Director Richard LaGravenese did right by Jason Robert Brown and his off-Broadway masterpiece The Last Five Years. From casting to small script additions to keeping Hollywood out of it and presenting the original songs and structure fully in tact, LaGravenese made a lot of smart calls that make The Last Five Years a beautiful film. […]
Recently, I had occasion to see the pre-Broadway production of Bill Condon’s new revival of Side Show the Musical at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. With the recent announcement that it will be officially transferring to the St. James this fall, I thought it might be a good time to share a few thoughts […]
To this point, I have successfully avoided all local production of Les Mis. When the right to perform the mega-hit musical became available last summer, some ten producing organizations within 20 miles of Boston snatched them up for the 2013-2014 season, and despite my distaste for this choice as a producer and local artist, Company […]
Carrie: The Musical has an awful book; there, I said it. Lawrence D. Cohen took every piece of camp from Stephen King’s popular novel, and removed almost all of the humanity from the characters to create a one-note musical of epic proportions. The SpeakEasy Stage Company attempts to amend this broken musical, but, under the […]
This was an interesting Stratford season because, overall, it felt like one of the weakest in awhile (three dull Shakespeare productions, a dud musical and a handful of uninspiring plays- something went seriously wrong this year). But it also contained my favourite production to come out of the festival since 2011 (Chris Abraham’s joy of […]
The American Repertory Theatre has introduced their next Boston-to-Broadway commercial hit, Finding Neverland. Following the life and work of J. M. Barrie, playwright and author of Peter Pan, the musical is an emotional voyage of soaring highs and valley lows; bring the whole family, but also bring the tissues. Despite the artistic success of the […]
Kiss Me, Kate is a tough piece. It requires actors not only to pull off Shakespearean text, but also to dance with expert skill and stretch their range with Cole Porter’s operatic score. It’s not beginner’s musical theatre. Therefore, The Longwood Players’ choice to present this classic is a bold choice. While Director Anna Waldron […]
Bill Hanney’s North Shore Music Theatre is known in the Greater Boston area for bringing professional and Broadway-quality work to the North Shore of Boston during the lazy summer months and into the fall season. Moreover, they impress with their ability to stage full musical productions in the round, especially New England premieres. Disney’s The […]