This has been a bit of a rough repertory period for the Canadian Opera Company- the full-length Offenbach they presented earlier this month was obnoxiously long and unforgivably dull and their double feature of Zemlinksy & Puccini one-acts contains one dreary dud and one brilliant success (the Puccini, predictably). With only 52 minutes of greatness […]
Rick Miller’s wackado Macbeth retelling, currently masquerading as a fourth Shakespeare production at the Stratford Festival, uses a comprehensive cast of voices from one of TV’s most successful crazy experiments, The Simpsons. When this silly one act was appearing at fringe and comedy festivals, or when it played at The Factory Theatre last September, it […]
My friends always laugh at me when I tell them Bring it On is about race relations. Because, you know, it’s about cheerleaders. But it actually IS about race relations. That iconic 2000 film was a quotable, hilarious, rip-roaring exploration of urban race relations, gender roles and outsider assimilation conflict. It Was! Screenwriters of massive […]
Every now and then, I like to see theatre that will amuse me. Pure and simple. Bad Habit Productions, a My Theatre Award winning Boston company, delivers solid production after production. Their latest show is an original adaptation of one of the Bard’s finest comedies. Their William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing . . . […]
Song cycles are tough. With isolated songs and vignettes, the audience glimpses briefly into the lives of the people in Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World. These people are faced with that moment of decision-making, where they stand on the brink of choice and change. I find the concept really electric and intriguing. […]
Timing is everything. The Boston University College of Fine Arts showcased some astounding talent in their recent production of Assassins by musical genius Stephen Sondheim. Concluding their year-long “Keyword: Violence” festival, the CFA program explores America’s famous (and not so famous) assassins through their stories and motives, but, more importantly, the show offers a compelling […]
Michel Tremblay has mommy issues. The more of his work that I see, the more I recognize the loving but fraught tension that drives young writers to write about their mothers. In the beautiful, hopeful and inventive For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, Tremblay recreates his mother in exuberant, true, and positive detail. In […]
If you were to do a search of the most commonly used phrases on this website, one of the top hits would undoubtedly be “mixed bag”. I use the term constantly, mostly because I insist that a review include at least one criticism and one compliment for every production. But, really, most things lean to […]