For lovers of the American musical, this summer offers ample opportunity to break out in song and dance. It’s the spirit of sunlight after a long winter: Just needing to sing. This summer, revisit some cherished classics, or catch a new hit, or discover something lesser known and up-and-coming. Most productions kick off in July, […]
JCC CenterStage
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Theater Review: “Into the Woods” at JCC CenterStage
Mounting a stage production shortly after the release of a lavish, big-budget film adaptation of the same material is always a tricky proposition. On the one hand, the publicity surrounding a movie release brings in a lot of new eyes, attracting people who are curious to see what the original material might look like. But […]
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Theater Review: “Our Suburb” at JCC CenterStage
In “Our Suburb,” a new play on stage through March 29 at JCC CenterStage, Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize winner, “Our Town,” is repurposed for a new generation. Originally set in a fictional New Hampshire town in the early 1900’s, Wilder’s classic dissected family cyclicality and the fragility of life: teenagers growing up, getting married, […]
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Theater Review: “The Hit Factory” at JCC CenterStage
Four weeks ago, I got to hear Audra McDonald in concert at the Eastman Theatre. Last week, I got to hear Darren Frazier singing at the Jewish Community Center. Frazier, along with 10 other masterful singers, is featured in “The Hit Factory,” a revue of musical numbers composed in Manhattan’s iconic Brill Building during the […]
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Theater Review: “Naked in Encino” at JCC’s CenterStage
The title of Wendy Kout’s “Naked in Encino” conjures up images of performers stripped to their birthday suits, frolicking in the California sun, but in reality its indecent exposure is somewhat more metaphorical in nature. While the play (a world premiere being staged at the JCC CenterStage Theatre through December 21) promises its characters’ hearts […]
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Theater Review: “Bad Jews” at JCC CenterStage
You don’t have to be Jewish, or even particularly bad, to love Joshua Harmon’s corrosive comedy “Bad Jews.” An Off-Broadway hit last year, it is receiving its first regional theater production at the JCC CenterStage. Artistic Director Ralph Meranto was eager to get the rights for this play, and with good reason: as the title […]
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Theater Review: JCC’s “Young Frankenstein”
A few years back, JCC Centerstage presented “Mel Brooks’ The Producers.” The show packed the house and in some ways raised the bar for what audiences could expect from a splashy, modern musical put on by a community theater. The JCC is currently presenting Brooks’ follow-up show, a musical adaptation of the actor-writer-director’s 1974 comedy […]
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“Relatively Speaking”
The JCC CenterStage’s new production is “Relatively Speaking,” a program of one-act plays, recently presented on Broadway, by writers better known for their work in the movies: Ethan Coen, Elaine May, and Woody Allen. Does anything tie them together? Well, each of them contains a generous sprinkling of wisecracks, as you might expect. And each […]
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THEATER REVIEW: “Funny Girl”
UPDATE 5/10/13: The JCC has announced that, due to popular demand, an additional performance has been added to the run on Sunday, May 19, at 7 p.m. You can understand why a community theater would want to revive a fondly remembered musical like “Funny Girl.” It ran for more than 1300 performances when it first […]
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Two play to a T
Center Stage at Jewish Community Center has mounted a first-class revival of Israel Horovitz’s popular, appealing play, Park Your Car In Harvard Yard. An elegantly composed interplay for two actors, it is both heartwarming and funny. Horovitz is one of our most prolific playwrights, a fact that dissuades me from trying to sound like […]
