A Chorus Line, Anything Goes, and The Music Man are on tap for this year’s summer season at the Reagle Music Theatre located at the Robinson Theater, 617 Lexington Street, Waltham. The three classic musicals will be directed by Leslie Woodies, Eileen Grace, and Susan Chebookjian respectively.
A Chorus Line will run for 8 performances from June 7 through June 17. Anything Goes will have 8 performances running from July 5 through July 15, and The Music Man will close out the season also running for 8 performances from August 2 through August 12.
For more information contact the box office at 781-891-5600, or go to
East Coast Premiere Of A New Version Of The Broadway Musical
Allegiance
Begins May 4 At The SpeakEasy Stage
From May 4 through June 2, 2018, SpeakEasy Stage will proudly presentthe East Coast Premiere of a new version of the acclaimed Broadway musical Allegiance.
Inspired by the true childhood experience of TV/film actor and social media icon George Takei (Mr. Sulu on “Star Trek”), Allegiancetells the story of the Kimura family, whose lives are upended when they and 120,000 other Japanese-Americans are forced to leave their homes following the events at Pearl Harbor.Sam Kimura seeks to prove his patriotism by fighting for his country in the war, but sister Kei fiercely protests the government’s treatment of her people.An uplifting testament to the power of the human spirit, Allegiancefollows the Kimuras as they fight between duty and defiance, custom and change, family bonds and forbidden loves.
This powerful and timely musical features a book by Marc Acito, Jay Kuo, and Lorenzo Thione,and music and lyrics by Jay Kuo.
SpeakEasy Founder and Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault will direct the New England premiere ofAllegiance. The artistic team also includes Music Director Matthew Stern and Choreographer Ilyse Robbins.
The cast for this New England Premiere production is Eymard Cabling, Paige Clark, Ron Domingo, Melissa Geerlof, Michael Hisamoto, Elaine Hom, Ryan Mardesich, Gary Thomas Ng, Ben Oehlkers, Isaac Phaman Reynolds, Tyler Simahk, Sam Tanabe, Rachel Wirtz, Micheline Wu, Kendyl Yokoyama, and Grace Yoo.
Allegiance had its first reading at the Japanese American National Museum on July, 13, 2009, starring George Takei. That was quickly followed by two more readings in New York City in 2010, followed by a workshop in San Diego in 2011. The musical premiered in September, 2012 at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, where it broke box-office records.The musical began previews on Broadway on October 6, 2015, and ran through February 14, 2016.Allegiance was reworked a bit for its West Coast premiere at the East West Players in Los Angeles, where the show concluded a six-week run on April 1, 2018.SpeakEasy Stage is presenting the East Coast Premiere of this new version of the show.
Allegiance will run for five weeks, from May 4 through June 2, 2018, in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End.
New Repertory Theatre presents Two Jews Walk into a War…, April 28-May 20, 2018 in the MainStage Theater at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA.
“New Repertory Theatre is pleased to conclude our 2017-2018 season with the Vaudeville-inspired comedy Two Jews Walk into A War by Seth Rozin,” says Artistic Director Jim Petosa. “During a season in which we celebrate the remarkable resilience of the human spirit, this play captures that element eloquently with both charm and wit. As we witness the two characters in this play working together to save their religion against all hope, we’re reminded that it is from these small foundations that we are reminded of the power of persistence.”
“New Rep is excited to welcome back both Joel Colodner and Jeremiah Kissel to our stage,” says Managing Director Harriet Sheets. “We’re pleased to have them reunite in this production after performing together in the critically-acclaimed Imagining Madoff. Separately, they most recently appeared in some of our favorite shows: Jeremiah having last appeared in our smash hit Fiddler on the Roof, and Joel in our production of Freud’s Last Session, among many others. We hope all will join us as our 2017-2018 season comes to a rousing conclusion with this hilarious comedy.”
About TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR…
What do you do if you’re the last two Jews in Afghanistan? You re-write the Torah, of course! Ishaq and Zeblyan are on a mission to save Judaism in Kabul by rebuilding their synagogue and keeping the faith alive, but only if they don’t kill each other first. Jeremiah Kissel (Fiddler on the Roof, Broken Glass, The King of Second Avenue, Imagining Madoff) and Joel Colodner (Regular Singing, Freud’s Last Session, Imagining Madoff) star in this Vaudeville-inspired play, doing their best in a shtick-y situation.
