‘Dial M For Murder’ a Worthy Addition to GBSC’s Murder Mystery Canon

May 15, 2024May 15, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Lily Kaufman, Robert Murphy, Kimberlee Connor and Michael Ryan Buckley in Greater Boston Stage’s “Dial M for Murder.” Photos: Maggie Hall Photography

‘Dial M For Murder’ – Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the original play by Frederick Knott; Directed By Weylin Symes; Lighting Design by Jeff Adelberg; Scenic Design by Katy Monthei; Costume Design byDeirdre Gerrard; Sound Design by Andrew Duncan Will. Presented by the Greater Boston Stage Company at 395 Main St, Stoneham, through May 19

by Mike Hoban

The Greater Boston Stage Company has long been a go-to venue for musicals, including classics like 42^nd Street, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and last year’s Eliot Norton Award winner, Ain’t Misbehavin’, with fan favorite Guys and Dolls set to go up in June. In recent years, though, they’ve delved into another niche genre: murder mysteries, including a pair of Miss Holmes productions (starring Marge Dunn as a kind of neurodivergent Sherlock Holmes) as well as a riotous version of The 39 Steps in 2021 (although it was far more comedic than mystery) and Clue, another murder mystery comedy.

Apollinaire Theatre Company’s ‘Touching the Void’ Reaches for the Moon

May 9, 2024May 10, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Cast of Apollinaire Theatre Company’s ‘Touching the Void’

‘Touching the Void’ — Based on the book by Joe Simpson. Adapted by David Greig. Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques. Scenic and Sound Design by Joseph Lark-Riley; Lighting Design by Danielle Fauteux Jacques; Movement Choreography by Audrey Johnson. Presented by Apollinaire Theatre Company at Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea, through May 19.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Touching the Void is special on so many levels. Presented in the intimate Chelsea Theatre Works theater, director Danielle Fauteux Jacques has done a brilliant job of creating multiple settings (including the side of a mountain in the Peruvian Andes!) with minimal fuss and to maximum effect. The four actors (Patrick O’Konis as Joe, Kody Grassett as Simon, Zach Fuller as Richard, and Parker Jennings as Sarah) are equally stellar, and David Grieg’s script is meaty and engaging.

Celebrity Series’ Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Celebrates Being Alive

May 5, 2024May 5, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Boch Center Wang Theatre
Photos by Paul Kolnik

Celebrity Series of Boston presents Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Matthew Rushing, Interim Artistic Director. At the Boch Center Wang Theatre May 2-5, 2024.

By Linda Chin

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a cultural treasure celebrated for its founder Alvin Ailey’s choreographic genius, his passion for having all people represented and included, and for giving new voices to new choreographers, marks its 65^th anniversary with a coast-to-coast tour in 2024. The Boston tour stop’s five-show run at the Boch Center Wang Theatre includes two premieres and a rare revival, and each performance closes with Ailey’s signature piece ‘Revelations.’ The repertory reflects dance diversity and showcases the dancers’ impeccable technique and ability to masterfully move from one dance genre to another.

A Spectacular & Spellbinding ‘A Strange Loop’ by SpeakEasy & Front Porch

May 5, 2024May 5, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Kai Clifton (center) and cast of ‘*A Strange Loop’* in Speakeasy/Front Porch production

SpeakEasy Stage Company & Front Porch Arts Collective present ‘A Strange Loop’. Book, Music and Lyrics by Michael R. Jackson. Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent. Music Direction by David Freeman Coleman. Choreographed by Taavon Gamble. Intimacy Direction by Greg Geffrard. Scenic Design by Jon Savage. Costume Design by Becca Jewett. Lighting Design by Brian J. Lilienthal. Sound Design by David Remedios. At the Wimberly Theater at the Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Street, through May 25th.

By Linda Chin

As if the powerfully personal storytelling and rapturous standing ovation weren’t emotionally overwhelming enough, being part of the moment when director Maurice Emmanuel Parent shared the news that a special guest was in the house – and A Strange Loop’s creator Michael R. Jackson strolled onstage – made my head spin. Watching the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright praise the production and being so genuinely gracious to the cast, creatives, co-producers, crew, everyone – including the opening night crowds who supported the show’s Boston premiere – gave me goosebumps.

Rejoice! Alvin Ailey Is Back in Town!!!

May 5, 2024May 5, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston. At Boch Center Wang Theatre through May 5.

By Shelley A. Sackett

There is always a special buzz in the air before the curtain rises on an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performance, but at Saturday’s matinee, the packed house was positively gaga with anticipation. They were not disappointed. For over two hours, the company thrilled its audience, leaving it enraptured and standing in a deafening ovation.

Umbrella Stage’s ‘The Full Monty’ Delivers the Full Package

May 1, 2024May 1, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Cast of the Umbrella Stage Company’s ‘The Full Monty’ Photo Credits: Jim Sabitus

The Umbrella Stage Company presents THE FULL MONTY. Book by Terrence McNally. Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek. Leigh Barrett, Director. Luke Molloy, Music Director. Najee Brown, Choreographer. Jenna McFarland Lord, Scenic Designer. PJ Strachman, Lighting Designer. Rebecca Glick, Costume Designer. James Cannon, Sound Designer. Gabrielle Hatcher, Properties & Set Dressing. Kat Shanahan, Assistant Director/Wig Designer. At The Umbrella Center for the Arts, Concord, through May 19, 2024.

