Category Archives: Theater

Looking for something different to do? Make a date to check out one of the many great local theater productions currently or about to open.  Boston’s performing arts scene has a little something for everyone right now including musicals, modern classics and even a twisted childhood classic.

Photo by Michael von Redlich

Pornocchio – Gold Dust Orphans (April 26 – May 26)  Sent through The Gold Dust Orphans’ glitter filled parody machine, this is a twisted take on a classic children’s fable.  Get Tickets Here. 

Pirates of Penzance – A.R.T. (May 10 – June 2)  Come away and enjoy this 80-minute excursion that features bathing beauties, philosophizing pirates, and grown men in remarkably short shorts.  Get Tickets Here.

In the Heights – SpeakEasy Stage (May 10 – June 8) This four-time Tony Award winning musical is set in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood and uses hip hop, salsa and rap to help tell the stories of this close-knit Latin community.  Get Tickets Here.

3 Sailors – On The Town – Lyric Stage Co. (May 10 – June 8)   This musical also takes place in New York, but includes three American sailors with one day to see the sights, meet a special someone, and have the time of their lives. Get Tickets Here.

Amadeus – Amadeus -New Rep (April 28 – May 19)  Takes place in 18th-Century Europe and focuses on the rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri.  Get Tickets Here.

Photo by Michael von Redlich

Ryan Landry’s Gold Dust Orphans are back with their latest production, a musical called, Pornocchio, that opens this Friday, April 26th and runs through Sunday, May 26th before packing up and moving to Provincetown for the summer. Tickets start at $35.00 and can be reserved online here. 

The OBERON Theater has been temporarily transformed into a 21st century mead hall so they may share their version of the Old English epic poem, Beowulf. For more information about this new show which opened on Tuesday and runs for the next three weeks, check out the video about the program.

Tickets are $25 and may be purchased here.

When I write about performing arts, I often intentionally overlook Broadway shows and national tours, because I want to help promote Boston’s theater scene.

However, every once in a while a new show does catch my eye and Kinky Boots the Musical, which recently opened on Broadway is one of those exceptions.  Have you heard about this new musical that has music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper?  For those who live in and visit NYC regularly, I’m curious if you have tickets and plan on seeing this show?

Hilton Als review in the New Yorker is quite positive. Als writes, “Kinky Boots”, a musical based on a 2005 movie comedy…pretty much follows the film script while emphasizing those themes that made the author’s work on 1983’s “La Cage Aux Folles,” so effective: tolerance and bravery win out over bigotry and smallness. But that was in 1983, when the conversation around queerness was less a conversation than a shouting match. Fierstein is still shouting. Not so much shouting as insisting on the hurt that comes with being different—and how life outside the status quo amounts to an act of defiance. Read the full review here.

Last week I went to see The SpeakEasy Stage production of Other Desert Cities.  The play tells a story of a once promising young novelist who has returned home after several years to celebrate Christmas with her family in Palm Springs, CA. However, the daughter’s return home turns tense after she announces that she’s published a tell all memoir about a family tragedy from the past.

The narrative of family tensions and travails are things we can all relate to, but the depth of the frustrations and personal tragedy addressed are thankfully uncharted territory for me.  The humorous lines interspersed and mostly delivered by the role of recovering alcoholic, Aunt/Sister played by Nancy Carroll go a long way to release that tension and provide many unexpected laughs.  Leaving the theater, I was left with the thought, we all need to be a bit more forgiving because reality isn’t always what it seems. If that message strikes home for you as well, you may want to go see this production.

Other Desert Cities performances run through Saturday, February 9th.  You may purchase tickets at The Calderwood Pavilion box office on Tremont Street in the South End or by phone, 617-933-8600 or online at SpeakEasyStage.com. 

Excuse the trite headline, but earlier this week I saw Pippin at the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) in Cambridge. It is rare to have a local show filled with so many Broadway actors in Boston so when I heard about Pippin’s run I knew I wanted to check it out before it left for Broadway. I am unfamiliar with how this production differs from the original, so I won’t try to pretend I know what I’m talking about other than to say, the show is spectacular.

The music is fantastic but its no surprise considering it was penned by Stephen Schwartz (composer of Wicked and Godspell), and the cast really does amaze, belting out pitch perfect tunes.  Even I recognized the Bob Fosse choreography I’d heard about prior to seeing the show.  All this comes together to form a very entertaining musical that had me holding my breathe more than once watching the amazing circus-like acrobatics executed by 7 Fingers (a Montreal-based company that is reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil).

Since the show closes this weekend, you’ll need to get tickets (probably for quite a bit more money) when it opens in April at the Music Box Theater on Broadway.  In anticipation of the question if it is worth seeing on Broadway – I’ll keep my answer short and sweet, “Yes”.