Anna Christie
By Eugene O’Neill
Directed by Scott Edmiston
The Lyric Stage, Boston
lyricstage.com
Through May 6th
Reviewed by Bobby Franklin
When Lindsey McWhorter first steps onto the stage in the role of Anna Christie she is carrying a suitcase. This single piece of luggage that doesn’t look particularly large or heavy, Anna is toting as if it contains the weight of the world. And, symbolically, it does. Anna has returned to see her father after an absence of 20 years. She has had an undisclosed illness and to convalesce has made the trip to New York from Minnesota. She was sent to Minnesota to live with relatives after her mother died.
Nancy E. Carroll and Lindsey McWhorter (Photo Credit: Mark S. Howard)
Chris (Johnny Lee Davenport), Anna’s father had received a letter from her announcing her planned visit. While excited about seeing her again, he is nervous and also has to adjust his living arrangements as he doesn’t want his daughter thinking ill of him. This means telling his live in girlfriend and drinking buddy Marthy (Nancy E. Carroll) she will have to move off the the barge they have been sharing. Marthy is at first angry but understands.
By chance, Marthy meets Anna before she has a chance to see her father. The two share drinks in the local bar. Marthy quickly picks up on the fact Anna is no stranger to hard drinking. She can also sense Anna has brought more luggage with her than what is in her suitcase.
The dialog is what you would expect of Eugene O’Neill, intense but not heavy. A lot is said but none of it is superfluous. These are the type of words I would imagine actors must savor working with. And this cast is made up of some very fine actors.
Johnny Lee Davenport, Lindsey McWhorter,Dan Whelton (Photo Credit: Mark S.Howard)
Ms McWhorter is powerful from start to finish. Her Anna, with a hard exterior formed from years of abandonment and abuse from the men around her, still hasn’t lost the desire to be loved. She does struggle with her lack of self worth and suspicion of men, yet retains a strength and a desire to be accepted for who she is, faults and all.
Johnny Lee Davenport’s Chris couldn’t be better. From the moment he orders his first drink and starts speaking with his rich voice I felt I wanted to pull up a chair next to him and join in. Chris has not led an easy life either. He sent Anna off in hopes of allowing her to have a better life, one away from men who make their living at sea. Mr. Davenport conveys the love that Chris never lost for Anna. His pride for her shows in his body language and eyes when he speaks of, and anticipates, his daughter’s return.
Things become more complicated when an Irish seaman by the name of Mat (Dan Whelton) is washed ashore after a shipwreck and he and Anna begin to fall in love. Anna’s distrust of men is one obstacle, but other tings in her past are also something she struggles to deal with. It is now that her baggage begins to be unpacked.
Johnny Lee Davenport and Dan Whelton (Photo Credit: Mark S. Howard)
Dan Whelton displays a wonderful Irish accent as he goes back and forth with Anna and Chris. Mr. Whelton and Mr. Davenport have a wonderful energy between them as they seem at times ready to kill one another, yet are very much alike; Stubborn, bullheaded, and kind hearted.
Unfortunately, Nancy E. Carroll’s Marthy is not on stage after the first act, but while she is, it is a joy watching her perform. She speaks the words O’Neill has written with a swagger reminiscent of a character from a 1930’s gangster movie; a touch of Edward G. Robinson and Jimmy Cagney. This conveys the rough edge she has from living and working on the waterfront as well as her way of dealing with the rough edged men in her life. And, as with the others, she betrays a tenderness and understanding. It works very well.
James R. Milord plays Larry the barkeeper. After having served Chris and Anna hard liquor separately, he shows subtle amusement when each tones down their wicked ways in order to put on a good face for the other.
Watching all of this unfold is sad, touching, and even funny at times. Director Scott Edmiston has pared done the script without losing any of the essential parts, leaving us with a Eugene O’Neill play that takes place in less than two hours.
I’m sure that many will read into this work issues of the power men have over women and how women deal with it. While that is understandable, it is also good to see this as what happens when people are able to accept each other with all their faults, face their own weakness, and allow better natures to prevail. This is a story that could have ended on a very ugly note. It didn’t, and we can all learn from that.
Eugene O’Neill’s works are among the greatest in American drama. They can be very heavy and usually are long but also amazing. This play is deep and filled with emotion, but it will not leave you filled with despair, and it certainly is not drawn out. Director Scott Edmiston has gotten it right, and I would encourage those who have not taken in a work by O’Neill to start here. It will stir your emotions but not overwhelm you. You will see five very fine actors working with the words of a great playwright. And, you will see it all at the wonderful Lyric Stage Theater, a warm and intimate performing venue.
