SpeakEasy Stage Company’s latest production, Bad Jews, opens this weekend. Described as a seriously smart comedy about family, faith and legacy, this play has caught my attention. Tickets are already on sale and performances start this Friday, October 24th.
Learn more about the play and buy your tickets here.
I normally focus my content on Boston, Ptown and Ogunquit but tonight I wish I was in San Francisco to see Peaches Christ theatrical production and latest stage play, Coven: Return of the Manderson Sisters.
The show is at the Castro Theatre and looks to be a blast. Are you in San Francisco? Do you have plans to check out this production? Do tell. I’d love to be there to see it.
Photo credit: Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo
Set in Hartford, CT in the 1950s, this musical from the SpeakEasy Stage Company made me wonder if I was going to be able to relate to the storyline, but any apprehension I may have had was dispelled immediately.
I promise that this musical will resonate and entertain you. Sex, gossip, and keeping up appearances run through this two hour and twenty minute performance with some surprising twists. A personal favorite was the “Wandering Eyes” scene shown below when the seemingly perfect couple is out dancing on vacation in Miami.
Photo credit: Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo
The story is compelling and the cast does a great job. I was drawn in from the moment the lights dimmed until it was time to go. This show would make for either a great date night or evening out with friends. The subject matter addressed remains as relevant as ever but is not heavy-handed or preachy making it great fodder for discussion after leaving the show.
Performances run through October 11 and I would encourage you to get tickets today. More information about the musical and to purchase tickets are available here.
The Lyric Stage Company of Boston has opened their 41st season with the musical thriller, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
The nearly three hour production is an ambitious venture that includes one of the more elaborate stagings and costume designs I’ve seen by the Lyric Stage as well as one of the largest casts with seventeen actors (I counted).
Set in Victorian England, the musical tells the story of Benjamin Barker, a.k.a. Sweeney Todd, who secretly returns to London after being exiled to Australia as a criminal on trumped-up charge from a jealous judge. Not long after returning to London he plans his revenge but is thwarted. His need for revenge or madness (which is how I interpreted it) entirely consumes him. While the operatic nature of many of the songs made it hard to sometimes understand, I enjoyed the cast and admired their talent. They seemed at their best with their large group numbers but all gave solid performances.
Lyric Stage Co. Producing Artistic Director said this show cannot be extended and will conclude on Saturday, October 11th so get your tickets today.
I’d like to encourage you to treat yourself to a local theater production by one of our many local companies. Boston’s local theater scene is in the middle of a Renaissance – or hadn’t you noticed?
Local theaters like the A.R.T. have raised the bar with a handful of shows that recently had their pre-Broadway run here. Their current production, Finding Neverland, will do the same but sadly tickets for this show which ends on Sunday, Sept. 28th, are nearly impossible to come by. Here are a few other options worth considering that I would strongly recommend you check out.
Boston premiere, Far from Heaven, produced by the SpeakEasy Stage Company, runs from September 12 – October 11 at the Calderwood Pavilion in the South End.
The Lyric Stage Co. of Boston presents the musical thriller, Sweeney Todd. Performances start this weekend on September 5th and run through October 11th at their theater in the Back Bay.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner makes his Huntington debut later this week when the Huntington Theatre opens their 2014-15 season with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner which runs through October 5th.
The Forgetting Curve is presented by one of Boston’s newest theater companies, Bridge Repertory Theatre of Boston; running from September 4-27 at the Wimberly Theatre in the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston’s South End.
Zeitgeist Stage Company presents, Bent, a story of gay persecution in Nazi Germany that is sure to send chills down your back. It runs from September 19 through October 11 in the BCA Plaza Theatre in the South End.
These are just a sampling of locally produced shows underway or soon to open. Check them out and support the local arts scene. You’ll be impressed by the caliber of talent, the variety of shows and how much more affordable these tickets are as compared to the national traveling productions playing in the Theater District.
A new summer performance opens today for a brief run that concludes on Sunday, August 24, 2014 at BU’s TheaterLab@855, at 855 Commonwealth Ave.
Written and directed by Harvard University graduate, Joe Creedon, the performance spoofs the ideologies of the Westboro Baptist Church. The musical centers on David Phelps who is questioning the hate-fuled belief system of his fundamentalist family when an outsider shakes up his life. Can /will David trust Steve Drain – the newcomer with a plan to save David? Get tickets to this show to find out. Fortunately, tickets are very affordable at $25 a seat. For more information about the show and to buy tickets link here.
