Liz Chase/Photo: Bob Fisher

This small, all-woman production of Moby Dick shows promise in the premise and casting of very capable actresses, but falters on many levels. Director Bob Fisher’s script, written with Sara Gorsky, could use some trimming, as the show manages to feel too long at a little more than two hours. One of the most problematic scenes involves a dream of Ishmael’s where the story of Jonah is reenacted at the top of act two. This scene, although interestingly staged, does nothing for the advancement of the plot. Just as Ishmael narrates Herman Melville’s novel, the character (Erin Orr) narrates the play. Read the rest of this entry »

Simon Callow/Photo: André Penteado

RECOMMENDED

Those who have experienced one of veteran British stage and screen actor Simon Callow’s compelling one-man shows in the past will likely be checking out his latest solo effort solely based on the sheer revelation and enjoyment of his previous outings. However, unlike, say, his one-man Dickens show, where so much is known about that author and the material presented is always on terra firma, “Being Shakespeare” is a far more speculative show. And yet it is precisely because so little is known about the Bard—taken with his sine qua non reputation in the canon of English literature and a template-setting role in theater as we know it—that we are all the more curious. Read the rest of this entry »

Eddie Bennett and Rob Lindley/Photo: Michael Brosilow

Review: Angels in America/Court Theatre

RECOMMENDED

Perhaps the best theatrical experience is always personal, but ever since I saw “Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches” during the premiere run of its national tour at the Royal George in 1994, I’ve had a particular attachment to this show, which I’ve long considered the best new play of my adult lifetime. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

Playwright and chess master Cándido Tirado’s rumination on the brutality of human beings uses the chess board as a jumping-off point for covering a range of cruel behavior—from genocide to racism to unfair eviction—as three seasoned chess hustlers bicker and collude with each other while working to lure in challengers (referred to as fish) and take their money at the board.

The action takes place in the round, with set designer Collette Pollard’s tables and benches perfectly capturing the comfortably worn feeling of New York’s Washington Square Park and Jesse Klug’s lighting design (including some glowing chess tables) adding a touch of the heightened abstract. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Michael Brosilow

Mixing historical figures like General William Tecumseh Sherman along with fictional counterparts who expose a greater range of the impact of Sherman’s march across Georgia and the Carolinas that devastated the South and hastened the end of the Civil War, Frank Galati’s faithful adaptation of E. L. Doctorow’s acclaimed novel “The March” manages to assemble twenty-six actors playing thirty-nine roles onto the stage, across dozens and dozens of days and places, all without driving the audience batty in the process, though it does take a couple of scenes to adjust to the pace of change. Read the rest of this entry »

RECOMMENDED

It has been nearly five years since “Jersey Boys” first took Chicago by storm with a subsequent two-plus-year-run that had it following the Broadway In Chicago “Wicked” template of opening here with a national tour but subsequently creating its own Chicago production. The 2006 Tony Award-winning musical which tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons—warts and all and complete with the group’s hits meticulously recreated—has emerged as not only one of the most successful shows of the “ought” decade, but also one of the most emulated. As a national tour made it back to its old haunt the Bank of America Theatre, it was hard not to be swept away by the brilliance of the show which has stood the test of time remarkably well. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

On the one-year anniversary of her husband’s disappearance, Valerie (Kirsten Fitzgerald) must deal with her shady pharmacist daughter Midge (Missi Davis), her eccentric police-officer sister-in-law Gail (Natalie West) and the new arrivals in the neighborhood—her long-absent brother-in-law Donal (H.B. Ward) and his timid wife Sevenly (Lara Phillips). The rumor in town is that she had a hand in her husband going missing. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Liz Lauren

RECOMMENDED

“The tools of the theater are not the same as the tools of journalism.” Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury recognizes the complex theater-versus-journalism trap that monologist Mike Daisey recently found himself ensnared in, and deftly maneuvers her script around it. Read the rest of this entry »

Amira Sabbagh, Joel Kim Booster, Joyee Lin, Jaii Beckley, Danny Bernardo, Christine Bunuan, and Dipika Cherala/Photo: Michael Brosilow

RECOMMENDED

Consider the holiday that many Americans just celebrated: a god, with a three-part persona, is one-third executed, only to return from the dead in, natch, three days. And part of the celebratory ritual is an act of metaphorically cannibalizing the deity. And, to top it off, add in painting the eggs of chickens and a mysterious rabbit who delivers confectionery fauna. Pretty exotic stuff if you were an alien or even just raised on the other side of this planet. This is the kind of cultural self-examination that “Re-Spiced: A Silk Road Cabaret” brings to mind as its cast of color plows through a carefully organized songbook of American and British tunes old and new that address, in some way, Asian and Middle Eastern themes. Woven into a clever and entertaining pastiche of songs, many focused on the “exoticness” of the East, are text excerpts drawn from the Western canon, the likes of Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton and Friedrich Nietzsche that punctuate or counterpoint the verses.  Read the rest of this entry »

Anna Hammonds and Matthew Keffer

RECOMMENDED

N. Richard Nash’s 1954 story is a bit dusty, like the drought-stricken ranch where it’s set. But Boho’s gentle approach manages to breathe life into a classic.

The Curry family is struggling. Their cattle are dying of thirst and sister Lizzie (Anna Hammonds) pines for love. Brother Jim (Nate Santana) chafes in big brother Noah’s (Daniel Gilbert) shadow; father HC (Robert Frankel) tries to keep the peace. Enter Starbuck (Matthew Keffer), a dreaming schemer who promises to bring relief. Read the rest of this entry »