FUN HOME, ONCE, BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY, SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS, SCHOOL GIRLS, AND THE VIEW UPSTAIRS HIGHLIGHT SPEAKEASY’S 2018-2019 SEASON
The Tony Award-winning musicals FUN HOME and ONCE, the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY; the Off-Broadway sensations SCHOOL GIRLS; OR THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY and SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS; and the triumphant new musical THE VIEW UPSTAIRS will make up SpeakEasy Stage Company’s 2018-2019 Season, the company’s Founder and Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault announced today.
In addition, the company’s new works program, THE BOSTON PROJECT, has been renewed for a third season, offering two more Boston playwrights commissions to create new plays about what it means to live in this city at this moment.
The schedule for SpeakEasy Stage Company’s 2018-2019 Season will be:
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY –By Stephen Adly Guirgis / Sept. 7 – Oct. 6, 2018
FUN HOME– Music by Jeanine Tesori, Book and Lyrics by Lisa Kron,
Based on the graphic novel by, Alison Bechdel / Oct. 19-Nov. 17, 2018
SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS – by Bess Wohl / Jan. 4- Feb. 2, 2019
ONCE – by Enda Walsh, Music and Lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová
Based on the motion picture written and directed by John Carney / Mar. 1 – 30, 2019
SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY – by Jocelyn Bioh / May 3 – 25, 2019
THE VIEW UPSTAIRS – by Max Vernon / May 31-Jun 22, 2019
“Once again I am excited to offer Boston audiences an ambitious and entertaining slate of the very best contemporary plays and musicals,” said Daigneault, in announcing the new line-up. “Each of these shows is uniquely theatrical and celebrates the importance of sharing our stories to better appreciate our common humanity.”
“I am also excited for the many opportunities these shows offer a diverse group of local artists, both young talent and experienced professionals. It’s going to be a very exciting year!”
For more information on SpeakEasy’s 28th Season, the public can call the Boston Theatre Scene Box Office at 617-933-8600 or go online to www.SpeakEasyStage.com.
COOKING WITH THE CALAMARI SISTERS
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK INTO THE KITCHEN
Limited Six Week Run April 12 to May 20, 2018 at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA
Mangia Italiano! Hilarity, delicious dishes and two over-the- top plus-size Italian sisters from Brooklyn, stars of their very own fictional cable television show, take you on a tour-de-force of show tunes, pop and Italian songs & cuisine. Songs like (Volare, Botcha – Me and much more; you’ll find yourself dancing and laughing through a very special cooking musical comedy in Cooking With The Calamari Sisters.
New York Newsday called Cooking With The Calamari Sisters “delightful and absolutely delicious.”
Straight from sold-out engagements across the country, be prepared to eat your heart out and laugh until your sides hurt as Delphine & Carmela perform outrageous musical numbers while designing their latest culinary offerings.
Don’t be surprised if they get a bit naughty when they update their treasured family recipes with saucy secrets and anecdotes that will leave you rolling in the aisles. And who knows? You may get a chance to sample these two sisters’ kitchen creations.
April12 through May 20. The Regent Theater, 12 Medford Street, Arlington, Ma. 1-855-448-7469 or PlayhouseInfo.com
Also Receives 17 IRNE Award Nominations
For 2017 Season
By Bobby Franklin
It is an exciting time for theatre goers who will be traveling the short distance to Ogunquit, Maine this summer to attend performances during the 86th season at the legendary Ogunquit Playhouse. In addition to an already fabulous lineup that includes productions of Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Oklahoma!, An American In Paris, and Grumpy Old Men, Executive Artistic Director Brad Kenney has announced that the Northeast regional premiere of Jersey Boys will cap off the season. The hit show featuring the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons will run from September 5 to October 28. Tickets will certainly be in demand for this one.
This is as fine a lineup as I have seen from the amazing creative team at the Playhouse and will certainly be an enjoyable way to mix the theatre experience in with all of the other wonderful things the Ogunquit area has to offer for summer fun.
I’ve been covering the Ogunquit Playhouse for a number of years now, and while no theater is able to bat 1000, the creative team under the very able leadership of Brad Kenney hits the ball to the fences much more often then not and has a very strong record of home runs to its credit. This is as close to Broadway quality as you will find outside of New York City, and I have to say some productions I have seen surpass those on the Great White Way.
Vincent Pastore (Nick Valente) and Reed Campbell (Cheech) With Ensemble
The Playhouse has received 17 award nominations from Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) for 2017. Five nominations go to Bullets Over Broadway. It been nominated for Best Musical, In addition, Reed Campbell is up for Best Actor for his role as Cheech, and Sally Struthers for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Eden Bent. Jeff Whiting is up for two awards, Best Choreography and Best Director.
