The Boston Theater Marathon Review

I know it's against the rules, but I'm calling "backsies". I've gotten a lot of feedback since I posted my first batch of reviews, both from people who really like the reviews and others that believe I should, to put it delicately, be more judicious with my criticism. It's been a lot of food for thought and after much chewing I've come to a decision. The marathon is first and foremost a celebration. It's a celebration of the diversity of talent both behind the page and on the stage of the entire greater Boston theater community. It is not a competition, and it is not a showcase of works that have had the benefit of work-shopping. Rehearsal time is limited which makes sense. The marathon is a singular performance, and most of these works will probably never be performed again. While I believe very strongly in the benefits of full-throated criticism I think I might have been wrong in holding the plays as a whole to a very high standard. So much o...

I will say, as a warning folks, the first hour of the marathon was inauspicious. I was a trifle worried after this first hour as I had managed to convince my friend Will to watch entire marathon with me and I was concerned that the plays presented in the first hour might be representative of plays witnessed throughout the rest of the day. Fortunately such concerns proved unfounded, but in general this was a rocky way to begin a full day of theater. Also, I don't plan on writing as much about MOST of the plays as I attempted to do last year. I'll break this rule generally, but don't surprised if I only devote a paragraph or so to each show.  And now without further much ado, onto the reviews! Broken News by Robert Brustein - Sponsored by New Repertory Theater  My friend Jake begged me not write this. Unbeknownst to me prior to writing this, Robert Brustein is a very big name. He founded both Yale Rep and the A.R.T. To say his influence looms large i...

So surprise surprise! It turns out I WAS actually able to make it to the warm up laps. Unfortunately I was only able to attend the very first play. So I still feel quite bad for missing the others but I do what I can do. I will say the set up was extremely strange. The staged readings this year are being performed at the Plaza Theater, but instead of taking advantage of the pre-set and spacious risers already in the space, the organizers decided to have the audience sit in the stage area and have the readers read in the seats. I think it may have been a poor decision, as there were barely enough seats to house the crowd gathered for the festivities. (though there was free food!) But onto the play! We begin the Boston Theater Marathon with a full length comedy in iambic rhyming verse by Connie Congdon entitled Hair of the Dog. This was a very very interesting play. First a brief synopsis: The play opens on Shakespeare in his underwear mourning the death of his friend and colleague...

Greetings, gentle ladies and men! I sit now alone on my porch in the dead middle of night, typing this missive before my eyes pop out of their sockets from fatigue and I'm forced to finish the rest of this blog via dictation. Once again I have attended, witnessed and taken copious notes of the annual Boston Theater Marathon. And once again I found it a completely entertaining and fully worthwhile use of my time and money. It's a wonderful testament to the flourish Boston theater scene that so many theaters come together under the guidance of Kate Snodgrass to put on such a smorgasbord of new plays. I'm so glad to have gotten to see them all and I can't wait to start writing about them. But first let's discuss the marathon as a whole this year, and then I'll quickly list my top thirteen. More complete reviews will be forthcoming. Last year, being my first time watching the entire thing, I think I was initially blown away by the sheer variety of pieces and it ...

Hi, so this is both an apology and an announcement. First the apology: I think I have may have been too optimistic regarding how much I could review last year. The amount of time I was spending reviewing each ten minutes show meant that the amount of work it took to review all of them was a bit too arduous for one man to take on. Well, this one man, at least. I apologize to anyone who read this blog last year, hoping I was going to get to your play. I could go back and look over my notes. In general I still very vividly remember all the plays but I think it's time to look towards the future. So it is with an equal amount of excitement and trepidation that I announce that once more will I be watching and hopefully reviewing all fifty plays in this year's Boston Theater Marathon. If for some reason you're reading this and you don't know what the Boston Theater Marathon is... then that's sort of weird. But just in case: The Boston Theater Marathon i...

The Doppler of My Heart by Rick Park, Directed by Josh Glenn-Kayden, Presented by Company One Seven plays in and we have, by my reckoning, the first truly great ten minute play. It stars Greg Maraio and Becca Lewis (making a welcome return from the one minute readings of the previous day) as a married couple, Donnie and Eileen, who are taking a drive up to Connecticut. Their accents are thick and Boston. There’s amusing talk of checking “dopplah” “weathah”, as if she’d known it’d be this cold she’d have worn her “parkah” (… guess I probably don’t need the extra “h” on that word). There’s this delightful “Who’s on First”-type exchange as Eileen is complains about missing her friend’s nephew in a school production of Wicked. (he's playing Glinda and wants to perform on Broadway. "Yeah," quips Donnie, "Broadway in Somerville") “It’s Wicked?” he asks. “Yeah!” “Wicked what?” It’s hard to describe what made the play so effective. A huge acknowle...

Quick note: They usually sell copies of a bound printed collection of all the plays, and I was planning on purchasing a copy this year to help jog my memory and so I could make note of great lines, etc. Sadly, according to the lady at the counter, they’re still working out where they’re going to get the books printed and so they were not available. So I shall be relying exclusively on my chicken scratch notes written in a dark theater. May God help us all. Grass Hog by William Donnelly, directed by Christopher Scully, presented by Battleground State A man named Levesque (Michael Kaye) walks out on the empty stage, active lawn trimmer in tow (seriously, it was plugged in by a long extension chord), minding his own business when another guy named Bettencourt (Kevin LaVelle) crosses, yelling at him to stop. The grass he’s about to cut abuts the property line and while he may like his own grass trim and tidy, this guy prefers his yard less manicured. Actually, the grass itself bel...