Huntington-Theatre-Company
“Rapture, Blister, Burn” feels less like an exploration of feminism today than a clever sitcom pilot that won’t be able to sustain its jokes for an entire season.
Director Liesl Tommy’s unflinching approach gives Lorraine Hansberry’s classic a surprising urgency more than half a century after the drama first played on Broadway.
An adaptor has to make choices, and this theatrical version of “Invisible Man” focuses on the novel’s most straightforward narrative strand.
Bare bones, determinedly unhokey, and intimate, director David Cromer’s matter-of-fact approach does away with the irritatingly self-conscious fussiness that afflicts so many productions.
The year kicks off with few unusual productions — companies are depending on proven New York hits, such as the Yasmina Reza duo, the Tony award-approved “Red,” and “Green Eyes,” though the Tennessee Williams curio tantalizes.
It is encouraging that the list of recommendations for October isn’t filled with musicals. Are straight plays back? I wouldn’t count on it in this economic climate. So let’s bask in the chance to hear words without music.
In this delightful production of “Candide,” director Mary Zimmerman imaginatively reworks and mischievously augments the musical. Her deliciously blowzy approach embraces, with charming lyrical fervor, the sheer preposterousness of Voltaire’s sardonic fable.
Buckets of blood and handfuls of guts always look slightly ridiculous splashed and dangled around on stage, though I must admit that this is the first RICHARD III I have seen with a working chainsaw.
A Chekhovian dramatic fabric calls for a tough/tender gift for realism. Getting the balance right is tricky — too much reassurance veers toward easy sentimentality, while excessive punishment pushes the proceedings toward soap opera.
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