Christopher Ash has been nominated for Best Production Design for his work on From Here To Eternity.
Cast of Ragtime (Photo: Gary Ng)
Ragtime has been nominated for eleven IRNE Awards including Best Musical, Best Ensemble, and Best Director to Seth Sklar-Heyn. Jeffrey Campos for Best Music Director, Kevin Heard for Sound Design, and Jesse Robb for Best Choreography. Kirsten Scott is nominated as Best Actress for her role as Mother, and Best Supporting Actor nomination goes to Julian Decker for his performance as Little Brother. Josh Young and Darnell Abraham both have been nominated for a Best Actor Award parts, Decker for his role as Tateh, and Abraham for Coalhouse. And finally, my favorite, Tyler Wladis who has been nominated as Most Promising Young Performer for his outstanding performance as The Young Boy.
Brad Kenney
Bradford Kenney, Executive Artistic Director at the Ogunquit Playhouse said, “To be recognized once again by the IRNE nominating committee alongside some of New England’s leading theatres is a great honor. We are extremely proud of our beautiful production of Ragtime, the hilarious Bullets Over Broadway and of our regional premiere of From Here to Eternity. Congratulations to our exceptional creative teams and casts who made our 85th Anniversary season a success. We want to extend our congratulations to all nominees who have been recognized by the IRNE Awards.”
The awards ceremony will take place on April 23 at the 1200 Hotel in Brookline, Ma and will be an exciting time for all involved. Pass the envelope please.
Under the direction of Jean Strazdes, Presents “An Afternoon of Sacred Music by Fauré, Lauridsen and Bernstein”
Kennebunk, Maine
Seaglass Chorale, under the direction of Jean Strazdes, Artistic Director, will present selections from Bernstein’s Missa Brevis; Fauré’s Requiem and Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna. In addition, there will be a performance of Bernstein’s Simple Song from the Mass by Ms. Strazdes.
One Performance Only: Palm Sunday Sunday, March 25, 2018
Christ Church
6 Dane Street
Kennebunk, Maine 3:00 pm
Tickets are available through Seaglass [at] gwi [dot] net, phone at 207.985.8747, and at Morse Hardware on Post Road in Wells. Tickets are also available at the door. Prices: $15/adult; $12/senior and student
Opens At The Lyric Stage April 6th
Runs Through May 6th
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, O’Neill’s classic is a surprisingly contemporary play that crackles with fierce physicality, humor, and drama. After a 20-year separation, a coal barge captain (Lyric Stage favorite Johnny Lee Davenport) is reunited with the daughter he unknowingly abandoned to a life of hardship. When Anna falls in love with a shipwrecked sailor, her father and her suitor come to recognize their own culpability in her plight, and all three struggle in their own way for salvation. Following his acclaimed production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Scott Edmiston takes a fresh look at one of America’s greatest playwrights.
A note from Director Scott Edmiston:
“In an era when most American plays were set in posh drawing rooms populated by wealthy white characters, O’Neill depicted a world of sea shanties, slums, and barrooms inhabited by the working class and immigrants, the outcast and oppressed, the lost and misbegotten. O’Neill offered them dignity and respect. He accepted them because he was one of them. He wrote complex female characters who were liberated beyond their time. He explored African American identity in the two groundbreaking works, The Emperor Jones (1920), which examines race-based violence, and All God’s Chillun’s Got Wings (1924), which portrays an interracial marriage. He refused to allow white actors in blackface in his plays and insisted on casting African American actors in the leading roles. Anna Christie, which premiered on Broadway in 1921 and earned him the second of his four Pulitzer Prizes, can be viewed as an early feminist drama. Tales of a
woman with a past were not new to the stage, but O’Neill dispelled the Victorian notion that prostitution was a result of female licentiousness. He tells Anna’s story with compassion and an awareness of gender economics. Consequently the role of Anna has become a favorite of great actresses including Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullman, Natasha Richardson, and most recently Ruth Wilson. Greta Garbo chose the role for her first talking picture in 1930.
In adapting the play for 21st-century audiences, I’ve tried to remain true to O’Neill’s themes and the unique poetry of his hardscrabble dialogue. I’ve removed a few superfluous sailors, a bit of period slang, and the phonetically spelled dialect (Chris was originally Swedish). It’s my hope that this will intensify the conflict between the ill-fated trio of Chris, Mat, and Anna and place them center stage where their fight to find redemption remains as compelling to me as it was nearly 100 years ago.”
