Category Archives: Theater

Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

[STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.]—Michael Weller’s Moonchildren follows a group of college students through their last bittersweet year of school, all the more poignant for taking place in 1965 and 1966, in the shadow of the war in Vietnam. The Berkshire Theatre Festival production, featuring Karen Allen’s deft direction of a fine cast, runs in the Unicorn Theatre through July 16.

The entire play unfolds in the one large space that serves the roommates as living room, dining area, and kitchen. The apartment, from the dingy, faded-beyond-recognition wallpaper to the outdated (even for 1965) refrigerator to the worn beige settee draped in the ubiquitous Indian-print bedspread of the sixties, is eerily familiar; how many of us lived in very similar digs in our college years? Most, judging by the murmurs of recognition from the audience.
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Going to St. Ives

By Lee Blessing

Directed by Tyler Marchant

Cast: Gretchen Egolf as Dr. Cora Gage and Myra Lucretia Taylor as May N’Kame

Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

[PITTSFIELD, Mass.]—Lee Blessing’s gripping psychological drama Going to St. Ives is being given a passionate, powerful production, skillfully directed by Tyler Marchant, at Barrington Stage Company’s Stage 2, now through July 9. Gretchen Egolf and Myra Lucretia Taylor deliver compelling performances as two women who would seem to have little in common but find themselves sharing a shocking secret.
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The Memory of Water

By Shelagh Stephenson

Directed by Kevin Coleman

CAST: Elizabeth Aspenlieder as Catherine; Jason Asprey as Frank; Nigel Gore as Mike; Corinna May as Mary; Annette Miller as Vi; and Kristin Wold as Teresa

Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

[LENOX, Mass.] – A bitterly comic, heartbreakingly funny production of The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson, notable for outstanding performances from the fine ensemble cast, is running at Shakespeare & Company in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre through September 4.

Three sisters—Teresa, Mary, and Catherine—have gathered for the funeral of their mother, Vi, at their family home in the north of England. These characters have quite a history together, and watching this ensemble of gifted actresses, Corinna May, Kristin Wold, and Elizabeth Aspenlieder, share the family stories, the family arguments, the family tragedies is eerily reminiscent of spending time with one’s own difficult, albeit beloved, relatives.
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Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

[PITTSFIELD, Mass.]—Mythic mid-century New York, as envisioned by Damon Runyon, bursts onstage with exuberance in the spectacular new production, directed by John Rando, of the iconic American musical Guys and Dolls on the Mainstage at Barrington Stage Company, now through July 16. The outstanding cast of accomplished singers, actors, and dancers delivers this classic show with a fresh sense of fun and joy.
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By Lesley Ann Beck

[PITTSFIELD, Mass.] — Tony Award-winner John Rando promises “a funny, wonderful, moving, heartfelt night in the theater,” when Guys and Dolls, the iconic Broadway musical he’s directing at Barrington Stage Company, opens this week. Rando is a huge fan of the show, one he agrees is “one of the great American musicals.” Now in previews, Guys and Dolls opens on Sunday, June 19, and runs through July 16.

“The piece is really well-crafted. … The book is one of the funniest books I’ve worked with,” Rando said in a recent phone interview. “Much of the storytelling, much of the romance, is in the music. The playwriting is so firm.” That the show is so well-written makes the director’s job easier. “It’s a well-executed show and it’s a comfort that it’s all there on the page and in the score.”
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Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

[LENOX, Mass.]—The absolutely riveting Tina Packer plays Petruchio’s Kate, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Beatrice, Margaret of Anjou, and Juliet, among many, many others, in Women of Will, The Complete Journey: Parts I-V, her extraordinary master class in the works of William Shakespeare, running now through July 10 in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company. Part performance, part lecture, part debate, part exposition, Women of Will, written by Packer and performed by Packer and actor Nigel Gore, is based on her decades-long immersion, as actor and director, in the works of the Bard.
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Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

Zero Hour opens to the strains of a klezmer tune as we see Zero Mostel (portrayed by actor Jim Brochu) at work in his studio; facing the canvas on the easel, he growls and barks at an unseen individual knocking at the door. And then Brochu turns to the audience, revealing his startling resemblance to Mostel, courtesy of a massive comb-over, bushy beard, and beetling brows over glaring eyes. He is talking to the reporter (who is never seen or heard) from the New York Times who has come to interview him. This is the framework that allows Mostel to reminisce, recounting his life story. Zero Hour, a one-man show about the iconic actor Zero Mostel, is now running at Barrington Stage Company’s Stage 2 in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts, through June 5.
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BSC’s Stage 2 season opens with award-winning one-man show Zero Hour

By Lesley Ann Beck

Actor Jim Brochu, who brings his award-winning one-man show about Zero Mostel to Barrington Stage Company (BSC) this week, remembers the day he first met Zero Mostel—it was May 13, 1962, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum had just opened on Broadway. Zero Mostel played the lead, of course, a role for which he won the Tony Award, and, said Brochu, in a recent telephone interview, “I’ve never seen anybody funnier in my life.”

Brochu went to see the show because a family friend, David Burns, was playing the role of Senex. Brochu was thirteen years old and enrolled in a military school at the time; he was wearing his uniform when he went backstage after the show to greet his friend.
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