THOUGHTS FROM BOSTON-BASED CRITIC BOB VERINI

Verini Views

WHAT YOU ARE NOW: CRUEL HISTORY

★★☆☆☆ Merrimack Repertory Theater, Lowell, MA. The Cambodian genocide perpetrated by Khmer Rouge constitutes man’s inhumanity to man at its nadir, and has already inspired

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ALBA: LORCA LITE

★★★☆☆ Teatro Chelsea at Chelsea Theatre Works. This alleged “new play” by Alejandro Rodriguez actually wrenches, uncredited, Federico García Lorca’s last and greatest work, The

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM: ROCK ON

★★★★☆ Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown. Maurice Emmanuel Parent’s modern-dress take for Actors Shakespeare Project locates fairyland in the ‘70s disco-ball, glam-rock era, which

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CROWNS: MY LORD, WHAT AN EVENING

★★★★☆ Arrow St. Arts, Cambridge. A notable coffee table book of 2000 celebrated the history and role of haberdashery among African-American women with stunning B&W

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THE LION IN WINTER: NOT ROARING

★★☆☆☆ Theatre UnCorked at BCA Plaza Theatre, Boston, MA. Handsome but inert staging of James Goldman’s problematic play about the original family feud of 1183

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PRU PAYNE: AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

★★★★☆ SpeakEasy Stage, Boston, MA. Playwright Steven Drukman has a gift for writing people of different classes – the intelligentsia, and everyday working folk –

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NETWORK: STILL MAD AS HELL

★★★☆☆ Umbrella Stage Company, Concord, MA. Did anyone really need a stage version of Paddy Chayefsky’s Network? A good question, one first asked when Lee

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LAUGHS IN SPANISH

★★★☆☆ SpeakEasy Stage, Boston, MA. The tropical setting concocted by set designer Erik D. Diaz and lighting designer Amanda E. Fallon is so seductively wrought,

Read More

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES

★★★☆☆ Central Square Theater, Cambridge. Three gifted women are having a ball playing all the roles in a British multigenre take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s

Read More

Our LADCC Nominations for 2011!

December 1, 2010 to November 30, 2011, actually. That’s our qualifying year. I’m very happy with this list, very proud that local attractions predominate in

Read More
Awards
Bob Verini

WHAT YOU ARE NOW: CRUEL HISTORY

★★☆☆☆ Merrimack Repertory Theater, Lowell, MA. The Cambodian genocide perpetrated by Khmer Rouge constitutes man’s inhumanity to man at its nadir, and has already inspired

Read More »
Awards
Bob Verini

ALBA: LORCA LITE

★★★☆☆ Teatro Chelsea at Chelsea Theatre Works. This alleged “new play” by Alejandro Rodriguez actually wrenches, uncredited, Federico García Lorca’s last and greatest work, The

Read More »
Awards
Bob Verini

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM: ROCK ON

★★★★☆ Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown. Maurice Emmanuel Parent’s modern-dress take for Actors Shakespeare Project locates fairyland in the ‘70s disco-ball, glam-rock era, which

Read More »
Awards
Bob Verini

CROWNS: MY LORD, WHAT AN EVENING

★★★★☆ Arrow St. Arts, Cambridge. A notable coffee table book of 2000 celebrated the history and role of haberdashery among African-American women with stunning B&W

Read More »
Awards
Bob Verini

THE LION IN WINTER: NOT ROARING

★★☆☆☆ Theatre UnCorked at BCA Plaza Theatre, Boston, MA. Handsome but inert staging of James Goldman’s problematic play about the original family feud of 1183

Read More »
Awards
Bob Verini

DINNER FOR ONE: I HAVE RESERVATIONS

★★☆☆☆ Greater Boston Stage Company, Stoneham, MA. A typical New Year’s Eve in Europe doesn’t feature Ryan Seacrest, Anderson Cooper or even Guy Lombardo. Our

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Awards
Bob Verini

TITANIC THE MUSICAL: SHOW OF DREAMS

★★★★☆ North Shore Music Theater, Beverly, MA. Esteem for Peter Stone and Maury Yeston’s impressionistic treatment of the legendary 1912 disaster has only grown since

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Awards
Bob Verini

PRU PAYNE: AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

★★★★☆ SpeakEasy Stage, Boston, MA. Playwright Steven Drukman has a gift for writing people of different classes – the intelligentsia, and everyday working folk –

Read More »
Awards
Bob Verini

NETWORK: STILL MAD AS HELL

★★★☆☆ Umbrella Stage Company, Concord, MA. Did anyone really need a stage version of Paddy Chayefsky’s Network? A good question, one first asked when Lee

Read More »
Awards
Bob Verini

LAUGHS IN SPANISH

★★★☆☆ SpeakEasy Stage, Boston, MA. The tropical setting concocted by set designer Erik D. Diaz and lighting designer Amanda E. Fallon is so seductively wrought,

Read More »
Awards
Bob Verini

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES

★★★☆☆ Central Square Theater, Cambridge. Three gifted women are having a ball playing all the roles in a British multigenre take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s

Read More »

Our LADCC Nominations for 2011!

December 1, 2010 to November 30, 2011, actually. That’s our qualifying year. I’m very happy with this list, very proud that local attractions predominate in

Read More »

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