The premise – a Polish blues musician, a frustrated factory worker, a misunderstood prep student and a blustery Italian mailman meet at a bus stop – sounds like the lead-in to a joke instead of 95 minutes that might change your outlook on life. Ironbound, a gritty play by Pulitzer Prize-winner Martyna Majok, peeks at […]
The story of how the musical Be More Chill came to see its day on Broadway speaks to the digital age and the power of a dedicated cult-following. After the first production in 2015 received mixed reviews, it seemed the show was dead in the water. Two years later, the show was resurrected as it […]
I recently read an article online that posed the question, “Can’t Broadway just be for fun?” The article stepped into the debate on perhaps the biggest existential question at the heart of theatre: should theatre be a means of escapism or an instrument for social change? The Prom is a show that demonstrates it does […]
The Gem of the Ocean was a slave ship, but the gem of Trinity Repertory Company is the searing emotion conjured as part of a riveting retelling of August Wilson’s play by the same name. Chronologically, Gem of the Ocean is the first in Wilson’s Century Cycle plays relaying the 20th-century Black experience. It is […]
The world premiere of A Tree Falls in Brookline, written by local playwright David W. Christner and directed by Richard Griffin, is a comedy you don’t want to miss. Considering the Community Players are celebrating their 100th year, these folks are no strangers to quality performances. Some of the faces change, some stick around for […]
In 2010, writer Cheryl Strayed was offered the opportunity to take up the mantle of Sugar, an advice columnist on the literary website The Rumpus. She reluctantly accepted the unpaid position, and in her column created a space where people could speak openly about their woes in life, love and loss and be received with […]
In the midst of a wintery pandemic surge, every heart needs to see Ripcord, a light but purposeful show on stage at Barker Playhouse. The RI premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire’s piece combines perfectly timed snark, delivered by skilled actors, and soothing reminders that life is precious. While Director Karen Besson comes onstage to introduce the […]
It’s deep in the second act when the purpose of the painful scenes and demeaning words becomes clear; as one actor says, “The point of this whole thing is to make you feel something.” The actor is referring to a scene in An Octoroon, on stage now at The Gamm Theatre, in which a Native […]
In 1987, when August Wilson’s Fences received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Providence Journal’s arts critic William Gale hailed the Pittsburgh playwright: “His plays leap from his own gut. They’re about things that really count — family relationships, the Black experience in America — and they have many colors, a multitude of themes, great […]
Okee dokee folks… I am not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination. I fall somewhere between atheist and agnostic but more towards atheism every day. I don’t believe in Bible stories any more than I believe in the Marvel Universe. I honestly think that religions were all created by primitive cultures because […]