Tag Archives: Theater

On Friday, September 14th one of my favorite Boston theater companies, The SpeakEasy Stage, will open their 2018 / 2019 season with the play Between Riverside and Crazy. Tickets remain available for the opening weekend and the 2 hour and 10 minute play will run through Saturday, October 13th.

Between Riverside and Crazy
More Info & Tickets Here

The two hour and ten minute play is a dark urban comedy that explores the slippery nature of justice, and the grit it takes to move on. In an effort to hang on to one of Manhattan’s last great rent-stabilized apartments, ex-cop Walter “Pops” Washington does battle with a dazzling array of outlandish characters, each one a celebration of the glorious contradictions that make up human nature. More Info Here.

The SpeakEasy Stage has pulled together a seasoned cast led by Tyrees Allen who’s Broadway credits include Amonasro in the original Broadway Company of Aida, and Westmoreland in the revival of Henry IV at Lincoln Center. The cast also includes Alejandro Simoes, who I had a bit of a crush on when he joined the SpeakEasy Stage in their 2017 spring production of Grand Concourse.

Tickets to Between Riverside and Crazy start at $25, making it a great date option for someone special or just a special night with friends. Show your love for Boston’s arts scene and plan an evening to see this show. Sergio and I will be there Wednesday, September 19th but the production runs through Saturday, October 13th.

September brings back more than tens of thousands of students to Boston. Most of Boston’s local theater companies return with new productions and this year local theater companies have an impressive line up with some productions already underway.

It is great to see traveling Broadway shows and other national tours that come to Boston, but it is the local theater companies that are the lifeblood of Boston’s theater scene. These companies are so worthy of your patronage so consider attending one or more of these productions this fall.

THE AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER
The Black Clown || August 31 – September 23
This is a world premiere musical theater experience that fuses vaudeville, gospel, opera and jazz to bring Langston Hughes’ verse to life onstage and animate a Black man’s resilience against a legacy of oppression.  More Info Here.

THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE (at the Calderwood Pavilion)
The Niceties || August 31 – October 6
A black student and white professor meet to discuss a paper about slavery’s role in the American Revolution. A polite conversation becomes a powder keg of race, history, and power, and neither woman will ever be the same. More Info Here.

THE LYRIC STAGE CO.
Kiss of the Spider Woman || August 31 – October 7
Cellmates in a Latin American prison, Valentin is a tough Argentine revolutionary and Molina is an unapologetic homosexual serving eight years for deviant behavior. Molina escapes from the terrifying reality of prison life by sharing his fantasies about a mysterious 1940s movie star who takes on the role of a Spider Woman who can kill with a kiss. More Info Here.

CENTRAL SQUARE THEATER
Truth Values || September 12 – 23
A humorous exploration of the world of elite mathematics, Truth Values speaks to the challenges women face in math and science at a time when, finally, people are listening. More Info Here.

ZEITGEIST STAGE
Vicuña || September 14 – October 6
A tailor to the wealthy, powerful, and famous struggles to serve a very unusual client: a blustering real estate tycoon and reality TV star who—to everyone’s surprise—becomes a major party’s nominee for President. As the election spins out of control, the tailor and his apprentice are forced to examine their roles as confidants and image-makers for the candidate. More Info Here.

SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY
Between Riverside and Crazy || September 14 – October 13
A dark urban comedy that explores the slippery nature of justice, and the grit it takes to move on. In an effort to hang on to one of Manhattan’s last great rent-stabilized apartments, ex-cop Walter “Pops” Washington does battle with a dazzling array of outlandish characters, each one a celebration of the glorious contradictions that make up human nature. More Info Here.

ARTS EMERSON
Hamnet || September 20 – October 7
William Shakespeare had one son, Hamnet, who died at the age of 11 without ever really knowing his famous father.  This tour-de-force performance confronts what it means  (and costs)to be great, and how living in the shadow of that greatness can keep one in the dark.  More Info Here.

THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE (at the Avenue of the Arts)
Sherlock’s Last Case || September 28 – October 28
Take a trip to Baker Street with the legendary Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, to solve the seemingly perfect crime. When a threat is made against Holmes’ life by the son of his longtime nemesis, Moriarty, not everything is as it appears. The game’s afoot with equal parts hilarity and intrigue in the long-overdue Boston premiere of this murderously funny comedy-thriller. More Info Here.

These are just a sampling of locally produced shows underway or soon to open.  Support the local arts scene. You’ll be impressed by the caliber of talent, variety of shows and how affordable the tickets are.

What happens when a beauty queen, a right-wing politician and a liberal activist are locked in a hotel room on the eve of the Miss America pageant? The Taming by Lauren Gunderson, which is inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, provides audiences with a satirical skewering of modern American politics that will leave you laughing out loud.

Tickets for The Taming at Club Cafe

The production plays at Club Cafe, beginning on Friday, July 13th with performances Thursday through Sunday each week until it closes on Saturday, July 28th. Tickets are pay-what-you-can with a suggested price of $20.00.

Boston’s Zeitgeist Stage presents, Love! Valour! Compassion! Tickets remain available for their opening weekend. The production, which opens tonight will run through Saturday, May 19th.

Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally was the 1995 Tony Award winner for Best Play.  The gay-themed show is set at a beautiful Dutchess County farmhouse. Eight gay male friends hash out their passions, resentments, and fears over the course of thee summer weekends.  The house belongs to Gregory, a successful Broadway choreographer now approaching middle age, who fears he is losing his creativity.  Each of the guests is connected to Gregory’s work in one way or another, from his costume designer to business consultants.  Flirtations, infidelities, AIDS, truth-telling, and soul-searching mix questions about life and death with skinny dipping and a wild dress rehearsal of Swan Lake in drag.