By Linda Chin

Five pre–pandemic years ago, The Umbrella Stage Company opened its first season in a new state–of–the–art facility – and as Greater Boston’s newest professional theater – with the uplifting classic musical 42^nd Street, featuring iconic songs like “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” and iconic actors like Aimee Doherty (as starlet Dorothy Brock) making their Umbrella debuts. Fast forward to the Company’s 2023–24 season closer, The Full Monty, a musical set in a Buffalo that’s not a desirable honeymoon destination but instead is economically depressed. Best buds Jerry Lukowski (Michael Levesque) and Dave Bukatinsky (Tim Lawton) are unemployed steelworkers who are desperate to pay their mortgages, provide for their families, and regain their pride. To do so, they decide to form a troupe of six male strippers called “Hot Metal.” The Full Monty puts several of Boston’s favorite actors in the spotlight, including Doherty (donning her dancing shoes as Vicki Nichols), Will McGarrahan (as her husband turned hot rod Harold Nichols), and Shonna McEachern (as Joanie Lish). Rounding out the sextet of strippers are John Breen (Malcolm), Joshua Wolf Coleman (Horse), and Jacob Thomas Less (Ethan). Coleman, Lawton, Less, McGarrahan, and McEachern are making their debuts at Umbrella, as is Norton & IRNE award–winning theater artist Leigh Barrett, who directs.

“Strange Loop” Dazzlingly Bucks and Challenges Norms

May 1, 2024May 5, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

‘A Strange Loop’ — Book, Music and Lyrics by Michael R. Jackson. Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent. Music Direction by David Freeman Coleman. Choreographed by Taavon Gamble. Co-produced by SpeakEasy Stage and Front Porch Arts Collective at the Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Street, through May 25.

By Helen Ganley

Some days, escaping from your inner monologue feels impossible: apprehensions about upcoming appointments, embarrassment about a middle school memory, and tension about why a friend suddenly stopped speaking to you. Suddenly, it’s 3 AM, and you haven’t gotten a wink of sleep. The collaboration between Speakeasy Stage and Front Porch Arts Collective on A Strange Loop epitomizes this cognitive dissonance and the paths one must take to escape the labyrinths of one’s mind.

Moonbox’ “The Mermaid Hour” is an Emotional Roller Coaster

April 29, 2024May 1, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Monica Risi, Phil Tayler, Brenny O’Brien in Moonbox Productions’ ‘Mermaid Hour’
Photo Credits: Molly Shoemaker

By Michele Markarian

“The Mermaid Hour” by David Valdes. Directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary. Presented by Moonbox Productions, One Arrow Street, Cambridge, through May 19.

There’s a lot to unpack in David Valdes’s The Mermaid Hour, which deals with a trans child, her parents, her peers, and their parents, as well as marriage, the internet, and childrearing in general. If you happen to be a parent witnessing this production, it’s a pretty rocky ride indeed.

The Wheels Go ‘Round and ‘Round and ‘Round in SpeakEasy Stage/Front Porch’s ‘A Strange Loop.’

April 29, 2024May 10, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Kai Clifton (center) and the company of A STRANGE LOOP at Speakeasy Stage. From left: De’Lon Grant, Davron S. Monroe, Jonathan Melo, Aaron Michael Ray (background), Grant Evan, and Zion Middleton (kneeling). photos by Maggie Hall Photography.

By Shelley A. Sackett

Playwright Michael R. Jackson, a heavy-set Black queer man, has brought the concept of sharing to a new level in his Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical, “A Strange Loop.” The compulsively introspective show, which runs at 100 intermission-less minutes, spelunks into the deepest crevices of the anguished mind of its hero, Usher, a fat, Black, queer man writing a musical called “A Strange Loop” about a fat, Black queer man who’s writing a musical about a fat Black queer man.

Myth meets Modernity in the Boston Return of ‘Hadestown’

April 26, 2024April 26, 2024 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Matthew Patrick Quinn and Amaya Braganza in ‘Hadestown’ atthe Boch Wang Center.
Photo by T. Charles Erickson

‘Hadestown’ – Music, Lyrics & Book by Anaïs Mitchell. Developed with & Directed by Rachel Chavkin. Music Supervisor & Vocal Arrangements by Liam Robinson. Choreographed by David Neumann. At the Boch Wang Center through April 28

By Helen Ganley

The train releases belts of smoke, picking up passengers as it flies down the track toward Hadestown. Members of the Greek pantheon stand statuesque, chiseled into the set as the audience is warned: “It’s a sad tale. It’s a tragedy.” The tour of “Hadestown” at the Boch Center Wang Theatre weaves this epic saga with threads of hope and harmony.