- theater critic
Louise Kennedy
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For Carrie Fisher, laughter is indeed the best medicine
It would be hugely entertaining, if more than a little lazy, to review Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking" simply by quoting one funny line after another. Fortunately for my professional self-esteem, however, I can't take the easy way out, because a lot of her funniest lines are simply not quotable in a family newspaper.
For Carrie Fisher, laughter is indeed the best medicine
It would be hugely entertaining, if more than a little lazy, to review Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking" simply by quoting one funny line after another. Fortunately for my professional self-esteem, however, I can't take the easy way out, because a lot of her funniest lines are simply not quotable in a family newspaper.
Wacky characters press a comic point
WATERTOWN - "Gutenberg! The Musical" is just about as goofy as it gets. Well, with a title like that, it had better be.
Even at 80, Edward Albee won't play it safe
Edward Albee spoke this week from Montauk, N.Y., where he lives when he's not in New York City, about Zeitgeist Stage Company's production of "Seascape," which opens today at the Boston Center for the Arts.
Fun ghost story is Wilde at heart
LENOX - More silly than scary, "The Canterville Ghost" is an ideal family entertainment for the fall spooky season. It won't frighten the little children, it won't bore the older ones, and it even provides a dash of simple but effective theatricality for the adults in the party.
Moments of beauty and terror in 'Passion Play'
NEW HAVEN - Sarah Ruhl's "Passion Play" is nothing if not ambitious. A three-play cycle that clocks in (with two intermissions) at 3 1/2 hours, it takes on religion, politics, the theater, and the intersection of all these elements and more in settings that range from Elizabethan England to 1934 Germany to Spearfish, S.D., in 1968 and again in the ...
Past meets present in 'Dreams of Antigone'
PROVIDENCE - In the centuries since Sophocles wrote "Antigone," the play has been performed countless times, first in its original Greek and then in languages, cultures, and political situations as far removed from the original as Athens is from Alexandria, Albany, or Alpha Centauri. And yet somehow it remains essentially itself, a play about a young woman choosing to die ...
Two live, far apart and close together 'In the Continuum'
"In the Continuum," a story of two unforgettable fictional women, grew out of the collaboration of two equally unforgettable real women.
Radcliffe bares soul in 'Equus'
NEW YORK - Yes, as you've probably heard, in "Equus" you can see a movie star naked. But you can also see something far more interesting: the bared psyche of a genuine actor.
'Pageant' is a beauty of a parody
STONEHAM - "Pageant" is silly, saucy, and sharp. It's also about five times smarter than it needs to be.
Humanity lights up 'The Piazza'
"The Light in the Piazza," which began in Seattle and went on to multiple Tonys on Broadway and then a national tour, has always had gorgeous, complex melodies and an almost operatic intensity. What it hasn't had, at least for me, is a story or characters that make sense.
A buddy story brings the cost of war home
It's 1966. Three boys are growing up together in Minnesota, playing hockey and trying to find a more promising future than they can see in their small town. All three end up going to Vietnam; only one comes home.
A vividly imaginative 'Eurydice' at the New Rep
WATERTOWN - I feel as if I need a new language to talk about Sarah Ruhl's "Eurydice." Both in New Haven two years ago and at the New Repertory Theatre this week, Ruhl's reimagining of the Orpheus myth evokes so many emotions and thoughts at once that I find myself groping for words that don't sound like hollow cliches next ...
Grace among a world of characters
CAMBRIDGE - Anna Deavere Smith is characterizing her latest work, "Let Me Down Easy," as "A Play in Evolution." And that's exactly what it feels like in its American Repertory Theatre incarnation, which opened Tuesday night: a stimulating but diffuse work in progress.
'Chorus Line' still gets kick from group dynamic
What's surprising about "A Chorus Line," which officially opened last night at the Opera House, is how fresh and how classic it feels.
'Shakespeare' strikes gold
Engaging, energetic, amusing, and clearly in love with the art of telling stories onstage, Richard Nelson's "How Shakespeare Won the West" makes an auspicious opening for the Huntington Theatre Company's first season under its new artistic director, Peter DuBois.
Ensemble of singing actresses are a high note of 'Follies'
The list of women in the cast of "Follies" at the Lyric Stage Company reads like a dream team of Boston musical theater, from Leigh Barrett to Maryann Zschau. And that's only the front and back of the alphabet, in a cast that also includes Kathy St. George, Bobbie Steinbach, Jacqui Parker, and Kerry Dowling.
With 'Kooza,' Cirque struts upon the stage
Cirque du Soleil, the biggest of the big tops in the contemporary art-circus world, is billing "Kooza" as a return to its roots, a streamlined production that emphasizes the traditional circus arts of acrobatics and clowning. No doubt it is a pared-down show, compared with the Montreal-based troupe's Las Vegas extravaganzas. But a peacock with its tail furled is still ...
Curtain rises on a new director
For his first season as artistic director of the Huntington Theatre Company, Peter DuBois has scheduled two world premieres: Richard Nelson's "How Shakespeare Won the West," now in previews, and David Grimm's "The Miracle at Naples," which DuBois will direct in the spring.
Haunting the imagination in 'The Woman in Black'
GLOUCESTER - Stylish and chilling, "The Woman in Black" fully lives up to its billing at the Gloucester Stage Company as a "ghost play." It's a ghost story for grown-ups, one that keeps us laughing at the ooky-spooky conventions of the genre - right up until the moment when it makes us yelp with a flash of genuine fear.
Sights to behold in 'See Rock City'
PITTSFIELD - Like its title, the small and winning new musical "See Rock City & Other Destinations" finds a singular attractiveness in tourist attractions. In a series of vignettes - musical postcards, really - it takes us from Rock City, Ga., to the Alamo, Coney Island, Niagara Falls . . . a whole souvenir album's worth of sights to see.
Lost on the way down South
LENOX - Guns. Hank Williams. Goats. Yup, we're in the South, all right, or at least the South as conceived by the North.
'Goatwoman' gets lost on the way down South
LENOX - Guns. Hank Williams. Goats. Yup, we're in the South, all right, or at least the South as conceived by the North.