Merrimack Rep’s ‘Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill’ is a Testament to the Power of Music and Resilience

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

Jenece Upton in Merrimack Rep’s ‘Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill’

‘Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill’ by Lanie Robertson. Directed by Candice Handy. Music Direction by David Freeman Coleman. Scenic Design by Tony Hardin. Costume Design by Yao Chen. Lighting Design by Brian Lillienthal. Sound Design by David Remedios. At Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lowell, Massachusetts, through February 23, 2025.

By Linda Chin

Merrimack Repertory Theatre’s mesmerizing revival of Lady Day (last produced in 1998 and “one of MRT audiences’ favorite plays of all time”) transports us back to 1959 to the fictional club in South Philly, where jazz legend Billie Holiday gave one of her last concerts about four months before her passing at 44 years young. Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill serves up slices of American music history peppered with pieces of Holiday’s personal history and blends in some lesser-known facts (e.g. the origin of the nickname “Lady Day” is attributed to prominent saxophonist Lester Young from Count Basie’s Orchestra). Audience members, young or old, and familiar with her music and life story (or not) will find this production (ninety minutes without intermission) entertaining, educational, and engaging.

ASP’s ‘The Piano Lesson’ is a Supernatural Theatrical Experience

January 30, 2025April 10, 2026 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Jade Guerra, “ranney”, Jonathan Kitt and Omar Robinson in Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production of August Wilson’s *The Piano Lesson*. Photos by Nile Scott Studios.

‘The Piano Lesson’ – Play by August Wilson. Directed by Christopher V. Edwards. Scenic Design by Jon Savage; Costume Design by Nia Safarr Banks; Lighting Design by Isaak Olson; Sound Design by James Cannon. Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project in partnership with Hibernian Hall. At Hibernian Hall, Boston, through Feb. 23.

By Mike Hoban

As the cold January winds send a chill through the streets of Boston and the change in the nation’s political climate sends shivers through the hearts of our most vulnerable, Actors Shakespeare Project has delivered a masterpiece of a production – just when we need it most. For the third straight year, ASP has staged a selection from August Wilson’s 10-play American Century Cycle about the Black experience in 20^th Century America, and while the previous offerings (Seven Guitars in 2023 and King Hedley II last year) were both on my (and most reviewers) annual ‘Best Of’ lists, ASPs The Piano Lesson catapults Wilson’s work into the stratosphere.

Lyric Stage’s ‘Crumbs from the Table of Joy’ Has A Tale to Tell

January 19, 2025April 10, 2026 Shelley SackettLeave a comment

Cast of Lyric Stage’s ‘*Crumbs From The Table Of Joy’.* Photos: Mark S. Howard
Thomika Marie Bridwell, Madison Margaret Clark, and Dominic Carter

‘Crumbs from The Table Of Joy.’ Written by Lynn Nottage. Directed by Tasia A. Jones. Sound Design by Aubrey Dube. Costume Design by Mikayla Reid. Scenic Design by Cristina Todesco. Lighting Design by Eduardo Ramirez. Produced by Lyric Stage at 140 Clarendon Street, 2nd Floor, Boston, through February 2nd.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Luck

Sometimes a crumb falls
From the tables of joy,
Sometimes a bone
Is flung.

To some people
Love is given,
To others
Only heaven.

— Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes, best known for his Harlem Renaissance Jazz Poetry, wrote “Luck” in 1947. The poem can be interpreted as a commentary on unfairness, deprivation, and the pursuit of love. It could also be read as a reminder of the injustices faced by Black Americans and other “have-nots’ who must bear witness to the overflowing bounty of the “haves” and hope they are in the right place at the right time to scoop up the discarded scraps.

Flight 1619 Finally Lifts Off in SpeakEasy/Front Porch’s Ambitious ‘Ain’t No Mo’

January 17, 2025April 10, 2026 Shelley SackettLeave a comment

Cast of SpeakEasy/Front Porch’s ‘Ain’t No Mo’ Photos: Nile Scott Studios
MaConnia Chesser, Kiera Prusmack, De’Lon Grant, Schanaya Barrows, and Dru Sky Berrian.

‘Ain’t No Mo’.’ Written by Jordan E. Cooper. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Co-produced by SpeakEasy Stage and Front Porch Arts Collective at the Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Street, through February 8.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo is a complicated, uneven, scathing, audacious, and hilarious rollercoaster ride of a play. It covers a lot of ground, and Cooper dips his pen into the inkwell of every genre known to playwrights: from satire, allegory, fiction, and parody to tragedy and Shakespeare-worthy soliloquy.

