41 stories by "Jed Gottlieb, Jed Gottlieb"
Spring has spru " well, OK, it still feels like the depths of winter. But eventually spring will arrive, and with it an amazing calendar of theater.From classics to new works, musicals both …
It's going to be a long, cold winter. Art will keep your spirit warm.Oh, you'll still need to spend a fortune on your heating bills of course. But experimental theater and tried-and-true mus…
Thanks to artistic director Diane Paulus, Cambridge's American Repertory Theater has become a pipeline to Broadway. With original shows and revivals, superstars (Bryan Cranston! Audra McDona…
It almost takes a miracle to transform a modern piece of art into a Christmas standard. Between "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Carol," "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Have Yourself a Merry…
Great job waiting for "Hamilton" to come to Boston. The good news is you only have another year: The storied show arrives in our city in September 2018.But no need to while away the time dre…
Pirates improve any adventure tale, especially when the dastardly Capt. Hook commands the crew of buccaneers. Unfortunately it takes the creative team of "Finding Neverland" a whole act to r…
This summer's theater season has range. Not "from Stephen Sondheim to Andrew Lloyd Webber" range, but epic jumps from Chekhov to trouble in River City, Peter Pan to robot battle nuns.Our the…
Rejoice! "Hamilton" is coming … in September … of 2018.While we wait for the greatest theater sensation since Hamlet pondered "To be, or not to be," let's enjoy a few other masterpieces …
A big thumbs-up to theaÂter. From "Hamilton" to "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812" (straight from Cambridge to Broadway), theater has returned as a major art form. It can als…
When you say you are going to "The Nutcracker" this season, you will need to be a smidge more specific. The Boston Ballet or Jose Mateo production? Or maybe you mean the touring Russian show…
When the Sal's delivery guy walked on stage with five large pizzas, I understood why Filter Theatre artistic director Ferdy Roberts described "Twelfth Night" as "anarchic."In an interview wi…
Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" has often been described as whimsical " madcap even. But anarchic?It's a word Filter Theatre artistic director Ferdy Roberts uses over and over again to describ…
Ron Swanson's personality resembled a hundred-year-old oak growing out of the grave of Ernest Hemingway. But don't conflate the muted emotional range of Nick Offerman's "Parks and Recreation…
The Shirelles turned "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" into a two-and-a-half minute opera of longing, hope and pop glory (those strings!). Smokey Robinson transformed the tune into a slow-burn so…
It's time to play the music. It's time to light the lights. It's time to check out the fall theater lineup.What? You expected Muppets?While we're all excited about the Muppets' return to TV …
"Kinky Boots" is the best based-on-a-movie modern musical about an unlikely band of misfits who pull together just in time to save the day.Oh wait, what about "Newsies?" And what about "Brin…
Writer Harvey Fierstein and director Jerry Mitchell know plenty of song experts. They needed an authority on songs and shoes to pen the music for the Broadway adaptation of "Kinky Boots.""Ha…
Think Broadway audiences are tough?Try doing song and dance numbers for couples in cabana-wear killing time ahead of the midnight buffet.Before Michael Ryan landed a spot in the national tou…
It's time to play the music. It's time to light the lights. It's time to put away those brainy novels and dark TV shows and go to see a musical " "Mad Men" is over, go see "Guys and Dolls."T…
"The Last Two People on Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville" examines how love and patience can overcome trauma.Or maybe the two-man show starring Mandy Patinkin and Taylor Mac reflects on how …
If you had the time of your life, you owe it to Eleanor Bergstein. The woman who wrote "Dirty Dancing" created a piece of mythology as rich and beloved as any sci-fi epic " "Nobody puts Baby…
The Motown sound changed music as profoundly as Bob Dylan or the Beatles did. Jesse Nager knew this almost innately as a 5-year-old bopping around his house in Somerville listening to the Ja…
'The Nutcracker" 
or "A Christmas Carol"? I generally side with anything that casts Jiminy Cricket as the Ghost of Christmas Past.Whatever your preference this holiday season " be it "…
Nia Holloway comes from a musical family.Wait, strike that, it doesn't capture the astonishing legacy of the young star of "The Lion King" (tomorrow through Oct. 12 at the Boston Opera House…
Time to go back to school. No, not just the kids. After a summer of robots and monsters and turtles kung fu fighting, the time has come for some culture. Here are seven fall theater producti…
