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Huntington pays tribute to God of Carnage

If Lord of the Flies wanted an upscale-urban bookend, it could do worse than God of Carnage (presented by the Huntington Theatre Company at the BU Theatre through February 5).
Parent flap
By CAROLYN CLAY | January 20, 2012

Lyric's Or, mines the Restoration

Liz Duffy Adams's dramaturgical homage, Or, , is more florid than floral and sometimes clever bordering on cute. But the play, being given a brisk area premiere by the Lyric Stage Company of Boston (through November 6), is ingenious.
Before and aphra
By CAROLYN CLAY | October 21, 2011

Carolyn Clay reviews Prometheus Bound, Reasons To Be Pretty, DollHouse

Dionysius does not appear in Prometheus Bound, but that doesn't stop the American Repertory Theater from turning the 2500-year-old shout-out against tyranny attributed to Aeschylus into a bacchanal (at Oberon through April 2).
Betrayal
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 11, 2011

Glee and sympathy

If Ryan Landry gets any more respectable, he’ll be hosting Masterpiece Theatre.
The Gold Dust Orphans’ The Gulls; Nora’s The Lady with All the Answers
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 21, 2010

Old haunts

It doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict that Blithe Spirit , that cocktail shaker full of dry martini and ectoplasmic mayhem, will amuse. Playwright Noël Coward diagnosed his own gift as a talent to do just that.
Blithe Spirit at the Lyric; Hot Mikado at New Rep; August: Osage County at the Colonial
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 14, 2010

Face the nation

White-trash collection has seldom been as hilarious as it is in The Great American Trailer Park Musical , which makes its Brahmin-area debut courtesy of SpeakEasy Stage Company.
SpeakEasy’s The Great American Trailer Park Musical; Zeitgeist’s Farragut North
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 07, 2010

Transformations

As fans of the film are aware, that precipitous crag atop which the castle of Young Frankenstein sits is a Catskill. But in The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein (at the Opera House through May 2), the mountain is shrouded less in 1930s-horro
Young Frankenstein at the Opera House; The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead in Lowell
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 30, 2010

Review: Tír Na Theatre Company's Trad

The fiddler’s on the ground floor in Trad , but Tevye would nonetheless identify with the play’s history-bound patriarch — though compared with this venerable coot, Sholem Aleichem’s beleaguered dairyman is a spring chicken.
Trad delivers a kiss and a kick to Irish drama
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 16, 2010

Foreclosure frontline

The 72 Hours project, which I and others have been developing in the effort to help those fighting eviction in Boston, uses video projection to bring public awareness to the struggles of those undergoing foreclosure.
Letters to the Boston editor, April 16, 2010
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | April 16, 2010

Portraits of artists

Yikes! Is this really what it’s like behind the scenes with, say, the Emerson String Quartet?
Opus at New Rep; From Orchids to Octopi at Central Square
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 09, 2010

Endgame

As Billie Holiday fell apart, so did her fragile if expressive voice.
Lady Day at Lyric bar & grill
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 02, 2010

Zero at the bone

A bleak expressionist fable centered on a murderous bookkeeper symbolically named Zero. Even when you throw in sexual repression, religious zealotry, a trip to Heaven, and enough dissonance to sate Stephen Sondheim, that doesn’t sound like the stuff of s
SpeakEasy’s Adding Machine sings
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 26, 2010

Play by Play: March 19, 2010

Boston's weekly theater schedule.
Boston's weekly theater schedule.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 19, 2010

Parallel worlds

Playwright Karen Zacarias would seem to have taken long drafts of Tom Stoppard Elixir.
Legacy of Light at the Lyric; Not Enough Air from Nora; The Island of Slaves from Orfeo Group
By CAROLYN CLAY | February 19, 2010

History plays

Tracey Scott Wilson manages to knock off Martin Luther King Jr.'s halo without removing the glow.
The Good Negro from Company One; Harriet Jacobs in Central Square; Indulgences at New Rep
By CAROLYN CLAY | January 29, 2010

American dreams

It's hard to imagine being dwarfed by the titanically insignificant Willy Loman.
All My Sons at the Huntington; In the Heights at the Opera House; [title of show] at SpeakEasy
By CAROLYN CLAY | January 22, 2010

2009: The year in theater

A quick look at this past year in Boston's theater scene.
Stage worthies
By CAROLYN CLAY | December 25, 2009

Joyful noise

From the clamorous arrival of some ghetto hot wheels to a scorching gospel finale, Best of Both Worlds warms up The Winter's Tale . The third entry in American Repertory Theater's Shakespeare Exploded! Festival, this sizzling and soulful gloss on th
Best of Both Worlds rocks The Winter's Tale
By CAROLYN CLAY | December 11, 2009

Play by Play: December 4, 2009

Boston's weekly theater schedule
Plays from A to Z
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 04, 2009

Play by play: November 20, 2009

Boston's weekly theater listings
Plays from A to Z
By JEFFREY GANTZ | November 20, 2009

Play by play: October 30, 2009

Boston's weekly theater schedule
Plays around town
By JEFFREY GANTZ | October 30, 2009

Only connect

Usually when a cell phone goes off in the theater, you want to kill someone. In the case of Dead Man’s Cell Phone , that’s not necessary.
The Lyric answers the call of Dead Man’s Cell Phone
By CAROLYN CLAY | October 23, 2009

The games people play

Who’s afraid of Edward Albee?
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Caretaker; Little Black Dress
By CAROLYN CLAY | October 09, 2009

Play by play: October 9, 2009

Boston's weekly theater schedule
Theater listings
By JEFFREY GANTZ | October 09, 2009

Play by Play: September 25, 2009

Boston's weekly theater schedule
Plays from A to Z
By JEFFREY GANTZ | September 25, 2009

Autumn garden

It's freshman and sophomore year on the Boston rialto, with American Repertory Theater artistic director Diane Paulus introducing her first season and Huntington Theatre Company honcho Peter DuBois endeavoring to survive his second.
Fall on Boston boards
By CAROLYN CLAY | September 18, 2009

Play by Play: August 7, 2009

Boston's weekly theater schedule
Plays from A to Z
By JEFFREY GANTZ | August 07, 2009

Play by play: July 24, 2009

Boston's weekly theater schedule
Plays from A to Z
By JEFFREY GANTZ | July 24, 2009

Violet hour

The color purple describes both kids' icon Barney and a bruise. And sure enough, both child-friendly uplift and florid abrasion are wound into the sprawling, heartfelt musical based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning 1982 novel about a beaten-down young
The Color Purple is vivid on stage
By CAROLYN CLAY | June 26, 2009

Play by Play: June 12, 2009

Boston theater this week
Plays from A to Z
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 12, 2009

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