performers (including multiple Tony Award nominees), and a terrific supporting cast, High Society is the very essence of summer theater – a rollicking good time that delivers a ton of laughs along with its superbly executed song-and-dance numbers.

Writer Ernest Thompson on his One-Person Play, ‘Archie Parish’s Parting Words’

August 1, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Ernest Thompson was only 28 when he wrote the play he’s perhaps best known for: On Golden Pond, the story of a retired university professor named Norman Thayer who is slowly succumbing to dementia but who agrees, together with his wife, to watch after his young grandson for a summer. Initially wary, the two end up becoming friends as well as family thanks to shared fishing adventures (and misadventures). Despite Norman’s failing health — he suffers a cardiac incident in the course of the play, as well as suffering a slow mental decline — the play ends on a note of hope and grace.

Thompson adapted his play for a movie that’s still renowned today for its casting of Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn. That film won Thompson the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as garnering dual wins for Best Actor and Best Actress for Ford and Hepburn.

Playwright Crystal Skillman’s “Open” Uses Magic as Metaphor for Love

July 28, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

“I’m running between Tech and a few things, so I just want to make sure a little crazy right now,” playwright Crystal Skillman tells Theater Mirror. “But hey, I love crazy.”

That comes through in Skillman’s powerful, moving play “Open,” a solo show that ran Off-Broadway July 12-27 at WP Theater in New York City.

The play is intended to be produced with no set, no props… nothing, in fact, but some evocative lighting, some precise sound effects work, and a performer that can live up the sleights-of-hand that Skillman has invested in her script about a magician and the story she tells: A story of love, tragedy, and transformation.

Actor Kathy St. George on Her BTCA Award for Sustained Excellence

July 23, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

By Kilian Melloy

Longtime star of the Boston theater scene Kathy St. George cemented her status as a stage icon last month with the Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence — an award that seems both overdue and inevitable, given her prolific career and multiple talents as a singer, dancer, and instrumentalist, as well as a gifted actor in both comedic and dramatic roles.

Harbor Stage’s Darkly Brilliant ‘Death of a Salesman’ is Not Your Typical Summer Fare

July 23, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

William Zielinski and Stacy Fischer in Harbor Stage Company’s ‘Death of a Salesman’
Photos by Joe Kenehan

‘Death of a Salesman’ – Written by Arthur Miller. Directed by Robert Kroft; Scenic Design by Justin Lahue; Lighting Design by John Malinnowski; Projection Design by Justin Lahue and Katherine Wittman. Presented by Harbor Stage Company, 15 Kendrick St., Wellfleet, through August 2.

By Mike Hoban

One of the driving forces behind the 1960s counterculture movement was the realization that the metrics used to measure success in American life were fundamentally flawed – that the American Dream was, for many, bullshit. Expecting to be rewarded for loyalty to a company, believing that money could buy happiness, trusting that fidelity and mutual respect were inherent in a marriage, and buying into the myth that America was the moral compass for the world were all wonderful ideals, but ones that often failed to meet the unforgiving test of reality. There are few works that better exemplify that school of thought than Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, now being given a darkly brilliant staging by the Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet.

Short Take: A Sumptuous and Satisfying ‘Evita’ At Reagle Music Theatre

July 16, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Isabella Bria Lopez, Ryan Mardesich in Reagle Music Theatre’s ‘Evita’

‘Evita’ – Lyrics by Tim Rice. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Directed and Choreographed by Rachel Bertone. Music Direction by Dan Rodriguez. Scenic Design by Cameron McEachern. Lighting and Production Design by Baron Pugh. Costume and Wig Design by Ellie De Lucia. Sound Design by Sebastian Nixon. Presented by Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston at the Robinson Theater, 617 Lexington St., Waltham, through July 20th.

By Linda Chin

The Tony Award-winning musical/rock opera Evita by rock stars Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice tells the inspiring story of Eva Perón, née Maria Eva Duarte, who escaped her poverty-stricken rural village (where she wasn’t educated past grade six) at age 15, moved to Buenos Aires to pursue a career as an actress, and became First Lady of Argentina at age 27. With dynamic duo Rachel Bertone (Director & Choreographer) and Dan Rodriguez (Music Director) at the helm, a period and picture-perfect unit set designed by Cameron McEachern (and evocative lighting design by Baron Pugh), and the powerful voice of Isabella Bria Lopez in the titular role, audiences attending Evita at Reagle Music Theater can expect a sumptuous and satisfying experience.

