Boston Globe -- Don Aucoin on theater

Journeying with the Bard

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-09-10T17:30:00Z

Robert Brustein has written a trilogy of plays with the Bard as his protagonist, the second of which, “Mortal Terror,’’ premieres at the Modern Theatre starting Sept. 15. “Mortal Terror’’ is a coproduction of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and Suffolk University, where Brustein, former artistic director at the American Repertory Theater, is now based. “Macbeth’’ provides the fulcrum of “Mortal Terror,’’ a compound of historical events and Brustein’s imagination. In the play, set in 1605, King James I summons Shakespeare and commands him to write a work that will validate James’s right to the throne.

Critic's picks

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-09-10T17:30:00Z

Critic’s picks for theater performances throughout the fall season, including “Candide’’ from the Huntington Theatre Company, Sarah Ruhl’s version of “Three Sisters’’ at Yale Repertory Theatre, “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific’’at the Boston Opera House, and Laurie Anderson’s “Delusion,’’ presented by ArtsEmerson.

Huck Finn adventure rolls in ‘River’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-09-05T22:27:02Z

"Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’’ is wide but not deep, a pleasant enough but not especially memorable musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s novel.

Compelling conversations about ‘Divorce’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-08-19T16:27:54Z

WILLIAMSTOWN - For both artistic and commercial reasons, it makes sense for theater companies to tackle works that connect with the universal human experience.

A question of authenticity in ‘Bakersfield Mist’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-08-15T21:34:09Z

WELLFLEET - There comes a moment in Stephen Sachs’s “Bakersfield Mist’’ when a hitherto stuffy art expert works himself into a frenzy as he reenacts the convulsive process Jackson Pollock used to create his paintings, all while delivering an erotically charged aria of commentary.

Critic's picks

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-08-13T17:30:00Z

Now playing THE BETROTHED

In ‘The Betrothed,’ a whimsical tour of the supernatural

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-08-09T00:25:49Z

WELLFLEET - Simon, a central character in Dipika Guha’s “The Betrothed,’’ wears an expression of sweaty panic for much of the play - and it’s hard to blame him.

Centuries old, this comedy still conquers

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-08-01T02:06:24Z

WILLAMSTOWN – Early in Williamstown Theatre Festival’s stylish production of “She Stoops to Conquer,’’ Mr. Hardcastle, the befuddled paterfamilias played by Paxton Whitehead, stoutly declares: “I love everything that’s old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine. . .’’ Hear, hear. But the passage of time is not always kind to comedy. The cultural and class assumptions ...

Critic's picks

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-28T17:11:47Z

A DOLL’S HOUSE Lily Rabe gives an electric performance as Nora in this contemporized version of Ibsen’s landmark drama. Through July 31. Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown. 413-597-3400, www.wtfestival.org

Promise collides with complications in ‘Last Day’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-25T23:32:42Z

GLOUCESTER - Before “Last Day’’ finally and fatally succumbs to soap operatics, it shows some promise as a Mamet-style immersion in a gritty milieu whose rough-edged characters have to face the glum fact that every road leads to a dead end.

Guilt, retribution delivered with brooding intensity

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-25T23:34:25Z

CHESTER – A few months ago, “The Grand Inquisitor,’’ a stage adaptation of a section of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,’’ came to Boston swathed in prestige and loaded with the ingredients for success.

An uncommonly tumultuous life

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-22T16:28:04Z

PITTSFIELD - Standing before the audience on opening night of “Mormons, Mothers and Monsters,’’ composer William Finn drolly welcomed them to “the only Mormon show you can get tickets to.’’

‘Sylvia’ unleashes a funny, poignant midlife crisis

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-18T01:47:27Z

STOCKBRIDGE - Can a marriage survive when the Other Woman is a dog? That is one of the questions at the heart of “Sylvia,’’ a winningly offbeat 1995 comedy by A.R. Gurney that is currently at Berkshire Theatre Festival under the deft direction of Anders Cato. (BTF is now a subsidiary of the newly formed Berkshire Theatre Group, the organization ...

Ethical and moral vacancies in ‘Three Hotels’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-04T01:28:54Z

WILLIAMSTOWN - For the middle-age married couple in Jon Robin Baitz’s “Three Hotels,’’ youthful idealism has gone to ashes.

Disillusionment eclipses nostalgia in ‘Moonchildren’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-04T21:32:44Z

STOCKBRIDGE - If the trippy revival of “Hair’’ made you nostalgic for the 1960s, “Moonchildren’’ will dispel that in a hurry.

Rival siblings, a ghost-mother’s longings

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-20T21:13:16Z

LENOX — If memory is selective and slippery and altogether untrustworthy, how do you come to terms with your past?