Johnny Lee Davenport
FEATURING:
Nancy E. Carroll, Johnny Lee Davenport, Lindsey McWhorter, James R. Milord, Dan Whelton
The Lyric Stage, 140 Clarendon Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA 02116
Box Office: 617-585-5678 lyricstage.com
Every Brilliant Thing
SpeakEasy Stage Company, Boston
Reviewed by Bobby Franklin
Every Brilliant Thing is a one person play about depression and suicide, two subjects that undoubtedly make most people very uncomfortable when talked about. But talked about they should be, and author Duncan Macmillan has shown us the way to do this in this charming, caring, and quite funny work that also conveys so much of what we should be hearing in any conversation about this subject.
Adrianne Krstansky (Photo Credit: Maggie Hall)
The production now playing at the SpeakEasy Stage is set in the round with the lights up throughout the entire performance. It is billed as a one person piece, that one person being played by Adrianne Krstansky, but it also involves a tremendous amount of audience participation. Ms Krstansky, whose character remains unnamed throughout, is in the theater meeting with audience members as they take their seats. She is giving many of them slips of paper with a number and words written on them. She is also making eye contact with others to see who would be comfortable with being a part of the show but is careful not to make anyone feel uncomfortable as the whole point of this is to put people at ease while talking about difficult things.
The numbered slips of paper contain entries from a list called Every Brilliant Thing, thoughts Ms Krstansky’s character began compiling at the age of seven as a way of coping with her mother’s depression and attempts at suicide. The list is not about material things, but is rather quotidian with thoughts such as “People who can’t sing, but don’t know or don’t care”, “Ice cream”, “Christopher Walken’s hair”, and “The prospect of dressing up as a Mexican wrestler”. You’ll find yourself making your own list as the play moves along.
Adrianne Krstansky (Photo Credit: Maggie Hall)
Adrianne Krstansky moves about the stage and through the audience with calm and grace as she interacts with and has members step in to play various people who come into her life; There is the vet who euthanizes her dog, Mrs. Patterson who uses a sock puppet, the lecturer at university who has his students read Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, and her first love and future husband Sam. At the performance I attended, the young man who assumed the role of Sam became quite emotional at one point. The spontaneity made for a very touching experience, something that makes this work so powerful.
In an interview with the author in the program notes, Duncan Macmillan tells us he wants the work to show us a way to talk about the most serious things in a way that isn’t serious. Now, while that may sound a bit oxymoronic it is just what he has accomplished. Every Brilliant Thing does not leave you emotionally drained, but it does get a very serious message across, and while this isn’t a group therapy session you will feel a bond with the people sitting around you and especially with Ms Krstansky who speaks to and touches all of us.
If you suffer from depression or know anyone who does you will find comfort in this play. And for those of you who have known someone who has fallen victim to suicide or if you have had such thoughts you will find there are those who understand you. There is so much to learn from attending a performance. I didn’t know that whenever a high profile person takes his or her own life it cause a spike in suicides, something known as the Werther Effect. With depression it is, as Mr. Macmillan says, either “treated as a taboo and ignored, or it is fetishized and glamorized”. It should be neither. We have to learn to discuss it with the understanding and caring that is conveyed in this play, and that is why I believe the people who most would benefit from seeing it is those who think depression is something you can just will away, it isn’t.
Do not be afraid to see Every Brilliant Thing as you will not be forced to speak or play a part in it unless you want to. You will not be made to feel uncomfortable. The treatment of the darkness that touches so many of us is dealt with in a way that allows us to talk about it in order to dispel the shame that causes so many to withdraw to an even darker place. Putting words to suffering is such an important step in dealing with it. Having people with empathy and openness listening allows sufferers to feel unafraid to talk.
As I was exiting the theater I couldn’t help but think how leaving the stage lit during the play was a metaphor for us shedding light on a subject that has remained hidden for too long. For all of our so-called understanding of and openness about mental illness we are still miles away from removing the stigma attached to it. The SpeakEasy Stage Company, Adrianne Krstansky, Duncan Macmillan, and director Marianna Bassham have done much to change how we view this illness. This message should be heard. Every Brilliant Thing could be the most important play performed this season. It very well may change your life, and that is a good thing.
Every Brilliant Thing
SpeakEasy Stage, Calderwood Pavillon, South End, Boston
Written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe
Directed by Marianna Bassham
Performed by Adrianne Krstansky
SpeakEasy Stage Company
Calderwood Pavillion, South End, Boston
Through March 31
speakeasystage.com 617.933.8600
