February is a month of love, and I intend to show lots of love for Boston theatre. In an odd sense, all of these productions have something to do with love and loss. From the coldness of Russia to the warm (but cold-hearted) movie theater, these stories of what it means to love and lose […]
SpeakEasy Stage Company presents a moving and thoroughly enjoyable, even grandiose but always heartfelt, production of The Color Purple. Based on the novel by Alice Walker and the hit movie, the musical is an immersive tale of Celie, an “ugly” African-American woman who has enough heartache and troubles for us all, as she journeys from […]
Those people who know me as a theatre reviewer know that I have a list. This list includes some of my favourite theatre artists (directors, actors, designers), but they also include my list of “If I only had enough time to see their work” artists. Luckily, I had time to review not one but two […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2013 Boston My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. NOTE: If you were nominated for a 2013 Boston My Theatre Award, and you would like to participate in our Nominee Interview Series, please email Brian at brian@myentertainmentworld.ca. Boston performer and teacher Olivia D’Ambrosio […]
I have wanted to see a performance of Tribes since I missed Speakeasy Stage Company’s production earlier this season. It fetched some stellar reviews for the way that they presented incredibly challenging material. Unfortunately, Epic Theater Company’s production at the Artist’s Exchange in Cranston, Rhode Island didn’t rise to that challenge. Nina Raine’s script focuses […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2013 Boston My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. NOTE: If you were nominated for a 2013 Boston My Theatre Award, and you would like to participate in our Nominee Interview Series, please email Brian at brian@myentertainmentworld.ca. Two-time My Theatre Award nominee Jared […]
Next to Normal presents a topical depiction of living with and loving someone who has a mental illness. Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt were almost ahead of their time, especially since many recent shootings have rocked communities out of their complacency regarding mental illness and what it means to be alive. Next Door Center for […]
Venus in fur. Ven-us in fur. These words are purred by our gorgeous leading lady, Vanda, played by the seductive and mysterious Andrea Syglowski, with growing anticipation. Syglowski expertly casts a spell over Chris Kipiniak’s stuffy Thomas and audience alike during a spell-binding performance of David Ives’ Venus in Fur. David Ives, known for his […]
Once upon a time, Brian went to see a fringe theatre production on a rainy Saturday; he was tired and grumpy. He was four shows into a long stretch of reviewing, and he just wanted to sleep. However, Imaginary beasts delights, surprises, and thrills with their 2014 Annual Winter Panto, Rumplestiltskin, or All That Glitters. […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2013 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. NOTE: If you were nominated for a 2013 Boston My Theatre Award, and you would like to participate in our Nominee Interview Series, please email Brian at brian@myentertainmentworld.ca. Boston choreographer, director, and triple-threat performer Ilyse Robbins was […]
The Lyric Stage Company’s production of Working did not make my “Must See – January.” That was my mistake. I omitted it from the list because: a) none of the actors jumped out at me by name (though Ilyse Robbins, the director, certainly did – See 2013 My Theatre Award Nominees: Boston); b) the musical […]
Welcome to Boston’s 2013 My Theatre Awards. This year, for the first time, we offer Boston-exclusive categories to honor our Boston My Theatre favorites. In 2013, we were pleased to review close to forty productions, and, because of the dedication of our readers and the companies who give us such interesting work to review, we […]
I was pleasantly surprised to find a new Shakespeare play to enjoy on a chilly December night. Actors’ Shakespeare Project tackles the rarely-produced Henry VIII by the famous bard. This play is one of his later plays but without much of the memorable depth of King Lear or Winter’s Tale. In fact, I was surprised […]
A chilly month awaits us for January. Honestly, there’s not much on my list for this month, but I think many theatres needed the break for the holiday and we will see a surge of productions for February and March. That said, we have some real gems for which I expect record-breaking attendance. From a […]
Happy Holidays to all. We have had a wonderful year at My Entertainment World, and the My Theatre Boston Division is thriving. We are so fortunate to have reviewed some wonderful works this year, and we look forward to many others in 2014. Stay tuned for our My Theatre Awards; this year, for the time […]
I believe that one point of theatre is to recognize the power of discussion and the poignancy of learning from watching others. Such discourse allows communities to react with knowledge, motivation, and purpose. To that end, Zeitgeist Stage Company performed a smart and heart-wrenching production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. Helmed by veteran director […]
A. R. Gurney’s The Cocktail Hour is a witty, boozy comedy that shines a light on the many flaws and subtle delights of one WASP-y household in Buffalo during the 1970s. This autobiographical play centers on John (James Waterston), a repressed, neurotic publisher moonlighting as a playwright. John visits his parents in their twilight years […]
So, I missed November. We had some amazing works hit our Boston and Greater Boston stages. I apologize for missing so many of them, and I heard wonderful things, especially from Concord Players’ Les Miserables, Speakeasy Stage Company’s Kurt Vonnegut’s Make Up Your Mind (A World Premiere), and the Huntington Theatre Company’s limited engagement The […]
As America’s economy begins to slowly emerge from a painful recession, who isn’t in the mood for some lighthearted musical numbers about sailing into administrative success on waves of charisma, luck, and savvy fix-the-system know-how? Boston University on Broadway (BU on Broadway) provided some musical fun with their November production of How to Succeed in […]
It may be widely known that I don’t like original shows. I feel they’re often underrehearsed, poorly cast, and underrealized. That includes a script for which the playwright needs a few more rewrites. However, I was blown away by the Boston Playwright Theatre’s production of “Burning” by Ginger Lazarus. I can’t quite understand why everything […]
Simple Machine’s production of The Turn of the Screw, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the ghostly tale by Henry James and directed by M. Bevin O’Gara, is very well-acted and very well-executed. The perk of a play like Screw is that everything hinges on only two actors. The dreadful risk of such a play is […]
As previously mentioned, Lyric Stage Company of Boston assembled one of the best seasons in Boston this year. For their fortieth year, Lyric Stage Company pulled out the big guns with silly and smart farces to beautiful and serene dramas to insightful and challenging musicals. For their second production of the season, Lyric Stage Company […]
I have strong feelings about Romeo and Juliet. There, I said it before and I’ll say it again. I always wait with baited breath during the Prologue to see how this new production will interpret this timeless classic. Sometimes, I leave merely disappointed; other times, I leave damned confused. Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production leaned towards […]
“How will they stage a radio play?” I had no doubts that a creative theater company could very well stage a radio play, especially if the play in question was written by Angela Carter, the late British woman-of-many-letters, a novelist/journalist/dramatist/critic known for drinking deeply from the Gothic and the fantastic in literature, and infusing much […]
The performance time listed on the company’s web page was the first detail to catch my eye. I have not seen many small theatre performances that list their end time along with their start time, much less list it accurately. But there it was: Saturday September 28th, 2013, 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM. This was […]
We’re in October, and while our list is relatively short, we have some gems on our calendar. We’re noticing a lack of fringe theatre; are we just ignorantly unaware of the masterpiece works in our greater Boston community or does Boston lack quality fringe theatre? Email me press releases! Email me links of new, emerging […]