Critic's picks

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-18T17:30:00Z

Last chance MY FAIR LADY A charming production of the classic Lerner & Loewe musical, with Lisa O’Hare captivating as Eliza Doolittle and Charles Shaughnessy acquitting himself well as Professor Henry Higgins. Through today. North Shore Music Theatre, Beverly. 978-232-7200, www.nsmt.org

Tony, Maria, and the gangs are all here

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-16T16:35:47Z

With the death last month of Arthur Laurents, only Stephen Sondheim remains of the remarkable four-man galaxy that created “West Side Story’’ and brought it to Broadway in 1957.

‘Mormon’ is big winner at Tony Awards

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-14T03:41:24Z

“The Book of Mormon,’’ a taboo-toppling yet essentially sweet-natured musical about a pair of Mormon missionaries in Uganda, racked up nine Tony Awards Sunday night, including one for best musical.

North Shore theater marks comeback with charming ‘Lady’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-10T17:24:20Z

In brief remarks to the audience before the opening-night performance of “My Fair Lady,’’ North Shore Music Theatre owner Bill Hanney noted that the show represents the kickoff to the second season since he bought and reopened the once-shuttered theater.

She has some killer stories to tell

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-04T17:30:00Z

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Barely two minutes into an interview, Arlene Violet tosses off a sentence that quite possibly has never been uttered before by a librettist in the entire history of the American musical theater:

A cast of characters

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-04T17:30:00Z

According to Arlene Violet, numerous characters in “The Family’’ were inspired by real-life figures. Here are a few:

Critic's picks

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-02T16:39:56Z

ANIMAL CRACKERS There are periods of sluggishness when this 1928 musical comedy shows its age, but verbal sparks fly when Ed Hoopman (pictured) holds center stage as Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding, a.k.a. Groucho Marx. Through tomorrow. Lyric Stage Company. 617-585-5678, www.lyricstage.com

No, not that Mormon musical

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-21T17:30:00Z

Sam Salmond and Will Aronson are only too aware that the title of their new musical, “Mormons, Mothers and Monsters,’’ might prompt some theatergoers to assume they’re trying to ride the Tony-nominated coattails of “The Book of Mormon.’’

Critic's picks

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-21T17:30:00Z

JIHAD JONES AND THE KALASHNIKOV BABES In Yussef El Guindi’s Hollywood satire, a struggling Arab-American stage actor is offered a big-bucks movie role. But the role — an Islamic terrorist — is just the kind of invidious stereotype he abhors. May 25-June 25. Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Julie Harris Stage, Wellfleet. 508-349-9428, www.what .org

In ‘Susurrus,’ the stage is Boston Public Garden

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-19T15:06:52Z

Ordinarily, we experience theater in an enclosed space that is at a certain remove, literally and psychologically, from the outside world. And when we assume the role of spectators, it’s sometimes too easy to settle into passivity.

‘Good People’ is tops with drama critics' circle

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-13T16:24:58Z

“Good People,’’ a drama by South Boston native David Lindsay-Abaire (inset) that is set in Southie and Chestnut Hill, has been named best play of 2010-11 by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle.

The sad end of Poe’s story

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-13T16:20:13Z

In “Poe: A Life Cut Short,’’ the biographer Peter Ackroyd writes that a few weeks before Edgar Allan Poe died, the author said: “I do believe God gave me a spark of genius, but He quenched it in misery.’’

The comic relief is perfectly real

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-09T01:49:30Z

At one point during the madcap proceedings of “The Drowsy Chaperone,’’ the narrator takes pains to remind the audience: “It’s not real! It’s a musical.’’

‘Autumn Sonata’ wrestles with emotional resonance

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-25T21:14:39Z

NEW HAVEN — If visual texture were all that mattered, “Autumn Sonata’’ would be a success.

Critic's picks

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-23T15:30:00Z

Opening ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

Onstage, Sheen has nothing to say

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-13T05:05:53Z

Just before 10 last night, as hundreds of disgusted spectators streamed toward the exits at Agganis Arena, Charlie Sheen shouted from the stage: “Wait, don’t leave! I’m not done!’’

Comedy ‘Two Jews’ is ultimately a story of survival

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-04T22:54:22Z

LOWELL — When you think of Afghanistan at this particular moment in history, comedy is not the first thing that comes to mind. It might be the last, actually.

Onstage, a proliferation of African-American voices

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-03T15:30:00Z

When “Broke-ology’’ opened last week at Lyric Stage Company, with an all-black cast performing a work by a black playwright under the guidance of a black director, the remarkable thing was how unremarkable it was.

‘Inquisitor’ could be grand

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-03-26T01:38:19Z

When Bruce Myers began his performance of “The Grand Inquisitor’’ at the Paramount Black Box on Thursday night, it seemed as if the audience was in for a special evening.

