Arts >>

Theater

Company One takes on Jason Grote's whirling 1001

American Nights
Grote uses the same framing device as the original One Thousand and One Nights , which begins with Shahriyar (Nael Nacer) discovering his wife's infidelity and deciding that the only way to prevent his future wives from cheating is to marry virgins, deflower them, and execute them the next morning.

By: MADDY MYERS | July 26, 2011

Fun with Matt & Ben at Central Square

Bosom buddies
A couple of young women, Brenda Withers and Mindy Kaling (the latter born in Cambridge before graduating to the role of Kelly Kapoor in The Office ), decided to have some fun with the idea that two seemingly unformed guys — one kind of loutish — could strike show-biz paydirt so quickly.

By: ED SIEGEL | July 12, 2011

Living Together is no Table Manners

Less funny
Alan Ayckbourn's merry bunch of British squabblers have reunited for another pre-summer vacation at that North Shore theatrical haven, the Gloucester Stage Company.

By: ED SIEGEL | June 24, 2011

Silver Spoon takes the cake

Worse and worser
Could Silver Spoon, a musical celebration of '60s politics, be the worst piece of theater I've seen?

By: ED SIEGEL | May 31, 2011

Visiting Shakespeareans are two for two

Propeller flies
Hie thee to the Boston University Theatre, where the BU School of Theatre and the Huntington Theatre Company are presenting England's Propeller theater company in Richard III and The Comedy of Errors in rep (through June 19).

By: CAROLYN CLAY | May 26, 2011

Speakeasy's The Drowsy Chaperone; Gold Dust Orphans' Peter Pansy

The Drowsy Chaperone is receiving a rousing wake-up call from SpeakEasy Stage Company (at the BCA's Calderwood Pavilion through June 5).

By: CAROLYN CLAY | May 23, 2011

Animal Crackers; plus Passing Strange and At Home at the Zoo

Marx madness
The classic Marx Brothers films are like anarchy in a bottle.

By: CAROLYN CLAY | May 12, 2011

ASP serves up Antony and Cleopatra

Egyptian dish
In Antony and Cleopatra, the Brangelina of the ancient world are transported from messy, histrionic life to the realm of legend. Audiences at Actors' Shakespeare Project's streamlined, slightly rearranged presentation of the play are less likely to be transported.

By: CAROLYN CLAY | May 09, 2011

Company One's Book of Grace

America play
America, from sink to shining sink: that's the real subject of Suzan-Lori Parks's domestic explosion, The Book of Grace.

By: CAROLYN CLAY | April 26, 2011

review of theater play Sons of the Prophet at Calderwood

Calling Kahlil

Sons of the Prophet can't live on laughs
Sons of the Prophet can't live on laughs

By: STEVE VINEBERG | April 22, 2011

Underground Railway Theater cracks Breaking the Code

Top secrets
Turing is no grandstanding stammerer. The occasional, pained hesitation is a small if integral part of a portrayal that captures the decorated Turing's almost giddy passion for mathematics and his prophetic belief in the development of computers.

By: CAROLYN CLAY | April 15, 2011

merchant of venice review at cutler majestic theatre

Abraham and company deliver the goods

Mighty merchant
The Rialto intersects Wall Street in Theatre for a New Audience's steely, droll, and deeply disquieting The Merchant of Venice (presented by ArtsEmerson at the Cutler Majestic Theatre through April 10).

By: CAROLYN CLAY | April 01, 2011

A buff Hair hits the Colonial

Aging Aquarian
At the close of the second act of last Thursday's performance of Hair , as the cast disrobed, an audience member began yelling loud enough to be heard over the mawkish ensemble number, "Where Do I Go."

By: EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | March 30, 2011

ArtsEmerson celebrates a legendary director

Brook marks
Sometimes Samuel Beckett is baggy pants whittled to the contours of a Giacometti sculpture. Eminent British director Peter Brook, now 86, not only gets that but also relates to it.

By: CAROLYN CLAY | April 04, 2011

The Select (The Sun Also Rises); Educating Rita

English 101
It's a tough assignment: to create a forward-moving play out of the tightly orchestrated aimlessness that is Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises .

By: CAROLYN CLAY | March 25, 2011

Elevator Repair Service tackles Hemingway

Road trip
Road trip

By: CAROLYN CLAY | March 18, 2011

Love and Robots in Death and the Powers: The Robots' Opera

In Tod Machover's new opera, Death and the Powers , high technology meets high anxiety
A third of the way through the opera Death and the Powers: the Robots' Opera , the leading man becomes a machine.

By: CHRIS DAHLEN | March 18, 2011

Review: Zeitgeist Stage's My Wonderful Day

Child's play
"Little pitchers have big ears," the saying goes. In My Wonderful Day, which is getting its Boston premiere from Zeitgeist Stage Company (at the BCA Plaza Black Box through March 26), the little pitcher also has a notebook in which she is inscribing the title essay. And what a day for it!

By: CAROLYN CLAY | March 17, 2011