Olive Another is a talented performer who you may recognize from past Ryan Landry and The Gold Dust Orphans shows. Starting tomorrow night she will be performing her own one woman show, OLIVE ANOTHER—SHAKEN…NOT STIRRED.
Joined by the talented Billy Hough on the piano, Olive will be entertaining audiences at The Grotta Bar every Wednesday in August. Tomorrow night is opening night for Olive. If you are in Provincetown, check out this new show and let me know what you think. I think Olive is very funny.
Doors open at The Grotta Bar at 9:45. Tickets are $15 (cash only).
Earlier this spring I mentioned that Varla Jean Merman and Ryan Landry would be teaming up this summer in Provincetown for a new show at The Art House called The Golden Gals.
Running thru August 30th performances happen each Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM. Yours truly along with a dozen friends are going to tonight’s performance.
If you happen to be in Ptown and are heading to the show, say hello.
The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company returns to the Boston Common for their 19th season, bringing free performances of William Shakespeare to the public.
This year the CSC presents Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. The play has a romantic bent and centers on twins, Viola and Sebastian, separated by a shipwreck.
Performance Schedule for 2014: July 23 – August 10, 2014 by the Parkman Bandstand on the Boston Common; Tuesday – Saturday at 8PM / Sunday at 7 PM with a matinee show at 3PM on Saturday July 26th. Details here.
The Welcoming Committee: TWC is encouraging the LGBT community to join them on Thursday, July 24th. While the event is free, they are asking anyone planning to join and watch with them to RSVP here so they know how much space to save.
Company One is an unconventional local theater company. Back in January 2012 they mesmerized me with their show, Green Eyes, a Tennessee Williams erotic drama originally written in the 1970s and unpublished for nearly 40 years that they staged in a suite at the Ames Hotel.
This summer they present a New England premiere, Astro Boy & The God of Comics. The show opens on Friday, July 18 and runs through Saturday, August 16th.
Buy Tickets To: Astro Boy, July 18 thru August 16
The Company One website says the show “serves up live animation, interactive video and a 1960s dream of the future, Astro Boy – a crime fighting, sweet faced robot – and his creator, Osamu Tezuka – the real-life Father of Manga and “Walt Disney of Japan” – explore the intersection of science, art and family.
The Commonwealth Shakespeare Co. (CSC) will host their19th season of Free Shakespeare on the Boston Common, starting later this month on July 23rd. This year CSC will perform one of Shakespeare’s more popular comedies, Twelfth Night. The comedy follows the journey of Viola and Sebastian, twins separated by a shipwreck, as they encounter loss and love in their new homeland – the mythical and magical land of Illyria.
The CSC will host free performances by the Parkman Bandstand on the Boston Common July 23 – August 10. Performances run from Tuesday – Saturday at 8PM and Sundays at 7PM with a matinee performance at 3PM on July 26th.
The Lyric Stage Company has been showing Into the Woods since early May and the production has received solid reviews. The Boston Globe called it “captivating”. You can read their review here.
I wanted to give the Lyric Stage Co. a shout out and encourage you to consider checking out this musical before it closes next Sunday, June 29th. For more information about the show and to purchase tickets link here.
Source: Greig Lamont (c) Project of Ruins
Did you know that Boston has its own phantom of the opera; 120 year old concert theater that is 40 feet below street level? This concert hall below the iconic Steinert & Sons storefront on Boylston Street has been closed for nearly three-quarters of a century.
The “acoustically perfect” theater built by Alexander Steinert seated 650 people. Apparently world-renowned pianists and opera singers performed here up through 1942 when nearly 500 died in Boston at the notorious Cocoanut Grove. Following that tragedy subterranean spaces like Steinert Hall became subject to strict fire regulations and was forced to close.
Read more about this fascinating space and check out The Boston Globe video, here.
If you missed the Tonys this past Sunday, you missed a great show. Neil Patrick Harris as Hedwig singing ‘Sugar Daddy’ just might have been my absolute favorite moment. Check out the clip.
I’m not a fan of most award shows. Once the red carpet is over, I find them tedious and fraught with actors inexperienced performing in front of a live audience and / or musicians incapable of singing live. With the exception of seeing a gaffe – John Travolta introducing “Adeem Azel” at the Oscars or Kendall Jenner’s pathetic attempt to read from her cue card at the Billboard Music Awards – I find them a bore.
However, I always LOVE the Tony’s. I know it is a cliche to have a gay man raving about Broadway, but this show entertains every year because Broadway stars have impeccable comedic timing, they are comfortable performing in front of a live audience, and most of them can sing and dance so be sure not to miss The Tony’s tonight – I promise that you’ll love it.
BosGuy 