Footloose is loosely based on events that took place in the small, rural and fanatically religious farming town of Elmore City, OK in 1978. Dances had been banned by an ordinance from the late 1800s until a group of teens challenged it. In the 1984 movie, as well as in this musical stage adaptation by […]
When Lin-Manuel Miranda initially suggested the founding fathers and hip hop go hand in hand, he was laughed at. Of course, several Tonys, a Pulitzer and a skyrocketing career later, we all know who got the last laugh. So if you feel inclined to laugh at the notion of marrying hip hop and Shakespeare, maybe […]
In an intriguing mash of coming-of-age adventures and the supernatural – with a smattering of gore – Our Dear Dead Drug Lord proves one of the most provocative pieces on RI stages this season. Making its premiere in the state at Burbage Theatre, the show runs an intense 80 minutes without intermission as a group […]
This summer, between beating the heat with trips to the beach and Del’s lemonades, consider adding a play or two to your summer bucket list. Among the offerings from local theaters, there’s a little something for everyone, from our Shakespeare scholars to our musical theater aficionados. First and foremost, nothing screams summer theater quite like […]
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 hit Broadway in the wake of Hamilton, and it was unlike anything else the Great White Way had ever seen. It completely transformed the Imperial Theater where it took up residency for just shy of a year from your standard-faire proscenium stage into a cabaret with onstage […]
“Once in a lifetime” is how Nashville music producer Sam Phillips described the December night in 1956 when music legends Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley gathered in his Sun Records studio and jammed. The play capturing that session, Million Dollar Quartet, helps Theatre by the Sea relaunch production after a […]
Shakespeare wove wisps of fanciful fairies, enchanted forests and dreams of love throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but Director Fred Sullivan Jr. and The Gamm Theatre pushed the fantasy world into overdrive for a production that teleports the audience to a land of sweetness, laughter and passion. Gamm ends its 37th season with its first-ever […]
Thursday was opening night of the North American Tour of Lincoln Center Theater’s critically acclaimed production of My Fair Lady, a musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion. This being a Broadway production at PPAC, directed by Bartlett Sher, you surely don’t want to miss it! Disregard Hepburn’s classic movie and prepare yourself for a truly new and […]
Some plays are difficult to understand or follow, and don’t adhere to the basics of plot development with protagonists and antagonists facing off before jaunting happily off into the sunset. Sueño, now on stage at Trinity Repertory Company, is just such a piece, seemingly airy and darkly comedic on some levels yet complex and multi-layered […]
Teen angst – heck, angst in general – has never felt as raw and overwhelming as in the first act of the Tony Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen. On stage at the Providence Performing Arts Center – two years after it was rescheduled due to the pandemic – the production is a magical blend of […]