If you’re looking for a fun evening out consider Zeitgeist Stage. The 2 hour and 30 minute play has two intermission and some of the most affordable prices for live theater in Boston with ticket prices starting at $20.

Love! Valour! Compassion!
Friday, April 27 – Saturday, May 19
Get Your Tickets Here

Ryan Landry and his Gold Dust Orphans newest musical, Brokelahomo, opens tonight at the Ramrod Performing Arts Theatre.  The musical which sounds like Brokeback Mountain meets Oklahoma, but really is anyone’s guess what Ryan Landry’s perverse imagination has conjured up will play Thursday thru Saturday nights with a matinee show on Saturday and a 5PM show on Sunday.

Get Your Tickets: Brokelahomo

Over 1,200 tickets have already been sold.
Get your tickets before they all sell out!

About Brokelahomo: Brokelahomo is a town in trouble. Overrun by dirty, outlaw gays, the few law abiding citizens left must spend their days dodging bullets, putting out church fires and fearing for their pets lives. That is until a heterosexual is sent for. Enter Dusty Rhodes, the unlikely hero of this far out fable set in the groovy 1880s! Will Dusty clean up the town? Or will the gay cattle rustlers and homo hoodlums head him off at the pass?

Start practicing your Vogueing, then get yourself to the Oberon to see Company One’s production of WIG OUT! from the Oscar-winning writer of Moonlight, Tarell Alvin McCraney. WIG OUT! is the catwalk showdown of the year. When the House of Light is challenged to a surprise ball by the rival House Di’abolique, they’ve got to leave it all on the floor to defend their family’s Legendary status. Fueled by a sizzling R&B playlist this show is a divine exploration of drag ball culture, chosen family, and the desire to be desired.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

On Thursday, April 19th the Central Square Theater Company presents The Women Who Mapped The Stars. The show follows five women in the late 1800s who work at the Harvard College Observatory. “Computers” – women employed for half a man’s salary to analyze astronomic data — show us that the universe is larger than we ever dreamed. Learn the story of these five amazing women who changed the way astronomers saw the universe.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

This play may be 35 years old but its story is as relevant today as it was the day it was first performed in the U.K. Career-driven Marlene has just landed the top job at a London employment agency over a male colleague. To celebrate, she hosts a lavish dinner with a group of famous and adventurous historical women who cheer the successes and bemoan the sacrifices required to be a “top girl” in a man’s world.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

Very excited to have tickets to see one of the 36 performances of the World Premiere of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, which will play at the newly remodeled Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston’s Theater District from June 27 – August 5.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical will star Karen Olivo (Tony Award® for West Side Story, In the Heights), Aaron Tveit (Catch Me If You Can, Next to Normal), Danny Burstein (six-time Tony Award®-nominee, Fiddler On the Roof, Cabaret), Sahr Ngaujah (Tony® and Olivier award-nominated for Fela), Tam Mutu (Doctor Zhivago, Encores’ Hey, Look Me Over! and The New Yorkers), Ricky Rojas (Burn the Floor) and Robyn Hurder (Nice Work If You Can Get It, Chicago).

Set in Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France at the turn of the century, a world of indulgent beauty and unparalleled extravagance, of bohemians and aristocrats, of boulevardiers and mademoiselles, Moulin Rouge! The Musical tells the fictional story of an ambitious, lovesick writer, Christian (Aaron Tveit), and a dazzling, entrancing chanteuse, Satine (Karen Olivo). Their lives collide at the Moulin Rouge with its many characters including the host of the Moulin Rouge, Harold Zidler (Danny Burstein); the brilliant and starving artist Toulouse-Lautrec (Sahr Ngaujah); the greatest tango dancer – and gigolo – in all of Paris, Santiago (Ricky Rojas); the tempting Nini (Robyn Hurder); and The Duke of Monroth (Tam Mutu), the wealthy and entitled patron of the club who thinks he can buy anything he wants, including love.

Sergio and I have our tickets to see Moulin Rouge! The Musical

As in the film, Moulin Rouge! The Musical celebrates some of the greatest popular music of the last 50 years. The stage musical will feature many of the iconic songs from the movie and as well as recent hits released since the movie premiered 15 years ago.

Tickets and More Information Here

Laurel Harris, Soph Menas, Elizabeth Stanley, Nora Schell, and Logan Hart perform at the A.R.T. Gala on March 5, 2018 at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. Photo: Liza Voll

In a little less than a month the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) will present the world premiere and original story, Jagged Little Pill, which was inspired by the themes and emotions laid bare in Alanis Morissette’s 1995, Grammy Award-winning album.

Following a family grappling with uncomfortable truths about many of the urgent issues deeply affecting our communities and our world today, this world premiere musical is directed by Diane Paulus (Waitress, Finding Neverland,Pippin, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess) and features a book by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno).

The production opens May 5 and runs through July 15.

Jagged Little Pill Show Info and Tickets

Later this week The Lyric Stage Company in the Back Bay will open their new show, Anna Christie. The Pulitzer Prize winning play by Eugene O’Neill still has tickets available, but the show which opens on Friday, April 6 will close on May 6 so get your tickets while they remain available. Tickets to the show are $55 each.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE