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

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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 5th.

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 19th 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.

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Huntington’s “Fat Ham” Is A Raucous and Resonant Reinvention of Shakespeare’s Masterpiece, “Hamlet”

Shelley Sackett2 Comments
Cast of ‘Fat Ham’ The Huntington Theatre. Photos by T Charles Erickson

‘Fat Ham’ — Written by James Ijames. Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb, Scenic Design by Luciana Stecconni, Costume Design by Celeste Jennings, Sound Design by Aubrey Dube, Lighting Design by Xiangfu Xiao. Presented by The Huntington Theatre in association with Alliance Theatre and Front Porch Arts Collective at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont St., through Sunday, October 29, 2023.

By Shelley A. Sackett

“Fat Ham,” winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize Award for best drama, is much more than a modern-day riff on “Hamlet,” one of Shakepeare’s most quoted, performed and adapted plays. Using the bones of the Bard’s tragedy as a structural anchor, the exceptionally talented playwright, James Ijames, has fleshed it out with analogous characters whose feet are firmly planted in the here and now and whose modern-day nightmares and dreams reflect both the mundane and the existential.

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Short Take: A Sweet Treat at Ogunquit: ‘Tootsie’ Rolls with Laughter

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Music & Lyrics by David Yazbeck. Book by Robert Horn. Directed by Larry Raben. Choreography by Jennifer Rias. Music Direction by Andrew David Sotomayor. Scenic Design by Christine Peters. Lighting Design by Richard Latta. Costume Design by William Ivery Long. Sound Design by Kevin Heard. Wig Design by Roxanne De Luna. At Ogunquit Playhouse, 10 Main Street, Ogunquit, ME through October 29, 2023.

by Linda Chin

The Tony Award-winning musical comedy Tootsie, now enjoying its regional premiere at the Ogunquit Playhouse, is an adaptation of the now 40-year-old movie starring Dustin Hoffman in a red wig, glasses, and the now iconic gown with red sequins. Tootsie is Michael Dorsey, a talented 40-year-old actor who’s talented and deeply committed to his craft but whose arrogance and know-it-all attitude have alienated producers, directors, and colleagues alike. Desperate to work, Dorsey disguises himself as a woman, adopts a female persona, names himself Dorothy Michaels, and lands a role in a soap opera. The star-studded cast of characters – including Dorsey’s agent George (Sydney Pollack), friend/ex-girlfriend Sandy (Teri Garr), and television co-star Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange) – are not made aware of this charade; the only person he confides in is his deadpanning roommate, Jeff Slater, played in the movie by Bill Murray.

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At North Shore Music Theatre, A Rousing Production of ‘The Full Monty’

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Cast of “The Full Monty” at North Shore Music Theatre. Photo © Paul Lyden

Book by Terrence McNally. Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek. Gerry McIntyre, Director and Choreography, Milton Granger, Music Director. Kyle Dixon, Scenic Design. Kelly Baker, Costume Coordination. Travis McHale, Lighting Design. Alex Berg, Sound Design. Rachel Padula-Shufelt, Wig & Hair Design. At NSMT, Beverly, MA through October 8, 2023.

By Linda Chin

Hats off – literally – to North Shore Music Theatre, for putting on a rousing, crowd-pleasing production of The Full Monty and the sizzling ‘Hot Metal’ steel-workers-turned-strippers and for pulling off the fabulous final scene with total finesse. Donning full police uniforms over sparkly red thongs, the sextet executed energetic choreography (inspired by Michael Jordan’s smooth basketball moves) and did a full Monty, stripping naked from head to toe, their officer caps covering their cajónes. David Yazbek’s (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) rock-pop score bursts with sass and sentimentality, and his lyrics are expository and clever – deserving of extra credit for a rhyming bonus with cajónes. Terrence McNally’s (Ragtime) fleshed-out book and strong character development also make The Full Monty an atypical musical.

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SpeakEasy’s “POTUS” Soothes Our Distressed Political Souls With the Balm of Humor

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Cast of SpeakEasy Stage’s production of “POTUS” (Courtesy Nile Scott Studios)

“POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” by Selina Fillinger. Directed by Paula Plum. Scenic Design by Jenna McFarland Lord. Sound Design by Aubrey Dube. Lighting Design by Karen Perlow. Costume Design by Rebecca Glick. Fight Choreography by Angie Jepson. Presented by Speakeasy Stage at the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston, through October 15.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Hands down, “POTUS” takes the prize for the most winning opening scene currently on stage in Boston. It is shriek-out-loud funny, clever, pithy, lightning-paced, and uncompromisingly no-nonsense.

The setting is The White House, not exactly the Trump administration, but also not exactly not the Trump administration. Two pantsuit-clad women are in mid-conversation when the audience joins them.

Chief of Staff Harriet (Lisa Yuen) is filling in Press Secretary Jean (Laura Latreille) on the morning’s diplomatic meeting and on what POTUS did that she, as press liaison, will have to spin at the press briefing that is about to start.

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Part II of “Angels in America” Makes Eagerly Awaited Return to Central Square

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Eddie Shields and Helen Hy-Yuen Swanson in “Angels in America: Perestroika” at the Central Square Theater. Photo: Nile Scott Studios.