‘Hair’ recaptures spirit of the ’60s

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-03-24T16:53:49Z

A cultural touchstone for some and a cultural hot button for others, the 1960s long outlived the actual end of the decade.

‘Educating Rita’ a study in craft, wit, and heart

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-03-17T16:10:13Z

Near the beginning of the second act in the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of “Educating Rita,’’ the effervescent title character struggles to open a window in the musty office of her curmudgeonly professor. “Y’need air in here, Frank,’’ she tells him. “The room needs airing.’’

Hemingway adaptation rises and falls

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-03-17T16:09:00Z

When you adapt a novel whose characters are mired in inertia and ennui and aimlessness much of the time, how do you prevent the stage version from succumbing to those same forces?

Retelling of biblical story is not quite faithful

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-03-23T16:35:01Z

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — “How do I get ‘faith’?’’ a former temple guard named Barnabas asks the title character in “Paul,’’ a retelling of Christianity’s origins. “What is it? A feeling? A fever? A what?’’

Moving moments of Beckett at Paramount

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-03-25T16:11:11Z

“We’ll never hear the human voice again,’’ laments a one-legged old man in “Rough for Theatre I,’’ one of five short plays by Samuel Beckett now at the Paramount Theatre in a production titled “Fragments’’ and codirected by the legendary Peter Brook.

A wealth of fine acting

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-03-29T00:11:27Z

When we first see William King, the ebullient, hard-working family man at the center of “Broke-ology,’’ he is such a larger-than-life figure that his house seems barely able to contain him.

‘Merchant’ meets the 21st century

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-03-31T16:48:59Z

When F. Murray Abraham, as Shylock, faces his contemptuous foes and delivers the most famous speech in “The Merchant of Venice’’ (“Hath not a Jew eyes? . . . If you prick us, do we not bleed?’’), there is nothing grandiosely speech-like about it.

An inspired and audacious ‘Chautauqua!’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-02T05:07:22Z

With a demeanor as formal and stiff as his high, old-fashioned collar, Dick Pricey seems the perfect emcee for the sedate history lesson that “Chautauqua!’’ at first shapes up to be.

Hit or miss, ‘Blackadder II’ is jolly good

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-12T17:03:38Z

The British have few peers when it comes to humor that manages to be bracingly smart and deeply silly at the same time. Think Monty Python.

Wit and wisdom in overstuffed ‘Sons’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-14T16:09:03Z

A father’s death reverberates in unexpected ways in “Sons of the Prophet,’’ Stephen Karam’s clever and deeply felt but scattershot comedy-drama, now receiving its world premiere in a Huntington Theatre Company production directed by Peter DuBois.

A compelling, oppressive state of ‘Grace’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-20T16:29:51Z

Nearly 50 years after he first emerged as a significant force in Boston theater, David Wheeler retains his gift for generating a certain kinetic power onstage.

‘Grease’ isn’t getting any fresher

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-04-28T17:19:45Z

It has now been four decades since the premiere of “Grease’’ and more than three decades since the release of the movie version starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

Plum takes firm hold of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-02T00:44:26Z

In Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra,’’ a Roman soldier speaks, famously, of the Egyptian queen’s “infinite variety’’ as he tries to explain her hold on Marc Antony.

European misadventures rock his world

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-04T16:37:16Z

WATERTOWN — Musicals — and coming-of-age stories, for that matter — either grab you or they don’t.

When Groucho’s onstage, ‘Animal’ crackles

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-10T03:55:13Z

Less filler, more Groucho. That’s what I kept thinking during the Lyric Stage Company’s production of “Animal Crackers,’’ directed by Spiro Veloudos from an adaptation by Henry Wishcamper (originally for Chicago’s Goodman Theatre).

Cirque Éloize offers deft, surprising fusion of acts

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-12T17:09:21Z

In Cirque Éloize’s “iD,’’ the city is alive, a place of wonder where anything can happen.

The Bard, light and dark, back to back

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-05-24T00:13:25Z

Versatility, thy name is Propeller. It’s a head-spinning experience to watch actors from Britain’s all-male Propeller Theatre Company tear up the stage in a slapstick performance of “The Comedy of Errors’’ and then, a few hours later, to see those same actors enter and wholly inhabit the heart of darkness in “Richard III.’’

2011 Tony Awards: Honor-bound?

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-11T17:30:00Z

NEW YORK — “Funny how people can be more than one thing, ain’t it?’’ Amid the flying shards of language in “The [Expletive] With the Hat,’’ that little aperçu emerges from the quick-moving mouth of a paroled and newly sober ex-drug dealer named Jackie (Bobby Cannavale) as he confronts his 12-step sponsor, Ralph D. (Chris Rock).