Arlekin Players ‘Our Class’ Exposes the Danger of Erasing the Past and Repressing the Truth

June 19, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of Arlekin Players’ ‘Our Class’. Photos by Irina Danilova

Arlekin Players presents Our Class. Written by Tadeusz Slobodzianek. Adapted by Norman Allen. Directed by Igor Golyak. Scenic Design by Jan Pappelbaum. Costume Design by Sasha Ageeva. Lighting Design by Jeff Adelberg. Sound Design by Ben Williams. Projection and Video Design by Eric Dunlap, Igor Golyak with Andrea Mincic. Choreography by Or Schraiber. At Boston Center for the Arts, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through June 22nd.

By Linda Chin

With four 2024 Lucille Lortel Awards (Outstanding Revival, Director, Ensemble, Scenic Design) for its Off-Broadway premiere of Our Class in hand, Arlekin Players’ artistic director, Igor Golyak and producing director Sara Stackhouse have brought their production home to Greater Boston for audiences to “enjoy”. The play’s limited run at the BCA during June – Immigration Heritage Month – is timely given the 15-year-old Needham-based company’s history as an ensemble of immigrants from countries in the former Soviet Union. Written by Tadeusz Slobodzianek and adapted by Norman Allen, Our Class follows the stories of ten Polish classmates, half Jewish and half Catholic, who lived together in the small village of Jedwabne across eight decades of the 20th century.

‘Beautiful’ at Reagle – Still Queen of the Jukebox Musicals

June 17, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ at Reagle Music Theatre

‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ – Book by Douglas McGrath. Words and Music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. Directed and Choreographed by Deanna Dys; Music Director and Conductor Mindy Cimini; Scenic Design by Derek McLane; Costume Design by Alejo Vietti; Lighting Design by Franklin Meissner, Jr.; Sound Design by Sebastian Nixon; Costume Coordinator by Ellie De Lucia. Presented by Reagle Music Theatre at 617 Lexington St., Waltham through June 22^nd.

By Mike Hoban

There’s a reason that Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is such a popular choice for regional theaters: With a score that ranks with any Gershwin or Cole Porter collection of songs within a Broadway show, it’s nearly impossible to top musically. King launched her career as a singer in 1971 with her breakthrough album, Tapestry (with hits “So Far Away,” “It’s Too Late”, “I Feel the Earth Move,” and a ton more), which is impressive enough, but Beautiful begins with her career as a teenaged songwriter, and the hits she penned with then-husband Gerry Goffin could easily fill a 1960’s jukebox by themselves. But it’s not just the music. What elevates Beautiful above most “jukebox” musicals is that the book has actual depth, even if some of the story elements are fictionalized.

At the Cape Playhouse, the Sounds of Rock ‘n’ Roll, ‘Buddy’ and Crickets Mark the Start of Summer

June 12, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

The cast of ‘Buddy’ at The Cape Cod Playhouse. Photos by Nile Scott Studios.

The Cape Playhouse presents ‘Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story’. Written by Alan Janes. Direction by Meredith McDonough. Music Direction by Matt Cusack. Choreography by Felicity Stiverson. Sets by Lex Liang. Costumes by Kathleen Geldard. Lights by Kat C. Zhou. Sound by Jeff Sherwood. At the Cape Playhouse, 820 Main Street, Route 6A, Dennis, MA, through June 21.

By Linda Chin

Each summer, thousands of theatergoers who flock to the Cape Playhouse, a converted 1790 meeting house in Dennis, MA, set on twenty-six peaceful and pristine acres off Route 6A, are transported to a simpler time and treated to a professional production amidst a beautiful backdrop of history and nature. With the musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story as the Playhouse’s 2025 season opener, patrons should anticipate being transported to the years 1956 to 1959 and educated about aspects of musical legend Buddy Holly’s life and career, bearing witness to rock ‘n’ roll history in the making and treated to the sounds of “chirping” Crickets performing over 20 of Holly’s hits.

Ogunquit Playhouse’s Exuberant ‘Come From Away’ Epitomizes the Phrase “It Takes a Village”

May 21, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Cast of ‘Come From Away’ at Ogunquit Playhouse

Come From Away. Book, music, and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Directed and choreographed by Richard J. Hinds. Music Direction by Sam Groisser. Scenic Design by Nate Bertone. Lighting Design by Richard Latta. Costume Design by Michelle J. Li. Sound Design by Kevin Heard. Wig/Hair & Make-Up Design by Emilia Martin. Presented by Ogunquit Playhouse, Maine, through June 14, 2025.

By Linda Chin

The award-winning musical Come From Away tells the remarkable true story of the tiny town of Gander (population 9,000) in Newfoundland, Canada – approximately 1,500 miles from NYC – that garnered global attention nearly 25 years ago. In 2001, the isolated community played host to nearly 7000 ‘come from aways’ (what Newfoundlanders called non-locals) on 38 international flights that were diverted there when the skies over the United States were shut down on September 11.