“Angels in America: Perestroika” by Tony Kushner. Directed by Eric Tucker. Presented by Central Square Theater and Bedlam at 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, through October 8.

by Michele Markarian

“Perestroika,” now playing at the Central Square Theater, picks up where “Angels in America; Part One” leaves off. It’s 1985, and the world’s oldest Bolshevik (Debra Wise) is addressing a crowd in Moscow. “Show me the words that will reorder the future, or else keep silent,” he intones, as the future of the Soviet Union and Communism are on the wane. This sets the tone for the rest of the four-hour play, which wrestles with prophesies, change, and a reordering of a wrecked present that the Angel (Helen Hy-Yuen Swanson) insists should remain static, as it is the motion and mingling of human beings that have turned God away from the Angels. 

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Speakeasy’s POTUS: A Farce to Be Reckoned With

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Catia, Marianna Bassham, and Johanna Carlisle-Zepeda SpeakEasy Stage’s production of “POTUS” (Courtesy Nile Scott Studios)

“POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” by Selina Fillinger. Directed by Paula Plum. Scenic Design by Jenna McFarland Lord. Sound Design by Aubrey Dube. Lighting Design by Karen Perlow. Costume Design by Rebecca Glick. Fight Choreography by Angie Jepson. Presented by Speakeasy Stage at the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston, through October 15

By Linda Chin

U.S. presidents are the central figures of two productions running concurrently in Boston theatres this fall – Lyric’s Assassins, a musical about seven men and two women trying to kill the president by the legendary Stephen Sondheim, and Speakeasy’s POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, an uproariously funny ‘straight’ play that marked playwright Selina Fillinger’s recent Broadway debut. Fillinger’s commander-in-chief is not named or seen on stage; the play puts seven women who are typically behind the scenes front and center. Individually, the chief of staff, first lady, lover, press secretary, secretary, sister, and a White House reporter are forces of nature; banded together, they make POTUS a farce to be reckoned with.

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Short Takes: Lyric Stage’s ‘Assassins’ Hits the Mark      

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Cast of “Assassins” at Lyric Stage Company. Photos by Mark S. Howard

‘Assassins’ – Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman. Courtney O’Connor (Director). Dan Rodriguez (Music Director). Ilyse Robbins (Select Choreography). Baron E. Pugh (Scenic and Lighting Design). Rachel Paula-Shufelt (Costume Design). Alex Berg (Sound Design). At Lyric Stage, Clarendon Street, Boston, through October 15, 2023.

by Linda Chin

Like the late composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, Lyric Stage has not shied away from exploring challenging themes or dark material. But opening a theatre season in the angry aftermath of a post-Trump America with one of Sondheim’s less familiar works – about violent attacks on U.S. presidents, no less – is a risky proposition. Assassins takes us into the minds of nine men and women who gained notoriety through our nation’s history because they killed (or failed to, but gave it a good shot) former Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, Roosevelt, McKinley, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Kennedy). Not exactly uplifting fare, but in the capable hands of director Courtney O’Connor, music director/conductor Dan Rodriguez and his four-piece orchestra, and 15 outstanding actors, audiences can expect a thoroughly engrossing and entertaining theater experience.

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“Prayer for the French Republic” Tackles Existential Issues with Humor, Grit and Gravitas

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Cast of The Huntington’s ‘Prayer for the French Republic’.  Photo by Nile Hawver.

‘Prayer for the French Republic’ – Written by Joshua Harmon. Directed by Loretta Greco. Scenic Design by Andrew Boyce. Costume Design by Alex Jaeger. Lighting Design by Christopher Akerlind. Sound Design and Composition by Fan Zhang. Presented by Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., through October 8.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Playwright Joshua Harmon has a gift for tackling important, profoundly challenging and topical subjects and, through sheer brilliance of characters and dialogue, creating intimate and accessible theater that both rivets his audience and leaves them in a standing ovation of thunderous applause.

He did it with “Bad Jews,” “Admissions,” and “Significant Other,” which Boston theatergoers had the good fortune to see at SpeakEasy Stage Company. Thanks to the Huntington Theatre’s season opener, the 2022 Drama Desk Outstanding Play Award-winning “A Prayer for the French Republic,” they have the opportunity to experience this supremely talented writer’s latest and most ambitious project.

And experience it they should.

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Speakeasy’s ‘POTUS’ Mines Chaos, Laughs in the Oval Office

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Cast of SpeakEasy Stage’s production of “POTUS.” (Courtesy Nile Scott Studios)

“POTUS; Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” – Written by Selina Fillinger. Directed by Paula Plum. Scenic Design by Jenna McFarland Lord; Sound Design by Audrey Dube; Lighting Design by Karen Perlow; Costume Design by Rebecca Glick; Fight Choreography by Angie Jepson. Presented by Speakeasy Stage Company at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston, through October 15

by Mike Hoban

There’s a lot to like about POTUS, the opening production for Speakeasy Stage’s 2023-2024 season. Featuring not only an all-female cast but an all-female production team, this lightning-paced farce sends up the absurdity of a crew of over-qualified, under-appreciated women propping up a misogynistic boob as he bumbles his way through his leadership role. Only in this case, it’s not an American corporation or institution; it’s the most pressure-packed job on the planet – the U.S. presidency.

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