Boston Metro Spotlight: November 2008
In any other context, a Grinch invasion might not be such good news. However, Boston is pysched that the holiday-hater will be settling into the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre, November 26-December 28. A Broadway hit for the past two seasons, the imported Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical will star Iceland’s Stefan Karl (Robbie Rotten on Nickelodeon’s LazyTown) snarling in the furry suit.
Monty Python’s Spamalot clops into the Colonial (November 18-23). The Huntington Theatre got first regional dibs on Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll (November 7-December 7), a Broadway hit last season. This version, which originated at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre, stars Manoel Felciano, a standout Toby in Broadway’s Sweeney Todd in ’06.
Speakeasy Stage, in residence at the Boston Center for the Arts, nabbed Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer (November 14-December 13), another top Broadway contender last season, and they’ve assembled a crack local cast that includes Larry Coen and Derry Woodhouse. Also at the BCA, Whistler in the Dark launches Stephen Massicotte’s World War I love story Mary’s Wedding (November 14-30).
The Lyric Stage is reviving a Ridiculous classic: Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep (November 28-December 21). This “penny dreadful” should fare well in the reliably comic hands of John Kuntz and Neil A. Casey. Ryan Landry’s Gold Dust Orphans are cooking up a genre- and gender-bending treat, All About Christmas Eve, at The Machine (November 28-December 27).
Cambridge’s American Repertory Theatre will be running not one, but two family-friendly productions: a revival of The Island of Anyplace — a kind of Theatre 101 for the young set — at the Zero Arrow Theatre (November 18-22) and, on the Loeb mainstage, Aurelia’s Oratorio, a nouveau cirque spectacle performed by Aurelia Thierrée, with Victoria Thierrée Chaplin (daughter of Charlie) directing (November 18-December 28).
The peripatetic Actors Shakespeare Project will alight in the Fort Point Channel district — where art and commerce rub shoulders — to present The Merchant of Venice (Midway Studios, November 6-December 7). Obie Award-winning director Melia Bensussen intends to focus on the comedic aspect. The neighborhood supports its own fringe company, the Fort Point Theatre Channel, which will mount a site-specific production of William Saroyan’s saloon-set The Time of Your Life at Lucky’s Lounge (November 15-23).
Other fringe productions of note include the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s premiere of The Oil Thief by Joyce Van Dyke (November 6-23), in which noted author/actor Melinda Lopez plays a geologist questioning her professional and romantic history. At the tiny Factory Theatre, Counter-Productions mounts X-1, inspired by the 1950s sci-fi radio drama X Minus 1 (November 7-20). Scrappy — and savvy — Theatre on Fire in Charlestown pairs Albee’s The American Dream with Pinter’s One for the Road (Charlestown Working Theater, November 7-22).
As Watertown’s New Repertory Theatre gears up for its annual production of A Christmas Carol (Arsenal Center for the Arts, November 24-December 16), it lends its black-box space to Blue Spruce Theatre for a pair of one-act chamber musicals, Portraits: The Last Leaf / Still Life (November 6-23), both of which concern challenges facing female artists.
The Stoneham Theatre has assembled a large cast for It’s a Wonderful Life (November 18-December 21), based on the Capra film, whereas David Hare’s Skylight at Merrimack Rep (November 20-December 14) requires only three players: a penniless schoolteacher, her former lover (a successful restaurateur), and his adult son, who hopes to play go-between.
In Providence, Trinity Rep’s A Christmas Carol (November 21-December 31) has delighted all-ages audiences for over three decades. In the 32nd incarnation, directed by Liesl Tommy, youngish rep members Mauro Hanto and Joe Wilson, Jr. alternate as Scrooge, and there’s rumor of airborne acrobatics. For its cup of seasonal cheer, Pawtucket’s Gamm Theatre offers Wilde’s An Ideal Husband (November 6-December 7). Artistic director Tony Estrella plays the dandy Lord Goring, and Jeanine Kane the manipulative Mrs. Cheveley.
