It’s December and the word “story” might create subconscious associations with certain themes, namely, A Christmas Story, The Nutcracker, The Night Before Christmas and other holiday plays. If you are looking for an escape from the expensive, glitzy, glittery, orchestral pieces of theater so well represented this time a year, you will find reprieve at […]
The Nutcracker by Festival Ballet is one of those seasonal treats that make Providence extra magical for the holidays. This year promises to be no exception. There will be a couple of special elements. For the first time, two students from Festival’s adaptive dance classes – a program aimed at helping children with Down Syndrome […]
Don’t be fooled into thinking this hit Broadway musical show is at all creak with no crackle and pop! Despite its lineage going all the way back to the 1954 Bing Crosby & Danny Kaye-led film, this touring production is bursting at the seams with youthful energy and show stopper numbers that took my breath away. Full disclosure? I’ll stand […]
A new and original work of prodigious audacity, Planet Christmas by Contemporary Theater Company playwright-in-residence Andy Hoover, is unlike any holiday-themed stage production you’ve ever seen. It draws from a diverse variety of sources ranging from H.G. Wells to Leonard Cohen, sometimes planting allusions so obscure that, like James Joyce, Hoover seems to be playing […]
Ah, A Christmas Carol … who doesn’t know and love this holiday chestnut from one of its many incarnations? Whether your favorite adaptation stars Michael Caine, Mr. Magoo or Patrick Stewart, we all happily revisit this age-old tale of that one fateful Christmas Eve when miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited upon by the ghosts of […]
Mixed Magic Theatre’s production of Driving Miss Daisy is powered by some outstanding performances and smooth direction by Ricardo Pitts-Wiley. The setting is Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1940s. An elderly Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan (Melanie Stone) crashes her car, which prompts her son Boolie to hire a chauffeur to drive his mother around. Boolie […]
Trinity Repertory Company has delivered a first-rate production of playwright Wendy Wasserstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Heidi Chronicles, and Angela Brazil delivers a winning performance as Heidi Holland, an art historian who is perpetually searching for fulfillment. Directed with a lot of polish by Vivienne Benesch, the story follows Heidi over the course of three decades, […]
There are some experiences that are so painful they find a way to sink into our souls. In The Love of The Nightingale, the darkest parts of human nature are laid bare in the world of ancient Greece. Playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker has created a harrowing portrait of the battle between the sexes, adorned with symbols […]
‘Tis the season when many turn to theater for a little Christmas cheer. Locally, we are fortunate to have several wonderful options; Trinity’s A Christmas Carol, Festival Ballet’s The Nutcracker, and, this year, add Ocean State Theatre’s It’s a Wonderful Life to your Christmas “must see” list. Based on the beloved 1946 film starring Jimmy […]
If you’re looking for something completely different (nods to Monty Python) this holiday season, take time to see this uproarious original story, Ant’ny Claus: A Dysfunctional Family Christmas, produced by the Academy Players. The character and the play spring from the mind of Rhode Island comic, actor and director Frank O’Donnell. So yes, expect a […]