‘The Book of Mormon’ is big winner at Tony Awards

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-13T05:26:45Z

“The Book of Mormon,’’ a taboo-toppling yet essentially sweet-natured musical about a pair of Mormon missionaries in Uganda, racked up nine Tony Awards last night, including one for best musical.

$70m superhero and special effects not so super special

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-15T04:00:00Z

NEW YORK — In the end, all the hullabaloo surrounding “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’’ proves to be more compelling than anything that actually happens onstage — or even above the stage — in the production itself.

No luck needed for excellent ‘Guys and Dolls’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-06-23T16:14:41Z

PITTSFIELD — Driven by the star power of Daniel Radcliffe, Frank Loesser’s “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’’ has become a box-office smash on Broadway. (It also earned John Larroquette a Tony Award a couple of weeks ago.)

Spirited company makes merry work of the Bard

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-05T16:51:41Z

All the stage is awhirl in Shakespeare & Company’s exuberant and inventive production of “As You Like It,’’ a comedy with eternal lessons to teach about the folly and necessity of love.

‘Hitch’ trips down the aisle with a nimble heart

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-11T20:48:53Z

WILLIAMSTOWN - If you think of Lewis Black solely as a curmudgeonly comedian whose default setting is a state of apoplexy at the imbecility of his fellow man, you might be surprised by “One Slight Hitch.’’ It’s not unexpected that “Hitch,’’ now at Williamstown Theatre Festival under the agile direction of Joe Grifasi, should abound in snappy wisecracks and keen ...

This ‘Tommy’ lives up to the Who’s pioneering legend

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-11T01:51:35Z

PITTSFIELD - Late in the Berkshire Theatre Festival’s darkly hypnotic, first-rate production of “The Who’s Tommy,’’ the title character tries to shake off the near-messianic role into which he’s been thrust. Tommy (a charismatic Randy Harrison) essentially urges his fans and the media to get a life and stop living vicariously through him. En masse, they reject his message, angrily ...

Damon and Affleck, taken down a notch

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-13T16:36:03Z

CAMBRIDGE - By now, 14 years after “Good Will Hunting’’ lifted them to stardom, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have solidified their place in the Hollywood firmament.

Click: There goes the ‘Neighborhood’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-15T17:14:38Z

WELLFLEET - In his 2005 bestseller “Everything Bad Is Good for You,’’ Steven Johnson argued that the complexity of video games presents an array of cognitive challenges that can make players smarter and better able to navigate the hairpin turns of modern life.

Rabe’s Nora makes this her ‘Doll’s House’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-25T01:22:10Z

WILLIAMSTOWN - Most actresses who tackle the role of Nora Helmer in “A Doll’s House’’ frame the character’s arc as a journey from coquettish submission to decisive action, culminating in that famous slam of the door as Nora walks out on her husband, Torvald, in a long-overdue bid for independence.

Finding common ground, against all odds

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-07-29T18:11:57Z

PITTSFIELD - In the annals of strange political bedfellows, few alliances can have been stranger than that of Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis.

Love, resilience, and redemption in ‘All’s Well’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-08-04T16:19:51Z

When Helena first confesses to the Countess of Rossillion that she loves the noblewoman’s son, Bertram, in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s sprightly production of “All’s Well That Ends Well,’’ she falls abjectly to her knees, admitting: “I know I love in vain, strive against hope.’’

In bold strokes, the Molly Ivins we all knew

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-08-08T02:17:12Z

LENOX - At first, the stage is dark, and the only sound we hear is a deep, knowing laugh - the laugh of someone who finds absurdities to savor pretty much everywhere she looks.

To duplicitous duo, seduction is deadly ‘Game’

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-08-22T02:49:14Z

PITTSFIELD - For all I know, Rachel York spends her time away from the theater adopting stray kittens or quietly needlepointing in a rocking chair.

A ‘Porgy’ with spirit and heart

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-09-01T16:15:55Z

CAMBRIDGE - In 1985, as James Levine was preparing to conduct the Metropolitan Opera’s first performance of “Porgy and Bess,’’ he told The New York Times: “It’s always easy to make something different out of it. But the trick with any masterpiece is to make use of what the genius gave you.’’

Recession-era ‘Rent’ is even more relevant

Don Aucoin, Globe Staff — 2011-09-09T17:09:04Z

Under the sure-handed direction of Benjamin Evett, New Repertory Theatre’s “Rent’’ navigates that fine line between the heart-on-its-sleeve earnestness essential to the success of this musical and the melodramatic excess that perpetually threatens to capsize it. Aimee Doherty, playing a narcissistic performance artist named Maureen, leaps at the chance to showcase her comic chops. And John Ambrosino shines as Mark, an aspiring filmmaker who is both participant in and observer of the action among a tight-knit group of friends in the East Village in the late 1980s.