Lyric Stage’s ‘Crumbs From The Table Of Joy’ is a Feast Full of Hope

January 14, 2025April 10, 2026 Charlotte SnowLeave a comment

Cast of Lyric Stage’s ‘*Crumbs From The Table Of Joy’.* Photos: Mark S. Howard

‘Crumbs From The Table Of Joy’. Written by Lynn Nottage. Directed by Tasia A. Jones. Sound Design by Aubrey Dube. Costume Design by Mikayla Reid. Scenic Design by Cristina Todesco. Lighting Design by Eduardo Ramirez. Produced by Lyric Stage at 140 Clarendon Street, 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02116 runs from January 10th – February 2nd.

By Charlotte Snow

“It smooths my pain, and that’s all I want right now,” earnestly pleads Godfrey Crump (Dominic Carter), during a verbal altercation with his late wife’s sister. That aspiration of finding hope can be found in all five of the characters who populate Crumbs From The Table Of Joy, now playing at the Lyric Stage.

Huntington’s ‘Common Ground, Revisited’ Asks Us to Look Back In Order to Move Forward

June 13, 2022April 8, 2026 Julie-Anne WhitneyLeave a comment

The cast of *Common Ground Revisited* at The Huntington. Photos: T Charles Erickson

by Julie-Anne Whitney

Common Ground, Revisited – Co-conceived and adapted by Kirsten Greenidge; co-conceived and directed by Melia Bensussen; set design by Sara Brown; costume design by An-lin Dauber; lighting design by Brian J. Lilienthal; sound design by Pornchanok Kanchanabanca; projection design by Rasean Davonté Johnson; wig/hair and makeup design by J. Jared Janas; dramaturgy by Neema Avashia; stage-managed by Emily F. McMullen. Co-produced by The Huntington Theatre and ArtsEmerson at the Calderwood Pavilion/BCA through July 3, 2022.

Kirsten Greenidge’s new play, Common Ground, Revisited is inspired by and based in part on J. Anthony Lukas’1986 Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction book, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families. The primary focus of both texts is on class and racial tensions in Boston during the 1974 busing crisis when U.S. District Judge Arthur Garrity Jr. ordered nearly 20,000 Black and white students to be bused to/from the city’s geographically segregated public schools. The mandate led to years of violent protesting, significant demographic changes in the city and surrounding suburbs, and a dramatic decrease in enrollment in area schools that continues to this day. Fifty years after the 1972 Morgan v Hennigan case that led to Garrity’s ruling, Boston’s public schools are even more divided than they were back then with “two-thirds of BPS students attend[ing] intensely segregated schools where students of color make up 90% or more of the total enrollment.”

Huntington’s ‘Sweat’ – The Dark Side of American Dream

February 8, 2020April 8, 2026 Julie-Anne WhitneyLeave a comment

*Cast of the Huntington Theatre Company’s ‘Sweat’ – Photos: T. Charles Erickson*

By Julie-Anne Whitney

Sweat – Written by Lynn Nottage; Directed by Kimberly Senior; Scenic Design by Cameron Anderson; Costume Design by Junghyun Georgia Lee; Lighting Design by D.M. Wood; Original Music and Sound Design by Pornchanok Kanchanabanca; fight choreography by Ted Hewlett; stage managed by Emily F. McMullen. Produced by the Huntington Theatre Company at 264 Huntington Avenue through March 1, 2020.

In 2011, intrigued by the news that Reading, Pennsylvania (population 88,000) was named the poorest city per capita in America, playwright Lynn Nottage went to Berks County in search of a story. Throughout the next two years, she interviewed dozens of factory employees, business owners, social workers, members of law enforcement, and government officials. These interviews inspired Nottage to write her Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Sweat, which offers a transparent, unflinching view of what can happen to communities when powerful corporations prioritize profits over people.

GBSC’s Marie and Rosetta Shines light on Two Unsung (S)Heroes of American Music History

October 22, 2019April 8, 2026 Julie-Anne WhitneyLeave a comment

(Pier Lamia Porter as Marie and Lovely Hoffman as Sister Rosetta in Greater Boston Stage Company’s *‘Marie and Rosetta’*. Photos by Nile Scott Studios)

By Julie-Anne Whitney

‘Marie and Rosetta’ – Written by George Brant, Directed by Pascale Florestal; Music Direction by Erica Telisnor; Scenic Design by Baron E. Pugh; Lighting Design by Kathleen Zhou; Sound Design by John Stone; Costume Design by Michelle Villada. Co-Produced by Greater Boston Stage Company and The Front Porch Arts Collective at 395 Main Street Stoneham, MA through November 10, 2019.

In collaboration with The Front Porch Arts Collective, Greater Boston Stage Company (GBSC) continues their 20th Anniversary Season with the New England premiere of George Brant’s Marie and Rosetta. This 90-minute biographical play with music follows the revolutionary American gospel rock musician, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and her protégée, gospel singer Marie Knight, on the eve of their first rehearsal before embarking on a concert tour that would change their lives forever.