Theater

Culture Vulture: August Arts in the Berkshires

July 31, 2010
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By Helen Epstein If you want a country theater experience, complete with magical valley and stream and a freight train in the distance, go to Chester, MA this month. Chester Theater Company‘s The Nibroc Trilogy is a winner and will culminate on the final two Saturdays of the season (August 14 and 21) with the…

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Coming Attractions in Theater: August 2010

July 31, 2010
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The summer season winds down with (too) many of the usual crowd-pleasers, enlivened by a couple of world premieres, a re-vamping of an Oscar Wilde warhorse, and an encounter with non-being, courtesy of Edward Albee. By Bill Marx The Taster by Joan Ackermann. Directed by Tina Packer. Staged by Shakespeare & Company at the Founders’…

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Theater Review: The Case of the Fetching Farce

July 28, 2010
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This farcical stage version of the classic Sherlock Holmes novel teems with physical humor and visual gags while retaining the basic storyline of the complex original version. The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Steven Canny and John Nicholson. Directed by Thomas Derrah. Presented by Central Square Theater, at Central Square Theater, Cambridge, MA, through August…

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Theater Review: The Metaphysical Urgency of “Richard III”

July 24, 2010
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Actor John Douglas Thompson can captivate, seduce, and thrill any audience in any play, which is exactly what he did, once again, in Shakespeare & Company’s enthralling new production of The Life and Death of King Richard III. The Life and Death of King Richard III by William Shakespeare. Directed by Jonathan Croy. Conceived and…

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Theater Review: “Grimm” but Entertaining

July 23, 2010
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Charm’d magic casements, opening on the Foam Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. — To a Nightingale, John Keats, 1819 GRIMM: The Brothers’ Tales Remixed & Re-imagined . . . Written by Gregory Maguire, Kristen Greenidge, Melinda Lopez, Marcus Gardley, Lydia R. Diamond, John Kuntz, and John ADEkoje. Directed by Summer L. Williams and…

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Musical Theater: Broadway Visits the White House

July 20, 2010
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By Caldwell Titcomb Musical talent from Broadway came to the White House on Monday, July 19, to offer a concert for President Obama, his wife and daughters, and an invited audience in the East Room. The event was streamed live on the White House website. This was the sixth in a series of concerts hosted…

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Theater Review: Catch the Train to Nibroc

July 16, 2010
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Last Train to Nibroc by Arlene Hutton. Staged by the Chester Theater Company, Chester, MA, through July 25. Reviewed By Helen Epstein I drove back to Chester Theater Company(CTC) last night expecting another engrossing evening and got it. I love making the trip to the village (pop. 1000) and the makeshift theater in its small…

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Culture Vulture: High Marks for ‘Sea Marks’

July 11, 2010
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By Helen Epstein Perhaps a director’s most important choice is sifting through the great backlist of dramatic literature and choosing a play whose sensibility she not only wishes to explore and inhabit, but that she can cast and direct well. When the play, the director and design team, the actors, and historical moment all line…

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Theater Review: An Antic ‘London Assurance’ from NT Live

July 3, 2010
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London Assurance by Dion Boucicault. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. The National Theatre production presented by NTLive at the Coolidge Corner Cinema, Boston, MA, July 14. A bonus simulcast has been added to the NTLive lineup; on July 14th Coolidge Corner Cinema will, once again, simulcast Dion Boucicault’s comedy London Assurance starring Simon Russell Beale and…

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Culture Vulture: A Theatrical Wonder in the Berkshires

July 2, 2010
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Reviewed By Helen Epstein Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel. Directed by Michael Dowling. Staged by the Chester Theatre Company, Chester, MA, through July 11. This summer Chester Theatre Company (CTC) Artistic Director Byam Stevens is exhorting theatergoers to “free the inner audience” within them. Theatergoers, he says, have become like critics, losing a sense of…

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